Just like any naturally grown produce, coffee harvesting goes through seasons. Luckily for those of us who need coffee all year, because coffee is grown around the world in different countries when one country’s crop has run out or lost its freshness, another is just entering harvest time.
The New Year thus leads us into our next crop of coffees, with South American stalwarts coming in strong. Our fresh range has something for everyone’s palate, as well as a new iteration in our ongoing Parallel seasonal blend and a third member of our superior Unparalleled series of high-scoring, highly flavoursome coffee.
BRAZIL
Brazil’s coffee production is massive and thus dominates our new line up, with three very different beans on offer, two of which will be offered working together in Parallel.
The first of our trio of Brazilians is Lilith. A single variety lot of cerrado beans grown at an altitude of 1200m, it promises plenty of floral and orange zest punch, the kind of flavours that would surprise anyone used to a more typical Brazilian chocolatey-ness. Lilith will be available both on its own and as part of this season’s Parallel Version 4 blend, working in tandem with our next coffee…
Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (or FAF for short). Owned by the same family since 1850 and part of the Bob-O-Link collective, the dedication and ethics of these growers is exemplary and we couldn’t be happier supporting them by offering their coffee to you. Bringing sweet smooth chocolate notes, this ought to be a rich espresso on its own and provide a deep bass note to the flavour of Parallel to balance with Lilith’s floral zing.
Last and most certainly not least is the Fazenda Sitio Canaã, coming from a single lot of the eponymous farm in the FAF collective. The Dos Santos family who own the farm call it “Old Sumatra” in reference to it being a coffee crop planted before their buying of the farm in the 70s. The original owners had brought it over from Indonesia. We’ve heard very, very good things about this coffee. So much, in fact, that this may become Unparalleled No.3. Yep, that good. We're taking extra care with this one, so keep your eyes peeled over the coming weeks for its official release.
SOUTH AMERICA
And from the rest of South America, we have a fresh Colombian in from La Esperanza, hailing from the same award-winning estate as our delicious Unparalleled No.2 Las Margaritas. A fully washed mixed of typica and catuai made to ferment for between 19 to 25 hours, expect some boozy sharpness to this one rounded off smoother fruity notes.
We also have two new crops from farms we only just finished enjoying brews from. Those who enjoyed the oversized “elephant bean” fun of our Maracaturra from Buenos Aires, Nicaragua, will hopefully have just as much enjoyment out of this fully washed, “fun-sized” edition from the same farm. We expect a more pronounced zingy acidity compared to the natural-processed blackcurrant richness, with some caramel notes to smooth out those edges.
We also have a honey-processed red bourbon from Divisadero, El Salvador. Mauricio Salaverria has a reputation as a microlots expert, always innovative in his processing methods so as to bring the best processing to the right bean. As opposed to the natural-processed version of this bean’s deeper chocolate and cherry flavours, we’re expecting a fittingly more honeyed, citric fruit flavour with a sweeter cocoa note.
YIRGACHEFFE SEASON
Ethiopia is one of only a handful of countries with more than one coffee harvest a year, hence its near constant presence on café shelves and in your morning cup. Good job it’s damn tasty, eh? The Yirgacheffe region’s harvest has just come in and has earned a name for itself with good reason, our bean from the Negele Gorbitu farm is no exception to that reputation. Having been washed processed, it promises those bold florals Yirgacheffe is renowned for along with a surprising pleasing spiciness in the aftertaste.
Exciting stuff, right? Whether you prefer rich chocolate notes or light, floral notes to your brew, fear not, we’ve something for you. Keep your eyes peeled over the next week or so as we release these onto the shopfront.