This month at Blue Coffee Box, we are featuring 6 new gourmet coffees for April. Instead of doing a post on each coffee, we decided to put them all in one place for you.
Below you will find the list, as well as the roasters we are sourcing these coffees from this month as well.
Gourmet Coffees for April
Bethlehem
Producer: Don Mario
Varietals: Catuai, Caturra, Colombia
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1600-1800m
Country: Colombia
Region: Risaralda
Cupping Notes: Satsuma, blackcurrant, walnut
Roaster: Atkinson Coffee
Thanks to an on-site wet-pulping machine, donated by Nestlé no less, Don Mario is able to process his cherry straight from the field in micro-batches and dry the parchment on the sliding covered patio on the roof of his house.
A very local process that ensures a genuine artisanal approach to the preparation of his coffee. Don Mario has been monitoring his cherries throughout the whole season as they gradually ripen, then accelerate towards the moment of maturation.
As well as knowing from experience when the cherry has reached the perfect shade of Burgundy red, that cherry he has just chewed tells his taste buds that it is at a sensationally sweet honeydew melon degree of ripeness.
The same reliable instinct goes for putting the coffee cherry through the wet-pulper. Setting the pulping blades to the right distance and the speed of pulping will be calibrated by judging the situation. He knows his coffee and he knows the vagaries of his old machine and can coax the best out of them.
Pensativo
Producer: Pensativo Farm
Varietals: Catuai, Caturra
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1600-1800m
Country: Guatemala
Region: Acetenango
Cupping Notes: Nectarine, custard creme, toffee apple
Roaster: Atkinson Coffee
Established in 1972, El Pensativo is a primary cooperative that has consistently evolved to grow both the quality and their export markets through the help of Fedecocagua.
The work between cooperatives allows one to focus on what they are good at, whilst the other offers a similar level of expertise and understanding but in an alternative aspect.
Fedecocagua has improved access to agronomists for improved crop and cup quality, as well as buying machinery for wet processing and providing access to microfinancing for the members of El Pensativo to enable them to provide small scale rejuvenation products or buy fertilizer where needed.
Some of the varietals here are very traditional, typica is still referred to as Arabigo, harking back to its early introduction into the country.
Fazenda Da Lagoa
Producer: Joaquim Paiva
Varietals: Mundo Novo, Catuai, Catucai, Acaya
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1100m
Country: Brazil
Region: Sul de Minas
Cupping Notes: Chocolate, nutty
Roaster: Chapter Coffee
Fazenda da Lagoa is situated 1,100 meters above sea level near the town of Santo Antonio do Amparo, about 170 kilometers southeast of Belo Horizonte in the province of Minas Gerais.
Its 2,850 hectares include a natural reserve, woodlands, pastures and 1,500 hectares of coffees. Streams from 40 natural springs provide water to the land and gradually converge into two small rivers that mark the borders of the grounds.
At Fazenda da Lagoa, coffee cultivation is much more than a business it's a lifestyle. Several generations have been dedicated to creating excellent coffees for the pleasure of people all over the globe.
Only Arabica varieties such as Catuaí, Mundo Novo, Acayá and Catucaí have been selected and are grown on the plantation according to strict sustainable principles.
Korofeigu
Producer: 97 Producer Cooperative
Varietals: Arusha, Blue Mountain
Processing: Washed, sun-dried
Altitude: 1400-1900m
Country: Papua New Guinea
Region: Bena, Eastern Highlands
Cupping Notes: Caramel, citrus, cranberry
Roaster: Chapter Coffee
The Korofeigu Farmer's Cooperative Society is located in the Bena Bena Valley of the Eastern Highlands, between Goroka to the west and Henganofi to the east.
The coop_x0097_which may be a cooperative in name and practice, though not as an officially registered entity, which is common in the region_x0097_is comprised of 97 producers (some of whom are seen above, near a nursery) who farm an area of 112 hectares.
The mountainous and moist cultivation area has loamy soil and a variety of native shade trees. Annual production is around 1.6 containers.
The supplier and sister export company, New Guinea Highlands Coffee Exports (NGHCE), has had business relationships with farmers in the Korofeigu area since the company was created in 1992, but members of the company have been trading coffee within the area since the 1960s.
Yetu Tamu
Producer: Mambo Cooperative
Varietals: Bourbon, Kent
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1700-2000m
Country: Tanzania
Region: Moshi, Kilimanjaro
Cupping Notes: Raspberry, apple, black tea
Roaster: Coffee Central
This coffee comes from Uru Cooperative Society and Tujitume Cooperative (AMCOS), and is exported by Mambo Cooperative Union under the name Yetu Tamu, or Our coffee is sweet'.
Mambo was founded in 2011 when Athanasio Massenha saw a growth in the price of speciality coffee being sold but not passed back to the farmers and wanted to change this so that the farmers received more.
They now employ 3 agronomists as supervisors to both advise and assist the producer groups they work with in the field, as this is prohibitively expensive for the individual farmers and AMCOS.
The Uru Cooperative Society members have found output has more than halved over the last twenty years as prices dropped and costs rose. Each with around 0.5 2 acres that reduce as it is divided amongst the next generation, leading to younger people leaving the area.
San Ramon
Producer: San Francisco
Varietals: Bourbon, HSF
Processing: Semi-Washed
Altitude: 1450m
Country: El Salvador
Region: Nahuizalco, Sonsonate
Cupping Notes: Chocolate, orange, stone fruits
Roaster: Coffee Central
Coffees are milled at the groups Benficio Las Cruces, located in nearby Santa Ana.
Despite being a historic processing centre with over 100 years behind it, it has been regularly updated to and is currently renovated to contain wet and dry processing facilities, along with eco-friendly equipment, raised African beds, patios, and mechanical driers.
For the semi-washed coffees or pulp natural, cherries are de-pulped and moved to the drying tables via water channels. This tends to be because a slightly larger volume is depulped at one time, as in this instance, an entire plot on the farm.
The brief contact with water slightly reduces the percentage of mucilage on the bean and therefore affects the final flavour in the cup. This differs from the honey process for the farm in that honey process has no contact with water and is therefore processed in much smaller lots.
For more speciality coffees like these, be sure to subscribe to Blue Coffee Box. You can check out our past featured coffees here.
