Sloane Coffee

For February’s box, we're taking you on a journey to Bucharest, Romania, to introduce Sloane Coffee. We’re experiencing three coffees from three different parts of the world. A washed Kenyan, a natural from Papua New Guinea, and a 72h lychee anaerobic co-fermentation from Colombia.

Kariaini AA from Sloane Coffee

Tasting box coffees featuring Sloane Coffee

KARIAINI AA

Origin: Kenya
Process: Fully washed
Altitude: 1750 - 1850 masl
Varieties: Batman, Ruiru 11, SL28
Tasting notes: Pomegranate, Black currant, Blood orange, Acai berry

Kenyan coffee is renowned for its distinctive flavor profile, boasting bright, juicy flavors and high acidity. This unique character is shaped by the country's exceptional combination of soil, climate, and altitude, providing the ideal conditions for coffee cultivation. The grading of Kenyan coffee is based on bean size. AA beans, the largest at over 7.2 millimeters, are followed by AB beans (6 to 7 millimeters), and C beans, the smallest. This washed coffee has notes of pomegranate, black currant, blood orange and acai berry.

KINDENG

Only in the 2x250g and Tasting box

Origin: Papua New Guinea
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1520 - 1770 masl
Varieties: Arusha, Bourbon, Typica
Tasting notes: Baked berries, raisins, molasses, milk candy; heavy body

This coffee comes from the Kindeng Dry Mill, located in the Jikawa province of Papua New Guinea. The average farm size of producers in this area is about 1-2 hectares, and the soil is generally sandy loam and loamy clay. Naturally-processed coffees from Papua New Guinea are quite rare. When it comes to this process, only the ripest cherries are used as the amount of time necessary to dry these coffees fully is extensive. After cherries are harvested, they are hand sorted and placed on raised beds for an average period of 3-4 weeks until fully dried. 

JAIRO ARCILA LYCHEE

Only in the Tasting box

Origin: Colombia
Process: 72H Lychee Anaerobic Co-Fermentation
Altitude: 1450 - 1500 masl
Varieties: Castillo
Tasting notes: Lychee, vanilla, papaya, tuberose, lemongrass

This coffee was grown by Jairo Arcila at the farm Santa Mónica. It was exposed to a dry anaerobic fermentation period of 72 hours with the pulp on. During this fermentation stage, lychee and wine yeast were added. The cherries were then pulped and placed to dry on raised beds until ideal moisture content was achieved. This microlot is 100% Castillo, a variety that was developed by Federación Nacional de Cafeteros. Jairo Arcila is a third-generation coffee grower from Quindio, Colombia.

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CleverCoffee

We’re heading over to one of our Danish favourites, CleverCoffee. South of Aarhus, CleverCoffee (a certified B-Corp) roast their coffee with a focus on high quality, transparency, and the environment. Let’s hear what they say about this month’s coffee.

MISIONES CASTILLO

Included in all boxes

Origin: Colombia
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1700 masl
Varieties: Castillo
Tasting notes: Fruity and complex with notes of dried cranberries, gooseberries, Amarena cherries and creamy toffee

From CleverCoffee: We are pleased to present a "CleverCoffee classic" of sorts, the excellent washed Castillo from Hacienda Misiones in Colombia. This coffee was the first coffee we bought directly from a producer. This year's harvest has a slightly different flavour profile than previous years, but if possible, it is now even more delicious! When cupping this coffee, it presented itself with intense sweetness and complexity, and it is one of those coffees that changes significantly from the first sip to the last.

TOP MUTITU

Included in our Tasting box and 2x250g box

Origin: Kenya
Process: Double washed
Altitude: 1420 masl
Washing station: Mutitu Coffee Factory
Varieties: SL28, SL34, Batian, Ruiru 11
Tasting notes: Mango, blackcurrants and a hint of lime

From CleverCoffee: This coffee is called Top Mutitu simply because it is the best coffee from the washing station Mutitu Coffee Factory. Mutitu was created out of a need for local cooperation, where the small coffee farmers in the nearby area stand together to ensure proper payments, without the risk of being short-changed by middlemen. Mutitu Coffee Factory is located in the Kirinyaga area at the southern foot of Mount Kenya. The washing station was built in 1963 and is thus one of the oldest in the area.

LA HIGUERA

Only in our Tasting box

Origin: Peru
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1800 - 2200 masl
Varieties: Farmer’s mix
Tasting notes: Sweet and velvety with notes of yellow plum, cranberries, honey and milk chocolate

From CleverCoffee: This coffee comes from 10-15 producers around the village La Higuera in the district called Colasay. The area is interesting for its flavour profiles and potential. We believe La Higuera is a great example of what an organic coffee from Peru can be and we are excited to share it with you! La Higuera is a deliciously sweet coffee with a velvety smooth texture. It is clean and has a soft milk chocolate flavor, but with fruit notes of cranberries and yellow plums it also manages to stand out. 

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Kolibri Coffee

This month, we take you on a journey to the Netherlands, where Stephany & Darius started their roastery a few years back. Kolibri works their magic to roast some of the finest coffees. We're thrilled to bring them to you this month. Enjoy!

CHEPSANGOR

Origin: Kenya
Process: Washed 
Tasting notes: Tangerine & Mango

Dr. Rosebella is a dedicated advocate for female farmers in her community, striving to offer them sustainable alternatives beyond charcoal production, which harms health and the environment. She distributed seedlings to women in her group, providing training and technical support to enhance their farming practices. Women meticulously select ripe cherries for processing, ensuring parchment perfection while sun- drying. With eco-pulper machine, Chepsangor producers can flexibly employ various processing methods.

Sugarlime

Origin: Colombia
Process: Washed 
Tasting notes: Lemongrass & Mandarine

This is a geisha from La Palma Farm in Santa Barbara, Colombia. Grown in the Andes, particularly the Antioquia region, this geisha benefits from ideal conditions – a unique microclimate, rich volcanic soil, and high elevations. Its prolonged fermentation-washed processing accentuates its floral and elegant notes like Brown Sugar, Lemongrass, and Mandarine in a filter roast. La Palma employs selective hand harvesting and a unique fermentation method to produce high- quality coffee. The beans are fully washed and dried in silos for an even and optimal humidity.

Gardenia

Origin: Guatemala
Process: Natural
Tasting notes: Hibiscus & Marzipan

Gardenia farm is located high in the mountains in a a vibrant native forest, where preserving nature is at the heart of the farm’s operations. In addition to sustainability, coffee quality is a key priority. By carefully monitoring every stage of the process, they are able to produce outstanding quality coffees, working with exotic varieties in order to showcase the unique potential of the region’s coffee. The cherries are placed on the patio to begin drying about four hours on average after harvest and workers turn the coffee every hour to ensure thorough and even drying.

Explore our next roaster with us!

Rush Rush

Say hi to Rush Rush! This month’s roaster from Antwerp, Belgium. It’s our first time working with Rush Rush and we couldn’t be more excited. This month we have a (for us) new coffee origin, Bolivia!

MAMANI

Origin: Bolivia
Process: Washed 
Producer: Familia Mamani
Varieties: Caturra
Tasting notes: Chocolate, peach

Bolivia isn’t the first country that comes to mind when it comes to specialty coffee. It doesn’t produce as much coffee as some of its South American neighbours, but it does have great conditions for growing high quality coffee. This is the first Bolivian coffee to take place in our box. A clean, washed coffee with notes of chocolate and peach.

