In My Mug

Episode 675: Mexico La Cañada Tejao

Tejao is the original name for the town of Huautla de Jimenez: a town in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, which is famous for its coffee, in the north of the La Cañada Region. 

Traditionally, despite coffee being the main agricultural product of the region, coffee yields have been low and crops have often been sold to the commodity market, however recent investment in the area from projects like Ensambles sees an increased focus on specialty coffee. 

Coffee in this region is traditionally fully washed and mainly organic, although not certified as such, and the majority of farms feature shade-grown coffee. There is a culture of minimal intervention in this area too, meaning producers tend to refrain from pruning the Typica plants, often resulting in 2-3 metre high coffee trees, as old as 40 years in some cases! Typica is a varietal that often suffers from Coffee Leaf Rust, however, due to the altitude of this region, the coffee crops have not suffered from this.

Because of the lower temperatures (particularly overnight) in this region, there is a high level of humidity in the atmosphere. This makes drying coffee a tricky endeavour, meaning that many producers often have to move coffee from outdoor drying patios inside overnight. As a result of this, coffee is often dried to a lower humidity than is usually seen in the surrounding areas: around 11% humidity, compared with the typical 12-13% to ensure longevity. 

However, these lower temperatures aren't all bad and, when managed effectively, can lead to great things. The colder climate and later harvest than other coffee-growing parts of Mexico means the coffee cherries have a longer, slower maturation period, often resulting in a sweeter, complex cup. We think this coffee showcases this beautifully!

Think soft brown sugar and tinned peaches for this coffee. A delicate raspberry joins in on the aftertaste, whilst it’s silky texture and great balance keeps you going back for another sip.

• Country: Mexico
• Region: La Cañada
• State: Oaxaca
• Producers: Ensambles
• Processing method: Washed
• Altitude: 1,500–1,900 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Typica

CUPPING NOTES

Brown sugar, tinned peaches, raspberry.

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 7
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87

Roast Information
Medium Dark - keep it nice and steady, but push the roast through the gap and just up to the first pops of second crack on the drop. This coffee is all about the sweetness and silky body, which needs to get an opportunity to develop.

Episode 674: Guatemala San Patricio El Limon Natural Caturra

A desire to experiment is one of the big reasons that we love buying from San Patricio El Limon; we've been getting coffee from them since first introduced seven years ago by our mutual friend Raul Rodas (2012 World Barista Champion), and they're just getting more and more awesome each year.

The experimentation is thanks to the motivation of Guadalupe Alberto Reyes (known as Beto to his friends), he's been the owner of the farm for 21 years now, and in recent years has really focussed on the farm and on continually striving to improve. He aims to take more care in every step they take on the farm, from picking, to processing, to shipping. Beto's son, Saul, has been studying agronomy at the local college for the past seven years, and he uses his knowledge to benefit practices on the farm.

All the family has a part to play in the day-to-day running of the farm, including Beto's wife Maralyn, their children Saul, Elena, and Betio; Betio's wife Mafer; and Beto's brother Felix, who runs their mill. In addition to the family, they employ a team of seven workers outside of harvest. That team manages the weeding, mill upgrades and general farm work.

The farm itself is eighteen hectares in size and sits at an altitude between 1,350–1,850 meters above sea level. The farm mainly produces Caturra and Bourbon but has also recently started growing SL28, H1, H3, Maracaturra, Maragogype, Geisha, Pacamaras, Caturras and Catuaí (yellow and red). In addition, around 8 water reservoirs have been built around the entire farm in order to preserve this vital liquid and help ensure the sustainability of the farm.

It is located roughly an hour's drive to the east of Guatemala City in the small town of Palencia, which Beto also happens to be Mayor of! He has helped to build and develop the town alongside running his farm – honestly have no idea how he finds enough hours in the day, what a guy!

Palencia is not part of the eight regions of coffee as defined by Anacafé (the National Association of Coffee in Guatemala), but you can see a lot of development in the zone, and this farm is a perfect example of that development. As a coffee buying business, we've always liked being in places that are working to be hot and up-and-coming, as well as those that are established players. Over time El Limon has become one of our favourite Hasrelationships, and back in 2013, they were the first producers that we ever bought from directly in Guatemala.

The dedication and care devoted to each step of production is reflected in the fact that the family operates their own wet mill, so that they can separate different lots and have control over the quality of the coffee. They are able to process many lots simultaneously and keep separate days' pickings, processes, and varietals in their own parcels. The wet mill also benefits the local community as neighbours within the region of Palencia also bring their coffees to the mill to be processed.

They have had the mill on-site since the very beginning but it's very much an ongoing project and they recently invested in a rebuild, alongside the construction of a QC laboratory, a new warehouse, and accommodation for their staff. Beto doesn't want to stand still and is continuing to invest in the farm. You can tell that this is a farm on top of their game. Whenever we visit all questions are dispatched with exactly the right answer and every suggestion is listened to and taken on board.

For a naturally processed coffee this is very crisp, think orange zest and melon with only a slight boozy edge. Finishing out each sip is a lovely aftertaste of cranberry.

• Country: Guatemala
• Region: Palencia
• Farm: San Patricio El Limon
• Farmer: Guadalupe Alberto 'Beto' Reyes Aguilar
• Altitude: 1,350-1,850 m.a.s.l.
• Farm size: 9 hectares
• Varietal: Caturra
• Processing method: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Orange zest, melon, boozy, cranberry.

• Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
• Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
• Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
• Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
• Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
• Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
• Balance: (1–8): 6.5
• Overall: (1–8): 6.5
• Correction: (+36): +36
• Total: (max. 100): 87

Roasting Information
Medium-dark – keeping the pace moderate, aim to go through first, through the gap and finish just on the cusp of second.

Episode 673: Nicaragua Finca Limoncillo Washed Caturra

The story of Hasbean and Finca Limoncillo is a long and exciting one - we've been working together for 13 years now! A bakers' dozen of coffee harvests shared between Matagalpa and Stafford make us very happy customers. We've been telling the story of this relationship for many years now and we don't intend to stop any time soon because it's such a big, big, big relationship for us! So much of where we are today has come from this relationship. We're super proud of everything that's happened in the past, and super excited for where we can go in the future.

Limoncillo (and a handful of other fantastic farms) are owned by Dr. Erwin Mierich. Having previously lived and worked in the USA, he returned to Nicaragua in the mid-1990s. He explained, "While I was living in the United States, I worked as a gynaecologist, but then I had to come back to Nicaragua and lead this farm. Coffee has been my passion since I was a little boy". 

Our relationship with Finca Limoncillo began in 2007, and back then we were buying their delicious coffee as part of a buying group. We cupped the coffee and instantly loved it - We had to have it! It was a wonderful surprise to discover after the auction closed that it was owned by a family in Nicaragua who were already good friends of ours! The following year we visited the farm with our Nicaraguan importers and agreed that they would bring the coffee into the UK for us. 

A few years ago we were notified by the importers that they would not be buying the coffee again (for reasons other than the cup quality) which led to some frantic phone calls on our part, and a dig down the back of the sofa for enough loose change to fund buying 12 months' worth of coffee all in one go. There were many, many obstacles in the way of doing this deal, but we were lucky in that we were able to pull everything together in a very short amount of time. The upside of all of this is that we now work directly with Finca Limoncillo instead of going via anyone else. This coffee has gone from a one-off Cup of Excellence buy to a fantastic long-term relationship that we're so very proud to have.

Finca Limoncillo is located in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua and it's a whopping 171 hectares in size, which is heckin chonky! 109 hectares of this is used for coffee cultivation, with the remainder used to raise cattle and horses, and left to natural woodland. The family have heaps of policies and initiatives to make everything as sustainable as possible on this vast farming area: their use of chemicals is minimal, and the impact on the environment is always minimised by careful and considerate land management.

It's owned and run by the Mierisch family who are, by now, very close friends, and well-respected producers in Nicaragua. They're known for their experimental processing, varietal work, and exceptional coffee. The family employ over 3000 staff during the harvest, and at Limoncillo over 60 families live on the farm full time. They are seriously loved by the guys who work for them, more than any other producer we buy from there is genuine love and respect between the family and their workers. The fact that the family are our friends helps us drill down into the details of what they do for the people who work for them. 

On the farm, the family: 

• The employers pay their staff 30% more than what is typical minimum wage, as well as:
• Provide free housing for 60 families on their farms
• Provide free electricity and running water for their homes
• Provide free food for all workers
• Have free daycare facilities for families to use
• Provide free health care facilities on the farms
• Employee on-site teachers who educate their staff and teach other skills such as pottery and weaving. The goal is to help staff diversify their skills. The teachers are also paid twice the wages they would receive in the cities.

Our most consistent coffee, we've come to expect toffee apple jumping out at you when you taste this coffee. Each year the balance between that fresh apple and sweet caramel changes slightly and this year it's nice and apple-y!

A wonderfully consistent, easy drinking coffee, it's always a toffee apple in a cup. There's loads of sweet green apple at the front, with the crisp bite of it balanced by silky toffee and creamy milk chocolate on the finish. That chocolate rolls on into the aftertaste, where it's joined by an almond note.

• Country: Nicaragua
• Municipality: Yasica Norte
• 
Region: Matagalpa

• Farm name: Limoncillo
• Producers: Mierisch family
• Farm size: 171 manzanas (hectares)
• Coffee growing area: 109 hectares

• Altitude: 1,200 m.a.s.l.

• Varietal: Caturra
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Green apple, toffee, milk chocolate, almond

• Clean cup: (1–8): 6
• Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
• Acidity: (1–8): 7
• Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
• Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
• Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
• Balance: (1–8): 6.5
• Overall: (1–8): 6.5
• Correction: (+36): +36
• Total: (max. 100): 87

Roast Information
Medium-dark - Go through first crack, slow it down a little to get some sweetness developed but drop it just as you get to second crack to keep the crisp apple notes.

Episode 672: Costa Rica ARBAR El Oasis

When we found this farm for the very first time all the way back in 2013 we knew very little about it, so little in fact that the coffee didn't even have an official name! Back then all we knew was that the coffee was grown by a gentleman called Carlos Arrieta and it was really, really delicious! However, since then I've been lucky enough to visit Carlos on my trips to Costa Rica and, over the past few years, have found out lots more.

The farm is located in the Western Valley region near to the town of Lourdes de Naranjo. It's located at 1,600 meters above sea level and contains mostly Caturra, Catuai + a tiny bit of Villa Sarchi, there are also plans to plant some small micro-lots too in the future. El Oasis is actually one of Carlos's four farms...

• La Casa - mostly planted with Geisha and Kenya!
• La Isla - run by Maria’s niece and only just starting to produce coffee, it sits at 1,400 m.a.s.l. and 1.4 hectares in size, and is planted with Villa Sarchi, Kenya, Geisha and Ethiopia
• El Oasis -  produces around 6,000kg of fresh cherries each year
• El Manantial - slightly bigger than El Oasis around 3 hectares in size and produces around 8,500kg of fresh cherries each year (amounts to just over 1,000kg of green coffee when processed)

The farm is run by Carlos with his wife and children, Maria Isabel, Yessica, Karen, Esteban and Jose Ignacio. He has owned this farm for almost twenty years but only started processing the coffee himself in 2014 (while still paying someone else to pulp it for him). He hadn't been able to present his coffee to a single buyer previously, so he would send it to the exporter we use in Costa Rica and, thankfully, that's how we found him!

The mill name "ARBAR" comes from the combined family names - Carlos ARietta and Maria BARboza - ARBAR. Their children are Yessica, Karen, Esteban & Jose Ignacio.

Carlos is very active in the local community and they have close relationships with their neighbours - which includes CoE winning mills like Herbazu, Vista Al Valle and Sumava. The farm operates mostly Organic processes, but they're not Organic certified. They believe in the value of biodiversity on the farms, and plants like fruit trees are positioned among the coffee plants to provide shade and to help the soil. These trees also provide food for the family. They even have a few sheep and other animals, with the farm being as self-sufficient as possible. They have one full-time employee, who lives on the farm.

When Carlos and his family started selling to us, it gave them a chance to
try new things; the prices that we pay gave them the opportunity to take bigger risks. One of the ways they did this was by trying small plantings of new varietals including Bourbon, Kenya (SL28) and Geisha which we saw some of for the first time last year and are really excited to welcome back again in the future.

This coffee has been processed at the ARBAR micromill using the White Honey process. Honey processing is somewhat similar to a Pulped Natural (but uses less water), falling somewhere in between a Washed and a Natural coffee both in terms of contact between the cherry mucilage and the bean during drying time and in the resulting flavour profile. The outer skin and fruit pulp is removed from the seed (bean) of the coffee inside, and it's left to dry. The colour in the name refers to the amount of sticky fruit that's left on the surface of the seed after depulping - darker indicates more / lighter indicates less. As a White Honey process, this coffee is the closest you can get to a washed process, while still being classed as a "honey". This method can present some risk of over fermentation during processing but water is a precious commodity in this area of Costa Rica, so this method suits the location very well. Carlos definitely has the skills to pay the bills though so no worries about mucking up the Honeys at ARBAR!

When you sip this coffee it's a little bit like someone melted the whole chocolate bar section at the shop and you're tasting your way through a range of delicious treats! Right away you'll immediately get milk chocolate and orange with just a little hazelnut and raisin too, this is a very creamy coffee that finishes with nougat.

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Western Valley
• City: Lourdes de Naranjo
• Farm: El Oasis
• Producer: Carlos Arrieta
• Micro mill: ARBAR
• Altitude: 1,600 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Caturra & Catuai
• Processing system: White Honey

CUPPING NOTES

Milk chocolate, orange, hazelnut, raisin, nougat

• Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
• Sweetness: (1–8): 7
• Acidity: (1–8): 6
• Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
• Flavour: (1–8): 7
• Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
• Balance: (1–8): 6.5
• Overall: (1–8): 6.5
• Correction:(+36): +36
• Total (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information
Medium - through first and let it slow down a little as you go through the gap, keeping the roast going but finishing before you hit second crack with the sweetness really front and centre.

Episode 671: Nicaragua Finca Limoncillo Pulped Natural Ethiosar

The story of Hasbean and Finca Limoncillo is a long and exciting one - we've been working together for 13 years now! A bakers' dozen of coffee harvests shared between Matagalpa and Stafford make us very happy customers. We've been telling the story of this relationship for many years now and we don't intend to stop any time soon because it's such a big, big, big relationship for us! So much of where we are today has come from this relationship. We're super proud of everything that's happened in the past, and super excited for where we can go in the future.

Limoncillo (and a handful of other fantastic farms) are owned by Dr. Erwin Mierich. Having previously lived and worked in the USA, he returned to Nicaragua in the mid-1990s. He explained, "While I was living in the United States, I worked as a gynaecologist, but then I had to come back to Nicaragua and lead this farm. Coffee has been my passion since I was a little boy". 

Our relationship with Finca Limoncillo began in 2007, and back then we were buying their delicious coffee as part of a buying group. We cupped the coffee and instantly loved it - We had to have it! It was a wonderful surprise to discover after the auction closed that it was owned by a family in Nicaragua who were already good friends of ours! The following year we visited the farm with our Nicaraguan importers and agreed that they would bring the coffee into the UK for us. 

A few years ago we were notified by the importers that they would not be buying the coffee again (for reasons other than the cup quality) which led to some frantic phone calls on our part, and a dig down the back of the sofa for enough loose change to fund buying 12 months' worth of coffee all in one go. There were many, many obstacles in the way of doing this deal, but we were lucky in that we were able to pull everything together in a very short amount of time. The upside of all of this is that we now work directly with Finca Limoncillo instead of going via anyone else. This coffee has gone from a one-off Cup of Excellence buy to a fantastic long-term relationship that we're so very proud to have.

Finca Limoncillo is located in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua and it's a whopping 171 hectares in size, which is heckin chonky! 109 hectares of this is used for coffee cultivation, with the remainder used to raise cattle and horses, and left to natural woodland. The family have heaps of policies and initiatives to make everything as sustainable as possible on this vast farming area: their use of chemicals is minimal, and the impact on the environment is always minimised by careful and considerate land management.

It's owned and run by the Mierisch family who are, by now, very close friends, and well-respected producers in Nicaragua. They're known for their experimental processing, varietal work, and exceptional coffee. The family employ over 3000 staff during the harvest, and at Limoncillo over 60 families live on the farm full time. They are seriously loved by the guys who work for them, more than any other producer we buy from there is genuine love and respect between the family and their workers. The fact that the family are our friends helps us drill down into the details of what they do for the people who work for them. 

On the farm, the family: 

• The employers pay their staff 30% more than what is typical minimum wage, as well as:
• Provide free housing for 60 families on their farms
• Provide free electricity and running water for their homes
• Provide free food for all workers
• Have free daycare facilities for families to use
• Provide free health care facilities on the farms
• Employee on-site teachers who educate their staff and teach other skills such as pottery and weaving. The goal is to help staff diversify their skills. The teachers are also paid twice the wages they would receive in the cities.

Right then folks - it's time to learn all about Ethiosar! This coffee varietal is a stable hybrid plant, which is the result of lots of clever (and slightly convoluted, so bear with us) mixing of other coffee varieties. To make up a batch of Ethiosar we're going to need a pinch of Sudan Rume, a sprinkle of Timor, and a couple dashes of Villa Sarchi. Fun ingredients, right? A cross of Villa Sarchi (an improved Caturra from Costa Rica) and Timor (a mix of Robusta and Arabica varieties) makes a Sarchimor. That Sarchimor is then crossed with Sudan Rume (a very old Ethiopian variety), and the offspring of these plants is then crossed back once again with Villa Sarchi... all of that hard work and genetic back-and-forth results in the awesome Ethiosar!

Now some people will turn their noses up at the mention of Timor due to it's Robusta heritage, but Catimors (the name for the group of varieties made by crossing Timor with Caturra-based varietals) are very useful. Through skilled breeding we can harness the practical aspects of Robusta (high yield, resistance to pests and disease, growth at lower altitudes) while still retaining the positive cup characteristics of Arabica varieties. Ethiosar has a very small percentage of Catimor in it, thus making it very resistant to leaf rust in most parts of the world. Both Sudan Rume and Villa Sarchi are known for their great cup characteristics.

What Ethiosar does is increase production by up to 40% whilst only needing 2,800 plants per manzana, whereas with Caturra you would need 4,000 plants. This may not seem important until you begin to think that each plant needs fertiliser. So not only are you getting more yield but it's cheaper to grow because you need less fertiliser and less plants (plants have to be grown or bought), and it's also quicker to pick. On top of all of this, it's super tasty.

A clean, delicate acidity of pear starts things off, before sweet macadamia nut and digestive biscuits take over.

• Country: Nicaragua
• Municipality: Yasica Norte
• 
Region: Matagalpa

• Farm name: Limoncillo
• Producer: The Mierich family
• Farm size: 171 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 109 hectares
• Altitude: 1,200 m.a.s.l.

• Varietal: Ethiosar (Ricardo)

• Processing system: Pulped Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Pear, digestive biscuit, macadamia nut.

• Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
• Sweetness: (1–8): 7
• Acidity: (1–8): 6
• Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
• Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
• Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
• Balance: (1–8): 6.5
• Overall: (1–8): 6
• Correction: (+36): +36
• Total: (max. 100): 86.5

Roasting Information
Medium-dark - push this right to the edge of second crack. It may need to go a fraction hotter than you'd expect, but you need the development to get those flavours vibrant and not underdeveloped.

Episode 670: Ethiopia Ana Sora Washed

We first came across this coffee all the way back in 2016 after being introduced by the importers that we worked with in Ethiopia at the time. We have been buying from Ana Sora consistently ever since and it's safe to say that this is one of our most popular coffees – when it goes out of season we're flooded with emails asking when it's going to come back... well, happy days are here again! We see a lot of consistency from this coffee and year-on-year it always delivers with those clean blueberry/floral flavours and a little bit of seasonal variation. We always blind cup pre-shipment samples and when we come to this bowl we often say “Ooooh I hope this is the new Ana Sora!” and lo and behold it is, it's a super distinctive coffee. It's our sixth year of roasting this coffee and Ana Sora is now the Ethiopian farm that we buy the most volume from as, for good reason, it's just so popular with everyone!

