This year, I'm doing something a little different: I'll be buying very small amounts of very special coffees, 20-50lbs, and selling them here as limited edition coffees. I'll be rotating coffees through very quickly, I doubt most will last more than a week, so if something piques your interest, grab it quick! Since these are VERY limited amounts: in the off chance I run out of one Limited Release, you will be sent the next one up. Sold in 1lb increments.
Sumatra Bener Bener Meriah Asbi Anaerobic Lychee Cofermented Wet Hull!
This coffee is grown under the supervision of Central Sumatra Coffee, on a single estate, Asbi. After much experimentation, CSC has developed fermentation methods that improve the flavor of the coffees they supply; in this case, the coffee is wet-hulled, then placed in fermentation tanks for around 15 hours. Then, the coffee is put in sealed vessels with fresh water, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast is added; after 48 hours, juiced lychee fruit and leaves are added, and once infused, laid out and dried.
The result is a flamboyant juice-bomb. Notes of honeydew, green jolly rancher, bubble gum, and of course lychee hold center stage, with brown sugar sweetness and rose florals playing support. Is it wild? Crazy? Intense? Expensive? Yes. But it's an exciting display of creativity and care on processing that will delight as drip, and surprise as espresso.
NewHonduras Ezri Moises Herrera Caballero Extended Fermentation Natural! Sold Out!
This small family-owned farm is dedicated to improving processing and cup quality, while also providing permanent jobs to local families that pay above average for the area, planting 4000 trees yearly to improve the local environment, and donating money and resources to local schools.
This coffee is the Catuai varietal, processed using an extra long 72 hour fermentation in Grain-Pro bags, before being naturally dried over 20-25 days (double the norm in Ethiopia). In the cup, wild notes of strawberry, red grape, even fruity bubblegum notes, with pecan pie sweetness and butteriness, and sweet vanilla notes. This will work great with any brew method, especially as a wild espresso or fruity pourover.
New Tanzania Karatu Vohora Family Natural SL-28! Sold Out!
This coffee is grown by Neel and Kavita Vohora, on the Finagro Estate, which is on the slopes of the Ngorongoro caldera, the world's largest unbroken caldera, which is also home to a massive wildlife conservation area, and local Maasai. The surrounding coffee estates have wildlife corridors through the farms, allowing free movement of the animals, including black rhinos.
The setting is unparalleled, and it reflects in the coffee. Natural proccessing specifically tailored to the amazing SL-28 bean, amping up this coffee to 11. This coffee is a strawberry bomb: strawberry preserves, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry everything. Under the multiple layers of strawberry, you'll find notes of peach, blueberry, cantaloup, lemon zest, with graham cracker and a chocolate drizzle on top. This coffee is going to make an amazing, fruity, juicy espresso, and ROCK any drip method you throw at it.
New Burundi Ngozi Turihamwe Turashobora Raised Bed Washed!
This coffee comes from a producer I've carried many times before, Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, and her organization JNP Coffee. JNP was created to empower women in coffee production; JNP not only pays above market value for good beans, but commits to buying the whole crop, and carrying the total financial risk. This benefit enabled Turihamwe, a women-led collective, to build their own wet-mill in 2018. The wet-mill and quality team is 100% female, and the processing at this mill is a paragon of excellence.
Representing the classic flavors of Burundi, with chocolate, orange, and black tea, this coffee takes a turn toward elegance: noteable citrus notes in the aroma are present in the cup, not in a tart or sour way, but more like sweet clementine, along with apricot, cantaloupe and other orange fruit, with orange blossom, pumpkin spice, and gentle ginger wrapped up in caramel sweetness.
New Brazil Castelo Eliezer Calvi Honey Catucai! Sold Out!
This coffee is from the Espirito Santo region of Brazil, like the other non-Limited Release Brazil we just wrapped up. It's grown by Eliezer Calvi on his minute, 10 hectare farm, where all labor is done by his family, plus one or two workers. Now in his 8th year producing specialty coffee, he only processes pulped naturals, removing the cherry pulp then drying on raised beds, and he only has two varieties of coffee: Catuai and Catucai. His singular focus one doing one thing well, plus the unique, high altitude, mountainous terrain of Espirito Santo, combine to create a coffee that's unlike standard fare from Brazil.
