Scenery Dime Bag Set

This includes all the coffees from the release besides the colorful blend and the mystery dime bag!

We are very excited to be working with our friends over at Scenery again! We brought them on last August and they were a big hit! They have a killer selection right now and I am very happy to have them on again! Alex (Moose) is an extremely passionate coffee nerd, and I trust his tastes quite a bit. We're going to highlight the best of what they have right now, as well as offer a few early releases of coffee from them!

Roast Profile:  Pretty light, but not quite ultralight. By far the lightest roaster we've had from the UK. They roast on a Loring S35. I think they're a good down the middle roaster that both ultralight fans and light roast fans will enjoy. 

Here's what coffees will be in the set (30g of each!):

1. Elizabeth González Washed Castillo - Tolima, Colombia - 200g 

For the last two years, we've booked LaREB lots that arrive with the summer container - those very same lots that will be in the process of harvesting and milling now. But we found ourselves looking at the buying calendar and seeing some gaps open up, between a jam-packed summer (we may have got excited and overbooked...) and the end of the winter/spring seasons, and sure enough there was some coffee left arriving from Scenery pals LaREB. Having felt a bit funk heavy at times, we loved how this lot stood out as sweet, clean and the sort of thing you could absolute pound mugs of batch from - a little bit of extra acidity and complexity from the longer processing, but underneath, clean sweet high altitude Castillo as is the classic tradition.

Much like we selected this coffee blind from the intrinsic cup qualities - without knowing anything of the extrinsic story behind it - so too is Elizabeth González a new participant in the CDNT/LaREB project.

Catching up with Herbert before release, we'll quote his words as he said them:
"[Elizabeth] is a new producer in CDNT. This lot was a surprise, completely unexpected. Not normal for an everyday producer to come over with a coffee that good. [Her] coffee is textbook CDNT, though"

We agree with Herbert - clean, sweet, and indeed without funk/process character that oft drives some of the other parts of our offer. Our first time purchasing from Elizabeth, but we hope for sure not the last.

LaREB:

LaREB- La Real Expedición Botánica - are a radical producer-owned export co-operative/movement. Their goal is to develop de-colonised supply chains and operate outside the typical multinational pathways of coffee, and it’s a mission that’s really resonated with us. By pooling together collective knowledge, financing, quality, export and import, LaReb members are able to define their own terms of engagement. It’s genuinely so refreshing to work with Herbert and the team, and we know we’ll only to continue to grow our purchasing relationship over the years.

CDNT emerged from eight producers in northern Tolima who chose to build their own response to falling incomes and youth migration from coffee farming. Using Herbert Peñaloza's 575 farm as their base, they've established a practical blueprint for producer-driven change: a shared quality lab, new variety trials, and an agroforestry system for soil improvement. Processing happens independently on each farm, with members directing their own production while pooling resources and expertise.

Tasting Notes: gooseberry, baked apples, brown sugar

2. Mario Hervas Washed Mejorado - Pichincha, Ecuador - 100g

Our second year purchasing coffee from Mario with Scenery, but our 7th year working together in total - it's safe to say we're fans of the output from El Meridiano. We caught up with Mario prior to the release of this years lot - finding that the weather was a little trickier this year with long periods of continual rain over nearly 6 months, followed by continuous sun for the next 6. While this may have been less than ideal for the plants, Mario has tweaked his processing - holding the coffee in cherry for an additional 20-24 hrs. By keeping the fruit intact, the theory implies a marginal increase in those "in-cherry" fermentation flavours - red fruits and heavier body. But Mario makes sure that the cherry is submerged, in cool water - as opposed to a hot, dry ferment that could rapidly bring in off-character. In all cases with Mario's processing, the goal is to produce something ultra-clean and cultivar lead and this is no exception. We're hearing there's steady progress in the Gesha and Rosado project - selections continue each year; and we're hopeful to secure the first few kilos as soon as they become available.

El Meridano:

Thanks to his previous career as a rose farmer and agronomist, Mario has turned his experience towards obsessive improvement of Finca El Meridiano since starting the farm in 2011. The 25 HA Finca El Meridiano sits in the stunningly biodiverse and thriving cloud forests of Nanegal, in the foothills of the Andean mountains. The climatic conditions around Pichincha means farms receive high rainfall and a relatively high humidity, which can make for a tough environment for certain varieties and cultivars of coffees more adapted to drier climes.