NYAGISHIRU

Origin: Burundi
Process: Natural 
Varieties: Red bourbon
Tasting notes: Hibiscus, pear

Burundi is a tiny country that produces coffee of exceptional quality. We had a coffee from the Nyagishiru washing station last year, and this time we’re fortunate to try it from Rush Rush. This natural processed coffee has notes of hibiscus and pear.

POTOSI

Origin: Colombia
Process: Natural
Producer: Finca potosi
Varieties: Colombia
Tasting notes: Green apple, bubblegum

Colombia is known for their washed coffees. Whenever we get the chance, we enjoy trying other processing methods from this country. This time, we find ourselves with Potosi. A natural processed coffee with notes of green apples and bubblegum.

Explore our next roaster with us!

Frukt

Welcome Frukt, a small and dedicated specialty coffee roastery based in Turku, Finland. Its founder, Samuli Pääkkönen, previously worked as a roaster at the local Turun Kahvipaahtimo and later at Coffee Collective in Copenhagen. In late 2018, he founded FRUKT in his hometown, Turku. During the summer months, they operate a charming specialty coffee kiosk in a park located in downtown Turku. Be sure to visit them and enjoy their delicious coffee!

Kiringa AB from Frukt

Russilandia from Frukt

Crucero from Frukt (only in our Tasting box)

KIRINGA

Origin: Kenya
Process:  Washed
Altitude: 1725 masl
Varieties: SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11, Batian
Tasting notes: Grapefruit, currants, floral

“Kiringa is produced by the Long Miles Coffee Project and the small farmers from the local community near the processing station in Kirinyaga, Kenya. The Long Miles Coffee Project teamed up with Haron Wachira from Akili Holdings Ltd. to refurbish their old family-owned processing station, Njowa Coffee Factory. This coffee is very clean and bright, with a sweet taste. It has juicy notes of grapefruit, citrus, currants. This is a very nice berry-driven Kenya.”

RUSSILANDIA

Origin: Colombia
Producer: Heyler Guerra
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1500 masl
Varieties: Castillo
Tasting notes: Tropical fruit, rich, wild

“Russilandia is produced by Heyler Guerra in Villarrica, Colombia. Frukt have been following Heyler's work for a couple of years nowand are very happy to introduce his coffee as part of our 2022 selection from Colombia. This lot is a long fermentation natural. The whole cherries are fermented for 72 hours in closed tanks. Controlled long fermentation with attention to detail in every step of the process yields bold and wildly fruity characteristics in the cup.“

CRUCERO

Origin: Colombia
Producer: Ana Mustafá
Process: Fed-batch semi-washed
Altitude: 1550 - 1650 masl
Varieties: Castillo
Tasting notes: Tropical fruit, wild berries, candy

“Crucero is produced by Ana Mustafá, a coffee producer based in Pereira, Colombia. This is the third year of working with Ana and her Crucero lot. This year, the quality is as high as ever, and the cup is very clean and transparent. Crucero is produced from their three coffee farms based in Pereira, Risaralda. This lot is semi-washed, and Ana refers to the processing as ‘fed-batch’. This process yields an interesting and crazy fruity and clean cup, with just enough funk.“

Get April’s box to explore our next roaster

Schot

We're happy to have invited Schot for January's box. They delivered some stellar coffees and we can't be more excited to share them with you.

For this month we have two Costa Rican coffees from the Aquiares farm, of different variety, and produced in different ways. A great way to experience how different two coffees with the same origin can be. To complement this we have the expressive Colombian La Cristalina.

Tasty Aquiares with a croissant

AQUIARES [Washed]

Origin: Costa Rica 
Process: Washed 
Altitude: 1.200 masl
Producer: Diego Robelo
Varieties: Caturra 
Tasting notes: Milk Chocolate, caramel & orange

The name Aquiares means “land between rivers” in the Huetar indigenous language, and Aquiares is commonly referred to as “Aquiares Coffee and Community.” It is the largest farm in Costa Rica and home to 1,800 people. Although the farm was founded in 1890, Alfonso Robelo is the man responsible for its transformation a century later. Alfonso arrived in Costa Rica in the 1980’s seeking refuge from the civil war in Nicaragua, where he was politically active. When politics soured into violence, he fled the country to keep his family and himself safe after receiving several threats against his life. Once in Costa Rica, Alfonso began building the Aquiares community on the enchanting slopes of the Turrialba volcano, a lush area of forests, rivers, fauna, and bright flora.

Alfredo challenged the status quo, transforming the relationship between landowner and farm workers. He brought a visionary approach to Aquiares, a farm suffering from low prices and instability. Aquiares had more than 200 employee homes on the farm, but because none owned their home, there was great insecurity in the workforce. Alfonso saw this as an opportunity to strengthen the company by having people feel pride in the coffee they produce. He evolved the farm into a small town where workers purchased their own homes. Today, Aquiares remains a model of sustainable agriculture.
Nowadays Alfonso’s son, Diego, manages the farm. Under his lead, the farm has taken a fresh approach to specialty coffee and exploring the farm’s potential. Through excellent agricultural management, embracing new varieties, and experimenting with processing, Aquiares has become a trailblazer among specialty coffee producers in Costa Rica and all of Central America.

Aquiares focuses on carbon neutrality and measures its greenhouse gas emissions to calculate its carbon emissions against its offsets. An agent verified under International Panel on Climate Change norms verifies these calculations and Aquiares’ carbon measurement and emissions reduction are part of Costa Rica’s Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action. In addition to capturing carbon, the farm’s protected biological corridors have long ensured the wellbeing of local animals and plants. Aquiares also welcomes researchers from around the world to conduct agricultural and environmental studies on their land. Projects have included investigating the benefits of agroforestry on soil health and observing the diverse bird and wildlife species that thrive in an agroecological environment.

Aquiares is an example of innovation and perseverance whose benefits extend beyond the farm and workers and serve as a model for sustainable, equitable production for the broader coffee industry.

Peaberry coffee is named for its pea-like appearance. Most coffee cherries contain two seeds and Peaberries occur when only one seed, small and round in shape, develops in the cherry. Around 5 percent of all coffee is peaberry beans, but usually these are not separated. Aquiares separated the peaberry and made this beautiful lot. This lot was mechanically washed and dried on raised beds in a solar dryer for 18 to 24 days.

AQUIARES [Natural]

Origin: Costa Rica 
Process: Natural anaerobic
Altitude: 1.200 masl
Producer: Diego Robelo
Varieties: Cenrtoamericano
Tasting notes: Grapefruit, strawberry & caramel

Centroamericano H1 is an F1 hybrid variety generated by crossing the Sarchimor T-5296 and a wild Rume Sudan variety. It is reproduced through a tissue culture cloning process called somatic embryogenesis. This cultivar has been distributed among coffee producers in Central America over the last decade and the first productive harvests are now available. Turrialba’s climate is well suited to growing this new variety and Aquaires is up to the challenge of meeting its complex nutritional needs.

