by Isabella Vitaliano
Welcome to our Specialty Green Coffee Cupping Series on Thursdays where we highlight recent arrivals. We select several coffees to cup at The Crown and provide more in-depth tasting notes, coffee background, and usage recommendations.
28911 Costa Rica El Poeta SHB EP
Café de Altura de San Roman owns and operates a state-of-the-art mill designed to receive cherries from many small farms and consistently process this well-balanced regional blend. Cherries are placed in a large tank with water to move the less dense and damaged beans that float.
All of this is done with recycled water. This happens in a matter of 72 hours; the coffee is rested for at least a month in silos. After resting, it is milled for export with another equally impressive series of machines dedicated to dehulling and sorting green beans by weight and color. With every detail of the post-harvest operation covered, producers can turn their full attention to farm management practices with a special emphasis on sustainable practices.
The cup performed well with a cherry-like undertone and layers of cacao, mild raisin, caramel, and blackberry. Take this gently to a medium-to-medium plus level to elevate the caramel-like sweetness but will be a guaranteed crowd-pleaser at any roast level. Blend it to create a base for the body of a profile blend or keep it as a single origin to thrill the masses.
28680 Costa Rica Santa Maria De Dota AA
For this analysis, a slightly longer roast with a lower charge temp was used in the profile linked here. Complimenting the coffee nicely the cup was balanced, dense with chocolate, mild spices, raisin, and pleasant smokiness in the cup. Delicious as a medium roast you can also take this lighter to create nuanced single origin that would be delightful on espresso, batch brew, or pour over; dealers choice.
Coming from nearly 900 producers from Costa Rica and the Cooperative De Caficutltores de Dota R.L (CoopeDota). CoopeDota is a tried and true cooperative established in 1960. Throughout the year they remain diligent about synchronizing farm management and quality control. This extends to when producers deliver their cherry to the CoopeDota mill where extensive quality control and traceability remain at an extremely high caliber. Coopedota remains dedicated to the environment and its community by managing trash pickup for the entire community of Santa Maria De Dota.
28792 Costa Rica Tarrazu La Pastora
This cup gets more and more delicious as it cools, in the cup we found notes of almond butter, cacao, berry, lemon tea, light orange and a little nutty flavor. A softer Costa Rican coffee, this lot would benefit from a little extra love in the roaster at a slower speed to add more sweetness and round out the cup further. A great candidate for a medium to dark roast and could offer some multifunctionality as a blend or a single origin on your menu.
With more than 4650 members in Tarrazu, a canton in the province of San Jose, Cooperative de Caficulatores de Tarrazu is designed to receive cherries from many small farms and process their coffees into this well-balanced regional blend called La Pastora.
Highly impressive for the sheer size of this group, like clockwork, a parade of vehicles of all sizes arrives in the late afternoon with cherries that were picked that day. The cherries are weighed out and sent through a demucilager utilizing a recycling water system. The coffee passes through a series of dryers to reduce the moisture to 11%. All this highly organized operation happens in a matter of just 72 hours. The coffee is rested for a month, milled, and put through more series of quality control evaluations to prepare for export. This cooperative has an intricate model of income diversification they can provide their members. Along with a profitable agricultural supply store and grocery store, cooperative members also have access to low-interest loans and health care.
28796 Costa Rica Tarrazu La Pastora SHB EP
This Costa Rican coffee is your classic Central American coffee in its chocolatey, caramel, and nutty flavors with a touch of blueberry, coconut, and orange to soften the edges. We recommend taking this coffee to a medium or dark roast level and brewing it on batch brew for ideal results.
With more than 4650 members in Tarrazu, a canton in the province of San Jose, Cooperative de Caficulatores de Tarrazu is designed to receive cherries from many small farms and process their coffees into this well-balanced regional blend called La Pastora.
Highly impressive for the sheer size of this group, like clockwork, a parade of vehicles of all sizes arrives in the late afternoon with cherries that were picked that day. The cherries are weighed out and sent through a demucilager utilizing a recycling water system. The coffee passes through a series of dryers to reduce the moisture to 11%. All this highly organized operation happens in a matter of just 72 hours. The coffee is rested for a month, milled, and put through more series of quality control evaluations to prepare for export. This cooperative has an intricate model of income diversification they can provide their members. Along with a profitable agricultural supply store and grocery store, cooperative members also have access to low-interest loans and health care.
Check out all Costa Rica SPOT coffees.
30696 Ethiopia Sidama 2 Washed FT-FLO/USA Organic Hache
Light to medium to dark the options are endless for this washed Ethiopia. In our QC lab, we got notes of caramel, cacao nib, cherry, chocolate, and sweet raspberry. This slightly bolder coffee has a nice weight to the body and could handle a longer roast and more caramelization or keep it short and sweet to highlight the acidity. We recommend keeping it as a single-origin option for your customers and would do excellent as a drip, espresso, or pour-over.
Hache is one of the primary cooperatives belonging to the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (SCFCU), one of Ethiopia’s largest and best-known exporting organizations. SCFCU is robust; with 53 member cooperatives in the union and over 80,000 member households throughout the Sidama zone.
Hache carries out activities that often go unnoticed but are crucial for small producers, including training producers in best practices and investing in basic infrastructure like road improvements and local warehouses. SCFCU focuses on establishing a certification process for local cooperatives and investing in social programs on a larger scale. With 914 active contributing small-holder farmer members belonging to the Hache cooperative, they provide a vast amount of support and services to the producers in the Bensa district of Sidama.