Mario tells us the first six to seven years of running the farm were tough and that he made many mistakes in the process of learning about the art of growing, processing and selling coffee, but he stuck at it - and while each year brings new challenges and learning, it’s started to pay off - like taking 10th place in the inaugural Ecuador Cup of Excellence, for a start. One of the things Mario credits for his success is his nursery and breeding program. The “Mejorado” cultivar has its history in a Nestle variety garden, and is a cross between Bourbon and an Ethiopian landrace (likely for the purposes of hybrid vigour, improved yield and quality). This variety is gaining a strong reputation for quality - deep sweetness, florality and complexity when grown well.

Mario has germinated, selected and bred every single tree on the farm. By selecting only those Mejorado trees that performed well in Meridiano, the 10 HA that are planted with coffee are strong, healthy, high yielding and of impeccable quality. The coffee from Meridiano is incredibly consistent - and considering the impacts of climate change and general natural variability, it’s no mean feat. Scoffing at the thought of natural processing, anoxics, co-ferments and the like, Mario has been tweaking his washed process (and more recently white/yellow honey process) to bring out the cleanest expression of the land and cultivar. One aspect he credits for the quality of the fermentation is the quality of the private springs that provide the farm water.

Mario’s coffee comes with a price - that we think is more than fair to pay. Ecuador is a dollarized economy, which broadly means their internal goods and services (including labour) are more expensive when compared to neighbouring countries. One of the biggest challenges in running a speciality farm in Ecuador is the labour to pick the cherries. Seasonal itinerant labour is reduced in Ecuador, as many who would undertake it have migrated north in search of economic empowerment. While Mario pays more for quality, it can be hard to retain pickers - to the point it is almost better to pay someone who picks poorly (and re-sort the cherries at the collection point), than to force the issue and have them not turn up the next day. There are never enough pickers to get all the cherries on the farm - so Mario’s focus to ensure his farm is profitable is on  adding value through quality, rather than bulk quantity. Having worked on the Mejorado project for some time, Mario is turning his attention to Rosado and Gesha - although he says there is some work to be done yet to select for the genetic expression he is looking for. We’re very excited to see what he cooks up - we’ll try and be first in line for the early harvests, that’s for sure.

Tasting Notes: Orange blossom, fuji apple, elegant

3. Chorora Mossto Washed CM Lupe Maria - Loja, Ecuador - 100g

Chorora, meaning 'water well' in Kichwa, is one of two farms owned by sisters Olinka and Diana Velez. The farm sits adjacent to its sister property Yambamine ('land of gold') on a hillside in Sozoranga, Loja. The location features primary cloud forest and is crossed by the historic Inca Road, with views of the Macará Valley toward Peru.

Olinka and Diana began their coffee journey around 2010 following significant life changes that prompted a return from urban to rural living. After personal difficulties, Olinka was inspired by her son's birth and family support to start anew. Influenced by her parents and Thomas Robert Malthus's theories on population and food production, she returned to Macará. This led to establishing Chorora, focused on specialty coffee production.

The transition required extensive research into soils and local coffee history, with some suggesting this region housed Ecuador's first coffee plantings. The combined farms span eight hectares, growing established varieties including Typica Mejorado and Sidra, while experimenting with Wush Wush and Pink Bourbon.

The variety in this lot is 'Lupe Maria', identified as an Ethiopian Landrace. Its route to Chorora wasn't through official channels. The seeds, much like the vaunted Mejorado were obtained from a Nestlé experimental breeding farm, and subsequently named 'Lupe Maria' after the daughter of the person who first liberated the seeds.

This situation directly highlights the ongoing tension surrounding access to coffee's core genetic resources. Ethiopian landraces are the foundation of Arabica diversity and, consequently, valuable assets for breeding programs aimed at quality, yield, and resilience – programs heavily invested in by corporations like Nestlé, often with implicit or explicit intellectual property considerations.

The fact that these seeds moved from a controlled corporate research environment into general cultivation via enterprising intermediaries demonstrates how informal networks operate.

Such informal routes emerge because smallholders often face significant barriers – including prohibitive cost, logistical hurdles in distribution, and intellectual property restrictions – when trying to access improved planting material developed within corporate R&D systems. Regardless of the acquisition specifics, 'Lupe Maria' represents sought-after Ethiopian germplasm now under evaluation and cultivation by producers like Diana and Olinka at Chorora. Their commitment extends beyond cultivation. A research laboratory is under construction on-site, focusing on new processing methods, microbiology studies, and varietal cross-breeding. This innovative approach defines their philosophy. They pioneered techniques like carbonic maceration and anaerobic fermentation in Ecuador, often using natural lactobacillus cultures from coffee must (mossto).

