New Gourmet Coffees for July 2019

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

Shakisso Farm

Producer: Haile Gebre
Varietals: MIxed Heirloom
Processing: Washed, Natural
Altitude: 1800m
Country: Ethiopia
Region: Guji
Cupping Notes: Floral, Blueberries, Vanilla
Roaster: Campbell & Syme

Shakisso Farm can be found in the Guji zone, the southern part of Oromia, one of Ethiopia's largest regions.

The farm was started by Haile Gebre and began producing organic coffees in 2001 and is now Organic, Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade USA certified. Shakisso Farm is spread out over 640 hectares and has its own nursery sites to grow coffee seedlings.

During harvest, they have more than 300 coffee pickers harvesting coffee. About 150 of them supply coffee individually to the wet mill.

There are currently twelve permanent qualified members of staff with more than ten years practical experience in coffee production, processing, clearing, and marketing.

Gold mines abound in the area of Shakisso Farm, so the coffee fields are literally full of holes from digging for gold making walking between the coffee trees risky.

As a result, the biggest challenge is to find employees to maintain the plantation and pick cherries.

Waykan

Producer: Various Smallholders
Varietals: Typica, Caturra, Bourbon, Catuai, Paches
Processing: Washed, Natural
Altitude: 1100 -1800m
Country: Guatemala
Region: Huehuetenango
Cupping Notes: Lemon and Toffee
Roaster: Campbell & Syme

One of the most famous coffee-growing regions in Guatemala, Huehuetenango is considered a "coffee economy," and producers have told us that around 80% of the population makes its living from coffee either directly or indirectly.

In the Maya Q'qnjobal dialect from Huehuetenango, waykan means "star (or light) that shines in the sky at night." (And for the record, the region's name is commonly pronounced "way-way-teh-NAN-go.") The producers of Waykan are situated in the municipalities of Chajul, Quiche, Cotzal, and Nebaj.

Farmer owners of any size are invited to bring their coffee to be cupped, and whether they bring 2 or 200 bags their coffee is sampled and scored.

Coffees that score 85_x0096_86 with the clean and crisp Huehuetenango profile are blended into the Regional Select lot, while coffees scoring 87 and above are kept separate and offered as microlots, with price incentives attached to reward that quality.

Mt Elgon Gibuzale

Producer: 934 farmers
Varietals: SL28, SL 34
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1700-2200m
Country: Uganda
Region: Bulambuli district, Buginyanya
Cupping Notes: Cherry, apple, orange
Roaster: Garage Coffee

Situated at 1,900 metres above sea level, Gibuzale washing station is the highest and most remotely located washing station operated by Kyagalanyi. All participating farmers are smallholders whose families have grown coffee for generations.

934 smallholder farmers from around the region deliver coffee cherry here. They are organised into 41 UTZ certified farmer groups. A total of 270 farmers delivered cherries for this particular Gibuzale lot.

The average farm size is only around 1 hectare, and on this most families also farm a variety of subsistence crops such as matooke (cooking banana) and fruit trees, beans, peas, millet and coco yam.

Although matooke is also an important cash crop, coffee is the more valuable source of income for most families, particularly for livelihood improvement investment.

It provides the cash flow required for large investments (school fees, livestock, land, house construction etc.), whereas matooke provides for smaller day-to-day purchases.

Don Alfonso

Producer: Robelo Family
Varietals: Marsellesa, Red Obata
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 800-1400m
Country: Costa Rica
Region: Aquiares, Turrialba
Cupping Notes: Caramel, orange, chocolate
Roaster: Garage Coffee

This special Don Alfonso' coffee represents the very best of the harvest from the famous Aquiares Estate in Turrialba, Costa Rica.

Don Alfonso' coffees bear the name of Don Alfonso Robelo, patriarch of one of the owning families of the estate who took over farm management in 1992 and made the social welfare of farm workers and the wider community one of his main priorities.

Don Alfonso is a true visionary: his son, Diego, follows in his father's footsteps by taking the farm to new heights. Aquiares, one of Costa Rica's most historic coffee farms, sits high on the fertile slopes of Turrialba Volcano.

Producing coffee continuously for over a century, the farm has developed an enduring model for growing high-quality Arabica coffee, protecting a stunning natural setting, and supporting a thriving local community of 1,800 people.

Today, the Estate is the largest continuous coffee farm in Costa Rica, covering 924 hectares, 80% of which is planted under shade-grown Arabica.

Oso Microlot

Producer: Members of Cooperative Agraria Frontera San Ignacio
Varietals: Bourbon, Catimor, Caturra, Mundo Novo, Typica
Processing: Washed
Altitude: 1350-1890m
Country: Peru
Region: San Ignacio, Cajamarca
Cupping Notes: Cherry, lime, pineapple, raspberry
Roaster: Roast Lab

The San Ignacio Province sits at the top of the Cajamarca region in Northern Peru where the Rio Canchis splits the country from Ecuador.

Western and eastern mountains of the Andes meet to form microclimates in valleys that descend from the mountains to the Amazon basin.

The farms are in the buffer zones of a protected natural area, with spectacled bears, cock-of-the-rocks, jaguars and peccaries within their boundaries.

This means working with an organic methodology and certification is a strategic point because through these standards, a culture of protection of wildlife and species in danger of extension is encouraged and created.

Coffee here is commonly fermented in wooden tanks built from fallen Romerillo trees (regulations prohibit the chopping down.)

This is because when coffee ferments it generates heat, and the wood is better at dispersing the heat and therefore ensuring an even temperature throughout the fermentation tank, creating consistency in the final cup.

Finca San Ernesto

Producer: Urrutia's Estate Coffee
Varietals: Bourbon, Pacas
Processing: Honey process
Altitude: 1100m
Country: El Salvador
Region: Comasagua
Cupping Notes: Citrus fruits, caramelised almonds
Roaster: Roast Lab

Located in Comasagua, the Urrutias Group of estates is a 5th generation family-owned business.

The farm dates back to 1870 when Mr Juan Urrutia started the family tradition of producing coffee when he planted the first coffee trees in the volcanic soil at a high altitude, 1100 (m). Their first crop was 27 bags.

The Group offers employment to 600 people, and its dedication to sustainability programs have enable it to flourish. Coffees from the estate have been finalists in the cup of excellence 7 years in a row, and in 2007 the Company won exporter of the year from El Salvador.

Urrutias farms have over 200 hectares of wild protected forest and hot springs that are part of the UNESCO declared Biosphere reserve.

The estates focus on sustainability and Quality has been driven by the current owners since 2012 and are regular visitors on the Specialty Coffee Scene.

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