Peru La Pomarrosa
$ 22.00
Our final single origin Peru from the 2023 harvest comes to us from the Silva-Fernandez family, led by Merci Fernandez! Merci's a young farmer, cupping lab manager, and all-around badass based in the Colosay area of Northern Peru, ands exactly the type of producer we’re excited to partner with: experimental, young, and passionate about coffee, with a bright future ahead of her.
We first met Merci on our trip to Peru in August of 2021, when we took a day trip up to Origin Coffee Lab’s purchase station in Colosay. Origin is the exporter we work with in Peru, and a recipient of the Specialty Coffee Association's annual sustainability award.
At that point Merci was running Origin's acopio in Colosay - a small cupping lab, purchase station, and warehouse catering to farmers in the area. Merci continues to run the Colosay acopio and work with her parents, Felix and Violeta, on their farm, Finca La Pomarrosa. But in the the years since, Merci's taken on more and more responsibility with Origin, too, working as an agronomic and processing advisor for other farmers in the network. And we've had the chance to meet Felix + Violeta, too. The combo of the family working together on-farm, coupled with Merci's knowledge and drive, seem to be a magic recipe for quality.
Finca La Pomarrosa sits at 1800 meters and above in the village of La Higuera, and the Silva-Fernandez family has mostly a local variety called "Colosay Bourbon." In reality, it's not a bourbon at all, but a disease-resistant hybrid, but the quality can be incredible, and lends the coffee in the Colosay area a unique profile. Additionally, La Pomarrosa processes Huckleberry's coffee using a variation on the washed process that they and Origin Coffee Lab call "fruta madura." It's a washed coffee, but with a prolonged in-cherry fermentation before depulping, followed by a prolonged under-water fermentation after depulping and before washing. All those factors, plus some careful roasting here in Denver, help create a cup we love, with big purple fruit, syrupy body, and big sweetness.
We’re tasting black plum and raspberry, balanced with notes of caramel and pastry. With both body and balanced fruit, La Pomarrosa is pure, chuggable deliciousness!
*** 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. ***
📸: Violeta Silva, Merci + Felix Fernandez at La Pomarrosa
Merci + Maria Alberca, Merci's former co-manager at Origin's Colosay Lab (Maria now works at the Jaen lab, and Merci runs the Colosay show)
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Brazil Forno Grande
$ 21.00
Brazil is still a relatively new feature on the Huck single origin menu, and where excited to showcase our first washed coffee from the country - Forno Grande by Jose Schiavo!
Brazil has a reputation for massive farms, flat terrain, and boring-if-consistent quality, and while we’ve learned that’s not the case if you’re working with the right people, some things are common throughout most of the bigger coffee-growing regions, even on the smaller farms. The climate is warm and dry, farms generally focus on natural-processing (even if it doesn’t always taste super fruity), and the farms tend to be both flatter and less-shaded than we’re accustomed to in other parts of Latin America.
Espirito Santo is an outlier. This region is actually quite hilly, with a cool, humid, microclimate and plenty of water access. As a result of that water, farmers can produce washed coffee, and as a result of that humidity, they have to at least remove the cherry skin before drying, to prevent mold and other defects. That means the honey and washed processes rule the roost here. Plus, the hilly terrain we’re used to in Peru and Colombia forces farmers’ hand to handpick coffee, as opposed to the more mechanized picking in other parts of the country.
Two years ago we visited Brazil for the first time, and in addition to spending time with longer-term partners BD Imports, Apara Cafes, and farmers in the Campo das Vertentes area of Minas Gerais, we also spent some time with Thiago Trovo at Osito Coffee’s new Brazil office. Thiago has a long history working with larger Brazilian export companies, and a specific interest in promoting and further developing coffee in Espirito Santo.
On the right farm, the result of all those factors are coffees that can taste more like a typical Central American coffee than a typical Brazil. Cleaner, brighter, and more nuanced, without some of the heavier fruit, process-influenced flavors that quality-focused farmers need to pursue in other parts of the country. We’re not knocking fruity Brazils by any means, but we like clean, too, and variety is the spice of life.
This is our second year roasting coffees from Espirito Santo, and for our first year with a fully washed Brazil, we’re highlighting Jose Schiavo and his family farm, Sitio Forno Grande. There’s a hint of complex + bright orange and apricot marmalade, but nougat and chocolate sauce are the stars of the show.
*** 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. ***
📸: Jose Schiavo + Sitio Forno Grande, courtesy Osito Coffee
Burundi Gitwe Washed
$ 23.00
Huck has been with Long Miles since their first harvest in 2013, and each year we’re lucky enough to taste through multiple delicious coffees from the group. Long Miles isolates coffees from individual hills, with Gitwe and Ninga the most frequent in our lineup. This year, Gitwe hill produced our favorite washed coffee, and we’re stoked to roast this one over the spring and into the summer!
The Long Miles Coffee Project was founded by Ben and Kristy Carlson, an American couple who moved to Burundi. Upon seeing the difficulties farmers faced while Ben was working as a coffee trader, the Carlsons built two washing stations in the region, and have worked with area farmers to help them fetch better prices. By working with the farmers to develop stringent quality practices at the farm level, then washing and milling the coffee with meticulous care, Long Miles is able to ensure that the coffee is of the highest quality possible. By working with Huckleberry and other roasters who commit to coffees before they've shipped from Burundi, the Long Miles Coffee Project is able to pay the farmers a higher price for their coffee than they would receive on the open market and from other washing stations.
Gitwe is a specific hill near Long Miles' Heza washing station, and this coffee comes exclusively from the Long Miles farmers living on that hill. Over the past few years, Gitwe has produced some of our favorite coffees - natural, washed, and honey alike. For two years running, washed Gitwe has been our favorite Long Miles Coffee.
We’re tasting tangerine, honey, and peach tea (think iced, sweetened, in a bottle that rhymes with apple) in this year’s Gitwe. With body, balance, and acidic complexity all at the same time, it’s gonna be a roast team favorite for the entirety of its turn at Huck!
*** for roasting schedule, shipping, receiving & additional information, please visit out Frequently Asked Questions ***
Photos courtesy Long Miles Coffee Project
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East Timor Eratoi
$ 20.00
It’s been a minute, but we’re excited to have coffee from East Timor's Letefoho district and Cafe Brisa Serena back at Huck!
Coffees from the Pacific islands can be round and sweet, but the wet hulled process that’s common in the region - in which the coffee’s protective parchment layer is removed before drying - lends itself to premature fade and vegetal, funky flavors. So, we specifically seek out washed coffees from the islands, dried in their parchment to preserve the goodness and keep out the funk. The tiny country of East Timor has been on the comeup the past few years, in large part by focusing on fully washed coffees.
Cafe Brisa Serena is a social enterprise that works with farmers in East Timor's Letefoho district to improve growing and processing practices, obtain organic certification, and access the specialty market. This particular coffee comes from 15 organic-certified family farms in the tiny village of Ducurai that have organized themselves into a group called Eratoi, and is all washed on-farm, rather than at a centralized mill. Eratoi translates to water spring, and the group has named itself after a waterfall near the village.
While this coffee does come from a different part of the world, it has quite a bit in common with a subtle, but nuanced washed coffee from Latin America. So if you’ve liked Huck coffees like Productores Cafénor from El Salvador or Atitlán Aprocafé from Guatemala, this could be your jam. We’re tasting pleasant toasted almond, a subtly-spicy cinnamon, buttery pastry, and just a hint of red apple-like fruitiness. Eratoi’s an approachable everyday drinker, and we’re glad to have East Timor back on the menu for 2024!
*** 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. ***
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