New this week, and looking ahead!

by Kevin N October 12, 2017

Hola, we've got a few new coffees we're pretty excited about, and more on the way! Just a quick post to keep y'all up to speed.

First up is Miel de Oro, Huckleberry's first honey-processed single origin coffee, and our only Guatemalan coffee from outside of the AProCafé association. This coffee is round, deeply sweet, and super balanced. To be overly simple, the processing falls somewhere between a full natural like El Cedral and our washed Guatemalan coffees, and in this case I'd say the result is a coffee that mellows out the fruit of a full natural, mellows out the acidity and increases the body of a full washed, and combines them into something delicious. We think this coffee is super creamy, and tastes like cashew butter, a mix of orange and apricot marmalade, and chocolate-covered raisins.

The info on the actual Miel de Oro page is a bit more in depth about the details of honey processing and how Mario Alarcon produces this tasty coffee, so if you wanna dig into Brix meters and other nerdy details, give it a look and maybe a taste. But, Mario was a friend of a friend who has become a friend of mine in his own right, so I'm pretty excited to roast one of his coffees, particularly as our first honey.

Cupping with Mario last February

The other new coffee in our lineup right away is Las Colinas from Nicaragua. This week's new coffees are all about balance - both of these coffees are delicious, but definitely suit folks who want their coffee to taste a bit more predictable, and work as well with milk as they do on their own. In Las Colinas, we taste some subtle fruit in the form of citrus brightness and soft pear, but the main qualities are approachable flavors of honey graham cracker, vanilla, and almond. Super tasty coffee that tastes like coffee.

Nicaragua has earned a bit of notoriety for less than stellar drying practices and less than stellar coffee, but the country has just as much potential for quality as other Central American origins, and our pals at Caravela are working hard with farmers to change that reputation. Caravela is a Colombia-based exporter that prides itself on transparency and farming assistance, and they've taken that model and added to it in Northwest Nicaragua. Alba Lopez and Alberto Gutierrez grow Las Colinas, and they deliver their washed, but not yet dried coffee to Caravela's new Beneficio La Estrella. Caravela has built a huge system of raised, covered drying beds for slow, controlled drying. Drying might not be the sexiest part of the coffee supply chain, but it's super important, and we're pretty excited to roast a Nicaraguan coffee produced with this much care. With Guatemala Atitlán el Grano soon to leave our lineup for the year, Las Colinas is a surefire bet for those of you who have loved that coffee.

Shaded drying at Beneficio La Estrella: Read more here

Beyond those two coffees, we have a lot to look forward to in early November. In just a few weeks, we'll drop our second AProCafé microlot for the season, Familia Sosa, along with our annual Sister Winter Holiday blend, which features AProCafé farmer Lucinda Puac Pérez's coffee and benefits the grower group in Guatemala. I'm actually heading down to visit those growers next week, and am looking forward to bringing a bit of their own coffee to share with them, build some drying beds and chat this coming harvest, and bring back some new knowledge and appreciation for their coffees.

Wanna taste these coffees with us? David will lead October's monthly cupping on Saturday the 24th, featuring Las Colinas, Familia Sosa, plus sneak peaks at Sister Winter and a new washed Ethiopian coffee called Kircha Inshe. Hope to see you then, and in the meanwhile, enjoy the coffee!