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 La Cristalina plantation is located near Quimbaya in the Quindo department. The plantation has been owned by the Grajales for over 100 years. Maria Mercedes Grajales is now the 5th generation at the helm of La Cristalina. The total plantation is approximately 19 hectares, of which 14 hectares are planted with coffee. about 5 hectares of the plantation are planted with other trees such as orange, ‘platano’ and ‘cafatero’. The majority of the plants on the Cristalina plantation are of the Castillo variety.
Natural lot
The pickers are encouraged to pick the coffee at its optimal maturity. For that selective picking process La Cristalina works with the long-term pickers that get paid far more than normal. Most pickers come to this farm for 10+ years.
After picking the cherries are floated intensively to remove the less dense and defected cherries.
The coffee is placed on “carros corredizos” and drying tunnels with direct sun exposure for the first 48 hours. After the humidity is down to about 40% it is placed in GrainPro for 36 hours to create its fruity punch in its cup. During fermentation the temperature and PH is monitored and documented every 3 hours. After fermentation the coffee goes back to the drying beds where it is also moved every 3 hours. The total process takes around 15 days, depending on the weather.
The coffee is very fragrant and expressive, with flavours of cherry, mandarin and strawberry.
Decaf lot
The La Cristalina coffee is decaffeinated by means of ‘Sugar Cane’. A characteristic of this decaf process is that the coffee retains many of its aromas. In addition, it often produces a very sweet coffee. The result is a sweet coffee with flavor of orange molasses and milk chocolate.
Region
Plantation
Process
Tasting notes
Milk chocolate, molasses & orange
Region
Plantation
Process
Tasting notes
Cherry, mandarin & strawberry
@beanspire
Doi Pangkhon has come a long way in a short time. We partnered with this farmer group in Chiang Rai in 2016. While the coffee is still relatively new to the international market, the 300 Akha Hilltribe farmers at Doi Pangkhon (which means Timberland Peak) have been growing and milling coffee for almost 40 years in this area, respecting their old traditions and their natural environment.
The mineral-rich soil and next-to-perfect growing conditions give not just their old varieties, but even their Catimor shrubs a surprising complexity and spicy punch. This sparked Ata and Pupae, brother and sister and third generation coffee growers, to actively seek the involvement of specialty buyers. Each farmer typically produces about 1-2 tons of parchment. We are working with about 20 families from Doi Pangkhon. Essentially, these are microlots grouped together. All of the villagers belong to Akha Hilltribe and they are very young for coffee farmers, mostly aged 25-35 years old. This is something very unique about Thailand as an origin since it’s an upper middle income country. It is a coffee growing industry that’s actually working and attractive to the next generation, relative to other origins.
One of only a few groups in Thailand to employ a Kenya-style washed, double fermentation: all coffee is hand picked, depulped, dry fermented for 48 hours, wet fermented for 8 hours, washed with mountain water, then sun dried on raised bamboo beds.
The result is a very clean coffee with typical ‘Asian’ spicy flavors, but combined with a sweetness not often found in other Asian coffees.
Region
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Washed
Tasting notes
Salted caramel, spice & chocolate
@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
In March 2018, Eivy and her husband Jimmy acquired Finca Abarim and began their farming project of sustainably producing the highest quality specialty coffee. With a mission to protect the land and habitat, support the local economy, and work with partners that value the efforts of coffee production.
Eivy comes from many generations of small coffee producers from another region, and her passion for farmland and coffee brought her back to Colombia. After 15 years working as an environmental engineer in North East USA, Eivy is proud to be following her roots as coffee producer.
In retrospective, the farm was in bad shape when they bought it in 2018. It provided an excellent opportunity to decide what to plant, how, and where. Restoring the land for coffee production in harmony with the environment was paramount. New infrastructure was steadily installed such as covered natural air-drying facility, new processing house and equipment, water treatment tanks, and more. Not knowing much about coffee at all, other than what she lived and saw her family doing when she visited as a child. Eivy and Jimmy built a strong team, which today continues growing stronger and more knowledgeable about the different varieties of coffee they have: Castillo, Pink Bourbon, Geisha, Tabi and specialty processing methods.
To picture Finca Abarim (10 ha in size) now, imagine a verdant mountain landscape and rows of coffee (over 20,000 plants) plantains, native trees, fruit, and cacao trees, bamboo stands over groundwater streams, all between 1,530- and 1,750-meters elevation. It lies in the town of Buenavista, Quindío department, in the central Andes, volcanic born mountains, overlooking the valley, a location that is key for full bright and long days of sun and fresh breeze.
Our Geisha lot is a honey processed coffee. The cherries are handpicked and selected before being floated. First the coffee undergoes 48 hours of aerobic fermentation aerobic followed by 7 days fermentation in mucilage in a hermetic environment (anoxic). The result is a very balanced and layered coffee with notes of lemongrass, jasmin and apricot. Geisha’s can be a bit tea like, but this coffee has a lot of texture and buttery mouthfeel, which makes it very suitable for espresso as well.
Region
Buenavista, Quindio
Plantation
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
lemongrass, jasmin & apricot
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
La Comarca is a family farm established almost 100 years ago for the production of beef and cow milk. The ranch was also used for the production of coffee, sugar cane, citrus and other fruits. Over the years, it began to close its operation due to migration of people from the countryside to the city. Now a new generation family members started to revamp the farm by producing specialty coffee. The farm is located at 1.600 meters above sea level in a Valley called Malacatos on a 20 minutes drive from downtown Loja.
Weather ranges from heavy rain to very dry depending on the season, becoming a big challenge to keep coffee beans in optimum condition. Despite these challenging circumstances, Daniel and his family achieve to deliver sweet, clean and expressive coffees.
This lot is of the Sidra variety. The Bourbon Sidra cultivar was developed on a large research farm in Ecuador through funding from Nestlé. This variety was created by manually crossing Red Bourbon and Ethiopian heirloom varieties which carried Typica lineage. Unlike many modern hybrids, Sidra was developed with the sole aim of creating a high quality cup profile, highlighting both the heavy sweetness of Bourbon and the delicate florals that Typica is well-known for. In exchange for feedback, Nestlé offered the variety to farmers in the region, leading to a surge in its cultivation in Ecuador.
This specific lot is an anaerobic washed; after floating the red cherries the coffee first goes through anaerobic fermentation in the cherry for 96h. Then it undergoes a second fermentation with some of the mucilage on the beans for 48h. Finally, beans are washed and let dry in african beds at 50% shadow for 25 days. The result is a very clean, balanced and complex coffee with flavours of cranberry, almond and toffee.
Region
Vilcabamba, Loja
Plantation
La Comarca
Altitude
Plant variety
Process
Tasting notes
cranberry, almond & toffee