The Centroamericano variety was especially selected for Anaerobic Natural processing because of its high mucilage content. The cherries are floated and washed with fresh water but not depulped. Afterwards, the coffee is placed in a stainless steel tank with a one-way air valve. In the tank the coffee will start to ferment with the natural microorganisms and yeast present on the coffee cherries. The fermentation will push out all the oxygen and after one or two hours the anaerobic environment is created within the tank. This fermentation continues for a total time of 24 hours. After fermenting the cherries are washed again with fresh water and dried in the solar dryer. First for two days they are placed on a ceramic patio and finish drying in layered beds within the solar dryer.

Unlike a lot of other anaerobics the flavours of the Aquiares Anaerobic are less intense but more layered and complex. You’ll find flavours of grapefruit, strawberry, caramel and orange.

LA CRISTALINA

Origin: Colombia
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1.450 - 1.500 masl
Producer: Maria Grajales
Varieties: Castillo
Tasting notes: Cherry, mandarin & strawberry

The La Cristalina plantation is located near Quimbaya in the Quindo department. The plantation has been owned by the Grajales for over 100 years. Maria Mercedes Grajales is now the 5th generation at the helm of La Cristalina. The total plantation is approximately 19 hectares, of which 14 hectares are planted with coffee. about 5 hectares of the plantation are planted with other trees such as orange, ‘platano’ and ‘cafatero’. The majority of the plants on the Cristalina plantation are of the Castillo variety.

The pickers are encouraged to pick the coffee at its optimal maturity. For that selective picking process La Cristalina works with the long-term pickers that get paid far more than normal. Most pickers come to this farm for 10+ years. After picking the cherries are floated intensively to remove the less dense and defected cherries. The coffee is placed on “carros corredizos” and drying tunnels with direct sun exposure for the first 48 hours. After the humidity is down to about 40% it is placed in GrainPro for 36 hours to create its fruity punch in its cup. During fermentation the temperature and PH is monitored and documented every 3 hours. After fermentation the coffee goes back to the drying beds where it is also moved every 3 hours. The total process takes around 15 days, depending on the weather.

The coffee is very fragrant and expressive, with flavours of cherry, mandarin and strawberry.

Explore Europe’s top roasters!

Wide Awake

We’re happy to introduce you to the roaster Wide Awake, who runs a roastery and coffee atelier in Belgium. We' had the pleasure to interview the founders Senina and Rutger.

What’s the story behind Wide Awake? How did you get started?

Senina and Rutger

Rutger: The idea of opening a roastery had been playing in my head for a long time. As a coffee enthusiast, I was always surprised and slightly frustrated to see how slow the scene was developing in Brussels. Even just 3-4 years ago, there were very few speciality bars and roasters. After living abroad for a year and experiencing the coffees and community over there, I started thinking more seriously about the idea but it was a chance encounter with Senina that gave the whole project the push that was needed. At the beginning of 2019, I was following roasting training in London.

A friend invited me to a Caffeine Magazine coffee tasting - I remember being pretty intimidated to be cupping amongst all these industry folks. I was talking to my friend about the Brussels scene and the project I had in mind and Senina overheard that. She was the Production Roaster for Assembly/Volcano in London at the time and had been thinking about moving to Brussels as she fell in love with the city. So the next half year we skyped every week, talking about the project and exciting coffees but also just vibing on the music we both loved. That really helped us connect and we translated that element in our brand and coffee names. In the meantime, I was scouting for a good roastery location in the city and roasting samples on a tiny Huky gas roaster in my apartment. Fun times haha! We opened during the Brussels Coffee Week in October 2019 and pretty soon after made some relations and got our core hospitality accounts. That really got us going and we’ve been growing steadily ever since.

How will Wide Awake develop in the future? Have you got any set goals or projects that you would like to share with us?

Rutger: There’s not one specific crazy goal or project. We want to grow business and the team healthily. Become a trusted roaster for every quality-oriented hospitality place in Brussels and beyond. Keep releasing exciting coffees and being creative with both our coffee offering and brand. One of the core beliefs on which Wide Awake was built is that the speciality scene needs to be more inclusive. If we want to have a material impact for farmers at origin and improve the local coffee scene, we need to grow speciality beyond the pure hipster crowd. So we do a lot of work on the education-front, but we’re also always thinking about how to communicate about our coffees in a way that is accessible for people that love coffee but don’t know every washing station in Ethiopia.

As soon as this covid situation is more under control, we also want to go back to organising events. We did lots of cuppings, workshops and even industry panel talks for the local community and found that very rewarding. In the meantime, we’re introducing some more funky coffees to the Belgian scene and are building our sourcing network. So a lot is happening, but it’s all building on what we’ve started in the last 12 months.

What is the Brussels coffee scene like, and how would you like to change it?

Rutger: The Brussels scene is quite interesting. It’s a reflection of the cultural melting pot the city is. Speciality coffee is quite established in the dutch speaking cities in Belgium (Antwerp, Ghent), but for a long time Brussels, which is mainly French-speaking, lagged behind. There were only 2 or 3 Brussels-based speciality roasters before we started. The french-speaking community historically leaned closer to the French & Italian coffee culture while the dutch speaking community was always closer to Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon culture. But anyway, all of that is changing rapidly now. A bunch of new roasters have started or will start soon, and there are more and more good coffee & brunch/lunch places opening every day. Even some more traditional bars are curious about improving their coffee game. We’re trying to support that transition as much as we can through education, open events, cuppings and of course our amazing coffee ;)

Do you have a favourite brewing recipe you would like to share?

Senina: This is a recipe I’m pulling out of my almost constant standard brewing pack. I’ve been brewing a hell lot on the origami, first to try out the device but then actually finding it the best to brew for maximum sweetness and depth while maintaining a good balance, which is what I always search for.

This is intended for the Wildcard Colombian where you want to savour a little more than a small brew cup because it’s so moreish! The main bit is the water, I don’t know about you, but our water here is ridiculously hard and dampens acidity too much. I use Peak filtered water with a 140ppm hardness, boiled at 92° degrees and then grind 20g of beans at 28clicks on the Comandante. Place a Kalita filter in the origami and rinse thoroughly. Drop the coffee in, start the timer and add 60ml water and soak for about 45 secs to fully absorb. Followed by 130g of water and a gentle spin, then a third gentle pour of 130g at 1.30min and a last spin before letting it all drain through. Total brew time should be 3.5mins. You should try to have a flat bed and not much coffee residue down the sides of the paper. An extra tip I can share is for ageing coffees (if you have something sitting for a long time in the cupboard) or even something too fresh roasted like a day ago only, I highly advise a longer soak of 1.5 mins to extract more flavour out.

This is the first time we have Wide Awake in the box. What can our subscribers expect from the three featured coffees (Strawberry fields from Rwanda, Wildcard from Colombia, and Easy Rider from Costa Rica)?

Senina: Maybe we first should mention the strange names we give our coffees, we call them Coffee Series and the names are all music and pop-culture inspired. We currently have 9 of those series, each one representing a specific taste profile. The coffees we picked for Bean Portal's subscribers are some of our personal favourites

On Easy Rider we have a honey processed Catuaí from Los Ureña in Costa Rica. It’s the second season we have this coffee from producer Paúl Cascante Ureña, and we love it. It’s delicate, sweet and buttery, with a slight acidity. It’s just such a balanced, smooth drinker.
Next, we have our Strawberry Fields series which is currently occupied by a natural Red Bourbon lot from the Gitega Hills mill in Rwanda. This one is a complex beauty with a syrupy character, notes of candied orange, strawberries and pineapple. It’s basically like a bunch of Tutti Frutti.
And finally, we have this massively funky Colombian micro-lot from Finca La Cumbre on the Wildcard Series. This natural processed Caturra is intensely fruity with wild fermented pineapple notes. It’s a tropical blast with lactic undertones.