Ana Sora is a private farm owned by second-generation coffee farmer Israel Degfa. He grew up immersed in various aspects of the coffee industry as his father was a mill manager and his mum sold coffee to commuters in the local bus station. Because he grew up in a coffee producing area, he shows great respect for the farmers, both as business partners and as people. As coffee farms go, Ana Sora is a very new farm: it was only formed in 2013. Coffee trees take an average 2-3 years to produce a crop of cherries that's big enough to sell, so we started buying soon after it first went on the market. It's located at a whopping altitude of between 1,900 and 2,350 metres above sea level. It's a gorgeous but somewhat tiring walk to get there - it's not all just holiday snaps, this coffee buying malarkey!

The estate is located in the Guji Zone in the South of Ethiopia, due East of the town of Yirgacheffe. It’s western neighbour is Uraga and to the East is Adola - both places where Israel owns mills as well. Broadly speaking there are 5 primary coffee producing regions in Ethiopia; Sidamo, Limu, Yirgacheffe (a subsection of Sidamo), Harrar, and Djima – each presenting characteristic flavour profiles. Guji coffees have historically been sold as Sidamo coffees, but today they are thought of as separate and are being more properly marketed as such. The local area is known for coffees with bright acidity and juicy, fruity flavours, often with a tea-like body. It is unusual to find private farms of 250 hectares in Ethiopia (the norm being smallholder gardens of less than 2 hectares each) and even more unusual to find them at such high altitudes. Ethiopian coffee farms are high in general compared to other producing countries (mostly between 1,700 - 2,100 masl) but Ana Sora is on the higher side still, reaching as high as 2,350 masl. The altitude helps with the slower maturation of the coffee cherry, with temperatures averaging between 16-19ºC allowing more time for the plant to develop, which contributes to the super unique cup profile.

Coffee growing is popular locally, and Israel also sources coffee from the surrounding area. Each washing station has around 1000-2000 members, each with one of the small home coffee plots typical of Ethiopia, producing very small quantities. The area is populated by smallholder farmers who speak Oromife and are of Oromo ethnicity. In his role as CEO of producing and exporting company Kerchanshe, Israel believes in helping these farmers through education in husbandry, and also through financial assistance. Their passion for fine coffee is coupled with consistent reinvestment not only in improved infrastructure, technology and processes, but Kerchanshe also invests 10% of its annual profits into social responsibility programs such as building schools and providing clean water to the communities it serves. Israel has already built schools in Adola and Kercha and is currently constructing schools in Gelana Gesha and Kilenso Mokonesa.

The farm used to only produce Naturally processed coffee, however in 2018 the farmers decided to take advantage of the river Turo nearby and built a washing station capable of producing washed coffee using the river as their water source. Since then Ana Sora has produced both Washed and Natural lots and we're super happy to have both for you!

Kicking things off is a floral note, with lemon following hot on its heels. A white sugar sweetness carries through, finishing alongside a clean black tea flavour. The whole thing has a delicate but silky body.

• Country: Ethiopia
• Area: Guji zone
• Nearest town: Yirgacheffe
• Farm: Ana Sora
• Varietal: Indigenous wild varietals
• Processing: Washed
• Owner: Israel Degfa
• Founding year: 2013
• Altitude: 1,900–2,350 m.a.s.l.
• Farm size: 250 hectares, of which 150 hectares are coffee

CUPPING NOTES

Floral, lemon, white sugar, black tea

• Clean cup: (1–8): 7
• Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
• Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
• Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
• Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
• Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
• Balance: (1–8): 6
• Overall: (1–8): 6.5
• Correction: (+36): +36
• Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roasting Information
Light to Medium - through first crack, but look to finish the roast as soon as first has ended, just as the smell of those floral aromatics on the roasting beans fades away.

Episode 669: Costa Rica Finca Licho Yellow Honey Villa Sarchi

Here at Hasbean we love to celebrate the awesome things that happen when strong relationships are built between roasters and producers, and Finca Licho is a shining example of that ethos. We first bought from this farm way back in 2007 when it was awarded 4th place in the Cup of Excellence. Fast forward fourteen years (gosh, feeling old now), and Licho has become a firm favourite – both with customers and our little Hasbean team. The arrival of coffees from Finca Licho is greatly anticipated every year.

We really feel that this coffee showcases our development as a roaster over the years, as we've moved from buying via an importer to buying directly from the farm ourselves. A few years ago we visited the farm and made a deal with the family for a European exclusive on these coffees, and this year we continue that. You'll not see these coffees anywhere else in Europe. They're so tasty, we wanted them all for ourselves! We love the fact that we simply walked onto the farm after cupping a particular lot in the exporter's office, had a chat about how much money they wanted, and then we all shook hands. We got back into the 4x4 and drove away very happy!

The farm is owned and run by Los Hermanos Aguilera. It's often translated as 'The Aguilera Brothers', but everyone is involved, not just the boys! The family of twelve brothers and sisters inherited the business from their parents, who started their coffee-growing career over 50 years ago. With the help of the third generation, the family work the farm with basically no hired labour except for during the harvest. They manage the mill and drying patios, fertilise, prune the coffee trees, and so on. They do it all themselves, and all year round. The Aguileras have a reputation for their deep understanding of quality at the farm and mill level, and this is why we are excited about working with them.

Situated 1,500 metres above sea level in the region of Naranjo, the farm is located in the volcanic Northern Cordiles corridor of the Western Valley, which is an area famous for its excellent coffee production. The majority of the coffee grown at Finca Licho is Villa Sarchi variety, but there's a smidge of Caturra too (they're about 65% and 25% of production respectively). The remainder of coffee production is made up of a mixture of more unusual varieties, some of which we've been able to snag this year now that they're established enough to provide a crop.

Starting with peaches and white sugar, this slips effortlessly through sweet lemon and into an aftertaste of ripe raspberries. As it cools, there's a chocolate edge which starts to appear.

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Western Valley
• Province: Alajuela
• Nearest city: Naranjo de Alajuela
• Farm: Finca Licho
• Producers: Aguilera family
• Farm size: 28.00 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 9.10 hectares
• Altitude: 1,500 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Villa Sarchí 
• Processing system: Yellow Honey

CUPPING NOTES

Peach, white sugar, sweet lemon, raspberry, chocolate.

• Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
• Sweetness: (1-8): 7
• Acidity: (1-8): 6.5
• Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6
• Flavour: (1-8): 6.5
• Aftertaste: (1-8): 6.5
• Balance: (1-8): 6
• Overall: (1-8): 6.5
• Correction:(+36): +36
• Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information
Medium – through first and let this develop a little in the gap but not too long - you want to finish the roast at the end of the gap and keep it quick enough to preserve the great balance of simple sweetness and fruit acidity.

Episode 668: Guatemala San Patricio El Limon Washed Pache

A desire to experiment is one of the big reasons that we love buying from San Patricio El Limon; we've been getting coffee from them since first introduced seven years ago by our mutual friend Raul Rodas (2012 World Barista Champion), and they're just getting more and more awesome each year.

The experimentation is thanks to the motivation of Guadalupe Alberto Reyes (known as Beto to his friends), he's been the owner of the farm for 21 years now, and in recent years has really focussed on the farm and on continually striving to improve. He aims to take more care in every step they take on the farm, from picking, to processing, to shipping. Beto's son, Saul, has been studying agronomy at the local college for the past seven years, and he uses his knowledge to benefit practices on the farm.

All the family has a part to play in the day-to-day running of the farm, including Beto's wife Maralyn, their children Saul, Elena, and Betio; Betio's wife Mafer; and Beto's brother Felix, who runs their mill. In addition to the family, they employ a team of seven workers outside of harvest. That team manages the weeding, mill upgrades and general farm work.

The farm itself is eighteen hectares in size and sits at an altitude between 1,350–1,850 meters above sea level. The farm mainly produces Caturra and Bourbon but has also recently started growing SL28, H1, H3, Maracaturra, Maragogype, Geisha, Pacamara, Caturra and Catuaí (yellow and red). In addition, around 8 water reservoirs have been built around the entire farm in order to preserve this vital liquid and help ensure the sustainability of the farm.

It is located roughly an hour's drive to the east of Guatemala City in the small town of Palencia, which Beto also happens to be Mayor of! He has helped to build and develop the town alongside running his farm – honestly have no idea how he finds enough hours in the day, what a guy!

Palencia is not part of the eight regions of coffee as defined by Anacafé (the National Association of Coffee in Guatemala), but you can see a lot of development in the zone, and this farm is a perfect example of that development. As a coffee buying business, we've always liked being in places that are working to be hot and up-and-coming, as well as those that are established players. Over time El Limon has become one of our favourite Hasrelationships, and back in 2013, they were the first producers that we ever bought from directly in Guatemala.

The dedication and care devoted to each step of production is reflected in the fact that the family operates their own wet mill, so that they can separate different lots and have control over the quality of the coffee. They are able to process many lots simultaneously and keep separate days' pickings, processes, and varietals in their own parcels. The wet mill also benefits the local community as neighbours within the region of Palencia also bring their coffees to the mill to be processed.

They have had the mill on-site since the very beginning but it's very much an ongoing project and they recently invested in a rebuild, alongside the construction of a QC laboratory, a new warehouse, and accommodation for their staff. Beto doesn't want to stand still and is continuing to invest in the farm. You can tell that this is a farm on top of their game. Whenever we visit, all questions are dispatched with exactly the right answer and every suggestion is listened to and taken on board.

A wonderfully straight forward, easy drinking coffee, it's a mash up of bourbon biscuits and brown sugar. There's a delicate green apple acidity in there and a little walnut on the finish too, which gives it that great balance which makes you empty a cup and go back for another.

• Country: Guatemala
• Region: Palencia
• Farm: San Patricio El Limon
• Farmer: Guadalupe Alberto 'Beto' Reyes Aguilar
• Altitude: 1,350-1,850 m.a.s.l.
• Farm size: 9 hectares
• Varietal: Pache
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Bourbon biscuit, brown sugar, green apple, walnut.

• Clean cup: (1–8): 6
• Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
• Acidity: (1–8): 6
• Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
• Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
• Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
• Balance: (1–8): 7
• Overall: (1–8): 6.5
• Correction: (+36): +36
• Total: (max. 100): 86.5

Roasting Information
Medium dark – through first, slowing it just a little to help the sweetness develop and then pushing on to the very first pops of second as you finish the roast.

Episode 667: Costa Rica Finca Licho Natural Villa Sarchi

Here at Hasbean we love to celebrate the awesome things that happen when strong relationships are built between roasters and producers, and Finca Licho is a shining example of that ethos. We first bought from this farm way back in 2007 when it was awarded 4th place in the Cup of Excellence. Fast forward fourteen years (gosh, feeling old now), and Licho has become a firm favourite – both with customers and our little Hasbean team. The arrival of coffees from Finca Licho is greatly anticipated every year.

We really feel that this coffee showcases our development as a roaster over the years, as we've moved from buying via an importer to buying directly from the farm ourselves. A few years ago we visited the farm and made a deal with the family for a European exclusive on these coffees, and this year we continue that. You'll not see these coffees anywhere else in Europe. They're so tasty, we wanted them all for ourselves! We love the fact that we simply walked onto the farm after cupping a particular lot in the exporter's office, had a chat about how much money they wanted, and then we all shook hands. We got back into the 4x4 and drove away very happy!

The farm is owned and run by Los Hermanos Aguilera. It's often translated as 'The Aguilera Brothers', but everyone is involved, not just the boys! The family of twelve brothers and sisters inherited the business from their parents, who started their coffee-growing career over 50 years ago. With the help of the third generation, the family work the farm with basically no hired labour except for during the harvest. They manage the mill and drying patios, fertilise, prune the coffee trees, and so on. They do it all themselves, and all year round. The Aguileras have a reputation for their deep understanding of quality at the farm and mill level, and this is why we are excited about working with them.

Situated 1,500 metres above sea level in the region of Naranjo, the farm is located in the volcanic Northern Cordiles corridor of the Western Valley, which is an area famous for its excellent coffee production. The majority of the coffee grown at Finca Licho is Villa Sarchi variety, but there's a smidge of Caturra too (they're about 65% and 25% of production respectively). The remainder of coffee production is made up of a mixture of more unusual varieties, some of which we've been able to snag this year now that they're established enough to provide a crop.

This is all about the plums! There's fresh, ripe plums mixed in with bruised plums before it finishes with a jammy sweetness of, you guessed it, plum jam. There's a gentle boozy edge to it all, but it's very delicate.

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Western Valley
• Province: Alajuela
• Nearest city: Naranjo de Alajuela
• Farm: Finca Licho
• Producers: Aguilera family
• Farm size: 28.00 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 9.10 hectares
• Altitude: 1,500 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Villa Sarchí
• Processing system: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Fresh plum, bruised plums, plum jam, boozy

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 7
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 88

Roast Information:
Medium – through first crack and let this run steadily through the gap towards second, but finish the roast before you hit the end of the gap. The great processing lead flavours will really shine here - don't over-develop the coffee or you'll lose this fruity character.

Episode 666: Nicaragua La Escondida Perla Negra Red Catuai

Finca La Escondida is close to Lake Apanas near the city of Jinotega, which is the capital of the department of Jinotega in the north-central region of Nicaragua. The straight translation from Spanish to English of 'escondida' is ‘hidden’. Escondida is called 'Escondida' because the farm is 'hidden' from the road by forest and trees, which makes it appear to blend right into the side of the mountain.

La Escondida is a rather young farm as coffee farms go, because the first trees were only planted there in 2006. La Escondida is planned around identifying the plots with individually different micro-environments resulting from factors such as soil quality, sun exposure and temperature range. This is one of the upsides of starting to plant a new farm.

Some of the downsides of starting a brand new farm can be that it may take a while for the quality of the cup profile to build up, it might take time to have the right facilities for processing and picking, and it might take time to train the staff for picking and processing. Not to mention that it might take a while to achieve the yield to go with it all. But this farm, for us, has hit the whole group of requirements running. As a result of their experience in the area, the Mierisch family have built a new mill with a huge investment, and they utilised some of the people already in place in the neighbouring 'San Jose' farm to blend together an Escondida team comprising experienced and new members.

The Mierisch family love to experiment with their coffee processing, and this is a great example of that! Inspired by similar techniques in the cacao, wine and beer industries, Perla Negra (which translates to "black pearl") is the name of the Mierisch's latest experimental process. It involves spreading the coffee out, after pulping, in a thin layer on a plastic tarp in a cool, dark environment. It is then covered with another tarp and left for 96 hours, before being dried on raised Africa beds. The result is a super unique, but relatively divisive cup!

This is a really unique coffee - which you'll know the moment you smell it. There's a distinctive, funky, yoghurt-like smell, but when you go in for a sip it's super creamy, with a dark chocolate flavour which fills out on the finish. As it cools, there are notes of raspberry and raisin mixed in.

• Country: Nicaragua
• Municipality: Lipululo
• Departamento: Jinotega
• Farm: La Escondida
• Farm manager: Boanerje Martinez Montenegro
• Coffee area: 92 manzanas (hectares)
• Protected area: 3 manzanas
• Elevation: 975–1,230 m.a.s.l.
• Harvest months: December–March
• Diurnal temperature cycle: average: high 27° C, low 16° C
• Varietal: Red Catuai
• Processing method: Perla Negra

CUPPING NOTES

Yoghurt, dark chocolate, raspberry, raisin.

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 7
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 7
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87

Roasting Information
Medium-dark - through first and let it slow down just slightly as it gets towards second and you finish the roast just as you approach 2nd crack.

Episode 665: Guatemala El Limon Washed Pacamara

A desire to experiment is one of the big reasons that we love buying from Finca El Limon; we've been getting coffee from them since first introduced seven years ago by our mutual friend Raul Rodas (2012 World Barista Champion), and they're just getting more and more awesome each year.

The experimentation is thanks to the motivation of Guadalupe Alberto Reyes (known as Beto to his friends), he's been the owner of the farm for 21 years now, and in recent years has really focussed on the farm and on continually striving to improve. He aims to take more care in every step they take on the farm, from picking, to processing, to shipping. Beto's son, Saul, has been studying agronomy at the local college for the past seven years, and he uses his knowledge to benefit practices on the farm.

All the family has a part to play in the day-to-day running of the farm, including Beto's wife Maralyn, their children Saul, Elena, and Betio; Betio's wife Mafer; and Beto's brother Felix, who runs their mill. In addition to the family, they employ a team of seven workers outside of harvest. That team manages the weeding, mill upgrades and general farm work.

The farm itself is eighteen hectares in size and sits at an altitude between 1,600–1,800 meters above sea level. The farm mainly produces Caturra and Bourbon, with a smattering of Pacamara, San Ramon, and Pache alongside.

It is located roughly an hour's drive to the east of Guatemala City in the small town of Palencia, which Beto also happens to be Mayor of! He has helped to build and develop the town alongside running his farm – honestly have no idea how he finds enough hours in the day, what a guy!

Palencia is not part of the eight regions of coffee as defined by Anacafé (the National Association of Coffee in Guatemala), but you can see a lot of development in the zone, and this farm is a perfect example of that development. As a coffee buying business, we've always liked being in places that are working to be hot and up-and-coming, as well as those that are established players. Over time El Limon has become one of our favourite Hasrelationships, and back in 2013, they were the first producers that we ever bought from directly in Guatemala.

The dedication and care devoted to each step of production is reflected in the fact that the family operates their own wet mill, so that they can separate different lots and have control over the quality of the coffee. They are able to process many lots simultaneously and keep separate days' pickings, processes, and varietals in their own parcels. The wet mill also benefits the local community as neighbours within the region of Palencia also bring their coffees to the mill to be processed.

They have had the mill on-site since the very beginning but it's very much an ongoing project and they recently invested in a rebuild, alongside the construction of a QC laboratory, a new warehouse, and accommodation for their staff. Beto doesn't want to stand still and is continuing to invest in the farm. You can tell that this is a farm on top of their game. Whenever we visit all questions are dispatched with exactly the right answer and every suggestion is listened to and taken on board.

Expect a big mouthful of sweet caramel at the start, with a fresh lime zest balancing it out and a delicate floral edge on the finish. On top of that, there’s a lovely thick and silky mouthfeel which gives the whole thing a creamy, milkshake like quality.

• Country: Guatemala
• Region: Palencia
• Farm: El Limon
• Producer: Guadalupe Alberto 'Beto' Reyes
• Altitude: 1,600 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Pacamara
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Caramel, lime zest, floral, creamy

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 7
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Brewing Tip
Pacamaras have a very unique size, density and structure, so don't expect them to grind like any other coffee. I find going a little finer than I normally would and allowing more time for the grinder to get its teeth into the bigger beans often leads to delicious results.

Roasting Information
Medium-dark – Keep a steady pace through first crack, into the gap and up to the edge of second crack, but not more than the first few pops as it cools.

Episode 664: Ethiopia Telila Yukro Washed

This is our first year buying from the Telilia Washing Station and also the first time in quite a few years we’ve had a coffee from Jimma on offer!

Jimma is one of the traditional coffee producing regions of Ethiopia, situated north of the famous Yirgacheffe. Traditionally, coffees from the Jimma region are called “Limu” and are produced using the washed process. Whereas Washed Yirgacheffe and Sidamo coffees typically have a light body and black tea flavours, the coffees of Jimma are known for a fuller texture and bright acidity.

As well as producing coffees with a unique flavour profile, Jimma is also home to the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC). This is the home of coffee plant research and development in Ethiopia. Coffee plant varietals is a tricky conversation in Ethiopia, where there is a huge range of genetic diversity in plants, and we often have to describe them as “heirloom”. These might be truly wild plants, but in many cases these are actually plants which came originally from the JARC selective breeding programs. Two of the most famous selections from JARC, popular throughout Ethiopia and which make up this lot are JARC 74110 & JARC 74112 (catchy name, right!!).

