Roasted for Espresso | Marmalade, honey cake, dates
A warming espresso with notes of dates and marmalade. Look for brown sugar and cardamom in the finish.
Please join us in thanking Aime Gahizis and the smallholder coffee producers of Karongi as we mark twelve years of working with delicious coffee from Gitesi washing station.
The Producer
Aime is always hospitable and positive when we visit Rwanda. We stay in close contact throughout the year to hear how things are going at the washing station. As well as buying and processing coffee cherries grown by the smallholder farmers in the surrounding hillsides, the Gahizi family also tend to their own small farm. They have a wormery which they use to make an organic fertiliser spray, which also helps to limit the spread of leaf rust. Every year they are buying more land and planting more coffee, with over 20,000 trees now producing on their own farm. Their mature trees produce an average of 5kg fruit per year but can produce upwards of 20kg.
Cows kept at the station provide milk and fertiliser for their own trees, and through Aime’s social work they donate dozens of cows each year to farmers in the local area, as well as spray pumps for fertiliser. They also donate seedlings from their nursery of over 10,000 plants to neighbouring farmers and run workshops to teach them about tending to other food crops as well as coffee.
The Washing Station
The water used for producing washed coffees comes from a natural spring. After being used for processing the coffee it becomes full of particulates and enzymes, needing to be filtered before being reintroduced into the local water table. At Gitesi they collect water from the washing channels as well as run off from the mounds of coffee pulp (which breaks down to provide more compost for their trees) and first hold it in a tank. The mucilage settles and is separated off to be added to organic fertiliser whilst the water passes through lime and EM (effective microorganisms). Subsequent stages use molasses, holding tanks, charcoal and fine gravel to filter the water before it finally passes through a bed of vetiver reeds, re-oxygenating it. This filtration system is highly advanced and is held up as an exemplary model for other washing stations to work towards.
A couple of years ago they built new washing and grading channels at the station as part of their renovations. Typically they will process around 80% of their coffee volumes as washed coffee, with 20% naturals being done on a case by case basis for certain clients.
Their Approach
Aime sees the work at Gitesi as much more than simple crop husbandry and coffee production, doing amazing work within the neighbouring community. We asked him for a message that we could pass along to the people drinking coffee from Gitesi and he replied with the following, that we haven’t the heart to shorten:
“The Gitesi Sector is the land of our grandfathers, it’s where even my father was born. But as you know, because of Rwandan history we grew up outside our country, and we came back in 1994 after the genocide and liberation war. Upon our return we have found in our land no one among our family members, all of them were killed in the genocide. We are now living and working with those who killed (or their children) our relatives. What motivates us is the reconciliation between the survivors of genocide of those who participated in genocide in our sector, now we are working together at the washing station, sharing everything in peace. Our plan is to continue changing the lives of our people at Gitesi both socially and economically.”
Origin: Karongi, Western Province, Rwanda
Produced by: Aime Gahizis
Processing: Floated & eco-pulped, dry fermented, fully washed and soaked, dried on raised beds.
Variety: Red Bourbon & RAB C15
Altitude: 1,750 to 2,000 metres
Harvest: June, 2024
Arrival: December, 2024
Roasted for Espresso | Muscovado, apricot jam, nougat
Ripe fruit notes like persimmon and apricot jam add complexity to comforting flavours of nougat and warm muscovado sugar.
After three years of working with lots from the Santa Teresa community in Peru’s Cusco region we are excited to showcase this outturn on our rotating single origin menu, having seen the overall quality and flavour clarity increase year-on-year.
The Association
This lot of coffee from Santa Teresa represents a small community near the town of Quillabamba in Peru’s Cusco province. Smallhold coffee farmers in the area partner with the agronomical co-operative group Huadquiña, from whom we’ve bought lots for the last three years. Previously these have featured in festive coffee drops and our house blend, Article, but this year we feel the flavour clarity and overall quality allow the coffee to be showcased as a seasonal single origin espresso release. Huadquiña, initially established in the 1960s, work with several hundred coffee farmers in Cusco, and is comprised of indigenous peoples, some of whom are the children of the initial founding members of the group. Coffees sold under the names Salkantay and Santa Teresa represent distinct communities across the area.
