Daterra - Masterpiece - Laurina

£24.00

Please note, we roast this coffee to order every Monday. Orders placed after midnight on Sunday will not be roasted until the following Monday. Orders containing this coffee and other items will not be dispatched until the entire order is complete.

This is an incredibly rare and special coffee from our heroes at Daterra, one of the world's most pioneering, sustainable and experimental coffee farms.

When we visited Daterra in 2019 we were taken around areas of the farm that were designated as experimental growth areas for varieties not commonly planted in this area of Brazil. Sometimes the experiments are unsuccessful with low yields or unimpressive flavour profiles, but occasionally the results are stunning. On top of this Daterra have a smaller, stand-alone processing unit dedicated to experimenting with different processing methods. The very best products of these experiments are sold at auction each year as Daterra's Masterpieces.

It is our great privilege to have secured one of these lots this year. 'Dora' (named after a character in the Brazilian children's novel Capitães de Areia) is of the rare laurina variety processed by way of natural anaerobic fermentation.

Laurina is coveted both for it's beautiful, delicate flavour profile and for that fact that it is naturally low in caffeine (between 0.4-0.75% as opposed to 1.2-1.6% in most arabica coffee). Caffeine is a natural insecticide, so the low amounts in the laurina variety make it a particularly difficult and low yielding plant to grow. Daterra first planted laurina in 1994, and had such belief in its potential that they kept trying for 25 years until they finally figured out how to make it thrive.

For this coffee the ripest cherries from the laurina trees are processed by way of fully natural anaerobic fermentation inside a steel tank equipped with an airlock valve. This system allows oxygen to get out of the tank but stops anything from getting inside. As the cherries ferment, they release CO2 and, because CO2 is denser than oxygen, it pushes the lighter gas out through the valve. After a few hours, the tank environment becomes completely anaerobic and allows certain microorganisms the perfect conditions for fermentation and enzymatic reactions to happen inside of the beans.

The result is a stunning, incredibly sweet cup of coffee with notes of dark chocolate, dulce de leche and papaya.

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Gondo - Kenya

£10.00

This stunning micro-lot from the New Kiriti Farmers Cooperative in the Mathioya District of Kenya was the highlight of this year's London Coffee Festival and was the only coffee we committed to buying right there on the spot. Sometimes a coffee comes along that is so damn tasty that you just have to get it to share with your customers, no matter the cost. Last year it was the beautiful Suke Quto from Ethiopia. This year, this is that coffee! It has all the classic hallmarks of great Kenyan coffee with intense fruit flavours, but it is also incredibly clean with a hoppy bite that made it stand out from the other Kenyans that we cupped.

The Gondo factory is owned and operated by the New Kiriti Farmers Cooperative which has 560 members. The coffee is picked and brought to the factory the same day for selection and separation, and is hand-sorted before de-pulping begins. The ripe cherries are washed using fresh water from the nearby Kananahu stream, and the coffee is sun-dried on raised beds.

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Daterra - Collection - Full Bloom

£9.00

Full Bloom is yet another beautiful coffee from our friends at Daterra, one of the world's most pioneering and sustainable coffee farms. It is one of Daterra's 'Collection' coffees which are comprised of the very top lots grown on the farm (scoring 86-89 points).

This coffee is of the Red Bourbon variety more commonly associated with Rwanda and Burundi and famed for its sweet and juicy flavour profile, and is grown on plots BV 25 and 43.

Full Bloom is a natural processed coffee. After selective mechanical picking of the tree dried cherries, the coffee is meticulously sorted and processed using Daterra's 'Penta Process'. The processed coffee is then vacuum packed to ensure maximum freshness during onward transit. We saw the entire process from tree to bag in action when we visited Daterra in 2019, and the level of care and attention to detail was truly something to behold.

Full Bloom is selected to deliver an elegant and refined fully natural cup of coffee. It is incredibly sweet, succulent and juicy with notes of blueberry, plum, date and cajeta.

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Huye Mountain - Rwanda

£9.00

It gives us great pleasure to welcome back one of our standout and most popular coffees from last year from the famous Huye Mountain washing station in Rwanda’s Southern Province.

Huye Mountain sprung to international fame with the release of 2014’s ‘A Film About Coffee’. The film tells the story of David Rubanzangabo who established the Huye Mountain washing station in 2011 with the aim of improving the quality of coffee grown in the region and consequently the plight of the smallholder farmers who grow it.

We met David at Huye Mountain in 2017 and were hugely impressed by the processes he has implemented to ensure that the coffee produced is of the highest quality. His drive for quality has brought about a big increase in the prices paid to local farmers. To encourage consistency of quality, David awards members whose coffees carry the highest cupping scores with prizes of cows (40 winners last year) and goats (60 winners last year). Such prizes make a huge difference to the lives of a farmers and their families as the animals will provide milk for around 6 years and a constant supply of organic fertiliser for the coffee trees.