This particular mill - Telila Washing Station - is situated near Kecho Anderacha in Gera woreda. the washing station is owned by Mike Mamo. Mike is a coffee exporter and also partner in the importer for this coffee, but in 2019 he decided to buy this Washing Station. It’s taken him a while to get it organised and get good practices in place, so this is the first opportunity we’ve had to taste the coffee - but if it’s this good already, we’re excited to see what the future brings!

Like most Washing Stations in Ethiopia, Telila takes coffee cherries from local smallholders. Unlike many Washing Stations, Mike has focused on controlling and separating the coffee cherries the mill takes in lots can be kept apart. That’s where the second part of this coffee’s name comes in - this lot (which we have all of) has come from one day’s worth of coffee processed from the nearby Yukro village.

Brightly zingy, but with a juicy body, there’s a hit of fresh white grapes up front. That mellows out into a big, sweet nectarine, with delicate hints of raspberry and passionfruit on the finish. The nectarine lingers through the aftertaste, finally slipping into kiwi fruit as you go back for the next sip. A super interesting and complex cup of fruit for you.

• Country: Ethiopia
• Region: Jimma
• Washing Station: Telila
• Washing Station Owner: Mike Mamo
• Farmers: Local Smallholders
• Varietal: JARC 74110 & JARC 74112
• Process: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

White grape, nectarine, raspberry, passionfruit, kiwi fruit.

• Clean cup: (1–8): 6
• Sweetness: (1–8): 7
• Acidity: (1–8): 7
• Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
• Flavour: (1–8): 7
• Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
• Balance: (1–8): 6
• Overall: (1–8): 6.5
• Correction: (+36): +36

• Total: (max. 100): 88

Roasting Information
Medium - keep a nice steady pace and let it run through first crack and into the crack, but don't let this anywhere near second.

Episode 663: Bolivia Volcán del Tigre

Gregorio Paye's parents moved from a province called Muñecas to the Caranavi area when he was a child. They were searching for an education for Gregorio, as there was no school in their town.

Nowadays, he lives with his wife Daisy and his two youngest children on a farm he's owned for 35 years. He has two grown-up children from his first marriage that have families of their own, but the two little ones help out on the farm from time to time. His brother, Julio Paye, also has a coffee farm nearby. In his free time, Gregorio enjoys going on walks around town with his kids, swimming in the river and playing football.

Gregorio is a full-time coffee farmer; he doesn't have any other businesses. His farm has twelve hectares in total, two of which he currently grows coffee on. The farm is called Volcán del Tigre, which means Tiger's Volcano. It used to be overgrown – wild vegetation – and people used to say they saw smoke coming from one of the hills, and thought it was a volcano (legend has it that when smoke comes from the hills, there's gold to be found). Around the same time, people noticed what seemed to be a footpath running through the land. It turns out it was a tiger's path. To this day, Gregorio doesn't keep animals on the farm as they might become the tiger's next meal.

Gregorio also participates in the Sol de la Mañana program. He says he's already learned a great deal about sowing coffee and fighting coffee pests. He's had issues with leaf rust, borer Beetle, and mycena citricolor, but thanks to the program he's been able to get them all under control.

He has another ten hectares on his farm to keep growing coffee on, and he's really excited about what the future at Volcán del Tigre holds. Gregorio might not have found gold on his farm like the legend foretold, but what he did find comes pretty close!

There's a delicious black grape, alongside a sweet, pale caramel - with an almost buttery smooth texture. Red apple joins on the finish and then there's a delicate cocoa on the aftertaste for a very well rounded and balanced coffee.

• Country: Bolivia
• Colony: Copacabana
• Altitude: 1,504 m.a.s.l.
• Farm: Volcán del Tigre
• Producer Gregorio Paye Mamani
• Processing method: Washed
• Varietals: Red and Yellow Caturra

CUPPING NOTES

Black grape, caramel, red apple, cocoa

Clean cup (1–8): 6
Sweetness (1–8): 7
Acidity (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel (1–8): 7
Flavour (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste (1–8): 6
Balance (1–8): 7
Overall (1–8): 6.5
Correction (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 88

Roasting Information
Medium-dark – this coffee suits a balanced roast profile, not too slow or fast, steadily through first crack and taken up to the first pops of second on the drop.

Episode 662: Yemen Sanani-Mahwiti Natural

Aside from Ethiopia, Yemen has one of the longest (and we think among the most interesting) histories with coffee production. The region is largely to thank for the global spread of coffee, both as an agricultural product and as a beverage. Yet in recent years it has had a dramatic decline in both the production and, unfortunately, the quality of its coffee, largely due to political and social upheaval.

Yemeni coffees were some of the first really different and unusual lots we came across and we were very proud to offer, but because of the difficulties in Yemen we were unable to find any great lots for six years. Then, in 2017, something very special came across our cupping table – a great Yemeni Natural – and this is the fourth crop we’ve had following on from that.

Coffee’s discovery in what we now recognize as Ethiopia was the beginning of the story, but it is spice traders and devout Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula who are credited with turning the local crop into an international one. For one thing, the plants themselves made the jump across the Red Sea. They were transplanted for the first time in Yemeni soil in the 17th century as the merchants sought to corner the coffee market, both for their own personal use and for trade with Europe. It was via those trade routes that the beverage spread in popularity, and by the late 1600s, Yemen was the world’s coffee powerhouse in every sense. It was a plant from Yemen – probably the Moka variety (so-called after the country’s major port, Al Mokha) – that made its way to Java and began the enormous Dutch plantations there, which subsequently fed plants to the rest of the New World.

It’s among the most dangerous and difficult places in the world to survive – let alone to do business and to help communities. Despite this, we’ve seen a small, very fragile bloom in the last few years of people doing just that and using coffee as a way to a better future.

This lot has come from the traditional coffee production of Yemen - being sold as dried cherries. Traditionally, coffee producers would dry their cherries on the tree and then on their roofs, storing the dried cherries for selling as they needed cash (or in trade for other goods). As time moved on, it became normal for traders to buy these cherries, combine them and sell them on. This meant that finding a great lot was always a bit like finding a needle in a haystack, but finding one from the same producers next year was absolutely impossible.

Recently, some enterprising speciality coffee exporters have tried to give Yemeni coffees that traceability and consistency. At the front of this is Qima, who source fresh coffee cherries from farmers and handle the drying of those cherries at one of their special facilities. They’ve also supported recent research into the coffee plants in Yemen. The results are super interesting and hold a lot of promise for the future, as they have shown that although some of the coffee plants in Yemen are descended from Bourbon and Typica (the plants from which the rest of the world’s cultivated arabica comes from), some of Yemen’s plants are not related to these at all. This collection of varietals - dubbed Yemenia - is thought to have come as wild Ethiopian arabica into Yemen at some point and then not left. This could offer not only new flavour profiles, but also hope for finding varietals which will handle drought, high temperature and diseases better than their more well-known cousins.

Qima have done an amazing job buying fresh cherries, but the production in this way is still a super tiny amount and they’re ambitious to make a bigger impact. This has lead to a sister company - Arabica Felix. They combine the traditional method of selling dried coffee cherries with the traceability, expertise and control that the infrastructure on the ground makes possible. This lot, one of theirs, is sourced from 6 communities around Sana’a and Mahwit. The cherries are delivered to the processing centre in Sana’a where they are assessed and sorted, before being matched together into bigger lots.

The flavour profile you’ll get here is distinctively a “Classic” Yemeni coffee - there’s chocolate and dried fruit flavours and full body, but with an unusual spice edge to the finish. We’re really excited to see a good example of this unique coffee style again.

This is an unusual one - it's rather like a fruit crumble, but what's coming to the fore changes a lot as it cools. It starts of with a big grating of nutmeg. When it's hot, the crumble topping and brown sugar stand out too, but when it's cooled down there's a fruitiness of cooked plums and prune, with a little cinnamon edge coming in.

• Country: Yemen
• Region: Sana' a and Mahwit
• Farm: Various local smallholder farmers
• Varietals: Tuffahi, Dawairi, Jaadi, and other indigenous wild varietals
• Collection centre: Sanani-Mahwiti
• Altitude: 1,700-2,300 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Natural

Episode 661: Kenya Othaya Chinga Washed AB

Much of Kenya's coffee comes from cooperatives, which means it's tough to go to visit a person or build a long-term relationship. That said, it is possible to get something interesting going and to work on projects together by speaking with the leaders of the co-ops and washing stations.

Othaya Farmer's Cooperative is based at the Gatuyaini wet mill, just north of Othaya town where they house a cupping room (and talented QC person) and their latest addition – a small roastery (where they hope to develop a market for their coffee inside Kenya). Othaya have many different wet mills in the co-operative, and we buy from one of the smallest – Chinga. Situated just south of Othaya town, the mill was built in the 1960s on the banks of the Gikira River.

The last time we visited Othaya, we were invited to the mill to cup some of the washed production from different farms. There was a clear standout lot, which turned out to be a small lot from Chinga. Breaking the usual rule about not buying when you're in the country, we asked then and there if we could buy it!

The mill has some 783 members, and each member only owns a small piece of land of an average 0.3 acres. Members of co-operatives pick their coffee cherries and deliver them to a local mill like Chinga. At Chinga, they collect the cherries together and when they have enough they put them through the washed process as a batch – called an Outturn.

For each Outturn, the cherries are sorted before being depulped and emptied into large vats filled with clean, cold water. There they ferment, until the remaining fruit parts have come away from the beans. They get floated (which separates out the ripe, dense beans from lower quality ones) before being dried on raised beds.

They then go to the Dry Mill, where they have the parchment removed and go through screens. These are a bit like giant sieves, and separate the beans by size. An AA lot is made up of large beans, with an AB being slightly smaller - this lot is an AB.

Washed coffees from Othaya are famous for their citrus flavours and that's exactly what you get here - a big zing of lemon and lime, with a good white sugar hit. On the finish is a little satsuma, slipping into cranberry on the aftertaste, for a bright, refreshing cup.

• Country: Kenya
• Province: Nyeri
• District: Othaya
• Affiliated with: Othaya Farmer's Cooperative
• Farm: Chinga
• Processing method: Washed
• Varietals: SL28 & SL34 AB
• Average rainfall: 1,200–1,500 mm
• Altitude: 1,795 m.a.s.l.
• Coordinates: 0°34'45.4"S 36°55'35.2"E
• Soil: rich volcanic loam

CUPPING NOTES

Lemon, lime, white sugar, satsuma, cranberry.

Clean cup: (1–8): 7
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 7
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87

Roasting Information
Medium - keep it quick, through first crack and through the gap, dropping before second gets going.

Episode 660: Bolivia Bebeto Mamani

The name of this coffee producer may sound a little familiar: Bebeto ('Beto' for short) is the son of the legend that is Teodocio Mamani. Teodocio owns Finca Canton Uyunense, which is a farm we have worked with since 2012.

His farm is located in 18 de Mayo, which is a municipality of Caranavi (and part of canton Uyunense). Lots of farms can be called a variation on these names because the land traditionally tends not to have a name.

This year is the sixth year that Bebeto has grown coffee under his own guardianship, and it's the fifth year that he has processed it himself too. Just like previous years, and as you'd expect from a Mamani, the results are delicious.

Bebeto used a depulper to remove the cherry, then left the coffee to go through a dry fermentation process for 16–18 hours, and then ran it through the scrubber section of the pulper to remove the final remains of the mucilage. Bebeto then transferred the coffee to raised African beds, where it dried in around 7–9 days.

The picking method Bebeto uses is called 'Ayne'. It's the same method his dad uses on Canton Uyunense. This method involves selective picking (not stripping the tree, like their neighbours do), and it demands much more labour and incurs much higher costs. But because of this method, Bebeto gets more coffee he can sell as specialty, and the cup profile is improving year after year.

There's a great balance to this cup of coffee - think a Cadbury's caramel sweetness of milk chocolate and caramel, with a crisp but restrained acidity of green apple cutting through and finishing with white grape on the aftertaste.

• Country: Bolivia
• Department: La Paz
• Region: Yungas
• Province: Caranavi
• Municipality: 18 de Mayo
• Producer: Bebeto Mamani
• Varietals: Caturra
• Altitude: 1,600–1,750 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Washed
• Fermentation: 16–18 hours
• Drying method: Raised beds
• Other crops grown: citrus, papaya, banana, wild forest

CUPPING NOTES

Caramel, milk chocolate, green apple, white grape

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5

Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5

Acidity: (1–8): 7

Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5

Flavour: (1–8): 6

Aftertaste: (1–8): 6

Balance: (1–8): 7

Overall: (1–8): 6

Correction:(+36): +36

 

Total (max. 100): 87.5

 

Roast Information

Medium dark – Through first and keep pushing the roast up to the first pops of second. Make sure you get enough development to build the caramel and chocolate, but keep it quick enough for the balancing acidity to remain.

Episode 659: Bolivia Trapiche

The Trapiche farm is another venture by our friends at Agricafe in the Samaipata region of Bolivia. Pedro Rodriguez and his family also own a handful of other farms in the area (El Fuerte and Samaichacha we've got coffees from this year too!) and a whole host of other farms further afield in Bolivia, such as La Linda and Alasitas, that a lot of you will also be familiar with. We have purchased coffee from Trapiche once previously and it was just a teeny tiny lot that went exclusively to the #SSSSS subscribers (lucky folks!) but this year we've bought more and are super excited to be able to share it with all of you here.

Trapiche's name was inspired by a vineyard of the same name in Argentina that Pedro visited before setting up this new farm in 2016. He and his family love good wine and have drawn on this when developing the design for this land. The word “Trapiche” originally refers to a type of mill made of wooden rollers used to extract juice from fruit such as grapes or olives.

The Rodriguez family are continuously looking for inspiration from other coffee-producing countries and from other industries such as winemaking – Trapiche is an example of this winery inspiration in action. The farm is a truly amazing place and the team have designed it to look and function like a vineyard, using those methodologies to refine their coffee production process. This is particularly fitting as Samaipata is an up and coming wine region within Bolivia, with several small vineyards located only a short distance from Trapiche.

The farm has only been operational since 2016 so it's still very young but the results from the first few harvests are very exciting. Samaipata isn't a traditional coffee growing region but it's one that the Rodriguez family have pioneered. The climate of the Samaipata region is temperate, semi-dry in the winter months, and mild with an average annual temperature of 19.9°C. During the winter months, cold fronts called Surazos come from the Argentine Pampas and enter the plains and valleys of Santa Cruz, these cold winds combined with the altitude can reach temperatures below freezing. In the summer the days are warm and the nights cool, this variation in diurnal temperature causes the cherries to take a longer time to ripen and their mucilage becomes very thick. The local soil contains a lot of magnesium, which is great for growing coffee and means that the coffee plants are less susceptible to roja, or other fungi. All of these factors contribute to a very unique taste profile.

The Rodriguez family are superstars in the world of Bolivian coffee, we think it's fair to say that the landscape of Bolivian coffee production would look a lot different without Agricafe's phenomenal work. Agricafe initially entered the coffee industry in 1986, when Pedro Rodriguez decided to pursue his passion for agriculture. Now they produce coffee from their own farms in the La Paz and Santa Cruz departments, source high-quality micro-lots from small local producers, and carry out the processing of everything at their state of the art mills. The steady decline of coffee production in Bolivia has put the sustainability of the family's business in jeopardy. Without the intervention of people like the Rodriguez family, the future of coffee production in Bolivia is at risk of disappearing. It's an expensive place to grow coffee, which means that the specialty market is the only sustainable model – higher quality means that producers can demand higher prices for their harvest. Alongside the exceptional work at their own farms and mills the Rodriguez family run the Sol De La Manana project, which seeks to educate local producers by providing agronomical expertise to improve the quality of their farms, and the Qhatu Café program which sources from small Organic producers to assure them a market for their coffee. In their own words, “In line with our values, it is very important to us to improve Bolivian Coffee culture and to diversify Bolivian coffees. Therefore, we believe we have to work together as a team with local producers of the regions where we produce. We aim for a sustainable coffee production in the long term, and this is why we decided to found two social programs in the area of Caranavi, supporting over 500 families in the region.”

This year's harvest was trickier than usual because of the impact of Covid-19 but thankfully there were still enough staff available to safely complete the harvest as needed. Once picked, all of the cherry grown locally goes next door to the El Fuerte mill to be processed. Processing is one of the many things that the Rodriguez family do exceptionally well and they run a very strict, controlled environment that is thoughtful and thorough. In recent years they have been focused on ways to innovate their processing methods to explore the range of flavours inherent to Bolivian coffee. Normally processing methods are led by what's cheap and easy to carry out locally, the Rodriguez family's way of doing things is right at the other end of the spectrum, doing difficult things to see what's possible. They are not seeking to mimic the flavour profiles of other well-known producing countries or processing methods, making their coffees taste like other traditional Naturals or Honeys for example, rather they want them to be noticeably Bolivian and celebrate the terroir of the different regions they are growing in. They believe that this extra effort is worthwhile for the exploration of what's possible with Bolivian coffee, and consequently expanding it's market in the specialty world.

In previous years the Rodriguez mills were focussed on looking for ways to innovate the drying phase of processing, this was what gave us the “Coco Natural” coffees that we've been buying for the past 4 years. Now they have moved their attention to the washing stage, taking their lead from the methodologies used on well-respected coffee farms outside Bolivia and from other industries. After harvest, traditionally all coffee cherries would be put through a mechanical depulper to remove the outer skin and flesh of the fruit and then through a scrubber, resulting in very clean beans that then go on to be dried. The alternative to mechanical removal is fermentation, where the cherries are submerged in water tanks and natural fermentation causes the fruit to break down in order to be removed. With this lot we see a combination and evolution of both, termed “Anaerobic Washed” by Agricafe. You might have seen other coffees that use terms like “Anaerobic” and “Lactic” from other places but it's worth noting that these are currently somewhat vague terms as there's no continuity or set definition between producers/countries – it's important to dig a bit deeper to find out what these words really mean in each instance. Don't expect this coffee to taste like an Anaerobic lot from Costa Rica, it's a totally different kettle of fish! After being brought to the mill this coffee was rinsed to remove dirt and then put through a mechanical depulper, then placed into tanks of water to ferment. These tanks are sealed with a breather valve (hence the “Anaerobic” part of the name in this case) and are maintained at a constant temperature for a set period of time, with the goal being to drop the pH very low and maintain this throughout the fermentation.

The team at the mill have done small scale trials in the past with encouraging results and now we get to taste it - we think the results are really stellar but they are still developing and experimenting, no resting on their laurels for these guys!

The first thing that leaps out is how smooth and silky this coffee is. That beautiful texture is backed up by sweet dark toffee and chocolate flavours, with a red apple acidity balancing it out.

• Country: Bolivia
• Region: Samaipata
• Department: Santa Cruz
• Farm: Trapiche
• Farm size: 17 hectares
• Farmer: The Rodriguez family
• Altitude: 1,600–1,800 m.a.s.l.
• Variety: Bourbon
• Process: Anaerobic Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Dark toffee, chocolate, red apple.

Clean cup (1–8): 6
Sweetness (1–8): 7
Acidity (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel (1–8): 8
Flavour (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste (1–8): 6
Balance (1–8): 6.5
Overall (1–8): 6.5
Correction (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 88.5

Roast Information
Medium-dark - through first and let this get some development, but dropping the roast just as you approach 2nd crack.

Episode 658: Ethiopia Ana Sora Natural

We first came across this coffee all the way back in 2016 after being introduced by the importers that we worked with in Ethiopia at the time. We have been buying from Ana Sora consistently ever since and it's safe to say that this is one of our most popular coffees – when it goes out of season we're flooded with emails asking when it's going to come back... well, happy days are here again! We see a lot of consistency from this coffee and year-on-year it always delivers with those clean blueberry/floral flavours and a little bit of seasonal variation. We always blind cup pre-shipment samples and when we come to this bowl we often say “Ooooh I hope this is the new Ana Sora!” and lo and behold it is, it's a super distinctive coffee. It's our sixth year of roasting this coffee and Ana Sora is now the Ethiopian farm that we buy the most volume from as, for good reason, it's just so popular with everyone!