30508 Ethiopia Yirgacheffe 2 Washed FT-FLO/USA Organic Oromia
This organic certified coffee is clean, bright, and lightly floral; everything you want and need from washed Ethiopia. Roasted on this Ikawa profile and cupped the next day, the team got notes of lemon, lemongrass, light florals, pear, and dates. A light to medium roast is best suited for this coffee. A little extra caramelization could contribute to the cup. Throw it in the hopper and pull some espresso shots to help highlight the acidity or you could make it a chuggable drip option on your menu.
The Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU) is an umbrella organization established in 1999 by 34 individual cooperatives interested in centralizing resources and gaining leverage in the export market. As of 2020, OCFCU supports more than 400 individual cooperatives than 400,000 households, by far the largest unionization of farmers in the country. OCFCU has established a central cupping lab to support quality control and is a founding shareholder in its member’s bank, the cooperative Bank of Oromia, that provides pre-harvest financing and crop insurance: both resources historically unavailable to rural farmers in Ethiopia.
The group has been Fairtrade and Organic certified since 2002 and ever since has been one of the world’s largest suppliers of Fairtrade coffee.
30667 India RFA Arabidecool Estate
This Indian coffee is not only Rainforest Alliance certified, but certified delicious. The cup goes from caramel to nutmeg, herbal tea, milk chocolate, and mild orange to zest. This lot offers a subtle and soft version of what one might expect from this region. Take this coffee from a medium to dark roast for best results. The base spice notes would do well paired with further caramelization and sweetness. Happy slurping!
Sourced from Arabidecool Estate located near the Baba Budangi hills in the Western Ghats mountain range within the state of Karnataka, India. In the Baba Bundagiri hills, there is a shrine for Baba Budan, the Sufi saint who first cultivated coffee in India with seven raw beans from Mocha. Smuggled over due to a seed embargo from a pilgrimage to Mecca in the 17th century. The Baba Budangiri hills are also home to the Neelakurinji flower, which only blooms every 12 years. Rainforest Alliance certificate, this estate covers 142 hectares with a distinct micro-climate that is reflected in the cup profile.
30437 Burundi Gitega Mugano
This Burundi has a highly acclaimed single-origin status. Ideally served as a pour-over or espresso to avoid any larger batches being contaminated by potato. This coffee is supported by notes of honey, browned butter, and milk chocolate with softer edges of cantaloupe, plum, and pear that make for a complex cup that is full of character.
This coffee is from JNP, a highly focused on women’s empowerment along with a few local women’s rights advocates, formulated the Burundi chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance. IWAC is a network of over 2,000 members whose coffee is differentiated by membership and marketed for its traceability Burundi Gitega Murano is a specialized additional program from the region that is well known for winning multiple wards in the Cup of Excellence competition.
29851 Uganda Organic Mountain Harvest
An uncomplicated, classic Ugandan coffee, you’ll find notes of dark chocolate, green apple, raisin, and cherry. We recommend taking it to the medium to dark range when roasting. The extra caramelization will help add some sweetness to the cup and compliment the dark chocolate notes nicely. One option is a potential base component and possible Brazil substitute in a blend.
Mountain Harvest is a progressive producer group in Uganda, investing heavily in their farmer’s equity in the final product, as well as constantly diversifying their cup profiles available to buyers. First established in 2017, they are dedicated to long-term economic and environmental sustainability for smallholders on Mt. Elgon. They organize growers in the local community and administer farm management and processing training to calibrate all producers to high specialty standards. Individual parchment deliveries are built into blended containers, single-community lots, and single-delivery micro-lots for sale.
30556 Nicaragua FT Organic COOMULFAC Cafe De Mujeres SHG
Clean, balanced and full of depth the Nicaraguan coffee is a crowd-pleasing Central American coffee. Fudge, black tea, dried dates, and chocolate; flavors can withstand the heat of the darker second-crack roasts and deliver a delicious brew on a medium roast. The body is a standout of this coffee, extremely thick, and would contribute nicely to an espresso blend or keep it simple and serve it as drip on your menu. This lot is for those who like a little weight to their morning cup of Joe.
J&M Family Coffee is a privately owned export company with a new focus on how to support female producers. Over the years they have helped producers with the same focus on quality and environmental responsibility connect with the international market. They created a cooperative called Cooperativa Multifunctional Family Coffee to organize their efforts and combine resources to gain certifications and develop social projects aimed at improving the quality of life in their communities. This lot is traceable to 9 women producers who are members of the COOMULFAC cooperative. This is their first exported women’s community lot.
31104 Guatemala Pacaya Finca El Mirador Women’s Coffee
Cute and sweet with potential as a single origin offering, this will delight as a medium batch brew. We recommend keeping it on the lighter side as the gentler notes would get smothered in a darker style roast. We found classic central American nutty notes like almond and peanut butter cookies bolstered by flavors of marshmallow, dried pineapple, and light lemon.
If you are looking to support women in coffee and serve delicious coffee, this is the lot for you. Ivonne Herrera has dedicated Finca Mirador del Volcan, 170 acre family estate located in Los Pocitos near the community of San Vicente Pacaya, to supporting 100 employees of which most are women. After purchasing the estate in 2019 the team spent several years renovating and recovering the damage during the Volcan Pacaya’s 2021 eruption. During harvest Ivonne and her team work hard to selectively pick and sort cherries. After washing coffee is gently dried using a combination of patios and raised beds. The coffee is then sorted in dried parchment until prepared for export.
