Description
Jon’s coffee special features three of our most popular coffees.
This bundle includes:
*Bundles change over time. You will get the listed coffees at the time of order. *
Costa Rican SHB EP Tarrazu La Pastora – Washed Processed
In Tarrazu there is a cooperative that runs like a clock, a very big and well calibrated clock. With more than 4,650 members from Tarrazu, a canton in the province of San Jose, Cooperativa de Caficultores de Tarrazú RL (Coopetarrazu) is designed to receive cherries from many small farms and consistently process their coffee into a well-balanced regional blend called La Pastora. Like clockwork, a parade of vehicles of all sizes, from pick-up trucks to dump trucks coming from central receiving stations, arrive in the late afternoon full of cherries that were picked during the day. The cherries are quickly weight and placed in a large tank with water to remove the less dense beans that float to the top inside the cherry. Next the cherries are depulped and pass through a demucilager that mechanically strips the mucilage from the beans. All of this is done with a recycling water system. The washed beans move down from the wet-mill through a long elevated conveyor belt into a machine that uses forced air to shed any remaining water. The coffee then passes through a series of dryers to gently reduce the moisture to 11 percent. All of this happens in a matter of just over 72 hours, which seems fast until you stop to consider that not a minute is wasted in the process. After all this, the coffee is rested for a period of at least a month in silos and then milled for export with another equally impressive series of machines dedicated to dehulling and sorting green beans by weight and color. Coopetarrazu has an equally intricate model of income diversification with a profitable agriculture supply store and grocery store. Cooperative members also have access to low interest loans and healthcare.
Tasting Notes: The aroma is floral and sweet like honey. A nice medium bodied, smooth & creamy cup of coffee with little stronger floral aspect, medium to low acidity. It does get a good lemongrass tone at lighter roasts with a soft fruit tone as the cup cools, crisper cup with a slight nutty tone. Turns much more chocolaty into the medium or dark roasts. The cup finishes with a pleasantly surprising spiciness. This is a savory cup of coffee with wonderful complexities.
Roasting Notes: Easy to roast and good from light to dark. Will roast a little two toned, make sure everything is through first crack before cooling it out. Medium roasts are where thought it to shine, well balanced and smooth; might be a little mild for some. Darker roasts are slightly edgy but great pronounced dark chocolate tones balancing with some smoky and toasty notes, a good combo.
Nicaraguan Premium Selva Negra – San Felipe Geisha – Washed Processed
Geisha is an Ethiopian strain of coffee, brought to Central America over the last 15-20 years. Unique stuff, adopts some attributes from the country of origin but is always known for its more floral versus tea like spice attributes normally seen in coffees like an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Usually a very expensive bean being so low yield but being such good friends with Selva Negra, they have kept the price basically the same as all the other strains for the second season release of straight Geisha!
Selva Negra Estate Coffee is grown at a high altitude in a shaded environment. This allows the bean to have a slow development cycle which instills an intense and fulfilling flavor to each bean. The coffee is not only 100% Arabica, but more importantly it is mostly Bourbon and Typica strains (which produce higher quality beans than other varieties of coffee trees). The region of Matagalpa, Nicaragua is mountainous with excellent volcanic soil producing exceptional beans. Finally, the coffee is prepared using an environmentally friendly washing process, which gives the coffee still one more unique quality enhancing aspect.
Nicaraguan Selva Negra coffee is cultivated in the most ecologically sustainable and socially responsible way possible. Learn more by reading our Selva Negra Grower Profile.
Tasting Notes:
Great light to medium roast coffee. Although we have carried the San Felipe lot for years, having the Geisha separate this season has brought a ton of new tastes. East to tell the difference when compared to the other strains Selva Negra grows. Best at the light to medium roast level, these beans have a bit more acidity than anything else from Selva Negra. The cup is very floral and citric especially at lighter roasts. Not quite jasmine floral, a little more traditional citric, but very tasty; delicate and sweet edged. Where one can see the prime Geisha attributes is in the darker tones of the cup, black tea spice jumps right out. Light roasts are heavy on the citric and floral balanced just a touch of tea like spice with herbal overtones. Medium roasts are where most will want to shoot, defined tea like spice with some sweet crisp floral upfront. Darker roasts turn a bit plain, still very drinkable but not much uniqueness.
Roasting Notes:
Easy to roast, great prep on the beans and roasts pretty even. We would shoot for a medium roast at first and go lighter or darker to your preference. Medium to low chaff. Setup helps smooth out the cup especially if shooting for a pretty light roast. Medium to dark roasts were great even 12 hours after roasting.
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.
Bill M. –
I always love this coffee. It has a lovely and complex flavor. No one element dominates. I like to roast it medium to medium dark. Each pound I roast is a different variety, but every time I roast this one, both my wife and I absolutely love it.
John Newton (verified owner) –
This is an excellent sampler of coffees from Central America. They are all delicious.