Ana Sora is a private farm owned by second-generation coffee farmer Israel Degfa. He grew up immersed in various aspects of the coffee industry as his father was a mill manager and his mum sold coffee to commuters in the local bus station. Because he grew up in a coffee-producing area, he shows great respect for the farmers, both as business partners and as people. As coffee farms go, Ana Sora is a very new farm: it was only formed in 2013. Coffee trees take an average 2-3 years to produce a crop of cherries that's big enough to sell, so we started buying soon after it first went on the market. It's located at a whopping altitude of between 1900 and 2350 metres above sea level. It's a gorgeous but somewhat tiring walk to get there - it's not all just holiday snaps, this coffee buying malarkey!

The estate is located in the Guji Zone in the South of Ethiopia, due East of the town of Yirgacheffe. Its western neighbour is Uraga and to the East is Adola - both places where Israel owns mills as well. Broadly speaking there are 5 primary coffee producing regions in Ethiopia; Sidamo, Limu, Yirgacheffe (a subsection of Sidamo), Harrar, and Djima – each presenting characteristic flavour profiles. Guji coffees have historically been sold as Sidamo coffees, but today they are thought of as separate and are being more properly marketed as such. The local area is known for coffees with bright acidity and juicy, fruity flavours, often with a tea-like body. It is unusual to find private farms of 250 hectares in Ethiopia (the norm being smallholder gardens of less than 2 hectares each) and even more unusual to find them at such high altitudes. Ethiopian coffee farms are high in general compared to other producing countries (mostly between 1700 - 2100 masl) but Ana Sora is on the higher side still, reaching as high as 2350 masl. The altitude helps with the slower maturation of the coffee cherry, with temperatures averaging between 16-19ºC allowing more time for the plant to develop, which contributes to the super unique cup profile.

Coffee growing is popular locally, and Israel also sources coffee from the surrounding area. Each washing station has around 1000-2000 members, each with one of the small home coffee plots typical of Ethiopia, producing very small quantities. The area is populated by smallholder farmers who speak Oromife and are of Oromo ethnicity. In his role as CEO of producing and exporting company Kerchanshe, Israel believes in helping these farmers through education in husbandry, and also through financial assistance. Their passion for fine coffee is coupled with consistent reinvestment not only in improved infrastructure, technology and processes, but Kerchanshe also invests 10% of its annual profits into social responsibility programs such as building schools and providing clean water to the communities it serves. Israel has already built schools in Adola and Kercha and is currently constructing schools in Gelana Gesha and Kilenso Mokonesa.

The farm used to only produce Naturally processed coffee, however, in 2018 the farmers decided to take advantage of the river Turo nearby and built a washing station capable of producing washed coffee using the river as their water source. Since then Ana Sora has produced both Washed and Natural lots. They tend to produce greater volumes of Washed coffees the first part of the harvest, and Naturals in the later part of the harvest. After harvesting the cherries are hand-sorted to remove unripe and overripe cherries before they are delivered to the washing station for processing. Israel generally pays a higher price for good quality cherries, normally 2-4 Birr/kg on top of the general cherry prices. After sorting, the cherries go into floatation tanks where they're covered with water. Any cherries that float are removed – healthy, good quality cherries are denser and sink to the bottom to be kept. For Natural lots, the whole, ripe cherries are then dried in the sunshine on raised African drying beds for between 15-18 days depending on the weather. They are dried in a relatively thin layer of about 3-4cm for the first few days, then built up to 6-10cm as they progress, being turned frequently throughout. During the midday heat, the drying beds are covered with plastic or shade nets to protect the cherries from intense sunlight, then again at night to protect against humidity. This effort and attention to detail mean that the cherries dry evenly, yielding a high-quality coffee and a really clean Natural flavour profile.

This kicks off with a burst of sweet orange, with a delicate floral edge running behind it. We love this coffee each year for the blueberry it brings though, and that takes over from the orange, backed up by dark chocolate notes. The fresh blueberry hit fills out and lingers into the aftertaste, dragging you back for more.

• Country: Ethiopia
• Area: Guji zone
• Nearest town: Yirgacheffe
• Farm: Ana Sora
• Owner: Israel Degfa
• Founding year: 2013
• Altitude: 1,900–2,350 m.a.s.l.
• Farm size: 250 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 150 hectares
• Varietal: Indigenous wild varietals
• Processing: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Orange, floral, fresh blueberry, dark chocolate

Clean cup: (1–8): 7
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roasting Information
Medium – keep a good pace as you go into crack and let this run through at a nice steady pace, to drop once first is done but before you get anywhere near second. Pace is important to manage the balance of floral, fruity flavours against the juicy body.

Episode 657: Ethiopia Bulessa Washed

Bulessa Washing Station is located in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia, named after the native ethnic population of Sidama people who originate from this Southern-Central area of the country. The Sidama have an estimated population of 3.5 million and as with all other ethnic groups in Ethiopia, they have their own unique culture, tradition, and heritage. Broadly speaking there are 5 primary coffee producing regions in Ethiopia; Sidamo, Limu, Yirgacheffe (a subsection of Sidamo), Harrar, and Djima – each presenting characteristic flavour profiles. In coffee terms, Sidamo is known for the variety that it offers, which often results in a profound complexity of taste. The coffee farmers of Sidama grow their unique varieties on small land parcels and deliver their produce to processing sites. This results in a unique mixture of “mixed heirloom” varietals that give Sidamo coffee its distinct flavour. The coffee you see here is grown on land between 1650-1850 metres above sea level by a group of 112 majority-female smallholder farmers who deliver their crop to the Bulessa Washing Station to be processed.

The washing station is run by Tizita Bizuneh and managed by a team of 15 full-time female workers, with up to 100 additional seasonal workers during harvest season. Tizita started this project with the goal of empowering women working in coffee from production to management of the station, something that has already become a reality at Bulessa. Due to traditional gender roles a lot of coffee-producing countries such as Ethiopia often see higher levels of gender inequality – it's common to see women doing harvesting or quality work but men most often occupy positions of leadership and are in charge of the decision making, selling, and higher business matters. It's unusual for a woman to run a washing station as this is a prominent position in the community, but Tizita is a shining example of what's possible. As the project has evolved, the scheme has developed and started providing educational and agricultural workshops for children and women across the community. Further to the empowerment project, the contributing farmers are also registered and a part of the Kerchanshe support network set up by Israel Degfa. This network helps smallholders and their families with access to healthcare, education and agricultural support.

A lot of you will be familiar with our friend Israel Degfa from some of our other Ethiopian offerings (Ana Sora, Adola, Uraga, to name a few!) - well we purchased this coffee via our friends at Kamba who source coffees from Kerchanshe... Israel is one of Kamba's shareholders and is the owner and CEO of Kerchanshe. The term ‘vertical integration’ is one that is used a lot in specialty coffee, but our sourcing strategy in Ethiopia is exactly that. Israel owns a variety of mills, washing stations and private farms across the coffee-producing regions of Ethiopia. Ultimately the money that these coffees are sold for by Kamba at the end of the chain (what we paid for the green coffee, made possible by what you guys pay us!) goes in part back to Israel and is reinvested in the Ethiopian coffee community. Founded 15 years ago on the principles of bringing fairness and transparency to the coffee value chain and giving back to the community, Kerchanshe has established a track record of fair trading and excellent quality, and now employs over 1250 permanent staff and 10,000 seasonal staff. Directly and indirectly, it impacts the livelihoods of over 1 million coffee growers throughout the Southern and South-Western coffee cultivating regions of Ethiopia. This ethical policy stretches far beyond coffee too: Israel has set up the Buna Qela Charity (https://www.bunaqela.org) and a Smallholder Membership scheme. He believes in helping local farmers through education in husbandry and financial assistance, his passion for fine coffee is matched with consistent contribution to improved infrastructure, technology and processes, and social responsibility programs.

This coffee is a “Fully Washed” lot. At Bulessa, the fresh coffee cherries are delivered to the washing station to be processed immediately after harvesting, this is usually the same day the cherries were picked. The skin of the fruit is removed using machines which scrape away the very outer layer of the cherry, leaving behind the seeds covered in sticky mucilage. These are then immersed in water in large cement fermentation tanks. Unripe or damaged fruit floats to the top and is removed, leaving the good cherries at the bottom. Over the course of about 24 hours the process of fermentation breaks down the sugars in the mucilage and frees it from the seeds within. Once this process is finished the coffee is pushed along channels of flowing water away from the fermentation tank, this agitation frees up any remaining mucilage before finally the coffee enters another tank where it is rinsed with fresh water. The result is wet coffee in parchment, free of all sticky mucilage. From the final washing tank, the wet parchment coffee is taken to dry in the sun, usually on raised African drying beds. This process of drying happens quickly until the dry beans ideally have a water content of around 10%. The Fully Washed process produces incredibly bright and clean tasting coffee.

Ever dunked a chocolate malted milk biscuit in tea?? This coffee kicks off with lots of black tea at the start, with a wedge of lemon in there too. As it cools, the sweetness really comes to the fore and makes this a well balanced quaffing coffee, with malted milk biscuit and milk chocolate slowly filling the cup.

• Country: Ethiopia
• Region: Aleta Wondo, Sidamo
• Mill: Bulessa
• Contributing smallholders: 112
• Producer: Tizita Bizuneh
• Altitude: 1,650-1,850 masl
• Processing method: Washed
• Varietals: Heirloom varietals

CUPPING NOTES

Black tea, lemon, malted milk biscuit, milk chocolate

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 86.5

Roast Information
Medium - through first and give it a fraction more development than you might for most washed Ethiopian coffees, to develop that sweetness well.

Episode 656: Kenya Kiriga Estate AB

Kiriga Estate sits between 1,550 and 1,650 metres above sea level. It is approximately five kilometres from Thika town, which is an industrial town in the central province of Kenya. It's four kilometres from Blue Posts hotel, which has the famous Chania and Thika falls. Thika lies 50 kilometres northeast of Nairobi.

Administratively, the Kiriga coffee estate is in the Gatanga constituency of Muranga county, and it's separated from Kiambu county by the Chania river.

Kiriga coffee is predominantly SL28 variety (notable for its world-renowned cup quality). The farm has an estimated two hectares of Ruiru 11 variety (which has improved resistance to coffee berry disease and leaf rust); some K7 variety (similar characteristics as SL28, but with better resistance to leaf rust compared to SL28); and a field of the newest Batian variety. About 60% of the coffee that the estate produces is AA/AB.

Like any natural product, each coffee bean is different - some bigger, some smaller, some longer, some rounder...that's lead coffee buyers many years ago to begin separating the coffee by the size of the bean.

Throughout the world, this is done by screens - like a stack of flat colanders, with each layer having slightly smaller holes in it than the layer above. Whatever the smallest size a bean passes through, that’s its size. In most places, they’re named by 1/64th inch - so a screen 18+ means all the beans are 18/64th of an inch or bigger. Simple, right?

Well...in Kenya they use the same screens, but give them different names. An “AA” is screen 17 and 18, an “AB” is screen 16 and 15 and anything smaller (but still a whole bean) is a “C”. There’s one more class you might have tried - “PB” or Peaberry. That’s a bit different again, but it’s usually separated from the other beans because the round cross-section of a peaberry lets it pass through the holes of a screen easily.

This year we will have the AA, AB, C and Peaberry from Kiriga - so big beans, medium beans, little beans and even littler beans! Traditionally, the AA has got the highest prices (they’re about 15-20% of the crop), with AB being a bit cheaper and C going into commodity coffee. However, Brian from Kiriga sent us his C to try the year before last for the first time and we were wow-ed - it’s really sweet and nice - so we began buying it and are super excited to have it again for another year. The Peaberry has previously been included in with the C, due to the similar size and smaller harvests, however this year the two have been separated out and there's enough of it to stand alone!

All coffee activities at Kiriga are carried out at a factory level, from the coffee nursery to all the farm operations (pruning, weed control, nutrition, irrigation, basin digging, disease control, infilling, mulching, and planting). Wet mill operations are also carried out on the factory level. Kiriga delivers both parchment coffee and Mbuni (naturals) to the commercial dry mill for milling and grading, in preparation for sale at coffee auctions and via indirect sale.

In addition to growing coffee the estate also has shoats (sheep and goats), a dairy, and the potential to keep fish. It's all about diversity, and what's more diverse than a 'shoat'?! The estate is also occasionally visited by two hippos, in addition to some bird-life, while also being the home of a family of monkeys. 

Blackcurrant jam in a cup. Super sweet with brown sugar and biscuit against the blackcurrant and then a little sprinkle of cocoa nibs on the aftertaste.

• Country: Kenya
• Region: Central Province
• District: Muranga
• Constituency: Gatanga
• Nearest town: Thika
• Estate: Kiriga
• Farmer: Dr Brian Gakunga
• Altitude: 1,550–1,650 m.a.s.l.
• Varietals: SL28 AB & Ruiru 11 AB
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Blackcurrant jam, brown sugar, biscuit, cocoa nibs

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 87

Roast Information
Medium - keep it fairly quick to highlight the acidity, or slow it down slightly if you want to develop some more of the jammy sweetness. Either way, finish the roast

Episode 655: Kenya Tegu AA

The Tegu wet mill sits at around 1,700 metres above sea level near the town of Karatina in Nyeri, Kenya. It's rather close to 2 other amazing mills you've probably heard of - Kieni and Karagoto. 

It's owned by the Tekangu Coffee Farmers Cooperative Society, which got its name from combining the names of their three mills: Tegu, Karogoto and Ngunguru. It is made up of mainly smallholder farms, each with an average of just 100 trees. Much like Kieni and Karagoto, this mill has seen success in recent years and has secured some really great prices for the farmers that deliver their coffee cherries to it.

Once the coffee cherries are delivered to the farm, they are spread out on a patio for removal of any under-ripe cherries, over-ripe cherries or foreign objects before they head over to the washing station.

The freshly-sorted coffee cherries are then decanted into a hopper, where clean water from the nearby Kirigau Springs is poured over them. This pushes the cherries down between two rotating abrasive slabs which mechanically wash the outer flesh off the cherries, exposing the beans and mucilage. 

The beans then pass to a water tank to be sorted (primarily by removal of any floating beans) and the sunken, dense beans are transported into a fermentation tank to be left overnight. The next day, once the mucilage has broken down, water is poured into the fermentation tanks to wash the beans again, and remove any remaining mucilage.

There's an upfront punch of blackcurrant acidity here, which softens out into ripe nectarines. That lingers through towards the finish, where a sweet, golden sugar note hangs through into the aftertaste.

• Country: Kenya
• County: Nyeri
• Nearest town: Karatina
• Mill: Tegu
• Owners: Tekangu Coffee Farmers Cooperative Society
• Contributing farmers: 1,700+
• Altitude: 1,700 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Washed
• Varietals: SL28, SL34 and Ruiru 11
• Screen size: AA

Episode 654: Nicaragua Finca San Ramón Washed

Finca San Ramon sits within the Dipilto mountain range, a Nicaraguan nature reserve located close to the border with Honduras.

The farm is run by Donald Efrain Roque, who is the third generation of coffee producers in the Roque Family. Both his grandfather and father were dedicated to coffee, and he is continuing with this beautiful legacy. For his entire life, he has worked with coffee and over this time he has acquired a very special affection and passion for it.

In 2006, Donald Efrain found out about the Cup of Excellence in Nicaragua and he decided to participate in the contest to see how much potential his coffee had. After performing well, he became more motivated than ever to continue improving the quality of his coffee and participated again in COE in 2009 and 2011, where he achieved great results. For him, the biggest change from being a conventional farmer to a specialty coffee farmer was having to train and educate his workers to change their harvesting and processing practices.

Donald has been working with our sourcing partners Caravela for five years now and his point of view on coffee has completely changed since he started producing specialty coffee. Now he is consistently seeking to improve and to become a better farmer. He strongly believes in the potential of specialty coffee in Dipilto, Nueva Segovia and he recommends every single farmer in the region to focus solely on producing a high-quality product.

This coffee is all about the sweetness - think brown sugar and malted milk biscuits crumbled together. There's a fresh red apple which comes along on the finish and lingers into the aftertaste for a lovely easy drinking cup.

• Country: Nicaragua
• Municipality: Dipilto
• 
Department: Nueva Segovia

• Farm name: San Ramón
• Producers: Donald Efrain Roque López
• Farm size: 40 manzanas (hectares)
• Coffee growing area: 20 hectares

• Altitude: 1,300-1,600 m.a.s.l.

• Varietal: Pacamara, Catuai + Maragogype
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Brown sugar, malted milk biscuit, red apple

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 86

Roast Information
Medium-dark - through first and then slow it down a little to get the sweetness nicely developed, finishing the roast just as you approach second crack.

Episode 653: Bolivia Vincent Paye

A few years back we had a lot that was produced by various smallholder farmers from the small town of Copacabana, which lies about 180 kilometres from La Paz in the heart of the Caranavi coffee-producing region. Then in 2016 things changed a little, and the lot came from just one producer in the area. His name is Vincent Paye. That year we described him as a beacon of hope in a tough growing region, and that beacon has continued to shine brightly.

Caranavi is a lush and fertile region. It has steep slopes and valleys that provide excellent conditions for growing high-quality coffee, and they also support a diverse range of native flora and fauna. The area has rich volcanic soils and regular rainfall. Coffee growing heaven!

The colony of Copacabana has a collection of small farms that are each around five hectares in size (although Vincent has ten hectares). The farms range over an altitude of 1,300 to 1,700 metres above sea level (m.a.s.l.), and they benefit from an average annual temperature between 15 and 26°C. This lot comes from Vincent's farm, which is very similar to neighbouring farms and is at an altitude of around 1,550 m.a.s.l. These traditional farms use no chemicals or pesticides and follow the principles of organic farming not because of certification but because they want to look after their farms and land in the best way they possibly can.

The main harvest runs from May to September, peaking around July and August. The cherries are handpicked when they're fully ripe, and they're then delivered to the central mill, called Buena Vista, where they are fully washed.

Bolivia is a challenging origin and is going through some tough times: dwindling crops, ageing plants, lack of varietal diversity, and ageing producers with children who have little to no interest in carrying on the family business. But then there are people like Vincent who are doing wonderful work to buck that trend. He's been planting new stock, working hard alongside his family, and increasing his yield – as well as increasing the quality of his coffee.

A gentle red apple kicks things off, but it's followed up with a really interesting sweetness like a Caramac bar - kind of creamy and caramel. On the aftertaste is clean dark chocolate which rounds it out and balances it nicely.

• Country: Bolivia
• Region: Yungas
• Municipality: Caranavi
• Town: Copacabana
• Farm: Vincent Paye
• Altitude: 1,550 m.a.s.l.
• Producer: Vincent Paye
• Varietal: Red and Yellow Caturra
• Processing: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Red apple, Caramac, dark chocolate

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 7
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87

Roast Information
Medium-dark – keep the pace steady through first crack and through the gap, looking to finish the roast just before 2nd gets going.

Episode 652: Kenya Kiriga Estate AA

The first coffee bush at Kiriga Estate was planted in approximately 1954 by colonial settlers. At about the same time, less than ten kilometres away along the same Kigio road, a young boy (Aloysius Gakunga, son of the chief for the larger Murang'a county) helped his father – Senior Chief Ndungíu Kagori – plant the first coffee seedling in the area. The area was known as Gaitegi village, Muranga Location 1 (Loco One). A love affair with coffee had been born!

Several years went by and the young boy grew up. He was riding his bicycle along Kigio road and, as he rode past the vast – by now well-established – coffee estates, he promised himself that he would one day own one of them.

He realized this dream in 1976.

