Description
Garry’s coffee special features three of our more interesting coffees. Higher acidity, interesting processing, this bundle is leaning towards more exotic coffee tones.
*Bundles change over time. You will get the listed coffees at the time of order. *
A pound each of:
In 1943, Mr. Belarminio Ramirez started a small company dedicated to the cultivation and marketing of coffee, which over the years grew into a family tradition involving three generations already. The Belarminio Ramirez Group was named in his honor. Currently, the company owns 350 hectares of coffee production, located in the mountains of the central range between 800 and 1500 meters above sea.
This family-owned estate is extraordinarily socially conscious. They use fermented coffee cherries to create natural gas, which partially powers their operation. They also donate books and computers to the local schools, and in a more rural area, they built and funded a new school preventing small children from having to walk over 15 km each way to class. They also help Haitians obtain legal residence in the Dominican Republic, in order to receive fair wages. We pay roughly 300% higher wages to this Estate for their exceptional care of the environment, organic certification, care for local Haitian immigrants, and high cupping scores.
This coffee comes from a single estate in the Jarabacoa region of the Dominican Republic. The Ramirez Estate employs over 400 people. 40 percent of the workers are female and many of them are Haitian migrant workers. They are paid roughly 300 percent higher wages than Fair Trade to the Estate and they use a decent portion of their profits to create sustainable gas recycling (to reduce emissions), water filtration (to prevent river contamination), and to donate computers and books to many of the local schools. This estate is an example of how a coffee businesses that becomes successful should operate in their community.
Tasting Notes:
Best from the lighter side of a medium roast to as dark as you want to go. A bit cleaner tasting but slightly less fruity than previous seasons. Lighter roasting presents some nice honey processed features: citric, floral, soft fruit with an almost oak/peat like finish, sweet & complex but does risk some underdeveloped tones if you nail it a little too light. Medium roasts were our favorite, still balanced and complex but will develop the traditional chocolate and smoky tones for which Dominican coffees are known for – to balance out those more exotic fruity and citric tones. Darker roasts are a little more complex than on the washed processed version, but not as smooth and rich.
Roasting Notes:
The preparation on Ramirez Red Honey keeps getting cleaner and better every year. It will roast much more even, and has gone from high chaff, to more medium chaff levels. It will darken up a bit quicker color wise, so make sure to use the cracks as roast level guides.
Ethiopian Guji Natural Org. Gr. 1 – Kayon Mountain Shakiso
Fresh Kayon Mountain has become a tradition around here, marks one of our favorite times of the year, new Ethiopian season!
First top grade natural to sneak through for the new 2024/25 season! The Kayon Mountain Coffee Farm is 500 hectares with about 300 hectares planted in coffee and has been owned and operated by Ismael Hassen Aredo and his family since 2012. It is located 510 kilometers south of Addis Ababa, and the property crosses the border of two villages—Taro and Sewana—located in the Oromia region, in the Guji zone of the Shakiso district of Ethiopia.
Ismael oversees a staff of 25 permanent full-time and 300 seasonal employees, and the farm management offers free transportation services as well as financial support for building schools and administration buildings for the community. The farm competes with a nearby mining village for seasonal workers, so Ismael and his family tend to pay higher wages to their pickers in order to incentivize them returning year after year. I had the pleasure of meeting Ismael personally this season on my Ethiopian trip Feb 2025. A wonderful operation and super tasty coffee. We have a few more Kayon Mountain lots incoming that we are sure you will love as well.
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.
Zambia Kateshi Estate – Natural Processed
A lovely natural processed coffee. Fruity, floral, sweet and chocolaty. Unlike the anaerobic natural, this cup will contain pretty normal natural processed tones. Far less wild but just as tasty.
Kateshi coffee estate, as one of the first coffee estates in Zambia, was established in 1972 close to Kateshi village. Back then, its wet processing facilities represented the heart of coffee production in northern Zambia having been the central mill for all coffee produced in the region. It is also award-winning; its natural and honey placing both 1st and 2nd in Zambia’s annual Taste of Harvest competition.
Local Community is at the heart of the estate’s vision. Covoya provides daily access to safe drinking water to over 20,000 locals and supports 3 schools that provide 1,500+ students with primary and secondary education. Also on site is our health clinic, the only such facility for 30km. Complete with a pharmacy and delivery room, the clinic provides free basic healthcare to over 4,000 community members and sees an average of 95 visitors per day.
Kateshi has been recognized for boldly challenging gender stereotypes in Zambia, being the first and only coffee estate to employ women for traditionally male-dominated roles such as driving tractors, bull-dozers and road graders. Oh, and we also sponsor a football team, the Kateshi Coffee Bullets who compete in the Zambian 1st Division.
Tasting Notes: Best at the light to medium roast level. Good bit of citrus and red fruit upfront balanced with a thicker chocolate and spice note. Light roasts get a very jazzy stronger citric tone, with just a hint of a dark tone balance. Floral and sweet edged, with an emphasis on the fruitiness of the cup. Medium roasting brings the best of both worlds, some soft fruit, some chocolate and spice: medium to full bodied and far less sharp than the lighter roasts, but also a bit less fruity. More of a chocolaty cup with fruity highlights. Dark roasts get even fuller bodied but burn out some sweetness, taste like semi-sweet chocolate on the roasty/smoky side, thick with a bit of spice in the aftertaste. A hint of fruitiness as the cup cools but hard to tell its natural processed roots at darker roasts.
Roasting Notes: Easy to roast all in all but high chaff and slightly uneven roasting, adding a little complexity to traditional light roast points. A long first crack with the bean surface color darkening up quickly, can cause folks looking for light roasts to cool it out a bit soon. Try to make sure 98% of beans get through first crack before cooling. Erroring towards a medium roast is pretty bulletproof for a good cup.
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