Sampler – 6 Half-Pounds – Burman Coffee Favorites:

Sample some classic coffee flavor profiles from around the world! A half pound each of:

Peru Org. Norandino – Washed Processed
In Peru, the bulk of production comes from small farms owned and managed by indigenous people who follow organic farm management practice attuned to their cultural connection with the land. Producers typically cultivate coffee on just a few acres of land intercropped with shade trees, bananas, corn, and beans. They carefully harvest and sort cherries before depulping, fermenting, washing, and drying the coffee using their own micro-mills. Simultaneously, cooperatives carry out activities that often go unnoticed but are crucial for small producers. These cooperatives are often divided into smaller locally run organizations, larger regional organizations, and even larger umbrella organizations.

The local cooperatives focus on training producers in best organic practices and invest in basic infrastructure needs like road improvements and establishing local warehouses. The regional cooperatives focus on creating credit for producers and investing in social programs on a larger and more impactful scale, using the collective resources generated from the sale of coffee. Environmental training programs, healthcare initiatives, life insurance, and educational opportunities are just some of the ways these cooperatives strive to improve the quality of life for coffee producers and their families.

Tasting notes: A great daily drinking Peru! Best right around a medium roast but works well from light to dark. It stands out for being a very clean and sweet cup. At lighter roast levels it has some crisp acidity, not over the top but noticeable, gives a quick hit lemon and floral that will balance with nutty and chocolate like darker tones. Small hints of caramel and dried fruit will pop out with a little setup. At medium roast levels, you get more of a smooth easy drinking cup, less acidity with accentuated nutty/chocolate tones, a hint of spice in the aftertaste, provides the best balance of light/dark tones. Darker roasts are a little flat and roasty, but on the more neutral side, classic darker roast beans: smooth, rich and on the roasty chocolate side of things with a little nuttiness in the aftertaste.

Roasting notes: An easy coffee to roast, very forgiving and tasty from light to dark. It has medium to low chaff levels and roasts pretty even. If you want to highlight its acidity more, lighter and quicker roasts are the way to go, just make sure everything gets through first crack or risk some grassy peanut like notes. For daily drinking, a medium roast is best, smooth and rich with a sweet edge. Bolder coffee fans, touching or just into second crack gives a clean and classic darker roast cup profile.

Costa Rican Central Valley – Cafe Vida – Washed Processed
Costa Rica’s Central Valley is widely considered the heart of the country’s coffee industry, shaped by high elevations, steady weather patterns, and volcanic soils that have supported coffee farming for generations. Coffee has been part of Costa Rica’s economic story since the late 1700s, and by the 1820s it had become a major agricultural export.

Another thing that sets Costa Rica apart is how organized the coffee sector is. The national coffee authority, ICAFE, was established in the early 1930s to support agricultural and commercial development and to provide industry oversight. Café Vida is a regional program built to highlight the classic, approachable side of washed Costa Rica: balanced sweetness, soft acidity, toasted nut character, and an easy “daily driver” profile that works both as a single origin and in blends. Harvest runs December through February, with coffees grown at 1200–1800 masl.

Being a small holder aggregate, or regional example, it’s not tied to a single cultivar, it’s contains a blend of the regional staples like Caturra, Catuai, Bourbon, Villa Sarchi, Villalobos, Sarchimor, Venecia, and Costa Rica 95. Washed processing in Costa Rica is designed to be efficient with water use, which one can feel very good about. Driven by national regulation but everyone loves clean water.

Tasting Notes: A nutty and chocolaty cup, with a hint of floral and citric crispness and a slight red fruit sweetness. A good bean for daily drinking and tasty from light to dark roasts. We thought it best around a medium roast, classic Costa with just a pinch of acidity, nutty and chocolate tones with a little floral kicker in the aftertaste. An excellent cold brew, its notes are slightly more pronounced, highlighting its acidity, body, and chocolatey notes. It’s a clean and refreshing coffee with a smooth, lingering sweetness, offering subtle hints of almond and walnut.

Roasting Notes: A straightforward and easy-to-roast washed coffee. For a sweeter and more balanced profile, a medium-light to medium roast is recommended, allowing the cocoa and almond notes to develop. This roast level provides a good balance between acidity and these chocolatey tones. Roasting it darker will yield more pronounced notes of chocolate, spices, and other aromas. If you prefer coffees that aren’t too intense, this coffee is perfect for you. We recommend letting it rest for a couple of days to allow the acidic notes to become more prominent.