The boy, or Mr A. N. Gakunga, sadly passed away in July 2014. By the time of his death, Mr Gakunga had passed his love of coffee and the mantle of Kiriga coffee estate on to Dr Brian Ndungíu Gakunga. Brian was his second child, and the eldest son out of his six children. According to Kikuyu cultural naming systems, Brian is named after Mr Gakunga's father, who was both his grandfather and his pioneer coffee farmer.

• Dr Brian Gakunga is a coffee farmer who is well known in Kenyan coffee circles. He is a founding member and a former long-serving Honorary Secretary of the Kenya Coffee Producers Association, which is a national farmers' organisation that works to promote the economic and social interests of the coffee farmers through active participation in the national and international arena.
• Brian is also a former Board Member and Chairman of Transitional Exchange Committee (operationally, he was the then-Chairman of Nairobi Coffee Exchange), where over 90% of all of Kenya's coffee is currently sold. He's also currently the Founding Chairman of Africa Coffee Farmers' Network.
• Africa Coffee Farmers' Network represents the interests of coffee farmers, as spelt out in the organisation's core objective of improving the earnings of poor coffee farmers in order to break the vicious cycle of poverty. One way of doing this is by getting direct sales for the farmers.

Kiriga Estate sits between 1,550 and 1,650 metres above sea level. It is approximately five kilometres from Thika town, which is an industrial town in the central province of Kenya. It's four kilometres from Blue Posts hotel, which has the famous Chania and Thika falls. Thika lies 50 kilometres northeast of Nairobi.

Administratively, Kiriga coffee estate is in the Gatanga constituency of Muranga county, and it's separated from Kiambu county by the Chania river.

Kiriga coffee is predominantly SL28 variety (notable for its world-renowned cup quality). The farm has an estimated two hectares of Ruiru 11 variety (which has improved resistance to coffee berry disease and leaf rust); some K7 variety (similar characteristics as SL28, but with better resistance to leaf rust compared to SL28); and a field of the newest Batian variety. About 60% of the coffee that the estate produces is AA/AB.

Like any natural product, each coffee bean is different - some bigger, some smaller, some longer, some rounder...that's lead coffee buyers many years ago to begin separating the coffee by the size of the bean.

Throughout the world, this is done by screens - like a stack of flat colanders, with each layer having slightly smaller holes in it than the layer above. Whatever the smallest size a bean passes through, that’s it’s size. In most places, they’re named by 1/64th inch - so a screen 18+ means all the beans are 18/64th of an inch or bigger. Simple, right?

Well...in Kenya they use the same screens, but give them different names. An “AA” is screen 17 and 18, an “AB” is screen 16 and 15 and anything smaller (but still a whole bean) is a “C”. There’s one more class you might have tried - “PB” or Peaberry. That’s a bit different again, but it’s usually separated from the other beans because the round cross-section of a peaberry lets it pass through the holes of a screen easily.

This year we will have the AA, AB, C and Peaberry from Kiriga this year - so big beans, medium beans, little beans and even littler beans! Traditionally, the AA has got the highest prices (they’re about 15-20% of the crop), with AB being a bit cheaper and C going into commodity coffee. However, Brian from Kiriga sent us his C to try the year before last for the first time and we were wow-ed - it’s really sweet and nice - so we began buying it and are super excited to have it again for another year. The Peaberry has previously been included in with the C, due to the similar size and smaller harvests, however this year the two have been separated out and there's enough of it to stand alone!

All coffee activities at Kiriga are carried out at a factory level, from the coffee nursery to all the farm operations (pruning, weed control, nutrition, irrigation, basin digging, disease control, infilling, mulching, and planting). Wet mill operations are also carried out on the factory level. Kiriga delivers both parchment coffee and Mbuni (naturals) to the commercial dry mill for milling and grading, in preparation for sale at coffee auctions and via indirect sale.

In addition to growing coffee the estate also has shoats (sheep and goats), a dairy, and the potential to keep fish. It's all about diversity, and what's more diverse than a 'shoat'?! The estate is also occasionally visited by two hippos, in addition to some bird-life, while also being the home of a family of monkeys.

Kiriga irrigated all its coffee trees – despite the crippling electricity costs involved – during the dry season, in order to ensure their high standards were maintained despite the weather.

By the end of 2015, the estate had changed the cycle of its coffee trees by removing the old heads and growing new heads, which in return gave a higher yield of bold beans with the characteristic 'Kiriga coffee characteristics'. Over 40% of the 'old heads' had to go! This is way above the recommended 25%, and we expect to have decreased yield but increased quality as a result. 

Many of the estate farms around Kiriga have been sold off to make housing estates. Whilst this is a challenge for the future, in the immediate period Brian is actually finding it helpful because there are more skilled pickers available (who were working on the other farms).

This is rather like warm blackcurrant cordial, with just a hint of green apple alongside. There’s fruit sweetness throughout, but on the aftertaste that sweetness shifts darker into treacle toffee, so you have a bright but well-balanced cup.

• Country: Kenya
• Constituency: Gatanga
• County: Muranga
• Nearest town: Thika
• Estate: Kiriga
• Farmer: Dr Brian Gakunga
• Altitude: 1,550–1,650 m.a.s.l.
• Varietals: SL28 AA & Ruiru 11 AA
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Blackcurrant cordial, green apple, treacle toffee

Clean cup: (1–8): 7
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 7
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 7
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 88

Roast Information
Medium - keep it quick to highlight the acidity, taking it through the gap and pushing towards the edge of second, but don't let it get going.

Episode 651: Bolivia Teodocio Mamani

We first encountered Teodocio Mamani back in 2012. Long story short: he's an amazing guy doing great things with coffee!

Teodocio's farm sits in the municipality of Canton Uyunense in Caranavi, and this coffee is a mixed lot of red and yellow Catuai. Teodocio has one hectare of land on his farm that is a natural forest reserve, in which he owns a house where he lives with his wife and two children.

Teodocio processes the majority of his coffee on his own farm. He uses a depulper that removes the cherry, then leaves the cherry to go through a dry fermentation process (anaerobic) for sixteen hours, and then runs it through the scrubber section of the pulper to remove the final remains of the mucilage. He then transfers the coffee to raised African beds, where it dries in around twelve days (depending on local weather conditions).

We were talking to the exporter about Teodocio's picking methods, and he was explaining that the family uses a method called 'Ayne'. With this method the most mature fruits are harvested each day by hand, demanding the labour of 8–10 people (who are all Mamani family members) to pick selectively and correctly. But because of this he gets more coffee that he can sell as specialty grade, and the cup profile improves too. Teodocio is super passionate about improving the cup quality!

Starting with brown sugar, this swings quickly into honeycomb. It's definitely sweet, but a gentle hint of mango alongside it and then a bit of lime zest on the finish adds a softly fruity edge. The aftertaste keeps that going with juicy raisin, tempting you back for another sip.

• Country: Bolivia
• Region: Yungas
• Province: Caranavi
• Municipality: Canton Uyunense
• Farm: Teodocio Mamani
• Varietals: Caturra and Catuai
• Ripe cherry colour: Red and yellow
• Altitude: 1,600–1,750 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Mechanically washed
• Fermentation method: Dry (anaerobic)
• Fermentation time: 16 hours
• Drying method: Raised African beds
• Drying time: 12 days

CUPPING NOTES

Brown sugar, honeycomb, mango, lime zest, raisin.

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 7
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information
Medium-dark - reduce the heat during first crack and let them run through to the end of the gap. Drop just before second crack begins.

Episode 650: Bolivia El Fuerte Anaerobic Washed Bourbon

El Fuerte was named in honour of the 'Fort of Samaipata', which is a unique ruin in Bolivia. El Fuerte de Samaipata (Fort Samaipata), also known simply as 'El Fuerte', is a pre-Columbian archaeological site. It's unique in that it represents the legacies of Inca, Spanish, and Chanè cultures, and it's one of Samaipata's main attractions. Situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes, in the Santa Cruz department of Florida province, the archaeological site is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

El Fuerte de Samaipata is not a military fortification. It is generally considered to be a pre-Columbian religious site built by the Chané people, who were a pre-Inca culture of Arawak origin. There are also ruins of an Inca city built near the temple; the city was built during the Inca expansion to the southeast. Both Incas and Chanés suffered several raids from Guarani warriors, who invaded the region from time to time. Eventually, the Guarani warriors conquered the plains and valleys of Santa Cruz and destroyed Samaipata. The Guaranis dominated the region well into the Spanish colonial period.

The Spaniards also built a settlement near the temple, and there are remains of buildings of typical Andalusi Arabic architecture. The Spaniards abandoned the settlement and moved to the nearby valley, where the town of Samaipata is currently located. The archaeological site at El Fuerte is unique, and it encompasses buildings of three different cultures: Chanés, Incas, and Spaniards.

El Fuerte was a first experiment in developing coffee in a region with excellent characteristics for producing amazing quality coffee (good soil conditions and high altitude), but with traditionally little coffee production and no specialty coffee. After consulting with a specialised agronomist, the region of Agua Rica at the edge of the Amboró National Park – some 20 KM east of Samaipata was chosen as the ideal location.

Initially, several different varietals were tried, including Red Bourbon and Yellow and Red Caturra (although nowadays Agricafe, which runs the farm, has ventured into growing other varietals). Caturra and Typica are both traditionally grown in Bolivia and are commonly seen, but alongside other, slightly rarer varietals like Java and Geisha. Although there is little need for trees for shade because the altitude keeps the temperature down, trees were planted to protect the coffee trees from the strong winds that are common in the region.

Deciding to go ahead and plant coffee at El Fuerte was something of a risk, but it's one that has undoubtedly paid off. The location has proved to be strategic and the weather is ideal; so much so that a second wet mill has been established at the site, meaning all coffee produced in the Samaipata farms can be processed at El Fuerte.

The team at Agricafe have been carefully experimenting at their wet mill with new ways of processing their coffee. This brought us their wonderful Naturals, but now they've turned their attention to their washed coffees! In particular, they've focused on the stage before the freshly picked coffee cherries are depulped, adding an Anaerobic resting phase.

This basically means putting the coffee cherries into large, sealed barrels along with water. This can create very unique and distinctive flavours, but using the same attention to detail and careful control of the processes that we see in their Naturals, the Agricafe team monitor and manage the process to get the best out of it. They do this by keeping the temperature low, which keeps the flavours crisp and clean, and by carefully judging the right moment to move the process on and remove the pulp.

Juicy pear fills the mouth with the first sip, with a milk chocolate sweetness following on its heels. As it cools, there's a malty but fruity sweetness, rather like malt loaf, before it finishes with a glacé cherry (on top).

• Country: Bolivia
• Province: Florida
• Department: Santa Cruz
• Farm: El Fuerte
• Altitude: 1,550–1,700 ;m.a.s.l.
• Variety: Bourbon
• Process: Anaerobic Washed
• Drying: Stationary Dryer (72 hours, 40º temp.)

CUPPING NOTES

Pear, milk chocolate, malt loaf, glacé cherry.

Clean cup (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness (1–8): 6.5
Acidity (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel (1–8): 6
Flavour (1–8): 7
Aftertaste (1–8): 6
Balance (1–8): 7
Overall (1–8): 7
Correction (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 88

Roast Information
Medium-dark - reduce the heat during first crack and let them run through to the end of the gap. Drop just before second crack begins.

Episode 649: Burundi Kirundo Washed Bourbon

In the Kirundo Province of North East Burundi, sits the Kirundo Mill and the Cafex washing station. CAFEX was launched by a Belgian-Burundian couple who wanted to combine the local tradition of coffee production with positively and sustainably developing the local area and have worked hard to develop a mutually beneficial business model for local coffee growers.

Running a washing station is a huge challenge. Farmers work throughout the day to handpick their coffee cherries and at sunset, the coffee arrives at the CAFEX washing station. The processing takes place at night, while the reception of the cherries takes place from sunrise until the early hours of the night, allowing farmers to focus on providing the highest quality coffee.

The CAFEX station has had a really positive impact on families in the region. The town where the washing station is located has been historically underdeveloped and the implementation of the Cafex station provides valuable work for the men and women of the town and helps to improve their quality of life. Families who have a seasonal job have the opportunity to receive an extra income which gives them access to medical care or allows them to buy books in order to send their children to school. On top of this, Cafex has introduced a weekly payment programme for growers, while many coffee producers have to wait many months to receive payment for their harvest, this weekly payment gives them a regular income throughout the coffee harvesting season.

Ripe cherries are selected from daily pickings, and sun-dried on raised African beds, being turned every 2 hours to give even fermentation, and covered during the midday heat to prevent sun damage. Once optimum moisture levels have been reached, the coffee is transported for milling at Ikawa Nziza’s drymill in Gashoho commune between the towns of Ngozi & Muyinga. The mill is designed to cater to small, traceable microlots. Its location in a high altitude (1,730 m.a.s.l.) and low humidity environment provides the optimal environment to preserve the quality of the coffee and therefore demand higher prices for farmers.

A very sweet and rounded coffee, there's sweet lime curd and brown sugar up front before it finishes with creamy milk chocolate that lingers into the aftertaste.

• Country: Burundi

• Region: North East Burundi

• Location: Kirundo county
• Mill: CAFEX Kirundo

• Drymill: Gashoho
• Producers: 365
• Altitude: 1,450-1,600 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Washed
• Varietal: Bourbon
• Soil type: Red non-hydromorphic spodosols, iron-rich
• Rainfall: 848mm average per year

CUPPING NOTES

Brown sugar, lime curd, milk chocolate.

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87

Roasting Information:
Medium-dark - through first crack and push it to the cusp of second. Lighter roasts will highlight the sugary sweetness, but push it through to highlight the citrus and milk chocolate elements.

Episode 648: Bolivia Don Carlos

Due to complications within the Bolivian coffee industry, many of the smaller Bolivian farms we have worked with in the past are sadly no longer producing coffee. Whilst this has created some challenges for us, it has had a much more significant impact on our exporting partners Agricafe, who have been working with these growers for many years.

As a result, Agricafe have decided to begin farming for themselves, in an effort to demonstrate what can be achieved with the application of more modern techniques and a scientific farming approach.

Agricafe now manage seven farms, and these are collectively known as the Buena Vista project. Finca Don Carlos is the project's second farm, and it was planted in Caranavi in 2014.

The farm is named in honour of Carlos Mariaca, the oldest and most unconditionally awesome employee of Agricafe. He was there at the start of the specialty coffee trend and, together with Pedro, helped to build the wet mill in Caranavi. To show their gratitude for all his good work, the company decided to give him partnership of the farm.

This farm, along with the other Buena Vista project farms, is run by Pedro Pablo Rodriguez, son of Agricafe owner Pedro Rodriguez. Agricafe first bought their farms in 2012, when it became clear they were facing rapidly decreasing coffee production across the country. They have twelve farms in total, and this is one of eight in the Caranavi region (the traditional coffee producing area of Bolivia). Pedro Pablo studied agronomy in Honduras and brought techniques he had learnt there to the Buena Vista farms.

In 2016, farms surrounding Don Carlos suffered badly with leaf rust (also called Roya). This caused a substantial drop in production, but the farmers developed a strong program to combat the disease, and they can now use that on other farms when they're affected.

This is a washed Caturra lot containing both red and yellow fruit. The cherries are left for fifteen hours to allow the fruit to begin to break down before it goes through the mechanical washing process.

This is luxury chocolate mousse through and through! Cream and cocoa deliver that rich, deep flavour which lingers on right through into the finish, all held together by the silky smooth body. There’s a tiny nod to green apple in there too, which helps the chocolate sing all the louder.

• Country: Bolivia
• Region: Bolinda – Caranavi
• Producer: Agricafe
• Farm: Don Carlos
• Producer: Carlos Mariaca
• Elevation: 1,550 – 1,650 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Red and Yellow Caturra
• Shade plants : Native species
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Chocolate mousse, cream, green apple.

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 8
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction (+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 88

Roast Information
Medium-dark – through first and push this up to the first pops of second, no more. There's lots of creamy sweetness here, so it doesn't need to be slowed down too much during the gap, keep a steady pace up.

Episode 647: Brazil Fazenda Inglaterra Pulped Natural Mixed Selection

Fazenda Inglaterra is a farm we've been buying from for over ten years, and it's one that we are very proud to be working with and linked with. The owner is our very good friend, Stephen Hurst.

To tell the story of Inglaterra, we'll hand this over to Stephen to tell you how he came to own 'Inglaterra':

“Maybe it had always been an idea in the back of my mind – so a couple of years ago when some friends in Brazil mentioned that a small coffee farm was for sale, I had a look.

The farm's name (Fazenda Toca Da Onca) means 'hiding place of a small wildcat'. The locals now call the farm 'Inglaterra'. The previous owners had abandoned Toca Da Onca/Inglaterra. So we had to start again, almost from scratch. Some surviving coffee trees were pruned right back and the coffee that you are now drinking is that re-growth from the original old trees.

The farm is located near the lovely spa town of Poços de Caldas in the coffee-growing heartlands of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. The farm's elevation is 950–1,300 metres, and it has rich soil. It's on the edge of an ancient caldera/super volcano, whose outline can be seen on satellite images. 50% of the farm is virgin Mata Atlantica forest and as long as I own it, it will stay that way. I am replanting some areas with the help of my local friends Gabriel and Cristiano, without whose assistance this project would never have started."

This is the only Pulped Natural lot we have from Inglaterra this year, whereas in the past, we've enjoyed single lots of Acaia, Bourbon and Canario. Inglaterra isn't a big farm by any standards and is tiny by the overall standards of Brazil. What that means for their processing is that they don't get to pick and choose much. We buy the entire coffee production of the farm, and the weather (and amount of free space they have) decides for them which lots will be Naturally processed and which will be Pulped Natural.

Nuts! It's a moreish medley of hazelnut, pecan and Brazil nuts, but with a dark caramel sweetness which makes it all rather like a nut brittle.

• Country: Brazil
• Region: Minas Gerias
• City: Poços de Caldas
• Farm: Fazenda Inglaterra
• Farmer: Stephen Hurst
• Farm size: 10 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 5 hectares
• Altitude: 1,200 m.a.s.l.
• Varietals: Catuai, Icatu and Acaia
• Processing system: Pulped Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Hazelnut, Brazil nut, pecan, dark caramel

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 86

Roasting Information
Medium to medium-dark - through first and give it some time in the gap, but no more than the very first pops of second crack on the drop. Beware that there's not so much noise from this coffee, so spotting cracks will be tricky.

Episode 646: Burundi Kirundo Natural Bourbon

In the Kirundo Province of North East Burundi, sits the Kirundo Mill and the Cafex washing station. CAFEX was launched by a Belgian-Burundian couple who wanted to combine the local tradition of coffee production with positively and sustainably developing the local area and have worked hard to develop a mutually beneficial business model for local coffee growers.

Running a washing station is a huge challenge. Farmers work throughout the day to handpick their coffee cherries and at sunset, the coffee arrives at the CAFEX washing station. The processing takes place at night, while the reception of the cherries takes place from sunrise until the early hours of the night, allowing farmers to focus on providing the highest quality coffee.

The CAFEX station has had a really positive impact on families in the region. The town where the washing station is located has been historically underdeveloped and the implementation of the Cafex station provides valuable work for the men and women of the town and helps to improve their quality of life. Families who have a seasonal job have the opportunity to receive an extra income which gives them access to medical care or allows them to buy books in order to send their children to school. On top of this, Cafex has introduced a weekly payment programme for growers, while many coffee producers have to wait many months to receive payment for their harvest, this weekly payment gives them a regular income throughout the coffee harvesting season.

Ripe cherries are selected from daily pickings, and sun-dried on raised African beds, being turned every 2 hours to give even fermentation, and covered during the midday heat to prevent sun damage. Once optimum moisture levels have been reached, the coffee is transported for milling at Ikawa Nziza’s drymill in Gashoho commune between the towns of Ngozi & Muyinga. The mill is designed to cater to small, traceable microlots. Its location in a high altitude (1,730 m.a.s.l.) and low humidity environment provides the optimal environment to preserve the quality of the coffee and therefore demand higher prices for farmers.