This dedication produced early results. After promising initial harvests, Olinka began entering competitions. 2019 marked a breakthrough when experimental processing methods earned five prizes in Ecuador's national competition. Chorora secured first and second place with record scores, plus ninth, eleventh, and twentieth place finishes. Olinka notes that Diana achieved second place in her first competition that year, underscoring their shared success. Chorora later placed 21st in the 2021 Ecuador Cup of Excellence. Currently, Olinka finds fulfillment in her work. Her vision includes developing Sozoranga into a "biological coffee route" to promote sustainable tourism, create local employment (from producers and collectors to guides and artisans), and strengthen the regional economy. She invites coffee enthusiasts to experience "the essence of Chorora's mystique," hoping visitors will appreciate the landscape, endemic wildlife, natural springs, and unique coffee culture.

Tasting Notes: Pina colada, stone fruit, floral

4. Shyira Anaerobic Washed Red Bourbon - Nyabihu District, Rwanda - 200g

Rwandan coffee holds a special place in our hearts - a unique and consistent flavour profile, and landing throughout winter with fresh crops when other East African greens might be starting to get a little tired - in this period, Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi get their time to shine.

Our link to Shyira, and all the Muraho Trading Company washing stations go way back - our co-founder Alex used to do the Raw Material sample dispatch and roasting as a small part of a previous role, back when the lab was centred in London. It was through this connection - roasting and cupping all the Rwandan samples, that he fell in love with coffees from Shyira - easily some of the consistently best coffees to come out of that country. It’s no lie to say that we’ve been excited for the arrival of fresh crop Rwanda since we launched, as we finally get the chance to put Shyira on the offer - and with that sense of eagerness, we’ve bought two lots that wonderfully espouse both the quality of coffee from Shyira, as well as Raw Material’s mission to return maximum value to producers.

Historically in the coffee industry, roasters were the primary beneficiary of value capture in the specialty coffee industry, benefiting significantly from the final product's sales and branding. This model often left coffee producers with limited financial gains and little incentive for sustainable practices. In contrast, emphasising value addition and capture (for example, through low-risk or low-cost experimental processing) at the producing side allows a producer or producer group to charge more for their coffee - capturing the market demand for differentiation. This shifts the focus towards higher compensation and sustainable development for farmers, enhancing both coffee quality and producer livelihoods.

With the development of experimental processing, and the demand for ever more novelty - it has now become a meme that buyers, baristas and roasters will all travel to farms and tell the producers who own and work the land “all the wonderful things they must do to improve their crops” - so that the gringo can buy at most a few sacks, or none at all if the experiment doesn’t pan out. In short, putting all the risk on the producer, where a single coffee harvest may represent a significant part of their yearly income.

Utterly breaking the mould, this Anoxic process comes from a global producer cross-pollination - from Colombia to Rwanda. The “water pillow” technique was developed by Miguel Fajardo, a farmer, agronomist, and Raw Material’s head of Quality in Colombia. One of the most exciting things about this technique is that it is low cost - it does not require purchasing expensive stainless steel tanks, or endless plastic barrels with air-locks. The use of clean plastic sheeting allows this technique to be adapted to existing infrastructure - the same tanks used to produce classic washed process coffees - allowing an extended fermentation with temperature control, with minimal capital investment. The profile produced is complex, wild and worth a premium, and to back that up we’ve bought both the washed anoxic and natural lots from Shyira. One thing that sets Shyira’s quality apart from other stations is the altitudes of the farms that surround it - with some farms broaching a whopping 2400 MASL, the harvest can be somewhat delayed due to the cooler climes at altitude, with the best of Shyira arriving on later containers. When Gaudam and Karthick Anbalagan (the founders of the Muraho Trading Company, Raw Material’s in-country export partner) set up Shyira, the focus was always intended on the highest possible quality with a smaller station - the location is somewhat outside of the usual coffee production areas and less served by other washing stations. Nestled on a hillside abreast the Gicice river, the location and consistent output of Shyira is testament to the work that Muraho and Raw Material have put in.

Smallholder farmers will deliver cherry to Shyira continually throughout the harvest period - bringing in sacks on the back of bicycles or carried by hand. Farmers are paid on the spot according to the weight and quality of cherry delivered, with a second premium paid once the coffee has been exported. Rather than favouring just those who happened to deliver cherry on the specific days that the anoxic lots were processed, the income from the higher value coffee is added to the collective second payment - ensuring all 765 farmers who deliver coffee to Shyira benefit, true maximum impact coffee.

Tasting Notes: Jasmine, Grapefruit, Bright

5. Pikudo Anaerobic Natural Gesha - Palestina, Colombia - 200g

Don't have a nice written description, because this is a surprise early release of a coffee they're dropping for the London Coffee Fest! It is an anaerobic natural, but Moose says that it's super clean for the process! He highly recommended this coffee, so if you can handle some funk, I recommend this one!

Tasting Notes: Raspberry, white chocolate, custard, floral, vanilla