During harvest season, Huye Mountain receives coffee cherry deliveries from around 1,330 producers. Typically, a smallholding in the district is just a quarter of a hectare in size (around 200 trees), and each farm produces roughly only 2 bags of coffee. The coffee grown is entirely red bourbon, which, coupled with the high altitudes (1,600 to 2,300m), delivers beautiful, complex flavours in the cup.

Historically all of the coffee at Huye Mountain was washed process, but in 2018 they started to experiment with natural and honey processes. The natural process employed at Huye Mountain involves meticulous cherry selection and hand sorting prior to drying. Drying is done on raised African beds for between 14 and 28 days, depending on the weather. The coffee is turned regularly during this time to ensure it remains free of mould and over-fermentation.

As per last year, the results are absolutely stunning. In the cup this coffee is big in body, warming, and full of fruit flavour. It is incredibly clean for a natural processed coffee with a pointed raspberry acidity and a subtle cognac booziness, alongside notes of clove, orange and ginger.

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El Cipres - El Salvador

£9.00

The El Cipres Estate is located on the north-eastern slopes of the San Salvador volcano in the El Bálsamo Quetzaltepec region of El Salvador, one of six coffee growing regions recognised by the Consejo Salvadoreño de Café (Coffee Council of El Salvador).

The farm is a long thin strip of 90 hectares that climbs up to 1,800m and produces around 3,000 bags annually. The estate is owned and run by the Alvarez Gallardo family who, since taking over the estate in 1992, have worked hard to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification as well as generally improving all aspects of the estate, both in terms of production and social responsibility. The family works hard to ensure that all workers are treated with respect and dignity. Food is subsidised for the permanent staff who live on the farm year round, and they have provided new efficient reduced-smoke cooking stoves as well as volcanic stones to filter waste water and reduce pollutants reaching the soils. During the picking season the workers receive free meals and coffee each day. The farm also supports the local school by subsiding the teaching assistant, supplying a computer, and providing sports kits.

In terms of the coffee itself, this particular lot, once floated and separated, was then submerged in a sealed container for 24 hours before being removed and cleaned. It was then placed on raised beds and left untouched for 24 hours, before being turned every hour to ensure even drying until it reached 11% humidity.

The maceration process reveals a more pronounced acidity whilst retaining the body and flavour usually associated with natural processed coffee from this region. In the cup it is rich and full-bodied, with notes of walnut, dark chocolate, grapefruit, kirsch and rum-raisin.

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Suke Quto - Ethiopia

£9.00

We are delighted to welcome back for a second year one of our favourite coffees. Last year this stunning organic and Rainforest Alliance certified coffee from the Suke Quto Farm in Ethiopia completely blew us away on the cupping table. We cupped it alongside a host of other Ethiopian coffees, and the moment we tried it there were no words, just a knowing look between myself and Mike that here was something special. It had all the hallmarks of high-grade washed Ethiopian coffee, with beautiful florals and notes of peach and bergamot, but with an intensity of flavour that elevated it above its rivals. This year's crop is no different and it is a pleasure to be able to share this beautiful coffee with you all again.

The Suke Quto farm was set up by Tesfaye Bekele following a bushfire in the area. In order to conserve the remaining forest he distributed coffee and shade tree seedlings amongst the local community and recruited out-growers to replant the forest. The out-growers harvest the coffee and deliver it to the Suke Quto Farm for processing. With a background in agronomy, horticulture and quality control, producing sustainable, high-quality coffee is at the heart of what Tesfaye is trying to achieve. The farm is organic and Rainforest Alliance certified and participates in revered importer Trabocca’s “Cherry Red” scheme which rewards Ethiopian farmers for hard work and innovation. The quality of the cup is testament to just how much of each has gone into creating this absolutely stunning lot.

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Seasonal Decaf - Guatemala

£8.00

Our current seasonal decaf is the decaffeinated version of our ever-popular Mountain Rescue coffee. It is grown by ten smallholder farmers based around the town of San Antonio Huista in Guatemala's famed Huehuetenango region, and has been sourced via our importing partner Primavera.

Primavera was set up by Nadine Rasch who grew up in Guatemala and whose family have had a coffee farm there for four generations. After studying finance in London, Nadine ended up working for a commodities fund where she saw the price for commodity coffee drop sharply. She came to realise that the only way to maintain stable prices for coffee was through quality. After working for one year with speciality coffee importers Mercanta, she moved back to Guatemala to gain experience of how things worked on the ground.