Sticky, sweet pear juice fills the cup here, but there are layers of other fruit behind that too, with golden raisins, plum and candied lemon peel all slipping past.

• Country: Burundi

• Region: North East Burundi

• Location: Kirundo county
• Mill: CAFEX Kirundo

• Drymill: Gashoho
• Producers: 365
• Altitude: 1,450-1,600 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Natural
• Varietal: Bourbon
• Soil type: Red non-hydromorphic spodosols, iron-rich
• Rainfall: 848mm average per year

CUPPING NOTES

Pear juice, golden raisin, plum, candied lemon peel

Clean cup: (1–8): 7
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 7
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 88

Roasting Information:
Medium-dark - nice and steady and middle of the road - push the roast through the gap and finish with no more than the first pops of second as it cools.

Episode 645: El Salvador Finca La Ilusion Natural Bourbon

One of our all-time favourite farms returns once more! We often get asked what our favourite coffee of all time is, but we will never say exactly (although our friends know the true answer). However, we do narrow it to three coffees, and this is one of them.

We went to El Salvador on a buying trip in 2008, and were visiting some of the farms that we buy from. We actually arrived the evening of the Cup of Excellence awards, and after the ceremony we were walking around when this guy who seemed very popular came over and introduced himself. He was Ernesto or, as we would come to know him, Neto. He'd just won the Cup of Excellence competition with his 'La Ilusión' farm, the sister farm of 'Alaska'. Alaska is a farm we had bought from via the Cup of Excellence the year before. Ernesto invited us to visit La Ilusión the next day, and it was so great to finally meet someone we had communicated with so many times via email!

Neto bought La Ilusión many years ago. The farm has coffee trees averaging 20+ years of age and is growing 95% Bourbon (70% is Red Bourbon and 25% is Orange Bourbon). The remaining 5% is a combination of other varietals, and it's possible to spot some Typica and Kenya trees too.

The farm is run using environmentally friendly practices because the farmers are trying to maintain a balance with the surrounding ecosystem, which is part of a natural fauna corridor crucial to migratory and native birds. This is very important for Ernesto because La Ilusión neighbours one of the most important national parks in El Salvador, known as 'Los Andes'. It is nestled on the Santa Ana volcano and delineates his farm with dense pine and cypress forest, which itself provides a special micro-climate for La Ilusión.

The 2011 version of this naturally processed lot was used by the 2011 World Barista champion, Alejandro Mendez. He caused a bit of a stir in the World of Barista Championships by using a naturally processed lot in his milk drinks and his signature drink, and then using the washed version as his espresso. He caused such a stir that he won! That year we had roasted the coffee for Alejandro, and it had been grown by Neto. There was a magical moment backstage in which we were stood, polishing glass, with Alejandro and Neto; the grower, roaster and barista all stood together, preparing for the presentation. It's not too often you get such wonderful things happening! Aah, the wonders of barista competition. :)

The intense sweetness of strawberry jam runs throughout the coffee. There's a bit of peach too, adding a little complexity, and a shoulder of orange on the finish.

• Country: El Salvador
• Region: Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range
• City: Santa Ana
• Farm: La Ilusión
• Farmer: Juan Jose Ernesto Menéndez Argüello
• Altitude: 1,750–1,850 m.a.s.l.
• Variety: Bourbon
• Processing system: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Strawberry jam, peach, orange

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction:(+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87

Roasting Information
Medium to medium-dark - through first and slow it a little, pushing it towards the second but finishing the roast before second gets going.

Episode 644: Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama Natural Canario

This farm and its coffee sparked a massive change in what I thought we knew about coffee. We remember the first time we ever cupped this coffee: time stood still as the cup opened our minds to what great coffee is and can be. Gabriel de Carvalho Dias, the farmer, continues to produce great coffee year on year, and this coffee still holds a very special place in our hearts.

Gabriel is one of Brazil’s leading agronomists. His family owns several farms, all of which border one another. Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama is 417 hectares in size – that’s 4 square kilometres! That sounds huge, but it’s not uncommon for farms to be more than 1,000 hectares.

Because of the mountainous terrain, however, only 64 hectares are planted with coffee, and it's all picked and maintained by hand. The mill is located close to the spa town of Poços de Caldas, which is 45 minutes away from the farm.

Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama has been in the Carvalho Dias family since 1890. It's located in São Paolo state, just three miles from the border with Minas Gerais state. It enjoys the typical characteristics of the mountainous Mogiana and Sul de Minas regions, and it's located at an altitude of 1,100–1,250 metres above sea level.

Their farm has a school, a club and a full-sized soccer field for the employees and workers, and 47 houses – all with modern facilities. The wastewater is treated in order to avoid polluting the stream that runs across the farm. The farm has a small hydroelectric plant, and the farmers only buy energy during the peak harvest.

As well as providing support to the workers, the family have also invested in the farm's coffee processing facilities. This has allowed them to produce one of the most consistent and delicious coffees. They grow mostly Yellow Bourbon, but also Canario and Mundo Novo. It's well-established plant stock, and some of the original Bourbon varietal trees are as much as 108 years old.

They’ve also invested in trying new things, including planting some new varietals and trialling new fermentation experiments with the involvement of experts from the University of Lavras (UFLA) in Minas Gerais.

The Carvalho Dias family consider social and environmental sustainability to be very important. The farm has a programme of planting native species of trees to maintain a better ecological balance.

This comes from the rare Canario varietal, which is a Bourbon mutation that originated in Brazil. You can find out more about it here, but what you will notice in the cup is that it adds complexity and a little acidity when compared to the Bourbon varietal.

Fit for the ambassador's dinner, there's the classic Brazil hazelnut and chocolate flavours, but extra refined. There's a sweetness and silky texture of single cream alongside chocolate spread, whilst the sprinkle of hazelnuts gets a twist with roasted chestnut in there too.

• Country: Brazil
• State: São Paulo
• Municipality: São Sebastião da Grama
• Farm: Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama
• Producers: Lidolpho de Carvalho Dias and family
• Processing: Natural
• Varietal: Canario
• Altitude: 1,100–1,250 m.a.s.l.

CUPPING NOTES

Hazelnut chocolate spread, single cream, roasted chestnut

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 7
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction (+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information
Medium to medium-dark - through first and give it some time in the gap, but no more than the very first pops of second crack on the drop. Beware that there's not so much noise from this coffee, so spotting cracks will be tricky.

Episode 643: Brazil Fazenda Inglaterra Natural Canario

Fazenda Inglaterra is a farm we've been buying from for over ten years, and it's one that we are very proud to be working with and linked with. The owner is a very good friend of Hasbean, Stephen Hurst.

To tell the story of Inglaterra, we asked Stephen to explain how he came to own 'Inglaterra':

“Maybe it had always been an idea in the back of my mind – so a couple of years ago when some friends in Brazil mentioned that a small coffee farm was for sale, I had a look.

The farm's name (Fazenda Toca Da Onca) means 'hiding place of a small wildcat'. The locals now call the farm 'Inglaterra'. The previous owners had abandoned Toca Da Onca/Inglaterra. So we had to start again, almost from scratch. Some surviving coffee trees were pruned right back and the coffee that you are now drinking is that re-growth from the original old trees.

For the coffee people, the varietals are Icatu, Acaia and Catucai. In future I expect coffee cherry varietals to become as well known as wine grape varietals, and to a much wider audience. The farm is located near the lovely spa town of Poços De Caldas in the coffee-growing heartlands of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. The farm's elevation is 950–1,300 metres, and it has rich soil. It's on the edge of an ancient caldera/super volcano, whose outline can be seen on satellite images. 50% of the farm is virgin Mata Atlantica forest and as long as I own it, it will stay that way. I am replanting some areas with the help of my local friends Gabriel and Cristiano, without whose assistance this project would never have started."

Sweet as you like, this kicks off with a big hit of Brazil nuts and brown sugar. Those flavours carry all the way through, with a full texture in the mouth, before swinging in to walnut on the aftertaste.

• Country: Brazil
• Region: Minas Gerais
• City: Poços de Caldas
• Farm: Fazenda Inglaterra
• Owner: Stephen Hurst
• Farm size: 10 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 5 hectares
• Altitude: 1,200 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Canario
• Processing system: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Brazil nut, brown sugar, walnut.

Clean Cup: (1-8): 6
Sweetness: (1-8): 7
Acidity: (1-8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6.5
Flavour: (1-8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1-8): 6.5
Balance: (1-8): 6.5
Overall: (1-8): 6
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max 100): 87

Roast Information
Medium to medium-dark - don't expect a lot of noise from these Brazilian coffees, but they need to be pushed steadily through the gap and towards second, but we don't want to hear second get going.

Episode 642: El Salvador Finca Los Andes Washed Bourbon

Juan Jose Ernesto 'Neto' Menéndez Argüello belongs to the fourth generation of coffee farmers in his family. After completing his studies at university, Neto had the opportunity to start working in the coffee industry at J. Hill & Cia in 2000. He left J. Hill & Cia after five years and began his second coffee experience at Jasal Café El Salvador.

Both companies gave him the opportunity to meet 'Grano de Oro' from another perspective, allowing him to learn the art and passion of cupping. He says those are very important in his life, and that they give him the opportunity to apply the coffee knowledge and experience he's gained through the years.

During his time in the coffee world, he has participated in various events like the Cup of Excellence (National Jury from 2003 to 2011), Q Auction, Q Grader, and the Star Cupper program organised by SCAA and CQI.

When Neto bought the Los Andes farm, he discovered that the previous owner of the farm had planted SL28 trees on the land which they had brought home with them after a hunting trip in Kenya around 60 years ago! In amongst the SL28 plants grows Bourbon too, and some of those trees are even older still, at around 80 years.

Similar to the Wild Forest Project area of Las Brumas (another of Neto's farms that we've nabbed coffee from in the past) at Los Andes everything is left to grow "wild". Instead of clearing the land to give him a blank canvas for a new coffee growing area, he's working with the forest which not only means super special and tasty coffee but also helps to protect the local flora and fauna.

There's a lovely toffee sweetness to this coffee, with delicate mixed fruit notes coming through as it cools. That starts as a delicate mandarin, then moves into dried apricot pieces before finishing with a little shoulder of grapefruit.

• Country: El Salvador
• Department: Sonsonate
• Nearest City: Santa Ana
• Farm: Los Andes
• Producer: Ernesto Menéndez
• Altitude: 1,720 m.a.s.l.
• Variety Bourbon
• Processing System: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Toffee, mandarin, dried apricot, grapefruit

Clean Cup: (1-8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1-8): 6.5
Acidity: (1-8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6
Flavour: (1-8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1-8): 6
Balance: (1-8): 6.5
Overall: (1-8): 6.5
Correction:(+36): +36

Total: (max 100): 87

Roasting Information
Medium to medium-dark - through first and give it time to develop that toffee sweetness, but keep it a little lighter than most Salvadorian coffees and only just up to the edge of 2nd before it's dropped, so it keeps that delicate fruit.

 

Episode 641: Rwanda Musasa Mbilima Washed Bourbon

Located in the Gakenke region of Rwanda and founded in 2005, the Mbilima Washing Station is part of the well known Dekundekawa Musasa Cooperative and is the second washing station to be built by them, to support farmers who were further away from the Cooperative’s first Washing Station at Ruli.

Much of the success of Musasa Dukunde Kawa can be attributed to the transformational PEARL programme of which it was a part. The project switched the focus in the Rwandan coffee sector from an historic emphasis on quantity to one of quality, thus opening Rwanda up to the much more highly-valued specialty coffee market. The programme and its successor, SPREAD, have been invaluable in helping Rwanda’s small-scale coffee farmers rebuild their production in the wake of the devastating 1994 genocide and the 1990s world coffee crash.

‘Musasa’ means ‘a place to make a bed’, and ‘Dukunde Kawa’ means ‘let’s love coffee’ in Kinyarwanda; it is a reference to the power of coffee to improve the lives of those in rural communities. And that it certainly does! Farmers who work with Musasa Dukunde Kawa have been able to buy their own livestock, have access to long term credit without interest and many now have health insurance for the first time. The Cooperative has also built two schools and contributes 10% of its profits to the construction of new washing stations in other areas.

Roughly 459 smallholders deliver coffee cherries to the Mbilima Washing Station, with about 80% of them being women and the Washing Station itself is mostly staffed by women. The level of care that Musasa Dukunde Kawa takes over the processing is impressive too. Cherries are hand-picked only when fully ripe and then delivered to the washing station on the day of harvest, they are then hand-sorted based on quality. The cherries are then pulped and dry-fermented before being washed with high-pressure water and then graded once again using flotation channels that sort the coffee by weight (the heaviest – or A1 – usually being the best).

Next, the beans are moved onto the washing station’s extensive drying tables for around 14 days (depending on the weather), where they are sorted again for defects, turned regularly, and protected from rain and the midday sun by covers until they reach around 11% humidity. This ensures both even drying and the removal of any damaged or ‘funny looking’ beans. They then move to final dry-milling and hand-sorting at the cooperative’s dry mill in Kigali.

Lots are usually separated out by days. Upon delivery as cherry, the coffee receives a paper ‘ticket’ that follows the lot through all its processing. This ticket bears the date of harvest and the grade (A1, A2, etc.) of the coffee. For instance, if a coffee lot is called ‘Lot 1-06/04 -A1’, this means it was the first lot processed on 4th April and the grade is A1. This simple but effective practice is a crucial tool in controlling quality and ensuring the traceability of lots.

With a lovely balance of sweet and bright, this coffee brings juicy clementines backed up by silky butterscotch and milk chocolate. Finishing with sweet lemon, that citrus hit keeps going with a lingering lime.

• Country: Rwanda
• District: Gakenke
• Washing station: Musasa Mbilima
• Owner: Musasa Dukunde Kawa Cooperative (459 smallholder farmers)
• Varietal: Bourbon
• Processing method: Fully washed
• Drying method: sun-dried on raised beds
• Grade: A1
• Altitude of farms: 1,800 to 2,100 m.a.s.l.

CUPPING NOTES

Clementine, butterscotch, milk chocolate, lemon, lime.

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 7
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 88

Roasting Information
Medium-dark - keep it fairly quick, through first crack and push towards second but drop it before 2nd gets going.

Episode 640: El Salvador Finca Nejapa Roma Washed Red Caturra

Gloria Mercedes Rodríguez Fontan is a name you will probably recognise from a coffee we've had every year for many years, the always awesome Finca San José, check out this year's crop here. She's a fourth-generation coffee grower and owns + personally supervises six small farms located in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range: San José, Mamatita, El Porvenir, Nejapa, Nueva Granada and La Lagunita. This coffee comes from the specific Roma tablón of Nejapa, we last had coffee this farm way back in 2015 and are really excited to see it back in 2021.

Finca Nejapa was inherited by Gloria’s father, José María Rodríguez Herrera, in the 50s. At that time the property was only devoted to cattle for milking purposes, and it was José Maria who started growing coffee of the Bourbon variety. Little by little, he noticed coffee was extremely productive in that area.

The farm has 18.2 hectares of land in total, of which 6.3 hectares are dedicated to growing coffee. The coffee-growing area is divided into three separate plots or 'tablóns'; Los Vientos (2.1 hectares), Santa Marta (1.4 hectares), and Roma (2.8 hectares). The latter is where this coffee comes from.

Nejapa has also 7 hectares of land that was reforested with cedar trees and a diverse range of shade trees, which helps maintain and preserve both the soil conditions and a wide variety of birds and small mammals that can be seen in the region.

This farm is on the slopes of the Laguna de Las Ninfas (which translates as “water lilies lagoon”). It has a spectacular sight over the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, including the impressive Itzalco volcano, and even over the Pacific Ocean and the port of Acajutla.

Tablón Roma is located on the western side of Finca Nejapa. It has belonged to the family over four generations but was left unplanted until relatively recently. That's when Gloria obtained a loan through a local investment bank to redevelop and re-plant this area. The variety chosen for this plot was Caturra; in those days it was in vogue to plant this short-size producing tree with good yields, and it was needed to repay the loan. Happily, variety and terroir combined to result in great quality coffee.

The name ROMA was chosen by combining the first two letters of the names of her children, Roberto and María Jose. This farm was awarded in the El Salvador Cup of Excellence in 2008 and 2009.

Each year Gloria employs around 35 people during the harvesting season, and all year round she manages a permanent "winter works" team of 15 people. The idea is to have a solid trained and skilled working group that receive better wages and working conditions. Gloria pays during harvest around 90% above the legal minimum wage to give workers incentive and assure the best coffee cherries possible. After every production cycle, she gives a proportional bonus according to every week of labour of her “winter workers” that normally derives into 1.2 months extra of income for them.

Gloria works under strict specialty coffee standards. These include fully ripe cherries harvest, careful milling, appreciative pruning, etc. She is blessed with amazing coffee terroir conditions such as altitude and sandy loam soils rich in organic matter, among others. Coffee pickers are selected from her staff based on their experience and passion, and their understanding of the requirements to obtain high-quality coffee. She supervises the whole process directly with the support of Antonio Avelino, her farm foreman.

Super moreish, this reminds me of a pear coated in milk chocolate. There's just a little lime zest on the finish too, but that delicate pear acidity and sweet milk chocolate is the star here.

• Country: El Salvador
• Region: Ahuachapán

• Nearest City: Ataco
• Farm: Finca Nejapa
• Tablón: Roma
• Producer: Gloria Rodriguez
• Farm size: 18.2 hectares

• Coffee growing area: 6.3 hectares

• Tablon size: 2.8 hectare
• Altitude: 1,470-1,570 m.a.s.l.

• Varietal: Red Caturra
• Processing system: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Pear, milk chocolate, lime zest.

Clean Cup: (1-8): 6
Sweetness: (1-8): 7
Acidity: (1-8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6
Flavour: (1-8): 7
Aftertaste: (1-8): 6
Balance: (1-8): 6.5
Overall: (1-8): 7
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max 100): 88

Roasting Information
Medium-dark - through first and keep a nice steady pace towards second, but drop it before 2nd kicks off so the delicate pear isn't masked.

Episode 639: Ethiopia Uraga Natural

Another Ethiopian delight from our very good friend Israel Degfa (who you may know from Ana Sora)! This is our fifth year of buying from him, and we're really excited to have a new coffee from him for 2021.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Israel, he's a second-generation coffee farmer who grew up immersed in various aspects of the coffee industry. His father was a mill manager and his mum sold coffee in the local bus station to commuters. 

My last visit to Ethiopia was in December 2019 and I'm so pleased I was able to potter by and catch up with Israel before all this pandemic hoo-hah kicked off. Stevie Storytime 📕🙌 during my most recent trip we were driving together down a rough road that was part-way through being built when we blew out two tires at the same time. We had been travelling for 12 hours in the car and there wasn't a tyre shop anywhere nearby - so we got stuck in the middle of nowhere in the dark for three hours 😱 Thankfully one of the farm managers kindly drove out to us with a car which we took back to the house, and he slept in our car all night to keep an eye on it until the tyre shop opened. What a top bloke, he was our knight in shining armour!

Ethiopian coffee farms are high in general compared to other producing countries (mostly between 1,700 - 2,100 masl) but Uraga is on the higher side still, reaching as high as 2300 masl. The altitude helps with the slower maturation of the coffee cherry (owing in part to the generally lower temperatures and cooler nights) and allows more time for the plant to develop, which contributes to the super unique cup profile we see in coffees from Ethiopia.

Coffee growing is popular locally, and Israel also sources coffee from the surrounding area. Each washing station has around 1,000-2,000 members, each with one of the small home coffee plots typical of Ethiopia producing very small quantities. The area is populated by smallholder farmers who speak Oromife and are of Oromo ethnicity. Israel believes in helping these farmers through both education in husbandry, and financial assistance.

