What you'll find in this month's drop
This month we will be featuring some really great coffee from some roasters that can be pretty hard to get your hands on without a plane ticket! In our washed category, we have a juicy washed Kenyan from John Small Roastery, a micro roaster in Korean that is one of the best in the country. Next up, in our fun category, we have a natural pink bourbon from Bluebird Coffee in South Africa. There's a handful of great roasters in South Africa, but shipping costs make them hard to access. Don't miss out on a chance to try some great coffee from one of the best roasters there! Lastly, we have a Koji super natural red bourbon from Sumo in Ireland. If you're a fan of the funk, you'll definitely wanna try this one out!
☆ Wash: Kiangai AA- Washed SL-28, Kenya
John Small Roastery is a micro roaster based in Seoul Korea. This will be their first wholesale order in America, and we are very excited to be featuring them!
Kiangai Coffee station is located in the Kirinyaga region. It was founded in 1954 and is mostly comprised of small holder lots owned by women. It's located at the foot of Mt. Kenya, where there's an ideal altitude and climate for coffee cultivation. Most lots in this area are less than 0.5 hectares and the coffee is shaded by other crops such as bananas and macadamia trees.
Kirinyaga is my favorite region in Kenya, and it's not often that you find an isolated SL28 lot. This coffee offers a classic Kenyan profile and is a must if you love Kenyans! Strong black currant and grapefruit notes are rounded out with a caramel like sweetness.
☆ Fun: Bio Innovation Natural Pink Bourbon - La Palma Y El Tucan, Colombia
Bluebird is a world class roaster situated in the beautiful KZN Midlands of South Africa. They source world class coffees and are a great representation of the specialty coffee scene in South Africa.
This is one of our newest Direct Trade relationships and one that we are very proud of! La Palma & El Tucan is driven by rigorous experimentation in their fermentation processes: backed by science, technology, and data analysis that allows them an intimate understanding of even the most minute detail. Through this commitment they standardize processes and replicate them more easily.
This coffee was used chosen by Luhle Mnyandu, the head trainer for bluebird and a competition barista, for the South African Barista Championship, where it placed 7th. It's a fun and complex fruity coffee that is a great representation of the producer.
☆ Funk: Koji Super Natural - El Vergel, Colombia
Sumo coffee roasters, based in Dublin, Ireland, was founded in the summer of 2020 by World Cup Taster Champion 2019, Daniel Horbat. Their mission is to create a transparent and ethical coffee business, which highlights and celebrates from the producers and farmers who put their heart and sweat into the craft to the baristas who will produce the finished product and everyone in between.
El Vergel farm is managed by the Bayter brothers, Shady and Elias, and their mother, Marta; the brothers have been farming since their childhood, following in their parent’s footsteps, who started growing avocados and conventional coffee back in 1995. Since then, El Vergel has become known as one of the largest producers in their region, leading them to provide economic growth to hundreds who worked with the farm. El Vergel Estate has been producing a variety of coffees and experimenting with new and innovative processing techniques based on the coffee’s density, genetics, and other characteristics.
The Koji process is a technique that improves the quality of the coffee. After the fungus is reproduced in rice, it is ground and spread over the coffee beans and left to ferment for 36 hours. Koji mold breaks down starches in coffee cherries into fermentable sugars, producing amino acids, glutamates, esters and aldehydes. This intensifies the existing characteristics of coffee and adds new flavors and fruity aromas. It increases cupping scores by 1-2 points, benefiting coffee producers. Bourbon coffee beans are considered among the best in the world of specialty coffee. This Red Bourbon varietal has a much higher yield than Gesha and a unique cup profile that is characterised by its high sweetness and gentle brightness.