Frukt Coffee Roasters

From Kakola, Finland, we are happy to introduce Frukt Coffee Roasters! Frukt has brought some fun and exciting coffees for November’s box. Let’s get brewing!

What’s the story behind Frukt Coffee Roasters? Where does the name come from?

We started roasting in early 2019. Initial idea was to establish a small yet specialty-focused coffee roastery in Finland. Much in the vein of some of the finest roasters in Scandinavia that we look up to, many of which have of course been featured on Bean Portal.

The name Frukt is funny. In Finnish or English it doesn't really mean anything, yet in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish it's a fruit. Coffee is a fruit too as you know. But on top of that, the letters form nicely and it looks neat.

We found out that a local developer was looking for quality-focused small businesses for his project. Kakola neighborhood, where the roastery is located, used to be a notorious prison. It was left abandoned for ten years and is now under renovation. Half of the project is done already, there's people living there, fancy apartments and all that. There is also a restaurant Kakolanruusu and Kakola Brewing Company brewing beers right next doors. Few weeks ago a sourdough bakery bageri Å opened and we are running a coffee shop together with them now!

What drove you to the specialty coffee business?

We were both pretty new to coffee when we met at Turun Kahvipaahtimo, a local roastery. Kyle and I both continued to work in coffee after the internship at the roastery. Kyle went on to work in a coffee shop and started roasting at home. I stayed at the roastery, working there for few years. In 2018 I was roasting for Coffee Collective in Copenhagen. Kyle was doing his own thing in the other side of Finland from Turku. I came back to Finland and learned about the Kakola neighborhood and that there could be a place for a small roastery. I hit up Kyle, he was up for it and now we are at the end of the first year in business!

We weren't satisfied with the current version of Specialty Coffee (or the lack of it) in Finland. We wanted to participate and roast really tasty coffee and to make it look fresh and inviting and approachable to someone who's not initiated to Specialty Coffee yet. We label our coffees either Fun or Exciting. Depending on the flavor profile. It's just either or. Fun is for balanced and approachable tastes and Exciting is more complex and adventurous. Easy like that.

How will Frukt evolve in the future? Have you got any set goals or projects that you would like to share with us?

Future is bright. We are ending the first year with the freshly opened coffee shop in the Kakola neighborhood that we run together with bageri Å. They bake amazing sourdough bread, insane sourdough croissants and we handle the coffee side. It's a great match. We are really excited about it. We'll develop the shop further in 2020.

The aim for 2020 is to be more professional in all that we do. We've done good in our first year, had amazing support from the people in and outside of Finland. I think we just need to step up and be as good as we can be. Build on the idea of transparency in trade of coffee and all the aspects of the business.

What are you most excited about regarding the growth and development of specialty coffee?

The most exciting thing for us is how easy it is to find great coffees and also the increased amount of traceability and transparency in Specialty Coffee. It's there, if you want it. We are certainly going to dig deeper and not just rotate good coffees from different producers year after year. We have found really good partners that we work with. We look forward to building these relationships further. It's amazing that a collective of producers from Colombia (LaREB) and us connected over another subject and that led to us being introduced to the green coffees they're producing and selling. We got the green coffee from Efrén Echeverry from LaREB and will for certain have more in the future. Don Francisco is from Primavera and Gute Sodu from Collaborative Coffee Source with who we have been working since the beginning. Connection, that's where it's at!

What can we expect from this month's coffees (Gute Sodu, Efrén Echeverry and Don Francisco)?

Gute Sodu is hands down one of the most exciting Ethiopian coffees for us this year. It is sparkling with citric acidity, lemon peel and intense florals. Such a clean and sweet coffee!

Efrén Echeverry is clean, sweet, fruity with orange-like acidity and some almond there too. The body is round and adds to the balanced cup.

Don Francisco is different from the other coffees we've had this year. This coffee is not too heavy in the mouthfeel, but the deep notes of dried fruit and cacao with brown sugar sweetness add to a feeling of a more heavy cup.

November’s box included these coffees ✨

Gute Sodu

Origin: Ethiopia
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1900-2100 MASL
Varieties: Dega & indigenous varieties
Tasting notes: Sparkling, lemonade & floral

Gute Sodu is a clean Ethiopian coffee from the Guduba washing station in the region of Guji. Smallholder farmers have produced the coffee in Hambela Wamena, close to the town Gute Sodu, from where the coffee has its name. The cherries are delivered to the washing station, where they are pulped, fermented for 48-72 hours, washed, and then dried on raised beds for 10 days. The coffee is a mix of Dega and indigenous varieties. This sparkling coffee has floral notes of lemonade.

Efrén Echeverry

Origin: Colombia
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1650 MASL
Varieties: Colombia & Caturra
Tasting notes: Stone fruit, caramel & bright

Efrén Echeverry is the farmer behind this tasty coffee. He is located in the municipality Palestina in the southern part of Huila, Colombia, an area known for its great coffees. After the coffee is picked, it is left for 12 hours in-husk resting. The coffee is later fermented for 48 hours, before being washed and dried in a greenhouse for 15 days. The mix of the Colombia and Caturra varieties makes this coffee special. This bright coffee has notes of stone fruit and caramel.

Exclusive to our Tasting box subscribers 👏

Don Francisco

Origin: Guatemala
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1750-1850 MASL
Varieties: Bourbon & Caturra
Tasting notes: Dried fruit, cacao & brown sugar

Francisco Salucio Ramirez is a second-generation coffee producer who runs the farm Mumuxa in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. This coffee is produced according to a ”double washing” process. The coffee is de-pulped the same day as it is picked and later fermented in water for 48 hours. After being washed, it is soaked in clean water for another 12 hours. Drying is done for another five to six days depending on the temperature. This is a great example of how good a Guatemalan coffee can be.

Explore Europe’s top roasters!

black.

For August we’re in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. We are happy to have black. onboard!

How did Black start? What’s your story?

black. is a small roastery which nowadays produces circa 350kg of coffee per month, but the vision for growth is huge. We started our café in November 2017, and the roastery joined the club in early summer 2018. We focus on giving a great experience to our customers while having a great cup of coffee. We love Slovakia but always knew that there are plenty of people throughout Europe whom we can surprise and give pleasure to. That’s why we are eager for collaborations like with you guys, so more people can get to know us.

We find the coffee culture of different cities varies a lot. What’s Bratislava’s coffee scene like?

Bratislava is a great small scene with plenty of amazing cafés (we have more specialty coffee shops than Oslo or Copenhagen for example), but there is still plenty of space for improvement and growth. We as Slovakians are known for good hospitality and hearty service. So that’s what we do. And we are so happy more and more people start to recognise us. For example, we are the first café which for filter and serves 95% solely batch brew. Says a lot about us. Great coffee should be - black, fast, good priced and enjoyed with good service.

A lot of our subscribers try coffee from Black for the first time. What can they expect from the three featured coffees of this month (Idido, Finca el Carmen and Herlindo Sepulvera)?