Ethiopian Guji Natural Org. Gr. 1 – Kayon Mountain Shakiso 
Clean, bright, sweet with a very diverse flavor set. Stone and darker fruit, citrus & floral, and spiced chocolate tones are the main flavors one can see in this cup, either accentuated or muted depending on roast level. Nice jammy body will be seen in the medium to borderline dark roast mark. Very dependent on roast – lighter roasting gives much more of the citrus, red-fruit with just a hint of a spicy chocolaty factor, a much dryer finish. Darker roasts produce much more of a bakers chocolate cup with a hint of a strawberry like fruit note and good sweetness, far less acidic.

Tasting Notes: Clean, bright, fruity and sweet with a very diverse flavor set. Stone and darker fruit, citrus & floral, and spiced chocolate tones are the main flavors one can see in this cup, either accentuated or muted depending on roast level. Nice jammy body will be seen in the medium to borderline dark roast mark. Very dependent on roast – lighter roasting gives much more of the citrus, red-fruit with just a hint of a spicy chocolaty factor, a much dryer finish. Darker roasts produce much more of a bakers chocolate cup with a hint of a strawberry like fruit note and good sweetness, far less acidic. A very enjoyable cup from light to dark.

Roasting Notes: Classic natural processed, fairly even roasting (one can see a couple shades but they are close to each other) with high chaff. We liked it best right around a medium roast – not as bright or floral but developed a real nice fruit versus chocolate profile. Many lighter roast fans will like to take it lighter – 2 out of 6 here who tried it did like the lighter roasts better – super dark roasts will get pretty edgy but have very nice aromatics and a strong chocolaty smoky cup profile.

Haitian Premium Blue – Cafe Kreyol – APCAB Gr. 2 – Washed Processed
Haitian Blue is what made Haiti famous for coffee. At one time it was as rare, as tasty and as expensive as Jamaican Blue Mountain but unfortunately those days are long gone. The Haitian economy was toppled a couple times for a plethora of reasons (including corruption and earthquakes). The fields and farms went untended and were abandoned, later the coffee trees were mostly used for firewood to folks living in the area. Very sad start to this coffee but this should be a positive story, for these beans represent the resurrection of awesome Haitian Coffee. Co-ops have stepped in, helping with nursery’s, strain selection and processing. Operations like Cafe Kreyol and Singing Rooster have stepped in to provide outside financing and marketing, it has finally gotten to the point of pretty awesome coffee again, but the most important factor is still growing; folks like yourself buying and loving the coffee. The last 5-10 years has been the rebirth of Haitian coffee. They have resurrected the farms though social co-ops that work very hard to create a premium product to achieve very high dollar values. Which in turn greatly help rebuild the infrastructure while provide excellent jobs and opportunity. Solving the worlds problems one cup at a time.

Tasting Notes: Awesome cup this season, good from light to dark. Darker roasts which are more traditional for Haitian coffee, come off robust and strong with a floral islandy sweet edge and a smoky aftertaste. Bigger bodied and on the chocolaty spicy side of things. Being a little cleaner, this cup is very good at light to medium roasts as well; sweet with a more nutty/caramel tone, can come off a little herbal too light so tread lightly. A little acidity but not enough to push folks away. A lovely daily drinking cup. Heavier bodied and lower acidity, semi-sweet hints of floral and caramel, balanced with a nice strong earthier chocolate note. Darker roasting makes for a pretty bold cup with some added smoky factors.

Roasting Notes: Beautiful larger beans, medium to low chaff and fairly even roasting. We recommend a solid medium roast to start. Fuller bodied and smooth with a sweet edge. Looking for a more delicate cup with sweeter hints of nutty/caramel/floral? Go a little lighter. Looking for a very strong semi-sweet chocolaty cup with a smoky edge? Make sure to touch 2nd crack with it. Great prep and a easy to roast coffee. Medium to low chaff.

Kenya Machakos – Ngomano – AA Washed

Machakos county is one of central Kenya’s largest, beginning south of Nairboi and spanning northeast along the borders of Kiambu, Muranga’a, and Embu counties, some of Kenya’s oldest coffee producing areas. Machakos is lesser-known than the highly competitive central counties of Kiambu, Kirinyaga, and Nyeri, and while it is commonly known as “Eastern” Kenya, it nonetheless is capable of producing excellent quality coffees, as it contains similar latitudes and elevations to the rest of the central area.

This particular lot comes from Ngomano “fly crop”, a smaller secondary harvest common in many equatorial coffee producing countries that follows a secondary rainy season. Fly crop Kenyas are not as large or sought-after as the main harvest, but nonetheless can yield exquisite tasting coffee.

