Kilimbi, Natural - Rwanda

£12.00

The Kilimbi Washing Station is located spectacularly on the eastern shore of Lake Kivu in Rwanda’s Western Province. It was the first washing station to be established by the young and innovative Muraho Trading Company (MTC) whose focus is on quality, and showcasing Rwanda’s great potential for high-grade speciality coffee.

Since building Kilimbi in March 2016, MTC has gone on to establish the Gisheke, Rugali, Shyira, Vunga and Bumbogo washing stations, and we look forward to exploring all that they have to offer with you over the coming months and years. But right now, it’s time for Kilimbi to take the spotlight with this stunning natural bourbon.

Kilimbi was the first washing station in Rwanda to be granted approval to produce natural and honey processed coffees, and its has set the bar in this respect. This year 1078 farmers in the surrounding area delivered their coffee to Kilimbi. The coffee is hand sorted, then floated to separate out under-ripe or damaged cherries. It is then pulped, and hand-sorted again to remove any visually under-ripe cherries before being laid out to dry on raised beds.

The quality of the processing is evident in the cup. The coffee is is incredibly clean and bursting with fruit flavour. We think it tastes like sour cherry, raspberry jam and nectarine - in short, lip-smackingly delicious.

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Suke Quto (2020) - Ethiopia

£12.00

Suke Quto, one of our favourite and most-loved coffees, is back... but not as you know it! Over the course of the last couple of years, huge efforts have been made by our importing partner Trabocca, in collaboration with Fairfood, to improve the traceability of this coffee.

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 each year, and deliver it to the Suke Quto Farm for processing.

This year we are able to tell you the name of each of the 278 contributing out-growers, how much coffee each of them delivered to the farm, and how much they were paid for it. You can also see details of the coffee's subsequent journey to Trabocca's storage facility in Holland, its last port of call before onward shipment to ourselves.

Follow Suke Quto's journey here.

With a background in agronomy, horticulture and quality-control, producing sustainable, high-quality coffee is at the heart of Tesfaye's operation. The coffee is EU Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified, and the farm participates in Trabocca’s “Cherry Red” scheme that rewards farmers for hard work and innovation.

As always, the coffee itself is absolutely delicious. In the cup it is super clean, and reminds us of black tea, cola, and honeydew melon. When it comes to meeting our guiding principles of quality, traceability and sustainability, it doesn't get much better than this!

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Sweet Valley - Colombia

£11.00

Colombia's Granja La Esperanza is renowned worldwide for its experimental and competition winning coffees. Sweet Valley, a natural-processed colombia variety from Finca Potosi, was one of our favourite coffees last year, so we are delighted to be able to offer it to you for a second year running. If possible, it is even tastier this year - clean, syrupy, and absolutely bursting with fruit flavour. In the cup it reminds us of white grape, mango and retsina.

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. Finca Potosi now has 188,725 coffees trees spread over 52 hectares. The farm is split into 10 lots and grows sidra, mandela, san juan, castillo and colombia varieties.

In Don Rigoberto's 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".

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Fredy Orantes - Guatemala

£10.00

Finca Buena Vista is located in the Fraijanes region of Guatemala, and is named for its remarkable views over nearby Santa Rosa. Its 7 hectares are farmed by Fredy Orantes, who has gained a reputation for producing some of the highest quality lots in the region, and who has helped raise the level of expectation as to the quality of coffee that can be grown here. Fredy has paid particular attention to the separation of varietals grown on the farm, with this particular lot being comprised of 100% catuai.

Compared to the Huehuetenango region in the north of Guatemala, from where we have previously sourced coffees, Fraijanes is hotter and the sun is stronger. In the field, grevillea and avocado trees provide shade coverage, and allow the coffee to ripen more slowly than it otherwise might. Aside from the environmental benefits of shade growing, this practice is thought to contribute to more complexity in the cup. On the flip side, the hot weather and strong sunshine has allowed Fredy to experiment with natural and honey processing, as opposed to the washed method that is commonly used in the region. This, combined with his meticulous separation of varietals, means that Fredy is able to produce micro-lots with real character, and command a higher premium for his coffee.

The result of all his hard work is a delicious, clean, sweet and syrupy coffee, with notes of baked pear, toffee and pecan.

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Mapache - El Salvador

£9.00

Mapache is the collective name for a group of coffee farms in El Salvador’s Apaneca Ilamatepec region, owned and operated by fifth generation coffee farmers, Jan-Carlo and Sofia Handtke. Aside from the quality of the coffee that they produce, it is Jan-Carlo and Sofia’s focus on growing coffee in a way that is sustainable, and in particular their belief in shade-growing that really caught our attention.

We first became aware of Mapache and the incredible work that they do whilst listening to a podcast by revered fermentation specialist, Lucia Solis. Lucia has a background working in the wine industry, but has more recently transferred her skills to coffee, where she advises farmers as to how they might improve quality through changes to their processing and fermentation techniques.

In Episode 9 of Making Coffee she interviews Jan-Carlo during one of the many long car journeys they undertook visiting the different farms. What comes across more than anything is Jan-Carlo’s deep love for his work, and his commitment to farming with respect for, and in harmony with nature - influenced perhaps by his other great passion, surfing.

Jan-Carlo and Mapache also feature in the 2020 film Shade Grown Coffee. Through the eyes of a number of coffee farmers who believe in the practice, the film tells the story of how growing coffee under a canopy of native trees can greatly benefit the local flora and fauna, the people working with the coffee, and the coffee itself - and ultimately provide a model for a more sustainable method of coffee farming.

