For all coffees we buy we have an extensive description with background information about the farm or partner where the coffee is sourced.
We roast several times a week and keep limited stock of roasted coffee to guarantee freshness.
Coffee can be stored for years, however, the best results are achieved between about two and eight weeks after roasting. That’s why we don’t mention an expiry date, but a roasting date on the bottom of our bags.
The Sakami farm is creating “agroforestry” by intercropping macadamia trees between coffee, protecting all indigenous trees in and around the farm, protecting the wetland by not interfering on it, leaving natural bush sections in and around the coffee trees, having beehives around the farm, and avoiding the use of pesticides or herbicides. All “waste” such as coffee pulp and macadamia husks are fed to earth worms and worm castings are returned back to field as manure or used to make foliar feed. Water from pulping and washing the coffee is treated in a settling pond with lime and then used to irrigate the pasture below the ponds. Next to all this, Sakami uses mineral fertilizers to replace the nutrients taken away when harvesting cherries.
Region
Trans Nzoia County
Plantation
Sakami Estate
Altitude
1.800
Plant variety
Batian
Process
Washed
Tasting notes
Orange, chocolate & plum
When Pepe Davila and Celestinda Valdivia got engaged 28 years ago they also decided to give coffee-growing a chance, which in those years was not as common. Neither of them came from coffee-growing families. They had seen in neighbouring communities how well it grew and the market it had. So Pepe asked his brother for a 0.5 hectare of land where they planted their first coffee plants. Years later, Celestinda and Pepe had 6 children who were taught to grow coffee. These days, 4 of their children have their respective families and coffee represents their main source of income for all of them. In addition to coffee, the family also grows cane sugar to produce “yonque”, a strong alcohol that is very popular in the north of the country. They produce 25 “botijas” (approx. 35 litres per “botija”, 875 litres in total!) a year which are sold to neighbouring communities and provinces.
Pepe and Celestinda now have 3 acres of land, where they have planted a mix of Yellow and Red Caturra. This lot is a washed lot. The coffee cherries are handpicked and floated after picking. After pulping the coffee goes through 48 hours of wet fermentation and is then dried in black tents for 18 – 25 days depending on weather conditions.
This coffee is nice and sweet, with flavours of caramel, nougat & rasin.
Region
Sector El Campo, Cajamarca
Plantation
Pepe Davila
Altitude
2.000
Plant variety
Yellow & Red Caturra
Process
Washed
Tasting notes
caramel, nougat & raisin
@fazendacalifornia
Dead plant roots, compacted soil, no organic matter, erosion and degraded soil life. In the early days of the 21st century, this nowadays postcard pretty farm didn’t quite look the part. Starting out as a research center for coffee for the University of California more than a century ago, the last part of the 20th century it served as a sugar cane farm. The way the place was farmed degraded the soils heavily and financially, the farm went bust. In 2004, the farm was acquired by Dr. Paulo Cesar Saldanha Rodrigues and his nephew, Luiz Saldanha Rodrigues. The first one being a visionary entrepreneur, the latter an agronomy student and coffee Q-grader in the making. They had big plans to show that agriculture could regenerate a farm and that farming can heal, instead of only take. Not long after the acquisition of the farm, Paulo and Luiz went flying, and suffered a tragic plane crash, which killed Paulo. Luiz decided to continue the dream together with this wife Flavia, and they live to date at the farm with their two daughters Heloisa and Maria.
Today, the farm has 100% of its coffee plants renewed since the day this adventure started. Next to this, its structures and production processes, harvesting, wet mill, drying, storage and dry mill were upgraded and a management system of sustainable production was set up, adapting the property to the highest levels of the world market demand. Nowadays, with the mission of producing high quality food and coffee for the consumer, society and the environment, husband and wife, who are both Q-Graders, share the same love for coffee quality and dream of extending this passion for the next generation. With their knowledge of farming, sustainability and coffee quality, their coffees compete at world level standards.
The cherries are selectively manually picked and soaked in cold water for 24 hours, then dried as Naturals on African Beds for 21 days. The result is a very balanced and sweet Brazilian coffee with distinct flavours of walnut and milk chocolate
Region
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Yellow Catuaí, Mundo Novo, Obatã.
