Gourmet Coffees for December 2019

This month at Blue Coffee Box, we are featuring 6 new gourmet coffees for December. 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 December

La Bastilla Estate

Producer: La Bastilla Estate
Varietals: Caturra, Yellow and Red Catuai
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1250-1450m
Country: Nicaragua
Region: Jinotega Region
Cupping Notes: Maraschino cherry, red berry
Roaster: Wogan Coffee Roasters

La Bastilla is adjacent to the Datanli el Diablo nature reserve, an important biological reserve.

Characterised by its micro climates, its shade trees and its volcanic soil which create very special coffee qualities An estate located in the midst of a mountainous natural reserve, all cherries are handpicked according to the microclimates of each individual farm, to maximise their potential.

The estate also houses a fully vertically integrated processing system, to allow for precise differentiation and sorting of each bean.

With the Teach a Man to Fish charity, Wogan fund three children through the on-site technical college of La Bastilla, providing them with the skills to move into tourism, animal husbandry and farming their first few students have now moved on to university.

La Laguna Siberia

Producer: CENCOIC co-operative
Varietals: Colombia, F6, Caturra, Típica & Tabí
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1700-1850m
Country: Colombia
Region: Cauca Department
Cupping Notes: Gooseberries, caramel
Roaster: Wogan Coffee Roasters

La Laguna Siberia Reserve is located in the North-Eastern part of Cauca Department in between the two municipalities Caldono & Piendamó. The average temperature throughout the year is 20 to 24 degrees Celsius.

Manantial is a small producers association that represents just 12 families. They formed an association to manage, control and coordinate their coffee because they were fed up with being taken advantage of by middle men in the area.

They joined CENCOIC in 2014 with this aim. Grown amongst a type of sugar called 'panela' which is similar to treacle and the flavours are commonly found in these coffees. Plantain, pineapple, yuca, lemon and orange are all commonly grown throughout the region in amongst the coffee.

Coffees across all the reserves are de-pulped, fermented & dried at the farm. The farmers deliver to the warehouse in Popayan to be cupped and then dry milled (the process of removing husks and grading coffee) for export at a mill in Popayan before being trucked to the port of Buenaventura.

Valle Inca

Producer: Asociacion Agraria Valle Del Inca-Cusco "Valleinca"
Varietals: Typica, Bourbon, Catimor, Mondonova
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1400-2300m
Country: Peru
Region: Cusco
Cupping Notes: Toasted marshmallow, pear, custard
Roaster: Gentlemen Baristas

Leader Prudencio (Jose Prudencio Saenz Vargas) is a Calca native who brings former experience as a bank loan officer to his work running Valle Inca_x0097_fiscal experience of critical importance to Valle Inca and the surrounding community, most of whom are smallholders averaging just 2-3 hectares each.

When he got started he was new to coffee production, but his extreme quality focus has always been key to the group's success.

He helped Valle Inca producers move from drying coffee on plastic mats to raised beds, worked with our Head of QC in Peru, Tibed Yujra, to improve drying, fermentation, and storage practices, and was the first producing partner of ours to implement GrainPro in storing parchment.

He meets farmers where they are in the isolated reaches of Yanatile and Lares and works with them to produce the best coffee they possibly can.

Campo Bomba

Producer: El Lanito farm
Varietals: Castillo, Colombia
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1650m
Country: Colombia
Region: Caldono, Cauca
Cupping Notes: Caramel, chocolate
Roaster: Gentleman Baristas

Luis Fernando lives on his 5.5 hectare farm El Lanito. He is part of the Nasa ethnic group, who work to preserve their own language (Nasa Yuwe/Paez) as well as culture as part of a more recent movement in preserving the cultural heritage across Colombia.

Families and neighbours share labour to collect the cherries which are commonly washed and dried on the farm, On the El Lanito farm, the coffee is picked with help from Luis's brothers, sisters and neighbours, wet pulped and fermented in tanks for 15 hours.

It is then dried in a solar parabolic drier, undergoes another level of hand sorting for defects before being taken to the central CENCOIC dry mill facility in Popoyan, where it is graded, dry milled, quality cleaned again and prepared for export.

African Moon

Producer: Masereka Obed
Varietals: SL14, SL28, Catimor
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1400-1840m
Country: Uganda
Region: The Rwenzoris
Cupping Notes: Blackcurrant, marzipan, dark chocolate
Roaster: Garage Coffee

Masereka Obed (pictured on front of notecard) is the lead farmer and one of the elders responsible for their group. He is 54 years old and lives with his wife and 2 youngest children.

His farm is nestled into the mountains about 1200masl however works higher up close to the buying centre to co-ordinate the collection of coffee from other farmers in the region.

The Rwenzoris are famously known as the 'Mountains of the Moon' They stretch for 120km along the western Ugandan border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The uniqueness of this location is where the coffee derives its name.

This coffee is harvested in the months of October and November and then it is dried for 22 days in single tier raised racks inside ventilated poly tunnels.

Fazenda Rio Verde

Producer: Ipanema Agricola
Varietals: Yellow Icatú
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 800-1350m
Country: Brazil
Region: Sul de Minas, Minas Gerais
Cupping Notes: Milk chocolate, dried apricot, biscuit
Roaster: Garage Coffee

Natural coffees such as this one are subject to meticulous standards from harvest through to resting. Coffee is selectively harvested either mechanically or by hand and then delivered to dry for up to 9 days on raised beds or patios.

The coffee may also be finished in one of the farm's 48 mechanical driers, where they are slowly dried at an even and soft heat for around 48 hours. Bean quality is monitored in each dryer, carefully evaluating the appearance and taste profile of each 20 bag batch.

After drying, the coffee is then placed in wooden bins to rest at least for 60 days in order to homogenize internal moisture and improve the taste profile. At every step of the process, until exportation, Ipanema's team evaluates the quality of the lots.

For more speciality coffees like these, be sure to subscribe to Blue Coffee Box. You can check out our past featured coffees here.