$ 22.00
There’s nothing like a great Kenyan coffee - intense brightness and fruit, juicy mouthfeel, and big sweetness in a combination that’s pretty much impossible to find anywhere else. Kamoini - our first washed Kenya of the 2024 harvest, is exactly what we’re looking for from this unique origin.
Kamoini is one of 17 factories (Kenya-speak for washing station) in the larger Othaya Farmers Cooperative Society, and while this is our first time roasting Kamoin, we look to the Othaya Cooperative for at least one banger coffee each year. We’re lucky to taste lots from throughout the cooperative, and this year,Kamoini was the standout washed lot.
Additionally, the vast majority of our Kenyan coffees come to us through the Kenyan Cooperative Coffee Exporters (KCCE) network. The Kenyan coffee industry tends to be dominated by a few foreign-owned businesses, and KCCE is a collective of cooperative societies that market and export their coffee together, to keep a bit more of the benefits within Kenya. We enjoy working with KCCE, and we can count on some amazing coffee each year.
Admittedly, Kenyan coffee can be a bit polarizing, especially if you’re adding milk or alt milk into the equation. The intense acidity of the coffee doesn’t pair well with the milk for all taste buds, and while combo might work great for you, our usual recommendations for cream tend to come from Latin America. We’re not saying don’t try it, just that it’s not the safest path. But if you drink that coffee straight and want to get those taste buds watering, Kenya Kamoini FTW.
We’re tasting bright pink grapefruit, molasses, a stone fruit one-two punch of peach and cherry juice, plus sweet-tart goji berry. It’s our first washed Kenya for this season, and it’s big, bright, juicy, and complex, just the way we like it.
$ 22.00
Over the past several years, the AProCafé El Grano growers association in Guatemala has been a bedrock of our coffee lineup. These growers produce our Atitlán Aprocafé coffee, which we love dearly (and is super tasty this year), but we've worked on some other projects with the cooperative so that we can grow together.
One of the cornerstones of that collaboration has been a single farmer microlot program. We’ve had the pleasure of roasting coffee from individual farmers in the group for the past 8 years, paying a premium for these coffees and coordinating the buying for a few other roasters in the United States. This year, our second single farm lot comes from Carlos Zabala. Carlos is one of the funniest producers we know, and we've come to love his citrusy, lightly-tropical coffees.
Every year we use a portion of proceeds from our holiday blend to support AProCafé, and three years ago, we used some of those funds to help the group build raised drying beds. The hope is that by slowing down drying, the coffee will stay fresh, longer. In Carlos’ case though, drying beds weren’t only a quality measure; they were a necessity. Following a major earthquake off the coast of Guatemala a few years ago and heavy rain and erosion, part of Carlos’ drying patio essentially fell off the side of the mountain. No joke. Now, Carlos uses his remaining patio to dry his second-tier coffee (floaters removed during the washing process and some early + late season pickings), and uses the drying beds for all of his top-level coffees.
Don Zabala follows Lucinda in Aprocafé microlot season, and this year’s lot is packed with bright, clean fruit and creamy sweetness. One foot in the comfort camp with nougat and pastry sweetness, one foot surfing more adventurous waters with mandarin orange acidity and candied pineapple fruit notes. Delicious coffee, dried on raised beds you helped purchase with Sister Winter, and grown by one of our favorite farmers.
*** For roasting schedule, shipping, receiving & additional information, please visit out Frequently Asked Questions . And, for a primer on coffee processing, check out our Processing Basics Guide. ***
$ 22.00
Alberto named his farm Finca Entre Rios because it sits between the San Francisco, San Isidro, and Margaritozo rivers. And while he's been farming his father's land since his teens, he didn’t purchase his own land until 2007.
Nicaragua is kinda a weird origin, where it's common practice to wash coffee on-farm, then deliver wet coffee to a central drying facility. In most other countries, it's more common to deliver coffee in cherry on the day of picking, or fully washed and dried. Cherry or dried parchment tends to be a bit easier to control, and in many Nicaraguan drying facilities/purchasing stations, there's a big risk that coffee will sit wet too long before drying, developing defects. Puma Coffees, a relatively new company formed by Manuel Rosales, handles the drying and logistics, making it possible to roast Alberto's tasty goods here in Denver.
This year we had the pleasure of spending some time with Manuel, Puma, and Alberto in the Ocotal area of Northern Nicaragua, and we’re looking forward to growing with everyone in the network. This is probably the most complex harvest we’ve roasted from Alberto, and both Finca Entre Rios and other farms in the Puma network seem excited to keep pushing for better and better quality moving forward.
Alberto's coffee packs plenty of traditional flavors, but also has some lovely fruit in the cup. We're tasting milk-friendly hazelnut and cocoa, with a touch of pear, a touch of citrus, and a big dose of black cherry to make this everyday drinker a bit more interesting.
$ 23.00
Last year marked our first foray into Indian coffee, and we're back for round two!
While coffees from India are a relative rarity on US specialty roasters' menus, coffee in India has a storied history, tracing back further than any country besides Ethiopia and Yemen. Indian coffee dates to the late 1600s when, according to legend, a Sufi pilgrim named Baba Budan smuggled coffee seeds from the Arabian Peninsula, planting them in the Western Ghat mountain range.
Despite the long history, we haven't always associated Indian coffees with the qualities we seek out at Huck, and we had steered clear of coffees from mainland Asia until last year. Over the past few years though, producers in India, China, and Myanmar, to name a few countries, have raised the bar for specialty coffee in Asia, and we've had to reconsider our preconceived notions. Gundhikan and Ratnagiri Estates are among the producers that have forced us to open our minds to coffees from mainland Asia, and both happen to lie in Chikmagalur, India, the same region where Baba Budan purportedly planted his smuggled seeds.
Saif Ulla and his farm, Gundhikan Estate, are founding members of KaadKaapi Collective, a group of environmentally-conscious farmers aiming to preserve habitats and migration corridors for native animal species. Extremely dense shade cover and the occasional downed tree - courtesy roaming elephants and Gaur (Indian Bison) - make for significantly lower productivity and higher costs, offset by pursuing quality and earning higher prices.
Gundhikan produces only a small amount of natural-processed coffee each year, and it’s a privilege to roast it for you! This small, natural-processed lot is wildly fruity and a bit boozy, with notes of red wine, honey, bittersweet cacao, and pomegranate. Only available at Huck cafes and our webstore!
*** for roasting schedule, shipping, receiving & additional information, please visit out Frequently Asked Questions . And, for a primer on coffee processing, check out our Processing Basics Guide. ***
Pictured: Saif Ulla at Gundhikan Estate, courtesy Osito Coffee.
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