For the subscription box, we picked three very different coffees. Idido is a typical washed Ethiopian full of florals and citruses. El Carmen is all we look for in an El Salvador’s coffee - sweet, fruity, but easy to drink and sooo pleasurable. Finally Herlindo’s Caturra chiroso, which shows how diverse Colombian coffees are. Full, complex, a cup of coffee which you’d like to sit by for an hour and be thrilled by all the tastes it brings.

August’s box included these marvelous coffees ❤️

Idido

Origin: Ethiopia
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1800 - 2000 MASL
Varieties: Typica, heirloom
Tasting notes: mirabelle, apricot jam, rooibos, floral & citrusy

East of the bustling town of Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia, the Idido cooperative is located. This area has some of the highest-altitude coffees, with members’ farms situated in seven communities. The growers bring their cherries to the Idido cooperative after harvest for processing. Coffee from this region is renowned for its sweetness, crisp and complex acidity. This floral and citrusy cup of coffee has notes of mirabelle, apricot jam, and rooibos.

Finca El Carmen

Origin: El Salvador
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1300 MASL
Varieties: Red bourbon
Tasting notes: red grape, orange zest, wild cherry

Finca el carmen is a farm run by Fernando Alfaro and his family in the region Apaneca-Llamatepec in El Salvador. Fernando is a fourth-generation coffee farmer who cares a lot about his coffee. Fernando's knowledge and experience can be felt when tasting his coffee. Although being one of the smallest countries in Central America, Black has seen a huge increase in quality since 2000 due to better farming and great volcanic soil.

And exclusive for our Tasting Box™ subscribers... 💥

Herlindo Sepulvera

Origin: Colombia
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1900 MASL
Varieties: Caturra chiroso
Tasting notes: bubblegum, cola, orange blossom

This coffee comes from Urrao in Antiquia, a part of Colombia not very well known for growing coffee. Herlindo Sepulvera was one of several farmers who took advantage of the high altitude and great soil in the area to grow specialty coffee here. We are happy he did. Under almost perfect conditions he managed to create an excellent coffee. The unique Caturra Chiroso variety creates a beautiful floral cup with notes of bubblegum, cola and orange blossom.

Don’t miss out on our next box! Become a member now ⚡️

Shokunin Coffee Collective

All the way from Rotterdam, Netherlands, we’re happy to welcome Shokunin to our June’s box! We had a chat.

How did Shokunin start and what's the story behind the name?
We already had an existing brand called Stielman, which is an old Dutch word for a craftsman. But I wanted to take big steps with the company, aimed at both quality and direct trade. Doing amazing projects in origin and here in Europe alike, I felt that we needed to present these accordingly. So I decided to start an upgraded version of the brand: Shokunin. It's a Japanese word for someone who's a master of their profession and does nothing but striving for perfection. They do this to such an extent that the entire community benefits from it. This very much resembled my mindset on coffee, and seen as how it felt like an upgraded Stielman, it was a great match. People also know me as a perfectionist who is overly caring about his product.

Many of our subscribers are tasting Shokunin for the first time. How would you describe coffee roasted by Shokunin?
I want to present the unique flavours in an accessible way. My coffees are always as sweet as I can get them, but not too tea-like or sour. I want to make sure that anyone drinking my coffee finds it interesting but especially enjoyable, with nothing negative to say about it. Even though I have about sixteen different coffees right now, each with a unique flavour profile, they are all pleasant to drink. This should make it easy to choose between my coffees depending on what you feel like, and it will be a good brew every time, no matter the filter or espresso method you use.

How do you think Shokunin will evolve in the future? Have you got any set goals?
Our projects in origin are developing every week, and we're trying to communicate these to consumers in order to create a connection across the chain. Our flavour portfolio is already diverse enough, so now we want to focus on improving the quality of the producers that we already work with. I'm hoping to connect more roasters and baristas to our vision and to increase our volumes, just so that we can make a bigger impact on operations. For instance, we managed to reserve the entire Argote harvest this season, which gives us a lot more freedom to decide on processing and investments.

For those of us who's never been to Rotterdam, how's Rotterdam's coffee scene?
I feel that Rotterdam's coffee scene is actually very, very small. There's many lunchrooms and cafes that take their coffee somewhat seriously, but most still work with the same generic blend by a relatively big roaster. Which is already a lot better than any commercial brand, but there's no vibrancy or fun to it. It can be easy to find decent coffee, but there's very few cafes that actually serve multiple coffees with unique flavour profiles and that focus on coffee instead of having it as an important side product.

What can we expect from this month's coffees (El Nido, Intango and El Bueyerito)?
It's a very diverse flavour package. El Nido is an excellent example of why I love Colombian coffee. It's so diverse, sweet and with enough body, perfect for my roasting style, and this one actually tastes like an Ethiopian coffee. Intango is sort of a classic Rwandan profile, but with more sweetness and body, also fitting my flavour preferences. El Bueyerito is an interesting coffee that started as a kickstarter. I've never really liked Costa Rican coffee, but when I tasted this sample, I actually found a lot that I could appreciate. After talking to the importer, I realized that with such a good start, and with our mutual mindset about sustainability and involvement, this would not only be a tasty, easy-going coffee now, but become even better in the future. You can read more about the stories behind these coffees on my website!

We sent the following coffees in June's box

El Nido

Origin: Urrao, Antioquia, Colombia
Producer: Daniel Hernandez
Process: Fully washed, 72hr dry fermentation, dried first in parabolic, then in gas drier.
Harvest: 2018
Altitude: 2,000 MASL
Varieties: Caturra Chirozo
Tasting notes: Light and floral aromas like jasmin and bergamot. Bright, sweet flavours like peach and lychee. Soft body like earl grey tea.

El Nido is a rare Caturra Chirozo variety, a natural Typica-like hybrid, farmed by Daniel Hernandez in Antioquia, Colombia. The special variety gives this coffee a very Ethiopian-like flavour profile. Last year, this coffee earned the first place in the Youth Cup for young farmers, as well as a second place in Cup of Antioquia. Colombia has always been a favourite of Shokunin Coffee Collective due to its high supply in quality coffee and its diversity in flavour profiles.

Intango

Origin: Kibaya, Musasa, Gishyita, Karongi, Rwanda
Producer: Gilbert Gatali
Process: Fully washed, overnight fermentation, dried on raised beds
Harvest: 2018
Altitude: 1,500 – 2,000 MASL
Varieties: Red Bourbon
Tasting notes: Bright yet thick aromas like pineapple. Juicy sweetness like strawberries. Silky body like hazelnut and black tea.

This coffee is the first one from the Rwandan entrepreneur Gilbert Gatali. He owns coffee shops in the capital Kigali and is known for his sustainability work in coffee exports from Rwanda. Gilbert recently bought a washing station where this coffee is produced. In 2012, Gilbert won the Most Notable Producer Sprudgee award.

Our tasting box members also received…

El Bueyerito

Origin: Miramar, Guanacaste, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Producer: Roberto Jimenez
Process: Fully washed
Harvest: 2018 / 2019
Altitude: 1,100 – 1,400 MASL

Varieties: Caturra
Tasting notes: Bright and sweet aromas like tangerine. Sweet and soft taste like plums and brown sugar. Strong body like chocolate and nuts.