Despite all the hurdles facing coffee farmers today in El Salvador - disease, expensive farm inputs, scarcity of labour, political insecurity, the price of coffee - Jan-Carlo and Sofia remain optimistic that there is a future for coffee. Whilst many are giving up coffee farming in the face of these hurdles, Jan-Carlo and Sofia are doubling-down, buying new farms, and making significant investments in education and equipment.

Jan-Carlo and Sofia have been managing the farms for 15 years, and the fruits of their labour so far are impressive. The farms have some of the most impressive shade crop coverage, and beautiful mature trees that we have seen on a coffee farm. The processing of the coffee is impeccable, and the cup quality speaks for itself. It is a real pleasure to support their work and to share their delicious coffee with you.

This particular lot is a blend of bourbon and pacas grown on three of the Mapache farms - El Naranjito, Casa de Zinc, and Cartagua. Some of the trees from which the coffee is harvested are almost a century old. The ripe cherries are hand-picked, then pulped and washed using minimal amounts of water at Mapache’s state of the art milling station, Beneficio El Recreo. The coffee is then sun-dried slowly on clay patios to ensure consistent quality and a long shelf life.

In the cup the coffee is clean, well-balanced, and medium bodied, with a mild acidity. We think it tastes like crème caramel, peanut brittle and stewed plums. 

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Mountain Rescue - El Carmen, Colombia

£8.00

Supporting the Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association *

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We select Mountain Rescue from seasonal crop to deliver a classic, clean and balanced profile that works equally well on espresso and filter. Our latest iteration is grown by 350 smallholder farmers in the hills surrounding El Carmen de Acevedo, and represented by the cooperative Asociación Agropecuaria El Carmen de Acevedo.

Our importing partner Raw Material met with the cooperative members in 2017 to understand what was preventing them from accessing the speciality coffee market. Despite good production levels, income from coffee had dropped to unsustainable levels over the previous few years, and the smallholder families were faced with the prospect of having to find alternative income outside of coffee. The volatility of the commodity coffee market prohibited farmers from investing in the infrastructure improvements required to improve the quality of their coffee. Raw Material also noticed a huge gap between the way coffee quality is evaluated at farm level compared with at the roasting end of the value chain.

On the back of these meetings Raw Material launched the Red Associations with the goal of achieving stable and sustainable prices for the cooperative’s lots through improved quality-control, knowledge-sharing, and a connection to the specialty coffee market. The cooperative now offers extra drying tables to allow the farmers to dry the coffee themselves, as opposed to selling them to local intermediaries at a cheap price. There is also a lab where the farmers can get real time feedback on the quality of their coffee.

With the new infrastructure in place Raw Material is able to offer a minimum fixed price of 1 million Colombian Pesos per “carga” of dry “parchment” coffee. This represents double the household income of the typical producing family in the region, compared with the average income from the regular coffee market over the past five years. On top of this they receive a second payment from Raw Material once the coffee is sold for export.

The hope is that this system of guaranteed payment on the day the coffee is delivered (as opposed to waiting on credit terms or payment on export only), plus the possibility of a top-up payment on export, will give the farmers a sustainable income, and the confidence and certainty required to invest in improving the quality of their coffee.

In the cup the coffee is clean, sweet and beautifully balanced, with notes of milk-chocolate, cherry jam and frangipane.

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* The Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association (LDSAMRA) provides a vital service 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 safely and effectively.

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

** For the time being we will be splitting the £1 per kilo raised between LDSAMRA and the Rwanda Landslides Appeal more information about which can be found here.

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Penny Rock - Daterra, Brazil

£8.00

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. 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.

You can learn more about what makes Daterra so special here.

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Sugar Cane Decaf - El Carmen, Colombia

£9.00

Our current decaf is the decaffeinated version of Mountain Rescue. The coffee is grown, picked, processed and dried in exactly the same way as Mountain Rescue, but is then sent to Descafecol in Manizales for decaffeination by way of the Natural Sugar Cane EA Process.

This process involves placing the coffee in a solution of water and ethyl acetate, a naturally occurring compound derived through the fermentation of sugar cane. Aside from resulting in the tastiest decaf coffee we have tried to date, this process also has the best sustainability credentials in comparison to other decaffeination processes that we are aware of. The carbon footprint is kept to a minimum, with the solvent being derived from the domestic sugar cane industry, and the process occurs within Colombia (as opposed to Europe or North America), which also benefits the domestic economy.

In the cup the coffee is clean and sweet with notes of cocoa, brown sugar and blueberry.

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Moonshine - Lucky Dip

£7.00

Moonshine is something of a lucky dip. It may be an experimental blend that we are keen to get feedback on. It may be a coffee that we contracted a little too much of and we need a bit of help getting through. It may be a coffee that is more than ten days past roast date, but in reality is still perfectly delicious, and arguably still to hit its prime. Whatever it is, it will always be speciality grade coffee sourced in adherence with all of our usual principles. We keep a record of each batch, so if you really like the batch you receive, and want to know what it is, just drop us a line and we'll be happy to tell you.

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Camp Mug

£15.00

We scoured the market to find the best looking, highest quality enamel mugs we could find, and we think the results speak for themselves. A damn fine vessel worthy of holding damn fine coffee!

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Atmos Vacuum Canister

£35.00

The equipment that we offer is either kit that we use ourselves at home or at the roastery, or from manufacturers that we have grown to trust for producing consistently high-quality products. This usually means a harmonious balance between function, aesthetic and ease of use.

WHAT WE SAY

The Atmos Vacuum Canister from Fellow will help you keep your coffee fresh for as long as possible. Twisting the lid back and forth sucks air out of the container to prevent oxidation and to extend the coffee's shelf life by as much as 50%. The canisters have been customised by our friends at Penny & Merriwether, and we couldn't be happier with the results. 

WHAT THEY SAY

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