3 lb Bundle: Tasty Value Coffees

Description

Want some great coffees & stellar values? This bundle is for you!

All very fresh coffee, current or new crop. Great premium screens on Co-op and Mill production coffees. Larger production coffees keep the costs down. Although these are not single farm micro lots, they are very tasty coffees giving the true terroir of their production areas and producing nations. A pleasure to drink and 100% responsibly sourced.

This bundle contains 1 pound each of:

Mexican Altura Chiapas/Oaxaca – BCT Select Washed

This is small holder coffee, a community based aggregate coming from the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico, where there are mountain ranges that provide higher altitudes and ideal climates for cultivating coffee. Grown on farms that average just a few acres in size. With this small scale production, each producer can carefully manage picking and sorting cherries to remove damaged and under ripe cherries. Each producer processes coffee with their own micro-mill where the coffee is depulped and fermented for 24 hours and then washed. The washed coffee in parchment is dried in the sun on patios before transporting the coffee to a centrally located dry-mill facility where the coffee is hulled and sorted by density and color in preparation for export.

Roasting Notes: Super fresh, we found these beans take just a pinch longer to roast then average. Medium to low chaff levels. Being an aggregate small holder coffee, it does not roast super even, but shooting for a medium to dark roast keeps it very easy to roast. This cup will mostly appeal to medium and dark roast fans. Although clean enough for a lighter roast, the weaker chocolaty notes do not leave the cup super distinctive. Medium roasts bring forth the nice chocolaty factor and its accentuated even more into the darker roasts. If shooting lighter, make sure to drop temps and bring it into 1st crack slower, helps even it up. Ideally one wants to shoot just a little past first crack for a lighter roast, if too close to 1st crack, can produce a bit of a grassy tone.

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Washed Gr. 2 – Banko Chelchele

A wonderful fresh bean for the price point. Not as delicate as top grades, nor floral/fruity. These beans go after the rich chocolate and spice notes, kind of the terroir of Ethiopia. In specialty coffee, grade 1 Ethiopians are prevalent but are far from average and are quite different from the premium grade 2’s and 3’s.  Grade 1’s are about light roasts, overly floral and sweet, delicate often with a fruitier aspect, while grade 2 and 3 bring in richer dark tones, less acidity, and hold medium to dark roasts much better.

Farming  & Practices: Gedeb is the southern‑most district of the famed Gedeo highlands, a crossroads between Gedeo and Guji whose soaring elevations and cool, misty microclimates yield some of Ethiopia’s most “explosive” cup profiles. Banko Chelchele sits in a dense corner of Gedeb known locally as “Worka,” where coffee gardens climb steep, red‑soil slopes shaded by enset (a banana relative used as a staple food) and gravilea trees. Smallholders each tending just 0.5–3 ha hand‑pick only fully ripe cherry, then deliver it within hours to the station.

The result is a fresh, reliably consistent arrival that marries crisp Honduran sweetness with a silky texture—excellent as a standalone filter brew and equally at home as the bright backbone of espresso or cold‑brew blends.

Tasting Notes: Good from light to dark but we thought best at a strong medium to dark roast. A good bean to go after a rich and semi-exotic chocolate tone with some wonderful aromatics and a bit of spice. Light roasts are more citric and floral with wonderful aromatics and a sweet edged, a bit punchy in the citric department and contrasts with a bit of nutty/herbal/grassy undertones. Works well but needs a much longer setup time bring out smooth and clean tastes, sharp and grassy/herbal if drank too soon. Medium roasts will bring some lovely balance to the cup and provides a clean tasting brew without waiting a week to drink it. One starts seeing the chocolate aspect but will still pull some balance with the citric and floral. Less aromatic than the light roasts, but you can still tell you have a nice Ethiopian with one sniff. Darker roasts touching or into second crack are real robust, strong and semi-sweet, more bakers-chocolate like with tea like spice in the aftertaste.

Roasting Notes:An easy coffee to roast, even roasting with medium chaff. We thought it best to get some development past first crack, a nice medium roast to as dark as you want to go. The beans will darken up quickly, often appearing 1-2 shades darker then they really are. A citric edge to the cup will mean you are still in the light-medium roast range.

Brazil Mogiana Guaxupé 17/18 FC SS

A lovely Brazil arrival. Smooth, clean and rich, these beans make an awesome single origin cup, or blend base. This is a Fine Cup (FC) and Strictly Soft (SS), the highest cup category in the Brazilian coffee grading. 17/18 is the bean size, referring to larger for Brazil sized beans.

As the world’s largest coffee producer, Brazilian lots often come from larger estates that use highly mechanized processing strategies to manage larger volumes. The Mogiana region, split between the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, is the most renowned of three major Brazilian growing regions. This region has rolling hills and uneven terrain lending to farms that are small to medium in size.

This particular lot comes from Cooperativa Regional de Cafeicultores em Guaxupé (Cooxupé), which was established in 1937 and currently has 14,000 active members. Producers typically have farms that average 60 acres in size. Each producer cultivates and harvest their own cherries and places them on patios to dry to 15 percent moisture after which the coffee is moved to mechanical driers to precisely finish the drying to 11 percent moisture. Coffee is carefully stored until it is time for milling and export, which all takes place at the Cooxupé dry mill where traceability and quality control are carefully managed so each producer can be paid according to the quality of their coffee.

Tasting notes:A very fresh and tasty Brazil! Best from medium to dark roasts. Lighter roasts show a sweet edge with lemon, floral & soft fruit, contrasted by a nuttier (almond like) darker undertone. With a little setup, the tones will combine to provide hints of caramel, a very tasty cup especially for the price. Too close to first crack will throw some herbal tones, but not far after first crack it will taste clean and defined. Medium roasts are richer, more of a developed chocolaty tone and decently less nutty; mutes up the sour floral edge, retains a little hint of soft fruit as the cup cools. Fairly neutral tasting and very chuggable. Darker promotes a thicker body and introduces a slightly bitter contrast that works very well for espresso.

Roasting Notes:A nice large screen, fairly even roasting bean (will see a couple beans lighter than the others). Medium to high chaff.  Avoid light roasts unless you like sharper cups, quite tasty but will have a little acidity which many Brazil fans will shy away from.  Most will like it best at a medium roast, especially for single origin drinking, or into the darker roasts for blending.