The micro-mill El Bueyerito, located in Miramar, Costa Rica, is owned by Roberto Jiménez. This coffee is a product from the crowdfunding project Planting Costa Rica. The project wanted to reinvigorate specialty coffee from Miramar. With the project, they will help Roberto to develop the infrastructure at El Bueyerito as well as improve the know how.

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CleverCoffee

We’re ending 2018 in a great way. CleverCoffee is our December’s roaster, and our final featured roaster for the year! We had a chat.

How did CleverCoffee start?

Actually, we are coming up on our fifth birthday in February as CleverCoffee began in the beginning of 2014. However, it was in a very different format that what it is today; we began purely as a blog with nothing to sell – just purely informational articles about what we learned about coffee roasters, brewers, water, etc., and I had been a home barista about five years before that.

It was a great way to get people interested but the more we examined and learned, the more we found that it was hard to get to know the world of specialty coffee. For us, this helped form our approach to specialty coffee as we wanted – and still want to – make it more simply to experience world-class specialty coffee.

What drove you to the specialty coffee business?

In fact, I did not drink coffee until I was 26 years old. I started to be embarrassed if I was at a café or coffee show with my wife and she had coffee, while I was having hot chocolate.

Then a good friend of mine introduced me to a fantastic cup of specialty coffee. I think it was a lightly roasted Ethiopian coffee and I had no idea that coffee could be clean and sweet without being sour or bitter – and it got me hooked!

I started exploring the world of specialty coffee, but it was complex, so I wrote what I learned and the blog, CleverCoffee, was an easy next step. Here five years later, we have just relaunched our website for the third time and I have revisited the blog posts that I had not read for years. Some of them are still useful for people who are interested in specialty coffee, so I am adjusting a bit here and there and will repost them online soon.

How has CleverCoffee changed if you compare today, with the day you started roasting?

As I had been roasting quite a lot on a smaller scale before opening CleverCoffee, I knew that nothing beats using the best beans available. The very first bags of coffee we sold, I roasted on a Hottop coffee roaster and closed the bags with a vacuum sealer. Of course, we had every food grade certifications in order, but before making a huge investment in a complete roasting setup, In the way of LEAN startup, we just wanted to make sure that we were able to produce a product that people wanted to buy.

Later, we got the chance to buy an old 1963 Probat LG5 coffee roaster, that we restored and used for quite some time before upgrading to our current Giesen W15. Still, we are using the same formula when considering new investments in both coffee and equipment; we need to know that it works on a smaller scale before introducing it to a broader audience.

How do you think CleverCoffee will evolve in the future? Have you got any specific goals?

Sure, we have many goals – but one of our main focuses right now it to develop our core business, which is to source, roast and present some of the world’s most interesting coffees, without adding unneeded complexity and doing it in a responsible way.

We believe strongly that we should have an environment impact, which is as low as possible. It is not easy but an important process where we have taken the first steps by only printing info sheets on our coffees on CO2-neutral paper, we are only using electricity that comes from windmills and we use recyclable coffee boxes to deliver coffee to coffee shops and hospitality businesses that are located nearby. Now, we are working on having our Misiones coffee registered as a Transparently Traded Coffee as we would like our customers to know how much the grower has been paid for his green coffee in order for them to make a more conscious choice more easily.

Additionally, we are exploring the opportunities to opening our own coffee bar but that would certainly add complexity to our business, but it also opens up for us to being able to display our coffees in our own way. Therefore, we are looking for likeminded and talented people from the hospitality business industry to take part in this project.

Many of our subscribers are tasting CleverCoffee for the first time. How would you describe coffee roasted by CleverCoffee?

Coffee comes from a fruit and we want you to taste this. We roast to highlight the natural sweetness and fruitiness in the coffee. This way all coffees will taste different and you can explore the huge variety there is in coffee.

We work exclusively with the most interesting coffee producers in the world. We buy our green beans directly from the farmer or through socially aware and skilled importers who, with great professionalism, add value in the form of knowledge about better production and organic initiatives while always having the best interest of the coffee farmer in mind. Simply, we feel that this is the right way to do business.

We have selected all of our coffees for their unique and exciting characteristics, and you can be sure that our selection always reflects the huge variation in flavor found in the world of coffee. Our coffees come from micro lots from all over the world. Carefully selected and gently profile roasted to the brighter side as to preserve the sweetness and the innate flavours in the bean. We omni-roast all coffees so you can brew them just the way you prefer.

What can we expect from this month’s coffees (Misiones, Ceiba and Biloya)?

As usual, we would like people to experience the diversity in specialty coffee and we aiming to do this by only having seasonal coffees in our lineup as well as having a limited number of coffees in our lineup. We believe that a lineup of 5-7 coffees that change with the harvesting season helps our customers appreciate the diverse tastes that lies within the world of specialty coffee.

Misiones

For us, the Misiones from Colombia is more than special. For a long time, we have been looking for a coffee that meets our quality and taste requirements, and a coffee, where we can trade directly with the producer. Therefore, we are extra proud of this coffee, which is our first directly traded coffee and at the same time exclusive to CleverCoffee in Denmark. Collectively this results in a sweet and transparent coffee with a balanced tasting experience.

The coffee plants grows in nutrient volcanic soil in 1500-1700 mas in areas with plenty of shade. The variety is Castillo, a typical Colombian variety known for its great sweetness and citrus aftertaste.

The coffee is as a fully washed coffee, to highlight the clean and transparent taste. The pickers are highly skilled and have picked the ripe cherries when the cherries have reached a sugar content of 14%. This highlights the coffees natural sweetness.

All of this combined, results in a sweet and transparent taste of ripe red berries and citrus in a great balance. It is a coffee with a high complexity where you will experience a change in taste depending on the temperature of the coffee. Grind it rather coarsely and you will get a super juicy coffee. If you grind the coffee finer, you will get a very sweet coffee. This coffee has a big spectrum to play with.

This is a great example of a classic Colombian coffee – and what the Castillo variety has to offer, when it has been grown and processed with the outmost care.

Origin: Colombia
Region: Cundinamarca
Washing station: Hacienda Misiones
Varietals: Castillo
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1500 - 1700 masl
Harvest: May 2018

Ceiba

Ceiba is a specialty coffee from the Huehuetenango region in Guatemala on the border to Mexico. Here we have a fantastic combination of the comfortable silky and creamy mouthfeel, as the coffee from the area is known for and the fresh fruitiness that our roast style emphasizes. This results in a balanced coffee that everyone can drink, while you can find a great complexity in new taste notes.

Ceiba is a sweet and balanced specialty coffee that gives a nice freshness with taste of milk chocolate, orange and vanilla. This is an easy-to-drink coffee that everyone likes while it contains a large complexity and it expresses new tasting notes clearly, if you let the coffee cool down a little.

Origin: Guatemala
Region: Huehuetenango
Washing station: Ceiba
Varietals: Caturra, Bourbon, Typica
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1350 masl
Harvest: Jan – April 2018

Biloya

Biloya from Ethiopia is the latest addition to our lineup and Biloya blew us away with a sharp cup profile: Clean, sweet and transparent with notes of red berries and red grapes. It is a beautifully balanced natural processed coffee and a great showcase of how fantastic a natural processed coffee from Yirgacheffe in Ethiopia can taste like.