Uraga is located in the Guji zone, due East of Yirgacheffe, bordering Sidamo in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Over a number of years, the region has developed a distinguished reputation for amazing coffees, producing some of the most sought-after micro-lots in world. The combination of high altitude (up to 2,300m in some areas), fertile soil, consistent & plentiful rains, and an abundance of local knowledge are all contributing factors to the high status of coffees from this area. The indigenous ‘heirloom’ varietals - which grow wild in Ethiopia - are heavily responsible for the unique flavour notes which make Ethiopian coffees a major customer favourite.

This starts with juicy and fresh yellow plums. That fruit is joined by a floral edge on the finish, like hibiscus. On the aftertaste that yellow fruit keeps going, but with the clean and delicate flavour of cloudberry lingering.

• Country: Ethiopia
• Zone: Guji
• Region: Oromia
• Mill: Uruga
• Mill Location: Uraga Solemo
• Owner: Israel Degfa
• Altitude: 2,300 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Indigenous wild varietals
• Processing method: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Yellow plum, cloudberry, hibiscus

Clean cup: (1–8): 7
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 7
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 88

Roasting Information
Medium - this needs to go a little hotter than you might expect, but you're still looking for a medium roast, through first crack, steadily pushed through the gap and finishing the roast before second gets going.

Episode 638: Guatemala El Bosque Washed Bourbon

El Bosque sits on a hillside that runs parallel to the main road to Guatemala City. Due to its proximity to the capital, it faces threats from ever-expanding urban development. However, during the time we have been working with El Bosque, prices and returns for the farm have made it a much higher concern for the brothers, and they are very motivated.

Before I'd tried this coffee at El Bosque, it was love at first taste, I was absolutely blown away by how good it was! However, my first visit to the farm in January 2007 really cemented this, because I got to learn more about the awesome people behind the coffee.

Julian Flores founded the farm in 1932. The fourteen-hectare extension of land was planted out with Bourbon varietal coffee, which was cultivated and sold in cherry form only. Over the next few years, with the acquisition of more land, the farm continued to grow. Julian Flores passed away in 1947, and his son, José Eladio Flores, inherited the farm and continued his father’s legacy of growth. By 1970, José had bought another 23 hectares and continued to grow and sell the same Bourbon coffee varietal. After his death in 1996, a third-generation has taken the farm on under the direction of José’s widow, Martha Stalla, and their sons Julio, José, Francisco and Mario.

This third-generation, headed up by Don Roberto, has focused on innovation, and they have built a plant for processing the cherries in line with strict environmental guidelines. They have also branched into cultivating other plants for local consumption. These include plants such as avocados, roses and lemons, and they're also growing a new grass innovation.

A perfect quaffing coffee, there's a caramelised sweetness of Lotus speculoos biscuits, but with a drizzle of chocolate on top. There's also a roasted hazelnut edge before it finishes on the caramel, with just a little red apple creeping in.

• Country: Guatemala
• Department: Guatemala department
• Municipality: Villa Canales
• Town: Amatitlán
• Farm: El Bosque
• Farmer: Flores family
• Farm size: 37 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 14 hectares
• Altitude: 1,400–1,645 m.a.s.l.
• Variety: Bourbon
• Processing system: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Lotus biscuit, chocolate, roasted hazelnut, caramel, red apple

Clean cup (1–8): 6
Sweetness (1–8): 6.5
Acidity (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel (1–8): 6.5
Flavour (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste (1–8): 6
Balance (1–8): 6.5
Overall (1–8): 6.5
Correction (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 86.5

Roasting Information
Medium-dark - through first and let it slow down a little to develop the caramelised flavours, dropping just as you get to the start of second crack.

Episode 637: Brazil Fazenda Inglaterra Natural Bourbon

Fazenda Inglaterra is a farm we've been buying from for over ten years, and it's one that I am very proud to be working with and linked with. The owner is my very good friend, Stephen Hurst.

To tell the story of Inglaterra, I'll hand this over to Stephen of the Hurst variety to tell you how he came to own 'Inglaterra':

“Maybe it had always been an idea in the back of my mind – so a couple of years ago when some friends in Brazil mentioned that a small coffee farm was for sale, I had a look.

The farm's name (Fazenda Toca Da Onca) means 'hiding place of a small wildcat'. The locals now call the farm 'Inglaterra'. The previous owners had abandoned Toca Da Onca/Inglaterra. So we had to start again, almost from scratch. Some surviving coffee trees were pruned right back and the coffee that you are now drinking is that re-growth from the original old trees.

The farm is located near the lovely spa town of Poços de Caldas in the coffee-growing heartlands of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. The farm's elevation is 950–1,300 metres, and it has rich soil. It's on the edge of an ancient caldera/super volcano, whose outline can be seen on satellite images. 50% of the farm is virgin Mata Atlantica forest and as long as I own it, it will stay that way. I am replanting some areas with the help of my local friends Gabriel and Cristiano, without whose assistance this project would never have started."

This is a naturally processed Bourbon lot. To find out more about what this means, please make sure to have a look at our natural processing video and also our article on the Bourbon varietal.

When this is really hot, it's all about dark chocolate but as soon as it begins to cool slightly walnut and hazelnut come to the fore. Then a little hit of caramel and a delicious almond finish. If you can resist finishing the mug and it cools down a little more again, a delicate rum and raisin will creep in too.

• Country: Brazil
• Region: Minas Gerais
• City: Poços de Caldas
• Farm: Fazenda Inglaterra
• Owner: Stephen Hurst
• Farm size: 10 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 5 hectares
• Altitude: 1,200 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Bourbon
• Processing method: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Dark chocolate, walnut, almond, caramel

Clean cup: (1–8): 7
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction:(+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 88

Roast Information
Medium-dark – through first crack and keep a steady development up to the edge of second before you finish the roast.

Episode 636: Nicaragua Las Delicias Washed Longberry

This farm was brand new to us not all that many years ago, and we're really happy to have been able to continue getting coffee from Las Delicias every year since. Although the farm itself is still relatively new to us in the grand scheme of things, the people behind it most certainly aren't. In fact, we've been working with them for well over ten years now.

The Mierisch family (whom you may know from such farms as Cerro Azul, Limoncillo, Mama Mina, Escondida and Milligros) have worked with us over that time to bring us delicious coffee, and continue to do so year after year.

Much of that deliciousness is thanks to their amazing processing, and Eleane Mierisch is in charge of that. She works in the family business, but she's never owned her own farm. Never, that is, until she acquired Las Delicias all for herself a few years ago.

The farm is located in the region of Jinotega at an average altitude of 1,450 metres above sea level. It's located next to another Mierisch farm that you might have heard of, which is called San José. We've had coffee from there a few times; we're definitely hoping to see more in the future, too.

Eleane knows the area very well, and she knows the land and what it's capable of producing. Add to this her passion for coffee, and you can start to understand why she wanted to produce coffee on a farm of her own.

The Longberry varietal is the fruit of some of the amazing experimental work that's taking place at Limoncillo, another Mierisch farm (as if I even need to tell you that!) To explain a little bit of the story behind it, I'll hand over to another Mierisch that I just so happen to know. Oh hi there, Erwin!

Here my 'story' begins back in mid-2001. I sound like a grandfather ...
My father and I were coming back from visiting some top farms in Nicaragua, as we sometimes did – and do – in order to learn from our neighbours. If we discover anything worthwhile, we then implement those things to improve efficiency and quality on our own farms.
As we drove past the UNICAFE experiment station Juanetillo, which had gone under, a man on the side of the road flagged us down and explained to us how the experiment station had closed down and that his 'severance' was tools and coffee seeds since they did not have the cash to pay him. He asked if we would be interested in helping him out by purchasing these items off of him. In all honesty, I was not very happy that my father forced me to stop to see what this man wanted; therefore, I was not very receptive to his offer, but I purchased a bag of seeds and old beaten up shovels. I gave no immediate thought to the 20 lb bag of coffee seeds that was labelled as JAVA.
My father later showed these seeds to our then-supervising agronomist Ing. Patricia Contreras, who had worked at that research station, and she was ecstatic. She told us about how great this coffee was, but also that it was not very productive nor resistant to disease, as she recalled from running this study at Juanetillo back in the '80s. She also said that the real name for it is Longberry, and that it has its roots in Ethiopia.
We began to run some more experiments – various altitudes and processing methods – and have been learning how to manage it since.

As far as we can tell the Longberry varietal is a Typica-type coffee because of its bean shape, as is the Geisha. Its physical appearance is a uniform seed that is elongated and has been described by several of our customers as an 'Ethiopian Long Berry type'.

This reminds me of a chocolate and lime sweet - it's got that zingy, zesty lime but backed up with dark chocolate and a silky texture. On the aftertaste, there's a little kick of red apple too.

• Country: Nicaragua
• Municipality: Lipululu

• Region: Jinotega
• Farm name: Las Delicias
• Producer: Eleane Mierisch
• Farm size: 20 manzanas (hectares)
• Coffee growing area: 20 hectares
• Altitude: 1,450 m.a.s.l.
• 
Varietal: Longberry
• Processing method: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Lime, dark chocolate, red apple

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 7
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 7
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 88

Roasting Information
Medium to medium-dark - through first, let it develop a little and finish the roast right at the end of the gap.

Episode 635: Nicaragua Finca Mama Mina Washed Orange Bourbon

This coffee first came to my attention in 2008 when I got to try a small sample of the new farm whilst travelling in Nicaragua and visiting the sister farm, Limoncillo. The year before we had bought the amazing Limoncillo coffee for the first time and we needed to follow that up with something equally spectacular.

There was one coffee that really shone through that table, and it was from this newly formed farm. At the time the farm was called La Minita, and because they had just taken over the production, it was next to nothing. I never forgot this cup and every year I sent repeated requests to the family to be allowed to buy it. But again, because the farm was so newly formed and because of many many new plantings, there just was not enough of it to go around.

For those in the know, La Minita is also the name of a very very famous farm in Costa Rica, and the family was worried this would cause confusion. So the following year it was renamed, and they changed it to something very fitting: Finca Mama Mina. Owned by the Miresh family, this farm is affectionately named after Erwin, Stephen, and Eleane's grandmother, Mina McEwan. Mina passed away in 2008 and it was seen as a fitting tribute to this amazing lady who gave so much to the coffee industry. The farm is surrounded by trees and mountains, and in every direction you can look at the vastness of the forest that covers each of the high mountain ranges. It also has a huge amount of flowers planted around the farm, which, as far as I can tell, is because they wanted to make it the most beautiful farm they could. The smell when you're there is amazing, and it's something the Mierisch family have also started to do on some of the other farms they own, like Los Miligros. I like this, as when something looks amazing it means that the workers on the farm take huge pride in their surroundings, and this is the cleanest and most organised farm I have visited in a long time.

Despite Mama Mina being one of the younger farms, I think it produces one of the best coffees; partly down to its altitude and its soil, which is rich in nutrients, but mostly down to the care and attention that's taken during the whole picking to processing stage.

A well balanced and easy drinking coffee, it’s milk chocolate up front, but as it cools you’ll find a little sweet peach juiciness coming through. On the finish is sultanas and a little sweet maltiness. 

• Farm: Finca Mama Mina
• Farmer: The Mierisch family
• Region: Jinotega
• Altitude: 1250-1375 masl
• Varietal: Orange Bourbon
• Processing System: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Milk chocolate, peach, sultana, malt

Clean Cup: (1-8): 6

Sweetness: (1-8): 6.5

Acidity: (1-8): 6

Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6

Flavour: (1-8): 6.5

Aftertaste: (1-8): 6

Balance: (1-8): 7

Overall: (1-8): 6.5

Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max 100): 86.5

 

Roasting Information:

Medium Dark - keep it steadily developing, through first and steadily through the gap to finish the roast just as you reach 2nd. 

Episode 634: Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon

This farm and its coffee sparked a massive change in what I thought I knew about coffee. I remember the first time I ever cupped this coffee: time stood still as the cup opened my mind to what great coffee is and can be. Gabriel de Carvalho Dias, the farmer, continues to produce great coffee year on year, and this coffee still holds a very special place in my heart.

Gabriel is one of Brazil’s leading agronomists. His family owns several farms, all of which border one another. Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama is 417 hectares in size – that’s 4 square kilometres! That sounds huge, but it’s not uncommon for farms to be more than 1,000 hectares.

Because of the mountainous terrain, however, only 64 hectares are planted with coffee, and it's all picked and maintained by hand. The mill is located close to the spa town of Poços de Caldas, which is 45 minutes away from the farm.

Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama has been in the Carvalho Dias family since 1890. It's located in São Paolo state, just three miles from the border with Minas Gerais state. It enjoys the typical characteristics of the mountainous Mogiana and Sul de Minas regions, and it's located at an altitude of 1,100–1,250 metres above sea level.

Their farm has a school, a club and a full-sized soccer field for the employees and workers, and 47 houses – all with modern facilities. The wastewater is treated in order to avoid polluting the stream that runs across the farm. The farm has a small hydroelectric plant, and the farmers only buy energy during the peak harvest.

As well as providing support to the workers, the family have also invested in the farm's coffee processing facilities. This has allowed them to produce one of the most consistent and delicious coffees. They grow mostly Yellow Bourbon, but also Canario and Mundo Novo. It's well-established plant stock, and some of the original Bourbon varietal trees are as much as 108 years old.

They’ve also invested in trying new things, including planting some new varietals and trialling new fermentation experiments with the involvement of experts from the University of Lavras (UFLA) in Minas Gerais.

The Carvalho Dias family consider social and environmental sustainability to be very important. The farm has a programme of planting native species of trees to maintain a better ecological balance.

This one is super sweet and velvety - it’s all milk chocolate and hazelnuts, for the classic Brazilian coffee. There’s a little twist with some sweet red apple in there, but it’s classic again on the aftertaste with a gentle toffee.

• Country: Brazil
• State: São Paulo
• Municipality: São Sebastião da Grama
• Farm: Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama
• Owner: Lidolpho de Carvalho Dias and family
• Altitude: 1,100–1,250 m.a.s.l.
• Processing: Pulped Natural
• Varietal: Yellow Bourbon

CUPPING NOTES

Milk chocolate, hazelnut, red apple, toffee

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total (max. 100): 87

Roasting Information
Medium-dark - don't rush this, through first and push through the gap, dropping just as you're approaching second.

Episode 633: In My Christmas Mug

It's Christmas, It's Christmas at Hasbean! Hip hip, oh hip hip hoorray, it's Christmas Day! (nearly!)

This year we wanted to treat all you lovely In My Mug subscribers with your very own, very exclusive (oooooh!) Christmas Blend! This special blend started with the wonderful San Jose Elefante, which gives it a crisp Champagne-like note. Then we added El Limon Washed Pacamara, for a sweet creamy base and citrus notes, and then a little Ana Sora Washed to accentuate the lemon and bring it all together. The perfect coffee to enjoy whilst you unwrap your Christmas gifts. 

• 40% El Salvador San Jose Washed Elefante
• 40% Guatemala El Limon Washed Pacamara
• 20% Ethiopia Ana Sora Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Champagne, lemon, cream

Resting Recommendation
We recommend a 5-7 day rest after the date of roasting before brewing this coffee as espresso, but there's a lot of personal preference in that so, by all means, please brew whenever you like!

Roasting Information
Medium Dark - Although the flavours are light and bright here, the roast needs to be pushed up to the edge of second before it's dropped out, but keeping a fairly quick pace.

Episode 632: El Salvador Finca Las Brumas Washed SL28

Juan Jose Ernesto 'Neto' Menéndez Argüello belongs to the fourth generation of coffee farmers in his family. His father died in 1995. After completing his studies at university, Neto had the opportunity to start working in the coffee industry at J. Hill & Cia in 2000. He left J. Hill & Cia after five years and began his second coffee experience at JASAL.

Both companies gave him the opportunity to meet 'Grano de Oro' from another perspective, allowing him to learn the art and passion of cupping. He says those are very important in his life, and that they give him the opportunity to apply the coffee knowledge and experience he's gained through the years.

During his time in the coffee world, he has participated in various events like the Cup of Excellence (National Jury from 2003 to 2011), Q Auction, Q Grader, and the Star Cupper program organised by SCAA and CQI.

Las Brumas is located between 45 to 60 minutes from Santa Ana city. It has a cultivated area of 60 hectares' worth of coffee yield, all of which is at an altitude ranging from 1,450 to 1,700 metres above sea level (m.a.s.l.). It produces around 600 bags of coffee each year, and has an area of 35 hectares of virgin mountain at an altitude from 1,700 to 2,000 m.a.s.l.

The farm is located in the Sonsonate department near the area known as San Blas. Las Brumas has very rich volcanic soil; it's deep and very fertile, and has been generated by different Ilamatepec and Izalco volcanic eruptions throughout history.

One of the most important elements is the microclimate. It's very misty at the farm for most of the year, and that's why Neto decided to name the farm Finca Las Brumas. This amazing microclimate is generated when the warm air from the Pacific Ocean collides with the high peaks of Los Volcanes National Park (which comprises of the Santa Ana, Cerro Verde and Izalco volcanoes).

Due to its location between these three famous volcanoes in El Salvador, this unique microclimate reduces the amount of daylight that the coffee trees receive. This helps the coffee trees have a very slow photosynthesis, improving the maturation process; this, in turn, improves some attributes that are closely related to maturity, like the aroma, sweetness, acidity and flavour.

This is a medley of citrus and sugar. Up front it’s like lemon icing, before shifting into sweet clementines with a little hint of brown sugar in the background. The fruit keeps going on the aftertaste with passionfruit and orange.

• Country: El Salvador
• Department: Sonsonate
• Nearest city: Santa Ana
• Farm: Finca Las Brumas
• Producer: Juan Jose Ernesto 'Neto' Menéndez Argüello
• Varietal: SL28
• Processing system: Washed
• Altitude: 1,450–1,700 m.a.s.l.
• Type of soil: Sandy loam
• Average rainfall: 2,400 mm
• Types of shade: Ingas, sunk, cipers and belloto
• Flora and fauna present: Mountain trees, wildflowers, deer, squirrels, armadillos and snakes

CUPPING NOTES

Lemon icing, clementines, brown sugar, passionfruit, orange

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 7
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction:(+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roasting Information
Medium - keep this one before second gets going, to highlight the simple but intense sweetness and the citrus.

Episode 631: Costa Rica Finca Licho Yellow Honey Geisha

Buying coffee is simple, right? A farmer has coffee, you have money...easy! Well, not so much. One of the realities of coffee farming is unscrupulous coffee buyers turning up, promising the world and then not honouring their promises. For this reason, we never ask too much of the producers we work with for the first few years - you have to earn trust. Eventually, they trust us to be reliable and keep coming back. In the case of the Aguileras...well, it took them 8 years or so to warm to us. That’s just how it goes sometimes.

Here at Hasbean, we love to celebrate the awesome things that happen when strong relationships are built between roasters and producers, and Finca Licho is a shining example of that ethos. We first bought from this farm way back in 2007 when it was awarded 4th place in the Cup of Excellence. Fast forward thirteen years (gosh I feel old now), and Licho has become a firm favourite – both with customers and our little Hasbean team. The arrival of coffees from Finca Licho is greatly anticipated every year.

The farm is owned and run by Los Hermanos Aguilera. It's often translated as 'The Aguilera Brothers', but everyone is involved, not just the boys! The family of twelve brothers and sisters inherited the business from their parents, who started their coffee-growing career over 50 years ago. With the help of the third generation, the family work the farm with basically no hired labour except for during the harvest. They manage the mill and drying patios, fertilise, prune the coffee trees, and so on. They do it all themselves, and all year round. The Aguileras have a reputation for their deep understanding of quality at the farm and mill level, and this is why we are excited about working with them.

Situated 1,500 metres above sea level in the region of Naranjo, the farm is located in the volcanic Northern Cordiles corridor of the Western Valley, which is an area famous for its excellent coffee production. The majority of the coffee grown at Finca Licho is Villa Sarchi variety, but there's a smidge of Caturra too (they're about 65% and 25% of production respectively). The remainder of coffee production is made up of a mixture of more unusual varieties, some of which (this Geisha lot!) we've been able to snag this year now that they're established enough to provide a crop.