Process
Cold Soul Natural
Tasting notes
Hazelnut, caramel & liquorice
@fazendacalifornia
Quality and consistency. It’s not easy when you’re a farmer, with changing weather and different circumstances on a yearly or even seasonal basis, to match the exact same flavor profile as last year. It might even be impossible. For this reason, the team of Q-graders of Capricornio Coffees cup all the coffees of the more than a dozen partner fazendas and farmer groups, grade them according to their flavor and quality, and then make farmer blends, solely based on taste. For example, the Dulce Signature blend is described as dark chocolate, with a sweet and round thick body. One year, this might consist of more coffee from Fazenda Terra Preta and less from Sítio Teixeira. The year after, this might be the other way around.
Farm composition in the coffee bag might change, but the farms don’t sit still themselves either. Being part of Capricornio’s 4 Seasons Project, they get free agronomical support, with an agronomist visiting them every 60 days. Together, they look at plant and soil health and do soil measurements, that are used to advice on which parts of the farms need extra attention. It’s high-end knowledge and solid partnership to provide a sustainable future.
Since 2017, we have been working with the Dulce blend and they have since proven to be the stable factor for many cafe’s. It comes with its own traceability report, so we know in detail which farms contributed to which blend, year after year.
The cup profile gives us everything we want in a good Brazilian coffee: good body and sweetness, mild acidity and heavy chocolate and nutty flavours without any fruit notes. A true crowd pleaser.
Region
Plantation
Altitude
– 900
Plant variety
Yellow Catuaí, Mundo Novo, Obatã.
Process
Pulped natural
Tasting notes
Walnut & chocolate
The estate’s history goes back to 1857. Located in the slopes of outer Giries of Western Ghat, in a Karnataka region, Chikmagalur. The area is the birthplace of Indian coffee culture and gained its trading importance together with the beginning of coffee cultivation on its terrain.
At 1000-1400 meters above sea level T B Malle Gowda in the 19th century realized that the place is perfect for growing arabica plants hence, together with the British established coffee estate. The plantation was run further by his son T B Nagesh who shared his father’s passion for coffee.
Farmers nurture a mixed cropping system that cultivates coffee harmoniously with other plants and trees such as pepper vines, cloves, dadaps, and wild figs. Thogarihankal Estate is considered to be a wildlife sanctuary, Don’t be surprised if you spot a Green Pigeon, Siberian Crane, or a Whistling Teal here.
What makes coffee from this estate so great is the consistency of growing high-quality coffee beans over the years.
Region
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
Almond, honey & chocolate
Region
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
Almond, date & caramel
We sourced this coffee through our friends at Farmly. They are very well connected in the Brazilian specialty market and when we asked them to find something special, they sent us this gem.
Marcio Jose Sabino’s farm is located in Imbe de Mindas in the East of Minas Gerais close to Espirito Santo region. The farm is at an altitude of only 650 meters above sea level – I believe this is the lowest grown coffee we’ve ever had!
Jose has only been producing coffee for a couple of years and we’re impressed by this natural anaerobic coffee he produced.
We like this coffee most as espresso. It’s got the typical Brazilian base with buttery mouthful and chocolaty and nutty base layer. In addition to this base, it’s got these really profound citrus notes from the processing.
We found flavours of nougat, orange blossom and milk chocolate.
Region
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
Nougat, orange blossom & milk chocolate
Gasharu Coffee plantations are a stone’s throw from Nyungwe National Park. The Nyungwe forest has a wide diversity of animal species, making it a priority for conservation in Africa. The park contains 13 primate species, a quarter of all Africa’s primates total, 275 bird species, and 1068 plant species. From the east side of the Nyungwe forest comes the source of Nile, the longest river in the world followed by Amazon.
The story of Gasharu Coffee goes back to 1976 when 17 years-old Celestin Rumenerangabo, planted his first coffee trees in Nyamasheke. A farmer and buyer of cherries, he grew the business to what it is today. Now Gasharu Coffee is run by Celestin’s sons; they have 2 washing stations, Gasharu and Muhororo, and can export beans from nearly 1650 farmers directly.
Coffee has been critical to rebuilding our community after the 1994 Tutsi Genocide and it remains an important part of our culture and ways. With local businesses being taken over by large multinational companies, Gasharu are aware that we have to make their business more resilient. They have improved their sourcing and processing methods, encouraging curiosity about innovative ideas to take coffee to the next level, producing naturals, honeys and experiments. The coffee grows at an altitude of 1.600-2100 masl and has proven to yield a fine and flavoursome cup.
