3 lb Bundle: Dark

Description

BCT’s coffee special includes three of our best dark roast coffees. Featuring our:

Haitian Premium – Singing Rooster – Honey Processed

Half the crew organizing this coffee in Haiti live right here in Madison, Wi, they are called Singing Rooster. Singing Rooster is a non-profit that brings Haitian products (art, coffee, cocoa and more) direct to consumers and stores with 100% of the proceeds funneling back to the farmers and communities in Haiti.

Sure, its good to feel good about the beans you buy, but something just as important or even more important is the quality of the product itself; the coffee is beautiful, the prep and consistency of the beans is up easily a couple of notches over most coffees. Clean cupping, clean screen with more money getting to the farmers and communities. A win-win in anyone’s book.

Coffee trees thrive in Haiti. Mountains aren’t good for most agriculture, but they’re IDEAL for coffee; coffee trees thrive in moist but well-drained soil at high altitudes. The higher the altitude, the bigger/harder the bean, the better 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.

Not only does honey processing save water for a country who badly needs it, but also honey processed coffees offer sweeter profiles and fuller bodies

Tasting Notes:  Much cleaner processing this season which is a perk, a point higher rated, but a little less fruity/wild of a cup. Hints of a red fruit at lighter roasts, especially as the cup cools.  A bit fuller bodied and on the sweeter side, balanced with the bakers chocolate like earthiness (a good contrast) found in the other Haitian coffees. Lighter roasts will let the exotic profile shine but be a bit punchy with floral and citric tones, risks a grassy tones if you get too close to first crack.  Medium roasts were our favorite, better balance with a pronounced chocolaty darker tone along with the more exotic floral and fruit. Darker roasts touching 2nd crack are far less fruity and hold more true to the Haitian profile, a little floral acidity still comes through the cup but strong and smoky with almost no hint of being a slow dry honey processed.

Roasting Notes: A nice medium roast is the way to go on this bean but somebody liked it at almost every roast during our tastings. Very even roasting compared to last season, still a bit higher chaff but there improved processing has moved this coffee into the easier to roast category.

Indonesian Sumatra FT Org. – Bener Meriah – Buana Mandiri Gr. 1

Aceh (pronounced AH-CHEY) is the northernmost province of Sumatra. Its highland territory, surrounding Lake Tawar and the central city of Takengon, is considered to be the epicenter of one of the world’s most unique coffee terroirs.

Coffee farms in this area are managed with the experience of many generations of cultivation, while also harmoniously woven into their surrounding tropical forests. The canopies are loud and fields are almost impenetrably thick with coffee plants, fruit trees, and vegetables, all of which are constantly flushing with new growth. Year-round mists and rain showers never cease, farm floors are spongy and deep with layered biomass, and almost every square meter of the region seems to exude life.

Nothing is ever still. Including coffee ripening, which occurs ten months out of the year.   GayoMandiri is a family-operated exporter based in Bener Meriah, a broad district that encompasses the mountains along the north shore of Lake Tawar. Gayo Mandiri works with local cooperatives, operates a central dry mill, and promotes a relationship-based sales model with their buyers

Tasting Notes: Great medium to dark roast beans. Nice and clean for a Sumatra. Fuller bodied and darker toned, low acidity with a predominately earthy/chocolaty cup profile. Very classic tasting, stout like Sumatra. A little sweet floral upfront and smoky in the aftertaste. Gets strong into the very dark roasts turning the cup semi-sweet chocolate like with smoky notes. Our favorite roast was just touching 2nd crack.

Roasting Notes: A decent quality screen on these beans keeps them easy to roast. Very little chaff. Wet hulled coffees will roast a little two toned, and are not the best light roast coffees. Shooting for a medium to dark roast will be wise, make sure the lighter beans make it through first crack. Most will like it borderline 2nd crack, as soon as you see any signs of smoke or oil on the surface, cool it out. Being already a bit lower acidity, we like to roast them a little quicker, retains a bit more sweetness with crisper tones.

Sumatra’s smallholder coffee is a complicated process. Notably, processing is typically not overseen by a single individual or team; instead, coffee moves task by task through different parties before reaching its final, fully-dried, state. Coffee farms in Bener Meriah average 0.5-2 hectares each.