This coffee is yellow honey processed, which is just like the Pulped Natural method. The fruit is removed from the seed of the coffee bush and left to dry. The main difference is that there is no water involved when the cherry is removed, so mucilage sticks to the bean. This can be dangerous, but it's necessary in these parts of Costa Rica where water is limited: water is a precious commodity in this area of Naranjo, so this method suits the location very well.

The coffee ends up clustering whilst drying because there is so much mucilage. So the coffee either needs to be turned regularly to stop this happening, or it has to be broken up. Over-fermentation can happen at this stage and you can end up with a not-so-good cup, but the Aguilera brothers are well-versed in this method and are some of the most skilled in Costa Rica.

We’ve loved the Licho Villa Sarchi Yellow Honey since we first tried it, but this year we’ve got loads of other coffees from the Hermanos Aguileras! Two naturals from Licho, Villa Sarchi from Finca Toño, Pacamara and this, their Geisha. We’re super proud that we pay fair prices for all our coffees, but it isn’t just about a price per kilogram - it’s about how much you buy. Because we’re buying loads of coffee from them, it makes a bigger difference than if we just wanted to buy the Geisha on it’s own. With less coffee they’ll have to risk selling elsewhere (and not sure how much they’ll get for it), they’re doing better, so they share that back to us too with a little discount on this spectacular coffee - and we in turn pass that on to you.

P.s. did I mention, it was a lot from Licho which finished 11th in this year’s Cup of Excellence competition in Costa Rica? :)

Geisha is a varietal that has attracted lots of attention among coffee buyers and farmers, with some super high prices being paid for tiny lots. The name comes from the Gesha village in Ethiopia, where it’s said to have come from. I say 'said to' because it’s believed that coffee stock from this region made its way to Costa Rica (and then on to Panama) in the 1950s, but didn’t find much favour in its new home.

As with other experimental varietals that didn’t do particularly well, the plants were largely ignored or forgotten. Some grew wild or mixed into difficult-to-reach corners of farms. That means it’s difficult to be sure how close what we now call 'Geisha' is to those seeds from Ethiopia many years ago. Regardless, Geisha’s reputation suddenly hit the big time around 2004 as it attracted praise (and high prices) in the Taste of Panama competition, and it became a must-try for all you coffee geeks out there.

There has been talk of the name – Geisha vs Gesha – and we like to listen to the people that grew the coffee. It says 'Geisha' on our bags from the farm, so we're going with 'Geisha'.

This coffee is super sweet with big juicy mango. A lime acidity balances that and there's a floral edge to it all which adds an interesting complexity. On the finish I get yellow plums, moving in to orange on the aftertaste.

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Western Valley
• Province: Alajuela
• Nearest city: Naranjo de Alajuela
• Farm: Finca Licho
• Producers: Los Hermanos Aguilera
• Farm size: 28 hectares
• Coffee growing area: 9.10 hectares
• Altitude: 1,500 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Geisha
• Processing system: Yellow Honey

CUPPING NOTES

Mango, lime, floral, yellow plum, orange

Clean cup: (1–8): 7
Sweetness: (1–8): 8
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 7
Correction:(+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 89

Roasting Information
Medium – give this a little extra time to develop in the gap, dropping it once you're most of the way through the gap and definitely before you reach second crack.

Episode 630: Costa Rica Toño

Grown by the Aguilera brothers (of Finca Licho fame) in the province of Naranjo, in the volcanic Northern Cordiles corridor of the Western Valley, this coffee is cultivated at an altitude of 1,450 metres above sea level. Like on Licho, most of their coffee is of the Villa Sarchi variety, which is native to the area and excellent in the cup. Villa Sarchi is a Bourbon mutation (similar to Caturra and Pacas) originally found in Naranjo. It's a dwarf variety with short internodes and (usually) higher-yielding production.

The Aguileras are twelve brothers and sisters, all of whom are involved in coffee as inherited from their parents. The brothers work the mill and farms themselves with basically no hired labour except for pickers during the harvest. With the help of the third generation, they work the mill and drying patios, prune the coffee fields, fertilise, and so on; and they do it all year round. The Aguilera brothers understand quality at the farm and mill level, and this is why we are excited about working with them. We first met them through the Cup of Excellence competition and they’ve continued to do well in that - in fact this year they had a lot from Licho finish 11th and a lot from Toño narrowly missed out on being included (it was top of the National Jury, meaning it did super well in the first stage but was a hair's breadth short of making it into the all-important International Jury which is the second stage of the competition!).

This coffee is honey processed, which is like the pulped natural method. The fruit is removed from the seed of the coffee bush and left to dry. The main difference is that there is no water involved when the cherry is removed, so mucilage sticks to the bean. This can be dangerous, but it's necessary in these parts of Costa Rica where water is limited: water is a precious commodity in this area of Naranjo, so this method suits the location very well.

The coffee ends up clustering whilst drying because there is so much mucilage. So the coffee either needs to be turned regularly to stop this happening, or it has to be broken up. Over-fermentation can happen at this stage and you can end up with a not-so-good cup, but the Aguilera brothers are well-versed in this method and are some of the most skilled in Costa Rica.

Want to know a little more about honey processing? Here's a video you might enjoy!

There's a fruit sweetness to it which reminds me of yellow plums, but in a jammy kind of way. As it cools, there's a creamy flavour coming forward too - think of a custard cream biscuit. Then on the aftertaste is just a little shoulder of cranberry.

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Western Valley
• Province: Alajuela
• Nearest city: Naranjo de Alajuela
• Farm: Toño
• Producers: Aguilera family
• Altitude: 1,450 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Villa Sarchi
• Processing system: Yellow Honey

CUPPING NOTES

Yellow plum, custard cream, cranberry

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction:(+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information
Medium – through first crack, slow it a little to let the sweetness develop fully, but drop it before second crack gets going.

Episode 629: Thailand Doi Pangkhon Natural

Our sourcing partners Beanspire have been working in Doi Pangkhon for 7 years now. Doi Pangkhon, in Chiang Rai, has 300 households, each typically producing about 1-2 tons of parchment. In the past years, Beanspire worked with each house individually on their wet processing and bought their parchment before hulling and grading at our mill.

During the 2017-2018 season, there was substantial investment in a new wet mill and is currently being operated by a few trusted partner producers and allows for more control of the coffee processing. In 2018-2019 season, the mill was improved with the addition of a new roof, new pulpers and improved workflows. This harvest season, the mill received a new electricity generator, a cupping lab was built for the farmers, and new concentrate flooring was put down too.

This is a natural processed micro lot. Coffee cherries were floated and then laid on bamboo raised beds in a one-inch layer. Under-ripes and fermented cherries were sorted out throughout the drying process and the cherries were raked multiple times each day. After the cherries were dried, they're bagged to cure for two months before milling at the dry mill.

All of the villagers belong to Akha Hilltribe and they are very young for coffee farmers, 25-35 years old, mostly. The elevation at Doi Pangkhon is from 1,250-15,00 meters above sea level. This area is 19 degrees north of the equator, which means that this elevation is really high (e.g. Colombia Narino is 1 degree north, Costa Rica Terrazu is 9 degree north so coffee can grow beyond 1,600m there). Coffee cannot grow in Thailand above 1,550m.

The varietals here are a mixture of Typica, Catuai, and Chiang Mai (with many unknowns as well). Chiang Mai is a local hybrid that is a cross between SL28 x Caturra x Hibrido de Timor. So it's a catimor variant (like Colombia and Castillo varietals!) that's backcrossed with SL28 in order to improve the cup quality. It's a rust-resistant cultivar that's been developed by the late Thai King as part of his effort to eradicate opium plantation by the hill tribe in the North.

In terms of green preparation, the coffee went through a destoner, huller, size grader, density table and ended with hand-sorting. The green passed through density table multiple times. The coffee was shipped coffee in a triple-layered bag, which includes a cotton bag in the outer layer, High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) in the middle layer and Grain Pro in the innermost layer.

Boozy Christmas pudding meets sticky toffee pudding right here. There's a hit of fruity booze which reminds me of sherry with a bit of orange peel. That's backed up by a sweet, velvety body with a big toffee sweetness and a sprinkle of raisins.

• Country: Thailand
• Region: Doi Pangkhong, Chiang Rai
• Altitude: 1,250–1,500 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Natural
• Varietals: Catuai, Typica and Chiang Mai

CUPPING NOTES

Sherry, orange, toffee, raisins

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roasting Information
Medium to medium-dark - through first and keep this going steadily towards second, looking for the first pops of second in the cooling tray.

Episode 628: El Salvador Finca La Ilusion Washed Bourbon

One of our all-time favourite farms returns once again!

I was visiting some of the farms we buy from during a buying trip to El Salvador in 2008. I actually arrived on the evening of the Cup of Excellence awards, and after the ceremony I was walking around when this guy who seemed very popular came over to me and introduced himself. He was Ernesto, or Neto, as I would come to know him. He'd just won the Cup of Excellence competition with his 'La Ilusión' farm, which is the sister farm to 'Alaska'. Alaska is a farm we had bought from via the Cup of Excellence the year before. Ernesto invited me to visit La Ilusión the next day, and it was so great to finally meet someone I had communicated with so many times via email!

Neto bought La Ilusión many years ago. The farm has coffee trees averaging 20+ years of age and is growing 95% Bourbon (70% is Red Bourbon and 25% is Orange Bourbon). The remaining 5% is a combination of other varietals, and it's possible to spot some Typica and Kenya trees too.

The farm is run using environmentally friendly practices because Neto is trying to maintain a balance with the surrounding ecosystem, which is part of a natural fauna corridor crucial to migratory and native birds. This is very important for Ernesto because La Ilusión neighbours one of the most important national parks in El Salvador, known as 'Los Andes'. It is nestled on the Santa Ana volcano and delineates his farm with dense pine and cypress forest, which itself provides a special micro-climate for La Ilusión.

The naturally processed version of this coffee was used by the 2011 World Barista champion, Alejandro Mendez. He caused a bit of a stir at the WBC by using a naturally-processed lot in his milk drinks and his signature drink, and then using the washed version (this coffee) as his espresso. It caused such a stir that he won! That year I'd roasted the coffee for Alejandro, and it had been grown by Neto. There was a magical moment backstage in which I was stood, polishing glass, with Alejandro and Neto; the grower, roaster and barista all stood together, preparing for the presentation. It's not too often you get such wonderful things happening! Aah, the wonders of barista competition. 😊

This begins with a big sweetness which reminds me of a Fruit Salad sweets. Then comes a clean pear in the finish, but with a delicate milk chocolate behind it and, on the aftertaste, a grating of lemon zest.

• Country: El Salvador
• Region: Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range
• Department: Santa Ana
• City: Santa Ana
• Farm: La Ilusión
• Farmer: Juan Jose Ernesto Menéndez Argüello
• Altitude: 1,750–1,850 m.a.s.l.
• Variety: Bourbon
• Processing system: Washed

CUPPING NOTES

Fruit Salad sweets, pear, milk chocolate, lemon zest

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1–8): 7
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6
Flavour: (1–8): 7
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction:(+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information
Medium to medium-dark - through first and slow it a little, pushing it towards the second but finishing the roast before second gets going.

Episode 627: Nicaragua Finca Limoncillo Natural Red Bourbon

The story of Hasbean and Finca Limoncillo is a long and exciting one - we've been working together for 13 years now! A bakers' dozen of coffee harvests shared between Matagalpa and Stafford make us very happy customers. I've been telling the story of this relationship for many years now and I don't intend to stop any time soon because it's such a big, big, big relationship for me 🌟 So much of where we are today has come from this relationship. I'm really proud of everything that's happened in the past, and super excited for where we can go in the future.

Limoncillo (and a handful of other fantastic farms) are owned by Dr. Erwin Mierich. Having previously lived and worked in the USA, he returned to Nicaragua in the mid-1990s. He explained, "While I was living in the United States, I worked as a gynaecologist, but then I had to come back to Nicaragua and lead this farm. Coffee has been my passion since I was a little boy". In the years we have worked together Erwin has visited Stafford many times, and it's always a pleasure to have him around. Last time he was visiting we ended up at a Weird Beard tap takeover in Manchester, talking to two Weird Beards about crazy brewing/coffee farming ideas! A coffee from Finca Limoncillo (the 'Funky Red Pacamara') is used in two of Weird Beard's beers: Black Perle and Double Perle, both of which are mighty delicious beers! A fitting collaboration to evolve from our continued business dealings when you consider how much time the family have dedicated to showing me how Latin American people like to party! On my very first visit to Nicaragua, the two people who showed me around were Erwin Jr and Steve Mierisch, the sons of the farmer. It was really cool, lifelong friends were made, and they taught me a lot about coffee production in the region.

Our relationship with Finca Limoncillo began in 2007, and back then we were buying their delicious coffee as part of a buying group. I cupped the coffee and instantly loved it - I knew I had to have it. It was a wonderful surprise to discover after the auction closed that it was owned by a family in Nicaragua who were already good friends of mine, and indeed probably the only people I knew from the whole country! The following year I visited the farm with our Nicaraguan importers and through my phenomenal Steve Pester Powers I got them to agree to bring the coffee into the UK for us (probably just to stop the flow of emails and phone calls from that annoying ginger bloke!)

A few years ago we were notified by the importers that they would not be buying the coffee again (for reasons other than the cup quality) which led to some frantic phone calls on my part, and a dig down the back of the sofa for enough loose change to fund buying 12 months' worth of coffee all in one go. There were many, many obstacles in the way of doing this deal, but we were lucky in that we were able to pull everything together in a very short amount of time. The upside of all of this is that we now work directly with Finca Limoncillo instead of going via anyone else. This coffee has gone from a one-off Cup of Excellence buy to a fantastic long-term relationship that I'm so very proud to have.

Finca Limoncillo is located in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua and it's a whopping 171 hectares in size, which is heckin chonky! 109 hectares of this is used for coffee cultivation, with the remainder used to raise cattle and horses, and left to natural woodland. The family have heaps of policies and initiatives to make everything as sustainable as possible on this vast farming area: their use of chemicals is minimal, and the impact on the environment is always minimised by careful and considerate land management. It's owned and run by the Mierisch family who are, by now, very close friends, and well-respected producers in Nicaragua. They're known for their experimental processing, varietal work, and exceptional coffee.

The family employ over 3000 staff during the harvest, and at Limoncillo over 60 families live on the farm full time. They are seriously loved by the guys who work for them, more than any other producer we buy from there is genuine love and respect between the family and their workers. The fact that the family are our friends helps us drill down into the details of what they do for the people who work for them. This information continues to prove to me that good people grow good coffee. My last visit was February this year (right before the world went into lockdown!) and it was truly memorable - myself and Joanna (of Drop Coffee fame) sat up with Eleane until 2 am chatting and drinking rum together... the farm visit the next morning was a very quiet one! Luckily Limoncillo is a beautiful location, it boasts nine waterfalls within the farm, which is exactly the sort of place you want to be when you've had too much fun with friends the night before.

On the farm, the family:

• The employers pay their staff 30% more than what is typical minimum wage, as well as:
• Provide free housing for 60 families on their farms
• Provide free electricity and running water for their homes
• Provide free food for all workers
• Have free daycare facilities for families to use
• Provide free health care facilities on the farms
• Employee on-site teachers who educate their staff and teach other skills such as pottery and weaving. The goal is to help staff diversify their skills. The teachers are also paid twice the wages they would receive in the cities.

Rather like a slice of fruitcake, this is full of juicy raisins and sultanas, with a dark sweetness of brown sugar wrapping it up and a layer of marzipan to finish it off. The aftertaste goes back to the dark fruit, but with a delicate black grape.

• Country: Nicaragua
• Municipality: Yasica Norte
• 
Region: Matagalpa

• Farm name: Limoncillo
• Producers: The Mierisch family
• Farm size: 171 manzanas (hectares)
• Coffee growing area: 109 hectares

• Altitude: 1,200 m.a.s.l.

• Varietal: Red Bourbon
• Processing method: Natural

CUPPING NOTES

Raisin, sultana, marzipan, brown sugar, black grape

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6.5
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 86.5

Roast Information
Medium-dark - Through first and push this right up to the first pops of second. This needs a bit of extra development time and may need a bit more heat than most coffees to get there too.

Episode 626: Thailand Doi Pangkhon Black Honey

Thailand is not traditionally known as a country that produces specialty coffee, yet it has been producing Arabica coffee since the early '80s. It started off as part of the Thai King’s opium eradication project. Because Arabica coffee thrives in conditions similar to those favoured by opium, it was selected as a substitution crop against the cultivation of the illicit plant.

Today, Thailand produces about 8,000 tonnes of Arabica coffee, mainly in the mountainous north of the country. On top of that, Thailand produces about ten times as much Robusta coffee, making it the third-largest coffee producer in Asia. Thai specialty coffee is rarely seen in the top specialty roaster segment abroad.

Thailand is a middle-income country and has a thriving local coffee market. That means relatively high production costs for a relatively undemanding coffee market.

Having said this, a strong specialty coffee segment is emerging. At least on the consumer side, the Third Wave is quite well established, with artisan roasters and cafés in Bangkok and Chang Mai. These roasters have recently begun to develop and buy local coffees too, not least because of import tariffs on foreign coffees.

However, this scene is still very small and hardly creates enough incentives for farmers to improve the quality of their coffee to specialty grade – at least for now. So even though they have been doing a great job at pushing the limits of Thai coffee, the specialty coffee scene would be greatly aided with more specialty coffee knowledge and global integration.

Our sourcing partners Beanspire have been actively assisting the farming families of Doi Pangkhon to improve the quality of their coffee. For this lot, they specifically worked with two entrepreneurial siblings of the Becheku family from the Akha hilltribe: Ata and Pupae.

At 31, Ata is the oldest of the three siblings. His entrepreneurial spirit and leadership is a force for change in his community. Pupae is Ata’s 27-year-old sister. She worked in both Korea and Taiwan before returning home to Doi Pangkhon to help her brother produce coffee. Pupae speaks fluent Chinese, and she's a Chinese language teacher at a local school.

The young Bechekus are third generation coffee farmers at Doi Pangkhon, and they represent one of the most inspiring aspects of the Thai coffee scene.

The future of the entire specialty industry around the world is unclear, because farmers and their children are quitting coffee manufacturing for other more lucrative opportunities. 

Pupae and other people like her are returning home to work on coffee because they see a bright future in it, and they are farming coffee by choice; not because they lack other opportunities.

Doi Pangkhon’s coffee farms, at 1,250–1,500 metres above sea level, contain Caturra, Catimor, Bourbon and Typica cultivars. Such a mixture of cultivars allows farmers to mitigate various risks. For example, Bourbon and Typica tend to be weaker plants and sometimes come under attack from leaf rust and other diseases, but they have great cupping potential. Caturra and especially Catimor are more rust resistant and have a higher yield.

Due to the famously fragrant soil in the Chang Rai area, even these hybrid varieties are capable of producing complex and delicious coffees, yet they could struggle if grown in different areas.

Imagine a Cadbury's Wholenut - lashings of milk chocolate with a hefty sprinkle of hazelnut - and you're pretty much there with this coffee. Now throw in a sprinkle of macadamia nuts too and just a hint of caramel for a super moreish hug in a mug.

• Country: Thailand
• Region: Doi Pangkhong, Chiang Rai
• Altitude: 1,250–1,500 m.a.s.l.
• Processing method: Black Honey
• Varietals: Catuai, Typica & Chiang Mai

CUPPING NOTES

Milk chocolate, hazelnut, macadamia nut

Clean cup: (1–8): 6
Sweetness: (1–8): 6.5
Acidity: (1–8): 6
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 6.5
Flavour: (1–8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1–8): 6
Balance: (1–8): 6.5
Overall: (1–8): 6.5
Correction: (+36): +36

Total: (max. 100): 86.5

Roasting Information
Medium to Medium Dark - keep pushing it steadily through the gap, looking for the first pops of second as it cools.