Coffees brought to the Biloya washing station are grown between 1700-2000 meters above sea level. There are several tiers of drying tables on the slope below the washing station and Biloya’s workers turn and sort the cherries by hand as the coffees dry on raised beds. The mesh material allows for airflow both above and below the coffee to prevent the formation of any mildew or mold. It takes between 18 and 21 days for cherries to dry. Naturally processed coffees are milled to remove the dried cherry pulp and parchment at once, and then stored in a warehouse no closer than 50cm from the wall and 15cm from the floor before transport to the final processing warehouse in Addis Ababa where it is color sorted and packed for shipment.

Origin: Ethiopia
Region: Yirgacheffe
Washing station: Biloya
Variety: Heirloom
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1850 masl
Harvest: January 2018

We hope you all enjoyed December’s box with CleverCoffee. Don’t miss out on our next roaster!

Keen Coffee

The Netherland’s coolest roastery Keen Coffee has delivered some splendid coffees. Let us introduce you to February’s box!

Keen Coffee has one goal: to lift the coffee scene to an even higher level. This is seen in everything they do. Keen works directly with their farmers and only roasts the highest quality coffees, looking for the most unique flavor profiles.

Located outside of the capital, Keen Coffee follows their everyday quest, to strive for perfection and not settling for it. We hope you enjoyed February’s box! 

SHEMBATI
Origin: Burundi
Altitude: 1800 MASL
Varietal: Red Bourbon
Process: Washed
Flavour: Citrus & Berries

The team of Shembati washing station are working hard to produce and process the high quality coffee you are about to drink. It is a great example of a Burundian coffee, which are known to have a great sweetness. When brewed you will get a balanced cup with fresh citric notes and berries, together with a sweet chocolate finish.

LOS VASCOS
Origin: Colombia
Altitude: 1950 MASL
Varietal: Caturra
Process: Washed
Flavour: Caramel & Chocolate

Included in the 2x250 and 3x100 Tasting box.

Los Vascos’ coffee farmers originates from Spain's northern regions. Los Vascos translates to “The Basques”. The coffee importer of this coffee is known for investing a lot in the local farmers as well as in mills and cupping labs. With their aim at sustainability we hope you like this coffee which has notes of sweet caramel, milk chocolate and red fruits.

DANILO
Origin: Costa Rica
Altitude: 1800 MASL
Varietal: Caturra & Catuai
Process: Anaerobic Fermentation
Flavour: Cinnamon & Sugar cane

Exclusive for the 3x100 Tasting box.

On top of a mountain ridge in West Alley, you will find the beautiful location of Danilo’s plantation. Danilo has previously delivered the coffee that Keen Coffee has used in the World Brewers Cup. The cinnamon notes are very distinct in this microlot. You will also find notes of sugar cane, yellow stone fruit and passion fruit.

Do you want to get freshly roasted coffee to your doorstep? Join our coffee subscription!

Don Gallo

We’re proud to introduce you to our December’s roaster Don Gallo. Our first ever shipment from Spain! 

For the month of December the following coffees were sent out:

MORMORA ESTATE
Origin: Ethiopia
Altitude: 1900 - 2000 MASL
Process: Natural
Flavour: Floral & Strawberry

Hundreds of families grow their coffee cherries in the area around Mormora Estate, located in the region of Guji, Shakisso, in Ethiopia. The farmers gather their coffees for sorting and processing. This natural processed coffee has notes of floral, strawberry, lime and chocolate.

DOLMIN MORENO
Origin: Honduras
Altitude: 1550 - 1600 MASL
Process: Washed
Flavour: Blackberry & Peach

Included in the 2x250 and 3x100 Tasting box.

Dolmin has been managing his own farm since 2013. Through hard work, he has managed to place this coffee in the top 20 during the 2014 and 2015 Cup of Excellence competitions. Together with his father, the family has built a coffee farming dynasty in Santa Barbara, El Cedral in Honduras. This coffee has notes of blackberry, lemon soda and peach.

NILO MARTINEZ
Origin: Colombia
Altitude: 1950 - 2200 MASL
Process: Lactic
Flavour: Passion fruit & Milk

Exclusive for the 3x100 Tasting box.

Nilo’s farm Jalisco is located in El Naranjal in Colombia. It is one of the neighbouring farms to La Palma & El Tucán, a famous Colombian coffee farm, where this coffee is processed. The lactic process is what brings out the distinct flavours of this special coffee. Expect notes of passion fruit, peach, milk and chocolate.

Don't miss out on our next shipment! Join for the next month's box

Man Vs Machine

The month of June was quite a remarkable one. We featured Man Vs Machine from Munich, Germany!

For the month of June we sent coffee from the different origins. Maria Suyapa La Flor from Honduras, Yobani Ramos from Colombia and exclusively for our Tasting Box customers - the beautiful Jaguara PB from Brazil. This was the very first time we shipped a Brazilian coffee!

JAGUARA PB
Origin: Brazil, Minas Gerais
Farm: Jaguara
Varietal: Yellow Catuai
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1.040 m
Cupping Notes: Toffee, Sweet, Creamy 

YOBANI RAMOS
Origin: Colombia, Huila
Farm: Finca La Fuente
Varietal: Caturra
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1.800 m
Cupping Notes: Nectarine, Lemon, Delicate

MARIA SUYAPA LA FLOR
Origin: Honduras, Poso Negro
Farm: La Flor
Varietal: Catuai
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1852 m
Cupping Notes: Fruity, Juicy, Lime 

If your not yet a member - don't miss out on our next box!

Love Coffee Roasters

We are very excited to let you meet our December’s roaster, Love Coffee Roasters. The roastery was our first ever featured roaster back in September 2015. Now they’re back, and we have shipped some very special coffees.

Love Coffee Roasters from Lund, Sweden, have been roasting coffee since 2009, but the founder Daniel has more than 16 years of experience in the field. Love Coffee Roasters have a must visit coffee bar in the centre of Lund, a unique spot with a great courtyard.

For December’s box we shipped three very different coffees, from three different countries. When brewing these coffees you will be able to experience the great diversity between them.

INGA APONTE

Origin: Colombia, Narino, Tablon de Gomez
Producer: Various Cooperative Members
Process: Red Honey
Harvest: 2016
Soil: Volcanic
Altitude: 2150 masl
Variety: Caturra
Tasting notes: Fresh Tobacco, Mint, Ripe Yellow Fruits, Red Berries, Milk Chocolate & Brown Sugar

Almost all Colombian coffees are fully washed, but there are a few exceptions. This Colombian coffee is a honey-processed coffee, which results in a cup that is very sweet, full bodied with a soft acidity.

Love Coffee Roaster’s words about the coffee:

“The indigenous tribe Inga Aponte was for a long time forced by guerrilla groups to cultivate coca in their territory and they have historically also been driven away from their place of origin. Today, through efforts by state and the governor of the Inga Aponte, they aspire to produce the Colombian Caturra variety. The soils of the Narino region are made up by volcanic ash and the area is highly elevated with lower temperatures than average. This unique terroir gives long maturation and excellent growing condition for the coffee trees. We love it and are showcasing our second harvest with these coffees. Many more to come!”
 

