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:
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.
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.
Burundi Kayanza – Businde Station – Washed Processed
At the Businde washing station, located between 1,650 and 1,800 meters above sea level in the cool northern highlands of Kayanza, approximately 650 smallholder farmers cultivate plots of 0.5 to 3 hectares of the Bourbon variety. The farmers hand-pick the cherries and transport them on foot to the station the same day, ensuring the freshness of the cherries without waiting or unwanted fermentation.
Once in Businde, the cherries are floated to select those with the highest density before moving on to the washing process. The cherries are pulped, fermented in open tanks for 12 to 15 hours, then carefully washed and graded again by density. The coffee is sun-dried for approximately 20 days on raised African beds, with the parchment manually turned every hour and protected during the warmer midday and evening hours, which promotes even moisture loss and ensures a clean, bright, and consistent profile. In addition, wastewater wells and composting programs with unused coffee pulp maintain soil health and environmental sustainability.
Tasting Notes: A lovely coffee from medium to dark roasts. A chocolate bomb cup (similar to Tanz Peaberry) at the fuller roast levels. Lower acidity, medium bodied, with a strong semi-sweet chocolate note. Hardly any traditional African herbal notes, which made me like this cup even more, smooth and on the more neutral side. If you roast it a bit lighter, you can see some brightness, a hint of lemon and a slightly more floral note popping out, but will not be nearly as chocolaty. Medium roasts build the darker tones and mute a bunch of the citric brightness, a semi-sweet chocolaty cup with a burnt sugar kick, just a pinch of crisp citric that will disappear as the coffee sets up. Hints of nuttiness is the aftertaste with a more milky mouthfeel. Darker roasts (into 2nd crack) turn the cup more robust, a semi-sweet chocolate bomb with a little roasty spice in the aftertaste, much flatter but very tasty with a splash of milk or for espresso/cold-brew.
Roasting Notes: An easy coffee to roast: medium to low chaff and even roasting. The color can darken pretty good right before 1st crack, make sure you see the expansion in size and chaff coming off to mark your lighter roast points. Medium roasts watch for a slight sheen on the surface of the beans. Darker roasts marked by the 2nd crack, hints of oil on the surface or smoke coming from the roaster. Being a little crisper cup, a longer setup on the beans is wise to minimize any slightly sour tones upfront.
In Colombia the vast majority of coffee is cultivated, harvested and processed on small family owned farms. While these producers are their own architects, designing farm management and post-harvest solutions to fit their environment, they also need strong alliances to bring their coffee to the international market and earn fair prices. To support this system of small farm production, Colombia established the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC) to organize and support a complex network of larger regional coffee cooperatives.
These cooperatives provide producers with valuable logistical support like centralized warehouses to store dried parchment and dry mills where the coffee is prepared for export according to size and quality. Supremo is Colombia’s top export grade, which is not taste related, basically means larger sized beans; contains screen size 17 and 18. This is versus an Excelso grade coffee, which is screen 15/16.
A multi-region aggregate production coffee mean to produce “Classic” Colombian features. Low acidity, good body, with nutty/chocolate/spice like tones.
Tasting Notes: The aroma of this coffee is very nice; sweet with with a little spice & floral notes. Best at a medium to borderline dark roast. Sweet upfront with a hint of crispness balanced with a stronger toasted walnut/chocolaty undertone. A little hint of acidity at the medium roast point really creates a nicely balanced cup with a broad flavor profile. Touching 2nd crack builds some body and will add some smoky and roasty notes that can compliment the classic Colombian profile.
Roasting Notes: This bean is very versatile when it comes to roasting; good from lighter side of medium to as dark as you want to go. Main recommendation would be in the medium ballpark, smooth and accommodating to almost everyone. Be sure to try different roast points for it will greatly vary what flavors are accentuated.
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