Most of Guatemala's highest quality coffees come from the Huehuetenango region. This is a very remote area of Guatemala, and the farmers' traditional route to market has been through local coyotes who mix all the coffee they collect together a pay the 'market' price. This model leaves no incentive for famers to practice methods that result in higher quality coffee, such as selective picking and better post-harvest processing. It is Nadine and Primavera's mission to change this. They want to educate farmers to produce better coffee that gives them access to the speciality coffee market, higher prices for their product and a more stable future.

This group of smallholder farmers are just some of the beneficiaries of Primavera's work. They are able to use the premium paid by Primavera to reinvest in their farms and wet mills in the hope of achieving higher yields and better quality coffee in the years to come. The coffee is washed in wet mills on each of the farms then sun-dried on patios. The dried parchment coffee is then transported to Nadine's family farm at Finca el Hato where it is sorted, dry-milled and packed for onward transport to ourselves.

SPARKLING WATER DECAFFEINATION PROCESS

The sparkling water decaffeination procedure is a gentle, natural and organically certified process which involves the following steps:

The green beans enter a ‘pre-treatment’ vessel where they are cleaned and moistened with water before being brought into contact with pressurised liquid carbon dioxide. When the green coffee beans absorb the water, they expand and the pores are opened resulting in the caffeine molecules becoming mobile.

The beans are then brought into contact with the pressurised liquid carbon dioxide which combines with the water to essentially form sparkling water. The carbon dioxide circulates through the beans and acts like a magnet, drawing out the mobile caffeine molecules.

The sparkling water then enters an evaporator which precipitates the caffeine rich carbon dioxide out of the water. The now caffeine free water is pumped back into the vessel for a new cycle.

This cycle is repeated until the required residual caffeine level is reached. Once this has happened, the circulation of carbon dioxide is stopped and the green beans are discharged into a drier.

The good caffeine selectivity of the carbon dioxide guarantees high retention of other coffee components which contribute to taste and aroma.

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Wonderful Wild Women - Guatemala

£8.00

The Wonderful Wild Women community started as the brainchild of the Lake District's very own Sarah Gerrish with the aim of inspiring women to get outdoors and active no matter their age or experience. Since its inception in 2015, the Wonderful Wild Women community has grown to be in the tens of thousands and profiles inspirational Wonderful Wild Women across the globe.

We've teamed up with Wonderful Wild Women to offer you coffees driven by some inspirational women working in the world of coffee.

Our first ever offering comes from Guatemala's Huehuetenango region. It is grown by Rosa Linda, Ana Marcos Morales and Miguela Morales, and is part of our favourite Guatemalan importer, Primavera's Female Coffee Growers project. In the cup it is sweet with good body and notes of brown sugar, peach and liquorice.

Primavera was set up by Nadine Rasch, who grew up in Guatemala, and whose family have had a coffee farm there for four generations. After studying finance in London, Nadine ended up working for a commodities fund where she saw the price for commodity coffee drop sharply. She came to realise that the only way to maintain stable prices for coffee was through quality (that facilitates access to the speciality coffee market and better prices), and she eventually returned to Guatemala with the aim of improving the plight of her country's producers.

Our relationship with Primavera goes from strength to strength to strength, in large part courtesy of their very own Wonderful Wild Woman, Hanna Huhtonen who represents Primavera in Europe. Aside from intrepidly sourcing wonderful coffee during harvest season in Guatemala, and travelling the globe to showcase it to us roasters, Hanna spends her time surfing and teaching yoga in Portugal. I first met Hanna during an intense and highly caffeinated London coffee festival. Amidst the melee, she must have seen my simmering distress and duly offered me a seat and a glass of water at the oasis that was the Primavera stand. She has had my utmost regard and trust ever since!

The poor economic and security situation in Guatemala has seen an increase in the rate of migration to the US in recent years. Most of these migrants are men, leaving their wives and daughters behind to take matters into their own hands. San Marcos Huista, a very rural and isolated community where people mostly speak the native Popti dialect, has seen about 50% of the male population leave to seek their fortune elsewhere. Because of its remote location, many obstacles remain for the women who are left in charge of the coffee farms to sell their coffee at the best prices. Many of them sell to the local "coyote" who typically drives by with a pick-up truck buying all coffee at a very low price regardless of quality.

Primavera's Female Coffee Growers project supports female growers by paying them better prices, and by giving them micro-loans and technical assistance in order to help them continuously improve the quality of the coffee they produce. We're proud to support this project by bringing you this wonderful coffee grown by Rosa Linda, Ana Marcos Morales and Miguela Morales.

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Dovetail - Colombia

£8.00

We select Dovetail from seasonal crop to deliver a balanced, fruit-forward espresso. Just like the eponymous dovetail joint, this coffee requires skill and patience to execute perfectly, but the reward is an elegant and perfectly balanced cup of coffee.

