3 lb Bundle: Special

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:

Burundi Kayanza Butanyerera – Natural Processed

This lot comes from the Nkuba Coffee Washing Station, located in the highlands of Kayanza province in northern Burundi. The station is owned by Minani Leonard and processes cherry from just 289 smallholder farmers who grow on its namesake hill. “Nkuba” means “lightning” in Kirundi, and local tradition holds that this hill sits on soil blessed by lightning. The station works alongside Baho Coffee, the company founded by Emmanuel Rusatira that runs washing stations in Rwanda and partners with independent processors in Burundi to bring their coffees to the international market.

Kayanza is deeply tied to the history and the specialty market of Burundian coffee. The Butanyerera region is a large, newly formed mountainous highland in the north of the country, bordering Rwanda to the north and Ngozi, another important coffee area, to the east. Here the trees grow at around 1647 masl on volcanic loam soils, from local bourbon cultivars. The harvest runs from March to June. It is worth remembering that natural processed coffee outside of Ethiopia is still uncommon in East Africa, so these Burundi naturals represent a niche with an identity of its own.

For this natural, cherry is collected daily from the surrounding farmers, sorted to remove imperfections, and moved immediately to raised drying beds. During drying the cherries are rotated continuously in the sun and, when needed, piled into small pyramids to slow the evaporation of moisture and preserve the cellular integrity and sweetness of the bean.

Tasting Notes: Best at a medium roast but works a pinch lighter or darker as well. Crisp, clean and sweet. A mostly traditional tasting Burundi with greater depth of flavors from the processing, not a super fruity cup but does pick up a hint more crispness, a buzzy acidity, a medium body with just a slightly fruity overlay. This cup has a pleasant but restrained acidity, closer to a Guatemalan than to a super bright African, balanced by a sweet herbal cacao base. Notes of melon and a subtle hint of green tea (classic African spice note) adds complexity to the taste without making it sharp. At a lighter roast it shows a bit livelier acidity and more potent aromatics, with the melon and green tea more present. From medium and beyond the acidity settles down and the cacao takes the center of the cup, giving a rounder, sweeter profile. It is a medium bodied cup, smooth with a slightly creamy texture that leaves a clean, pleasant finish.

Roasting Notes: This is an easy coffee to roast and fairly forgiving, so it is a good option both for beginners and for dialing in profiles. It gives its best from light to medium roasts: at a medium roast it keeps the balance between the mild acidity, the melon and the cacao, while toward the darker end (close but not into 2nd crack) it gains body and turns much more chocolaty and sweet. At a lighter roast it holds more freshness and the green tea touches, though we prefer it from medium to dark, where the cacao and sweetness shine without losing smoothness.

Honduran Org. CAFESMO Mercedes – Natural Processed

This lot comes from CAFESMO (Cafés Especiales Mercedes Ocotepeque), a Honduran cooperative made up of more than 280 smallholder producers located in the southern tip of the country, just a short distance from the borders with El Salvador and Guatemala. The growers had been working together for years, but it was in 2016 when they officially formalized the cooperative. By 2019 they were already exporting their first container of microlots to the United Kingdom, a notable leap for a group whose individual farms typically range between just 2 and 12 hectares.

What gives this coffee its distinct identity is the geography itself. The Mercedes hills are flanked by Cerro Pital to the west and protected on the other sides by the Guisayote National Reserve and the dormant Pacayita volcano. This wall of mountains creates a rich patchwork of microclimates, abundant natural shade, and the kind of volcanic loam soils that growers across Central America covet. The Ocotepeque region has slowly built a reputation for producing cups of unusual complexity, and CAFESMO has been one of the driving forces behind that recognition.

This particular lot is an anaerobically fermented natural, a process CAFESMO has fully embraced in recent years after experimenting with carbonic maceration and, in their own words, falling in love with the depth of profile it produces. The cooperative operates its own wet and dry mills, which means cherries are sealed in controlled conditions before sun-drying, locking in the wild fruit-forward character you’ll find in the cup. The lot blends Parainema, Pacas, Catuaí, and Icatú varieties grown between 1,000 and 1,900 meters above sea level, harvested between October and March, and the whole operation is backed by Organic certification.