Every village with cooperative members has a collector (or more) who receives fresh-picked cherry for washed processing each day. Once a batch of coffee has been depulped, fermented overnight, washed clean, and then sun-dried to the touch, each collector then delivers the batch to the cooperative’s central mill. It is at the mill where the coffee is mechanically hulled of its parchment, leaving behind just the soft, high-moisture coffee bean (thus earning the term “wet-hulled”), all of which is spread out on large patios to continue drying.

Each handoff is orchestrated by the cooperative, and the members’ coffee is traced throughout each step of the chain.  CV Gayo Mandiri, along with many local industries in the region, identifies itself as “Gayo”, after the Gayonese ethnic group which has long made Aceh their home, and which comprises a vast majority of farmer members. Regional coffee distinctions in the northern provinces of Sumatra are interestingly all based on human ethnicity, rather than geography itself, which unfortunately has muddled the island’s traceability over time.

“Mandheling” for example, is a broad label for a widespread cultural group in Sumatra and Malaysia and subsequently the broadest coffee trading term, applying to almost any chosen blend of wet-hulled coffees from across the northern half of the island. These terms are malleable, and it is often difficult to pinpoint a coffee’s exact origin without direct partnerships that allow buyers to trace the entire value chain themselves.

So, it is helpful to work with exporters with a local supply chain, who themselves operate in the highlands and are personally invested in their community’s success. Gayo Mandiri regularly distributes farming tools and cash dividends to cooperative members, as well as invests in drying tents for their central operations to reduce the risk of coffee spoilage.

Mexican FT Org. Altura Oaxaca – CEPCO – Washed Processed

The aggregate Mexican coffees have been lovely this year and this new lot will not disappoint. A real nice co-op in the heart of classic Mexican coffee growing territory (way far south compared to Terruno Nayarita).

Mexican coffee is often overlooked for cheap grades which were commonly on the market for so long had a more ashy quality to the cup. In recent years and with a lot of hard work, Mexican specialty lots have become clean and balanced, nice strong chocolaty tones with floral acidity which often co-mingles with a sweet nuttiness. Sometimes one can still see a little earthier note mixing in, a positive when done on purpose and to the right contrast.

Tasting Notes: Shines in the medium to dark roast ballpark, low acidity, medium bodied, clean and sweet. Light roasts will work for some, but will come off a bit more dry nutty with a citric edge, the cup builds really nice chocolaty tones with a hint of caramel and floral as one pushes into the medium roast range, a cup everyone would like. Darker roasts get pretty bold and also bring out a stronger nutty tone balanced with smoky bakers chocolate, medium bodied and low acidity.

Roasting Notes: Easy to roast, nice screen of coffee and a little larger beans than normal. The coloring is predictable to the cracks. A slight sheen on the surface when pushing towards a strong medium roast – a good roast when in doubt. A couple day set-up before drinking helps smooth the sharper edge to the cup at lighter roasts.

Imagine starting at sea level in the popular Mexican beach destination of Puerto Escondido and traveling along progressively steeper and curvier roads through villages, where the local population still wears traditional indigenous clothing, eventually arriving at a lush tropical forest intercropped with coffee, bananas, corn, beans, fruit trees, and views of the Pacific Ocean in the distance below. This is the Oaxacan coffee growing region where the Sierra Madre del Sur coastal mountain range is peppered with small family farms, each consisting of just a few acres of land. Producers here continue to identify with their indigenous roots using organic practices to manage their farms and protect their environment. They harvest cherries, then depulp, ferment, wash, and dry the coffee using their own micro-mills.

While these producers are their own architects, designing farm management and post-harvest solutions to fit their needs, they need strong alliances to bring their coffee to the international market and earn fair prices. In Oaxaca, more than 4,000 producers from 134 communities and 45 producer associations have consolidated their efforts into an umbrella cooperative called Coordinadora Estatal de Productores de Café del Estado de Oaxaca (CEPCO), which carries out activities that are often overlooked but crucial to small producers.

For example, CEPCO has helped producers gain access to credit and certifications. CEPCO has also led the leaf rust recovery effort, helping thousands of producers renovate their farms and increase their production of organic fertilizers. Investments for basic infrastructure needs, like road improvements, establishing local warehouses, and dry-mill facilities are also coordinated through CEPCO. Their collective efforts have established higher prices and more producer income to support best agricultural practices and an improved livelihood.