Ngomano Factory is the sole washing station in the Ngomano Farmer Cooperative Society (FCS). The producer group belongs to the Machakos Cooperative Union, an umbrella organization that represents 28 societies in the county and offers benefits to its member commonly provided by 3rd party service providers elsewhere in Kenya, including dry milling, farmer training, marketing, and subsidized farm inputs like pesticides, fertilizer, and fungicides.

Kenya is of course known for some of the most meticulous at-scale processing that can be found anywhere in the world. Ample water supply in the central growing regions has historically allowed factories to wash, and wash, and soak, and wash their coffees again entirely with fresh, cold river water. Conservation is creeping into the discussion in certain places–understandably in the drier areas where water, due to climate change, cannot be as taken for granted—but for the most part Kenya continues to thoroughly wash and soak its coffees according to tradition. The established milling and sorting by grade, or bean size, is a longstanding tradition and positions Kenya coffees well for roasters, by tightly controlling the physical preparation and creating a diversity of profiles from a single processing batch.

Tasting Notes: A very clean and bright cup, silky-smooth mouthfeel that shines from the first whiff of honey sweetness to the final sip of bolder spice. Best served at light-to-medium roasts. A brighter, full flavored cup with great depth of flavor. Upon first sip, one will see a vibrant burst of lemon/orange citric comingling with a slight red fruit, quickly balanced by a creamy cocoa undertone with a little gentle black-tea like spice in the aftertaste. Underlying notes of roasted nuts and cocoa anchor the profile. As the cup cools the acidity softens and a deeper chocolate note swells, yet the honey aromatics persist, making every temperature stage deliciously consistent.

Roasting Notes: An easy-going bean with moderate chaff and even color. Keep it in the light-to-medium range if you’re after the fresh citrus pop and fruity nuance; these roasts showcase the red-lemon snap, blueberry sweetness, and honey fragrance while preserving a lighter, tea-like body. Taken to Full City, just shy of second crack, the fruit folds gracefully into rich cocoa and roasted-nut depth, yielding a silky medium body and mellow orange acidity. Pushed into second crack for espresso or cold-brew fans, you’ll land a cup of smooth bittersweet chocolate with low acidity and a subtle spicy edge. Let the coffee rest 48–72 hours after roasting: the citrus settles, the honey rounds out, and the cup shows its full character.

Guatemalan Premium Fraijanes – Finca De Dios – La Morita Washed
Finca De Dios is all about sustainability and treating folks right. They go the extra mile for their hardworking team, offering education, support, and good old-fashioned kindness that you won’t find on most other coffee farms.

Nearly four decades ago, a horse enthusiast purchased the farm with plans to house his horses. However, a few years later, he had to move due to work commitments, leaving his daughter, Ellen Prentice, responsible for the farm. Ellen, who remained in Guatemala, managed the farm, gradually transforming it into a predominantly coffee-growing venture committed to preserving the natural forests. Six years ago, after inheriting her portion of the original farm, Ellen named it Finca de Dios in memory of her father, who dedicated the land to God. Since then, they’ve worked tirelessly to develop essential infrastructure, including a wet mill! Despite being smaller in scale than larger coffee farms, they embrace the idea that remarkable things often come in small packages. At the heart of their mission is the belief that they’ve been blessed to be a blessing to others. They treat their workers with respect and care, striving to create an atmosphere of dignity and peace. Special consideration is given to accommodating workers with unique needs, matching them with suitable job roles. They also strongly emphasize teaching their employees values and principles, emphasizing the importance of delivering excellence and ensuring that their customers can savor an exceptional cup of coffee.

Tasting Notes: A great clean micro lot from our friends at Finca De Dios. Awesome prep, one can tell a lot of care went into these beans. A great bean for any roast level, works well from light to dark. Light roasts produce a lot of floral brightness and light fruit notes (almost reminiscent of a nice Costa) mixing with a subtle yet very sweet malty chocolaty note (can be a little more challenging to roast to a light roast)  a great morning brew – darker roasts will produce more body similar to the Huehues – very clean non-roasty dark-roast beans – you get a lot of the sweet malty tones and very smooth even into 2nd crack – a very stand up bean at almost any roast level.

Roasting Notes: Lighter roasts accent the fruitier brightness, deeper levels deliver smooth, rich chocolate malty flavors and a hint of smokiness – awesome and clean dark roast notes. Coffee will roast a little two-toned containing a couple different strains, if shooting for the lighter roasts slowing it down a bit will be helpful.