New Spring Offerings
We have just finished releasing an all new menu of single origin offerings for the Spring. Please allow us to introduce them to you.
You can click on any coffee's image for more information.
Within the well respected micro region of Pedegral lies a small village, Agua Blanca. Cousins Walter and Juvenal Penna are the shining producers of this “jewel in the crown” that is Agua Blanca. In the highest elevations of Agua Blanca both producers operate their own farms and washing stations maintaining the same standards as the other. Beyond their exceptional practices, one of the other secrets to their quality is the combined varietal makeup. Walter produces Typica and Yellow Bourbon while Juvenal grows exclusively Caturra – a combination rarely seen in Colombia. This is the second year we have worked with Walter & Juvenal and are proud to be able to offer their coffees once again. Never have we experienced a coffee carry such a similar flavor profile over two years. The cousin’s skilled farming practices and processing techniques come together to make a consistently amazing coffee that we love both brewed and served as a single origin espresso.
Agua Blanca starts off with sweet fruit tones of ripe strawberry, orange and peach and an underlying menthol-like herbaliness that reminds us of wild wintergreen. Cooling, the cup richens into flavors of milk chocolate and toffee, similar to Toblerone bars. This coffee, just like last year, is full of candied fruit tones such as preserved cherries and orange, which combined with the sweeter wine finish, reminds us of the Minnesota classic - the brandy old fashion. It is the perfect coffee to toast the hard work and continued excellence of those around you.
The Highlands of Papua New Guinea are stocked with challenges toward quality coffee production. Due to the immense diversity of indigenous tribes, many of which had no interaction with the western world until the 1930’s, there are over 800 distinct languages spoken throughout the country. The majority of mills that still operate were originally installed on massive commodity grade plantations in the 1920’s with seeds from Jamaica’s Blue Mountain. Today, 85% of coffee is grown by smallholder farmers, each owning anywhere between just a couple to a couple hundred trees.
Kunjin operates a mill they lease on one of the original 15 coffee plantations, but purchases cherry from substance farmers in the Waghi Valley. They are able to control quality throughout the milling process, cupping day lots and building micro lot level containers to be processed separately.
Kunjin is a beautifully complex and dynamic. Ripe plum initially comes to the forefront, offset by lime zest and a bouquet of sweet herbs. As it cools, the cup maintains its liveliness and picks up notes of white grape, coming together into a beautiful winey finish. This coffee is the highest quality lot we have seen from PNG, if not all of the Asian-Pacific region, and just may reshape your impression of the region. It is the perfect coffee for pairing with buttery pastries, whether sweet or savory.
The climate and geography of Eastern Congo are a dream for growing coffee. However, to live in Congo is truly a nightmare.
Lake Kivu comes to us from the over 5,600 members of the Sopacdi cooperative, on the shores of Lake Kivu. Most of these farmers have recently returned to their homes after being driven away by the rebel troops spilling over from Rwanda. Over twenty percent of the cooperative’s membership are women. Many are widows whose husbands died trying to smuggle their coffee into Rwanda while the Conogolese market was virtually non-exsistent. They live in small, remote villages in the mountainous highlands surrounding Lake Kivu. The cooperative is headquartered in the village of Minova, where they just completed building the first coffee washing-station in Congo in over forty years. Additionally, this is the first coffee from DR Congo to acheive the top national grade - Kivu 2 - since 1967.
Lake Kivu’s first sip springs forward with tones of fresh cherry, developing into notes of fresh-cut flowers, clementine, peach, and buttery pie crust. As the cup cools, the floral tones open up into earthy green tea acting as a nice foundation for the brighter, sweet fruit we see in the forefront. This coffee is very juicy, turning into a slightly dry effervescent mouth-feel in the finish which reminded us of Bottle Cap candies. It is the perfect coffee to greet the oncoming summer sunshine.