Intego lot
Intego (Resolution) experiment coffee is a result of their curiosity to explore new methods of fermenting coffee. The final batch for this coffee is picked after series of tasting and slowly refining the results that finally achieve desired flavor and taste.
Once cherries are delivered by the workers at the washing station they are sorted and floated in a tank to ensure consistent and good density beans are separated from the others. Then they are put in another tank, where they undergo a 60-hours anaerobic fermentation period after which they dry on raised African beds for about 25 to 30 days.
The result is a very clean and vibrant cup of coffee, with notes of pineapple, blueberry and milk chocolate.
Region
Macuba Sector, Nyamasheke district, Western Province
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
Pineapple, blueberry & chocolate
Extended Natural Caturra lot
Caturra is a natural mutation of the Bourbon variety. It was discovered on a plantation in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil sometime between 1915 and 1918. The selection process for Caturra was called mass selection, meaning that a group of individuals are selected based on their superior performance, seed from these plants is bulked to form a new generation, and then the process is repeated. The variety was never officially released in Brazil, but has become common in Central America.
For the extended natural the coffee goes through a 100 hour fermentation in containers filled with CO2 and at a controlled temperature. It is then dried in mechanical silos at around 40 °C, until it reaches 11% humidity. This all happens within the processing facility that Sebastian Ramirez has built in his main farm, Corcega.
The results is a very balanced and fruit driven coffee with flavours of raspberry, grape and lemongrass.
Region
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
Lavender, passion fruit & cocoa nibs
Region
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
Raspberry, grape & lemongrass
This coffee is sourced in Ethiopia by Testi Coffee. Testi owns and/or operates washing stations in Guji, Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Limu – all premier coffee producing regions. They work with smallholder farmers, intending to secure the very best prices for their coffee so that they can pay fair prices for the cherry delivered. They are currently also building a warehouse in Shakiso where they can process natural coffees locally, in the region where the coffee is grown. This keeps more revenue in the communities where the coffees are produced.
Testi’s objective is quality and building long term business relationships. Their washing stations are very well run and they do diligent work through sorting and screening to get clean and quality beans for export.
As of 2018, Testi has launched a quality improvement project at each washing stations that they operate. Their PCS (Premium Cherry Selection) Project fully controls all aspects of harvest and processing to ensure that the fantastic natural quality of the coffee is maintained at each step. They are also making the most of the market liberalisation to benefit the small producers that they work with. Social projects, such as building new classrooms for the local school near their Guji processing factory are also important, and with support from their importing partners they hope to do even more in the future. They also currently have a drinking/household water provisioning project underway in Guji, and they plan to extend this to other communities in the future.
Sitting at an impressive 2,020 meters above sea level, Gara Kone produces exceptional coffees. The washing station currently employs around 200 workers, who process some 1.5 million coffee cherries each year. During harvest, this freshly picked coffee cherry is delivered daily by some 1,000 independent outgrowers to the kebele of Refisa, where Gara Kone is located.
The majority of the families that contribute to this lot farm organically on tiny plots of land, which average just 2–5 hectares in size. Coffee is their main cash crop and grows alongside food crops of corn, grain and bananas, under the shade of native Birbira, Wanza, and Acacia trees. The average elevation of the farms in this region is very high – around 1,950–2,150m above sea level – and this, combined region’s cool temperatures, is ideal for the slow ripening of coffee cherries, leading to denser beans and a sweeter, more complex cup profile.
Depulping process is initiated within 6 to 8 hours after harvesting the cherries from the coffee trees to prevent further natural fermentation.
After depulping coffee is fermented in a fermentation tank 36-48 hours to loosen the mucilage.
The coffee parchment is washed in the water channels by the staff team members at the washing station, until mucilage is removed. Once Fermentation & washing is complete the parchment is layed out on raised African beds under a parabolic shade net for 5-7 days depending on weather conditions. Once the moisture content is at 11 to 12 percent it’s relocated to nearby warehouse for storage.
This washed lot from the Gora Kone station is very layered and complex with lots of floral notes, peach, marzipan and earl grey flavours.
Region
Werka, Nensebo
Plantation
Gora Kone CWS
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
Peach, earl grey & marzipan