MAGARISSA

Origin: Ethiopia, Danbi Uddo, Shakiso
Producer: Gigesa Washing station
Process: Washed
Harvest: 2016
Soil: Red Volcanic
Variety: Ethiopian heirloom
Tasting notes: Lemonade, Rose Water, Bergamot & Brown Spice

Included in the 2x250 and 3x100 Tasting box.

This sweet Ethiopian beauty is as delicious as a perfectly ripe fruit. About 850 farmers deliver their coffee cherries daily to the washing station in Shakiso. The production is organic and this lot is a grade 1 coffee.

Love Coffee Roaster’s words about the coffee:

“This coffee comes from a new washing station in Shakiso. The station is privately owned by Faysel Abdosh and about 850 small scale farmers deliver their coffee to his mill. By default the production is organic and this lot is a grade 1 coffee. Processing is done by using clean water from the area and drying is done on raised beds. We chose this coffee because of its clarity and very sweet character. It will leave you wanting more and more.”

LA ESPERANZA

Origin: Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Finca La Esperanza
Producer: Eleodoro Villatoro López
Process: Washed
Harvest: 2016
Soil: Limestone
Altitude: 1400 - 1600 masl
Variety: Caturra & Bourbon
Tasting notes: Dark cherries, Cranberries & Dark Chocolates

Only included in the 3x100 Tasting box.

This is the first time we’re shipping a coffee from Guatemala, and when you’ve had your try you will see why. It has taken the farmer Fransisco Morales 39 years to reach the quality you are about to brew.

Love Coffee Roaster’s words about the coffee:

“Fransisco Morales started farming coffee in 1977 on a small plot of land. Year by year he managed to buy a little more and today he has a good size farm which produces great coffees. It has taken him 39 years to reach his destination, of which he is very proud.

The farm is run with the help of his family and he now employs other families nearby to help with the farming practises. Fransisco strives to produce coffees of the highest quality and has been doing so for a long time. 18 years ago he formed an alliance with neighbouring farmers to share knowledge and gain technical support from the agronomists at the National Coffee Organization of Guatemala. This has helped him understand what his trees needs to prosper and produce better coffees. He is particularly interested in soil biology and the surrounding environment and he wants the future generations to be gifted with the wonderful coffees he feels so fortunate to have.”

We hope you will enjoy the coffees for this month. If you don’t want to miss out on our next box, be sure to join for January’s box! Subscribe here, or buy a gift box!

September's Shipment

For the month of September we shipped coffees from the German roaster JB Kaffee! We hope you will enjoy them just as much as we did. These are the coffees we sent.

LA LUCHA
Origin: Colombia , Antioquia (Jardin)
Producer: Los Andes Coop
Process: fermented for 36 hrs, washed and sun dried
Harvest: 2016
Soil:
Altitude: 1800m
Varieties:  Caturra & Colombia
Tasting notes: grapefruit, lemon, thick

Included in the 250g coffee box

LAS LAJAS PERLA NEGRA
Origin: Costa Rica, Los Angeles, Sabanillas de Alajuela
Producer: Chacón Solano Family
Process: natural
Harvest: 2016
Soil:
Altitude: 1300 – 1500m
Varieties: Caturra
Tasting notes: dried tropical fruit, sweet, smooth

Included in the 2x250g coffee box

NYERI NDAROINI AA
Origin: Kenya, Nyeri County, Central Kenya
Producer: Gikanda Farmers Cooperative Society
Process: Fully washed & dried on African beds
Harvest: 2015/16
Soil:
Altitude: 1600 - 1700m
Varieties: SL28 & SL34
Tasting notes: stonefruit, apple, gooseberry

Only included in the 3x100g tasting box

April's Shipment

April's tasting box is off! We sent three excellent coffees from Turun Kahvipaahtimo. The Kenyan coffee, Kamwangi Coop, was used by one of the contestants in the Finnish Brewers Cup. We hope you will enjoy these coffees just us much as we've had, we've selected them with care. Mahembe was Samuli's, at Turun Kahvipaahtimo, personal favourite. We love them all.

KAMWANGI COOP

Origin: Kenya, Kirinyaga
Producer: New Ngariama Cooperative Society (996 small producers) 
Washing station: Kamwangi Factory
Process: Washed
Harvest: Hand picked 11-12/2014
Drying: 12-20 days on African drying beds
Soil: Volcanic
Altitude: 1600-1800masl
Varieties: SL28 & SL34 (some K7 and Ruiru 11)
Tasting notes: Juicy, black currants, grapefruit

MAHEMBE

Origin: Rwanda, Nyagatare
Washing station: Mahembe Coffee Washing Station
Producer: Justin Musabyiama
Lot: #3600
Process: Washed
Harvest: Hand picked 05-07/2015
Drying: Sun dried up to 21 days on African drying beds.
Soil: 
Altitude: 1700-1900masl
Varieties: Bourbon
Tasting notes: Juicy, sweet, red apple and red berries.

HERNANDO GOMEZ

Origin: Colombia, Tolima, Planadas
Producer: Hernando Gomez
Farm: Bellavista
Process: Washed
Harvest: Hand picked 06-07/2015
Drying: Drying is done in a well ventilated parabolic dryer. 
Soil: 
Altitude: 1950-2050masl
Varieties: Castillo
Tasting notes: Complex tropical fruits. Ripe, fresh acidity

December's Shipment

Dear friends,

December’s coffee box featuring Kafferostare Per Nordby is off! We are proud to be shipping from Sweden’s at the moment best coffee roaster. From Per Nordby we have selected three coffees from Honduras, Ethiopia and Colombia.

CRECENCIO

Origin: Honduras
Region: Santa Barbara, El Cedral
Producer: Crecencio Izaguirre
Processing: Washed
Harvest: March 2015
Soil: Clay
Altitude: 1600 masl
Varietal: Pacas

Crecencio Izaguirre's farm Santa Maria is only 0.7 hectares and so does not produce any large quantities of coffee. But what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. The farm is named after Crecencio’s mother Maria and the whole family is involved in the farming process. This is the fourth season Per roasts coffee from Crecencio’s farm, which makes it his longest collaboration.

Tasting notes: Fruity aroma, plum, grape acidity, balanced body

HELEANNA

Origin: Ethiopia
Region: Yirgacheffe, Kochere
Producer: Heleanna Georgalis
Processing: Natural
Harvest: February 2015
Soil: Volcanic
Altitude: 1800 masl
Varietal: Ethiopian Heirloom

Per Nordby met Heleanna on his first trip to Ethiopia and he says she makes one of the best natural coffees he has ever tasted. Heleanna runs a dry mill in Kochere, buys ripe coffee cherries from producers in the area and is meticulous in the drying and sorting of the beans.

Tasting notes: Tropical fruit, plum, floral acidity, long finish

CARLOS ORTEGA

Origin: Colombia
Region: Nariño
Producer: Carlos and Ángela Ortega
Processing: Washed
Harvest: June 2015
Soil: Volcanic
Altitude: 2000 masl
Varietal: Caturra

Carlos and Ángela Ortega have a small farm of approximately 2 hectares where they grow 100% caturra coffee. The farm is located in Nariño in the south of Colombia. They run the farm with help from their two sons, Richard and Carlos. The farm is located 2000 masl which gives the coffee a well developed sweetness and a complex acidity.

Tasting notes: Sweet, raisins, complex acidity, juicy mouthfeel