While it has the common-for-Brazil notes of 'chocolate and hazelnut', they are not dominant. Snickers bar creeps to the fore, with obvious cascara (coffee cherry tea) notes, dried pineapple and apricot, lime or lemon verbena, and herbal notes that morph between savory, like marjoram, and sweet, like fennel or juniper. It's constantly revealing something new in the cup, and will make for a cup of drip to sit and explore, or a layered, intriguing, complex espresso.
New Rwanda Akanduga Mbilima Fair Trade Organic Triple Washed! Sold Out!
So....not only is this coffee from a producer, Dukunde Kawa, known for excellence across the board; not only it is Fair Trade, certified organic, and <insert nearly any other certification you can think of>; this coffee goes through an insanely painstaking, stringent, and out-of-the-ordinary triple-washing protocol, above and beyond what anyone else is doing in the region. Why? 'Because it improves the flavor'. It also increases pricing for the coffee and wages for the largely female workforce, and THAT is outstanding.
Classically Rwandan, this coffee has more caramelly sweetness and viscosity, with plummy jam notes, fresh-grated orange zest, black tea, and depending on brew method, an herbaciousness that can transition between lavender, sweet rosemary, or jasmine. Great for espresso and drip.
New Colombia La Argentina Eduardo Armero Martinez Double Fermented Honey Pink Bourbon! Sold Out!
This coffee was produced under the oversight of a man named Colombia's best coffee cupper....twice! A wonderful combination of terroir (place), varietal (the uber-trendy pink bourbon), and processing (fermented as whole cherry, then depulped and fermented again, then dried without washing on raised beds). Hugely dynamic, an explosion of orange blossom and jasmine greet the nose, while in the cup caramel, apricot, nectarine, and honeyed sweetness are framed by basil guava lemonade and floral bergamot. Amazing as drip, adventurous as espresso!
New Mexico San Mateo Yoloxochitlan Double Fermented and Washed! Sold out!
I'm always excited when great coffees from our immediate neighbor, Mexico, come up. This coffee comes from smallholder families in Oaxaca, a remote locale where the local populace still wears indigenous clothes, each with their own small plot of coffee. Each producer follows a strict protocol of hand picking and sorting, then double ferments, washes, and places on patios to dry. The end result? Decadence. Rich milk chocolate and caramel notes serve up a basket of stone fruit, like plum and nectarine, with ethereal grapefruit zest and candied lemon rounding it out. It's extremely versatile, brew it how you like it.
New Burundi Mutana Heza Natural! Sold Out!
Natural processing in Burundi isn't super common, due to the very hilly terrain and cool weather, but this coffee is from a washing station that's set up to not only separate microlots, but process them naturally, as well. Praline and caramel sweetness are the base for soft plum, watermelon, and raspberry, with lavender and orange blossom florals. Good for espresso and drip!
New Peru Challhuamayo Edith & Ivan Meza Sagarvinaga Natural! Sold out!
This coffee is from Finca Tasta, a small farm focused on elevating specialty coffee, and sustainability. Nine of their 23 hectares are left wild for local animals, and they grow several crops on the remainder as part of a push to move away from monoculture, growing plantains, yucca, beans, corn, tomatoes, pine trees, sugarcane, raspberries, blackberries, and pumpkins. Using traditional natural processing methods makes this coffee an ultimate crowd-pleaser: coffee is a fruit, and this coffee has loads of notes reminiscent of the cherry it grew in, with apricot, mandarin, blackberry, lychee, and subtle notes of lavender and lemongrass. It should make a thick, sweet espresso as well as delicious drip. Fince Tasta? No, Finca TASTY!
New Costa Rica Solis & Cordero La Maquina Honey/Natural! Sold Out!
We carried this coffee from a former Coopedota employee in January, or thereabouts, and I feel like it got glossed over to some degree. Giving the previous Colombia Santa Monica 200hr a run for it's long-fermentation money, this coffee utilizes hand-picked, carefully sorted cherries, then anaerobically ferments them with yeast for a very long 96 hours. The result is unique and absolutely gorgeous, with buckets of candied orange peel, port wine/grape, tropical notes of dragon fruit, and pineapple-y IPA-like herbacius notes. Amazing for drip, entertaining as espresso!