Our current offering comes from Finca Potosi in the Caicedonia region of Colombia, part of the famous Café Granja La Esperanza group of farms. In the cup it is tart and snappy up front with notes of green apple and cranberry, and a silky white chocolate finish.

Alongside Daterra, Café Granja La Esperanza is regarded as one of the most pioneering coffee producers in the world. Their focus on quality and experimentation has seen them win numerous prestigious awards in recent years.

Finca Potosi started life in 1930 when Israel Correa and Carmen Rosa Vega arrived in Caicedonia by mule from Armenia in the neighbouring department of Quindio seeking unoccupied land. They acquired the land on which Finca Potosi now stands for 4,000 Pesos (about $1.15 USD at the time), and started to plant arabica coffee. Israel and Carmen had fourteen children, and of those children it was their daughter Blanca and her husband Juan Antonio Herrera that were assigned to work on the farm in 1945. Today, Rigoberto Herrera continues the family tradition. In his own words, "I see Café Granja La Esperanza contributing to what we all want in Colombia and the world. The contribution to peace, creating jobs, giving support and good treatment to the people who work in the countryside... That is the future of Café Granja La Esperanza, sowing peace, development and education for people".

We are proud to support Rigoberto's vision by offering you this delicious coffee from this inspirational farm.

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Mountain Rescue - Guatemala

£8.00

From the mountains of Guatemala to the mountains of the Lake District, Mountain Rescue is the perfect everyday coffee, and is the proud recipient of 2 stars at the 2019 Great Taste Awards. In the cup it is extremely satisfying and comforting with notes of dark-chocolate, plum and nougat.

The Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association (LDSAMRA) provides a vital service here in the Lake District, helping injured and stricken hikers to safety from some of the most remote and precarious places in the country. The vast majority of incidents are safely resolved but there are inevitably a number of fatalities, and without the help of LDSAMRA this number would be much higher.

In order to carry out their work LDSAMRA rely on a team of brave and highly trained volunteers. We are friends with a number of them so are well aware of the great work that they do and the importance of donations to provide them with the kit necessary to do their job effectively.

With this in mind, we donate £1 per kilo of Mountain Rescue sold to LDSAMRA.

Our current Mountain Rescue coffee is grown by ten smallholder farmers based around the town of San Antonio Huista in Guatemala's famed Huehuetenango region, and has been sourced via our importing partner Primavera.

Primavera was set up by Nadine Rasch who grew up in Guatemala and whose family have had a coffee farm there for four generations. After studying finance in London, Nadine ended up working for a commodities fund where she saw the price for commodity coffee drop sharply. She came to realise that the only way to maintain stable prices for coffee was through quality. After working for one year with speciality coffee importers Mercanta, she moved back to Guatemala to gain experience of how things worked on the ground.

Most of Guatemala's highest quality coffees come from the Huehuetenango region. This is a very remote area of Guatemala, and the farmers' traditional route to market has been through local coyotes who mix all the coffee they collect together a pay the 'market' price. This model leaves no incentive for famers to practice methods that result in higher quality coffee, such as selective picking and better post-harvest processing. It is Nadine and Primavera's mission to change this. They want to educate farmers to produce better coffee that gives them access to the speciality coffee market, higher prices for their product and a more stable future.

This group of smallholder farmers are just some of the beneficiaries of Primavera's work. They are able to use the premium paid by Primavera to reinvest in their farms and wet mills in the hope of achieving higher yields and better quality coffee in the years to come. The coffee is washed in wet mills on each of the farms then sun-dried on patios. The dried parchment coffee is then transported to Nadine's family farm at Finca el Hato where it is sorted, dry-milled and packed for onward transport to ourselves.

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Penny Rock - Brazil

£7.00

Penny Rock is our Great Taste Award winning coffee from Daterra, one of the most pioneering and inspirational farms in the world. Named in homage to a beauty spot on the shores of Grasmere, our spiritual home, we select Penny Rock from seasonal crop to deliver a cup of coffee that bears all the classic hallmarks of coffee from the Cerrado Mineiro region of Brazil - great body, deep chocolate notes, and stone-fruit sweetness. The coffee is well-developed during the roast to accentuate body and sweetness, but is tempered to allow its character room to shine through and express itself in the cup.

I visited Daterra in June 2019 and was truly blown away by not just the scale of the farm, but by the care and level of detail with which it is managed, and the genuine focus on sustainability and quality that permeates everything that they do. Amongst numerous other accolades, in 2015 Daterra was awarded Prêmio Fazenda Sustentável (Most Sustainable Farm) from Globo Rural, Brazil’s foremost agricultural publication, and in March 2018 it became the world’s first farm to receive Level A certification from Rainforest Alliance. To see this implemented on the ground was a truly inspirational experience, and one that makes me incredibly proud to offer their coffee.

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