Tasting Notes: A bright, lively natural with an acidity that takes the lead over its fruit character. Light roasts open up with a citrus-forward sparkle, think orange and lemon zest, with softer, more hints of berry notes playing in the background rather than dominating. The acidity is clean and crisp, almost sparkling, balanced by a smooth chocolate backbone that gives the cup real depth. The body sits in the medium range with a syrupy edge from the natural processing and fermentation. Medium roasts round out the citrus brightness and let the chocolate take center stage, with hints of cocoa and milk chocolate carrying the finish, while gentle red fruit notes whisper underneath. Darker roasts lean fully into a rich dark chocolate and sweet-tobacco profile, though a touch of the wild ferment character still peeks through.

Roasting Notes: Like most naturals, expect a bit of unevenness in the bean appearance. That’s normal and part of the charm. For light roasts, pull just before or right at first crack to preserve the wine and berry notes, the fruity acidity is the highlight here, so don’t push it. Medium roasts are the most forgiving: let the beans coast a little past first crack, watch for a light sheen, and drop them before any second-crack activity. For darker roasts, wait for the first audible signs of second crack and pull immediately, going past that point will quickly bury the fermentation character. Not recommended for very dark roasts.

Papua New Guinea – Jiwaka Arufa – Natural Processed

Natural Processed coffees are very different from washed processed. Fruity ferment like tones will dominate the cup. Sweet, slightly floral with some citric acidity. This is a wild old world example of a natural, similar to Bali Kintamani Natural but with more acidity upfront. This year is amazing clean for a PNG natural, although there is no missing its old world roots, you can expect a clean, balanced and decently fruit forward cup.

From its earliest introduction to present day, the arabica gene stock in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is considered to be one of the country’s strongest natural assets, not to mention one of the best-preserved Typica lineage variety sets in the world. And these delicate genetics clearly thrive in PNG’s highlands, which are some of the most virgin and fertile on the planet.

Between World Wars I and II, Australian settlers would establish more and more large coffee estates across the Eastern, Chimbu, Jiwaka, and Western highland provinces. As commercial exports ramped up, more indigenous Papuans would adopt coffee as a cash crop alongside their traditional economies, in most cases processing at home and selling humid parchment to traveling collectors. For hundreds of thousands of rural farmers coffee would be, and still is, the very first and only source of western currency. To this day expert-level cultivation knowledge largely remains in the possession and experience of PNG’s plantation owners. Remote smallholder coffee tends to fall short of its potential, receiving only scarce quality interventions from ambitious millers and exporters.

Tasting Notes: It yields an excellent cup at any roast level, great from light to dark, Our favorite roast point was a nice medium roast, best balance of tones and very easy drinking. The aroma is distinctly fruity and complex adding wonderfully to the tastes. A lighter roast presents a sweeter cup, more dominate fruity/floral notes. A fuller body true to its PNG roots, a more pronounced citrus acidity, accompanied by unique red fruit undertones (evoking hibiscus flower and fruit peel), all balanced by an earthy, semi-sweet contrast reminiscent of malt. If the roast is taken a little further, the profile becomes more chocolatey and denser in body; it remains incredibly sweet, but with only a faint fruity hint less sharp eliminating much of the citrus character. Darker roasts exhibit a distinct baking-chocolate tone slightly smoky with a red fruit note, almost cherry-like, that emerges strongly as the cup cools.

Roasting Notes: If you are unaccustomed to roasting “Old World” natural-process coffees, be prepared to observe some unevenness in the roast and a high presence of chaff. This is typical for a coffee with these characteristics. Generally speaking, it is easy to roast; however, if you prefer a light roast, you must monitor it closely to ensure that not too many golden or pale-colored beans remain before cooling it out, otherwise run the risk of developing a slight almond or peanut-like nuance.