3 lb Bundle: Dark

Description

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

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.

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! Lighter roasts show lemon, floral & soft fruit contrasted by a nuttier (almond like) undertone, a sweet edged cup. The two combine for a hints of caramel, quite tasty for you light roast fans. Medium roasts are richer, more of a developed chocolaty tone and decently less nutty; mutes up the soury 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, even roasting bean. Medium to high chaff.  Avoid light roasts unless you like sharper cups, quite tasty being highly rated 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.

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Indonesian Sumatra FTO Ratu Ketiara Mandheling Gr. 1 – Women’s Coop

This coffee is produced on family owned farms organized around the Ratu Ketiara Gayo cooperative (RKG), located in the Takengon highlands of the Aceh province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. This region of Indonesia is also referred to as the Gayo land because the coffee farmers are from the Gayonese ethnic group. The RKG cooperative was established in 2017 by a group of young women focused on creating gender equity and investing in young coffee producers. The female leadership is mentored by Rahmah (chairperson of PT Ketiara umbrella cooperative) who works tirelessly with a number of cooperatives in the region to overcome the inequity of a male dominated coffee industry in Indonesia.

Tasting Notes:
A very nice fresh crop arrival. Full bodied with a creamy mouthfeel, low acidity and spot on tastes from a traditional Mandheling Sumatra; peat moss, smoky, chocolaty, fuller bodied and strong. A clean enough cup to get a decent medium roast, gives a smoother mouthfeel and has a bit of sweetness upfront, darker roasts will turn thicker but also edgier and promote the smokier semi-sweet side of the profile.

Roasting Notes: 
As with most Sumatra coffees, the processing promotes a couple different shades in the roaster. It is normal to see some beans lighter than others. Make sure if shooting for the medium roasts, that you judge it from the lighter looking beans, important to get them all through first crack. When roasting darker, judge it by the darker looking beans for if they get too dark or burn, gets a little ashy tone in the cup.

Dominican Org. Ramirez Estate – Washed Processed

Cafe Kreyol goes into some of the most impoverished and troubled areas that are within prime coffee growing territory, organizes farmers, teaches how to correctly process beans, guarantees purchase of the beans at way above market prices ensuring it goes directly to the farmers and strives to really turn around some of the more troubled areas, putting people to work at well above average wages and ensuring future livelihoods.

Joey, the head of Cafe Kreyol, even strives for his US employees the above statement. He finds the hardest working individuals with great work ethics that for one reason or another have really been put down with employment and troubled times to help them recover and build a resume while also being able to help others.

One can feel really good about supporting any of Cafe Kreyol’s projects and for the most part – really tasty coffees as well.

Cafe Kreyol projects including this one are project coffees, these are not a 0 defect large screen coffee. It takes around 5-7 years to really turn out a prime coffee operation and most of these are on year 2-3. Great tasting cups but keep in mind – not the worlds best screen.

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.

Tasting Notes:
This was a lovely arrival, similar to last season, a very tasty unique coffee. Cleaner at the lighter roasts with a little acidity upfront, a bit nutty/caramel and floral. Sweet edged and a smooth cup. Turns into a very robust coffee at the fuller roasts. Fuller bodied with low acidity and very complex semi-sweet darker tones; chocolate, tobacco earthiness, molasses and smoky.

Roasting Notes:
Make sure to play around with the roast on this guy, light to dark a tasty cup but pretty different. Lighter roasts you get sweet and delicate, dark you get strong and complex. A nice medium roast is where we settled on being our favorite but a bean everyone will love at slightly different roasts.