This month at Blue Coffee Box, we are featuring 6 new gourmet coffees for October. 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 October
La Bolsa
Producer: Maria and Renardo Vides
Varietals: Bourbon, Cattura
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1500-1700m
Country: Guatemala
Region: La Libertad, Huehuetenango
Cupping Notes: Cherry & strawberry
Roaster: Modern Standard Coffee Roasters
Finca La Bolsa was bought by Jorge Vides, a distinguished medical professional, in 1958.
Jorge won a number of awards for coffee production and had the main hospital in the coffee-growing community named after him. The farm sits between two mountains, which provide a very stable, humid microclimate.
This combined with the limestone-rich soils gives the coffee a very unique profile, with a rich syrupy body and plenty of malic and citric acidity. Coffee is fermented for between 18 and 24 hours and is then cleaned of mucilage, graded in channels and soaked overnight.
La Bolsa competed in the 2002 Cup Of Excellence competition and placed second, scoring 94.98. La Bolsa is RFA certified & follows C.A.F.E practices guidelines. Coffee Care funded the construction of a school and nursery at the farm, with fully trained, full-time teachers.
All staff have access to schooling for their children, and they are incentivised to leave their children at school or nursery through food donations.
Nyamulinda
Producer: Rwanda Trading Company
Varietals: Red bourbon
Processing: Fully washed
Altitude: 1700m
Country: Rwanda
Region: Western Province
Cupping Notes: Chocolate, almond and black cherry
Roaster: Modern Standard Coffee Roasters
Rwandan smallholders organise themselves into cooperatives and share the services of centralised wet-mills. Flowering takes place between September and October and the harvest runs from March to July, with shipments starting in August through December.
Nyamulinda was built and established by Immaculate and Francine, friends who are both from the Nyamagabe area, in southern Rwanda. After realising the potential for coffee in their home village, they decided to grow it themselves and planted over 20,000 coffee trees on their combined
At the time of harvesting, they decided to process the coffee on their own, in order to maintain the quality achieved on their farms.
Nyamulinda was born from this dedication to quality production, and the washing station was built in 2016 and began processing their coffee, and also that of their neighbouring farmers.
With high quality at the core of their ethos, they want to expand Nyamulinda's capacity and grow their volume from the 220 tons of cherries processed this year.
Iyenga
Producer: Iyenga Agricultural Marketing Cooperative and Society
Varietals: Kent, Bourbon, N39 and other local varieties
Processing: Fully washed
Altitude: 1670-1950m
Country: Tanzania
Region: Mbozi District, Mbeya
Cupping Notes: Tropical fruits, grapefruit, dates and a hint of Anise
Roaster: Plot Roasting
Many of the farmers also grow maize, peanuts and beans. Legumes are excellent at fixing nitrogen in the soil so are beneficial for production. All of their coffee is hand-harvested and meticulously pre-sorted before pulping.
All coffee delivered to the mill is pulped within eight hours to reduce the risk of over fermentation. The pulped coffee is then fermented in tanks without water for 10-12 hours before being washed in grading channels.
The parchment is then dried on raised African beds at a depth of no more than 3cm, for around 7-10 days depending on weather conditions. Once the coffee reaches optimal humidity it is rested before being milled and graded by size in Mbozi.
Ngu Shweli
Producer: U Kyaw Sein
Varietals: SL34
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1000m
Country: Myanmar
Region: Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Division
Cupping Notes: Mango and pineapple, with a wild honey sweetness
Roaster: Plot Roasting
Ngu Shweli is the oldest coffee estate in Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay Division; one of the three principal coffee growing regions in Myanmar. The area was formerly known as Maymyo, a scenic hill town known for its botanical gardens and colonial architecture.
Founded in 1997 by the owner, U Kyaw Sein, trying both pea growing and jade mining. 215 of a total 235 acres are used for coffee cultivation, with shade provided by Silver Oak and Macadamia trees. Erythrina is also being cultivated as a provider of shade, with bright red flowers.
U Kyaw Sein has his own nursery on the farm as he prefers to replant with new seedlings instead of stumping his trees. 80% of the farm is SL34, and 20% S795. After harvest, the beans are processed on the farm if they are to be honey or natural.
Experiments are still going on with the natural processed coffees and this year the cherries are dried initially on plastic sheeting before being transferred to bamboo trays.'
Argelia
Producer: 150 small-scale farmers
Varietals: Caturra, Castillo, Colombia
Processing: Fully washed
Altitude: 1200-2000m
Country: Colombia
Region: Argelia, Cauca
Cupping Notes: Orange, toffee apple, plum sweetness
Roaster: Neighbourhood Coffee Roasters
Association de Transformadores y Comercializadores de Cafe Especiales de Argelia was started in 2014 by a group of 17 producers that decided to start working together in attempts to find a commercial market for their coffees (Argelia is quite a remote place, about 4 hours and 3 mountain passes off the main highway).
By 2017, about 89 members were involved in this project and at this point, Banexport, the exporter with whom Neighbourhood work in Colombia, had started to help fund this project as well.
Currently, ARGCAFEE has a warehouse and cupping lab. They are democratically structured with the director, legal rep, producers rep, accountant, secretary, and a technical committee _x0097_ all of which are chosen by popular vote.
Future goals with ARGCAFEE include a coca-reduction incentive program in which a higher premium price will be paid to producers that choose to replant sections of their land with coffee instead of the coca that is currently in production here.
Jaguares
Producer: Beneficio San Diego
Varietals: Caturra & Catuai
Processing: Yellow Honey Process
Altitude: 1600-1900m
Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazu, San Jose
Cupping Notes: Peach and nectarine, with honey
Roaster: Neighbourhood Coffee Roasters
Beneficio San Diego is the most modern and one of the top 3 largest mills in Costa Rica. Jaguares, a Yellow Honey coffee keeps water usage very low.
Due to a shorter fermentation period, the coffee acquires an acidity halfway between natural and washed coffees. In the Yellow Honey process, the cherry skin is completely removed and only the mucilage is left on the parchment.
A Yellow Honey coffee bean has a lighter, more yellow honey colour, before roasting, and the sweetness is evident in the final cup. The Jaguar is a so-called umbrella species: its conservation ensures the protection of a large number of other species.
Jaguars need a lot of space to live and migrate across Central and South America, but their migration routes of the jaguars have been severely disrupted by humans.
Illegal hunting and deforestation have also accelerated the reduction of the jaguar population in Costa Rica. For every quintal of Jaguares Yellow Honey, $1 is donated to the Jaguar Conservation Program.
For more speciality coffees like these, be sure to subscribe to Blue Coffee Box. You can check out our past featured coffees here.