Their ApproachThe group boasts various certifications, such as FairTrade and Organic, but what matter more to us as buyers is that we’re working with dedicated growers, farming sustainably to produce quality outturns, that in turn allow us to pay premium prices to ensure they are economically prosperous and can see a viable future working in coffee.
Mixed cultivars, primarily Typica and Bourbon types, are planted from 1,800 to 2,000 metres, and grown in an agroforestry system, amidst native shade trees and intercropped with secondary food crops. The area is very biodiverse and there is an ingrained cultural respect for the earth which feeds into their agronomical practices, such as eschewing chemical agro-inputs or weedkillers, instead using organic homemade composts and manually clearing weeds.
Harvesting is all done via Mingas (communal work reciprocated amongst neighbours) reflecting the communities sense of reciprocity called ‘Ayni’, which loosely translates as ‘today for you, tomorrow for me’. After harvesting the coffees are manually depulped before being traditionally fermented in water for up to 20hrs, fully washed and dried on raised beds for between 10 and 20 days.
Origin: Huadquiña, La Convención, Cusco, Peru
Producer: Several smallholder families
Processing: Organically grown, hand harvested, floated & manually depulped. Wet fermented 20 hours, fully washed, dried on raised beds.
Cultivar: Bourbon & Typica
Altitude: 1,800 to 2,000 metres
Harvest: August, 2024
Arrival: January, 2025
Roasted for Espresso & Filter | Marzipan, Warm Berries, Caramel
A sweet, vibrant cup with a silky body carries flavours of caramelised sugars, marzipan and warm berries.
We are funding a tree planting program called 'Shading Farms', where forest and fruit trees are donated to and planted on coffee farms in Huila. The aim is to increase biodiversity, provide secondary income and to capture CO2.
The Region
We have worked in Huila for over a decade, and in our experience the cup profiles of top lots from this region really chime with our preferences. El Nevado del Huila is Colombia’s highest volcano, named for its snowy top, and we are referencing the notion of the pinnacle of quality in our Colombian offerings through using its name for our espresso.
The Producers
We are currently featuring coffee from 24 producers, based primarily in the La Plata municipality of Huila, who contribute their lots to Caravela's buying hub for quality assessment and sale. A few growers are based in Agrado, La Argentina and Nataga, but despite slight geographic differences we are still finding the flavour profile to chime with what we expect and enjoy from the region, delivering brown sugar sweetness, hints of red berries and a clean, lingering finish. The vast majority of these contributing growers receive agronomical assistance and support from Caravela. The primary contribution to this most recent outturn was from Artemo Quebrada Collo, whose farm La Chorrera has achieved 'Legend' status on the PECA program.
The Exporter
Typically, Caravela operate an 80/20 model, working with a vast majority of smallholders and a minority of farmers with large coffee estates. In their latest impact report 87% of their producing partners had farms of less than 5 hectares in size. More than half of the producers they worked with were visited by their PECA team, and in Colombia alone they are working with 1,746 producers across 52 communities.
As regards their PECA program, they have said the below:
“Coffee growers are the heart of our business model, without them we could not maintain and sustain this value chain. They are responsible for producing the best coffees that delight us every day. The Coffee Growers Education Program (PECA) has developed a symbiotic relationship between coffee growers and Caravela since we’re always learning from each other. For many years, we have accumulated experiences throughout experimentation and work that provides tools to empower and educates coffee growers, resulting in consistent high-quality coffees.”
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PRODUCER
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Multiple small-scale producers with farms of around 1 hectare in size |
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PROCESS |
Traditionally depulped, fermented & washed, dried via polytunnel or rooftop patio. |
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VARIETY |
Caturra, Castillo & Variedad Colombia |
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REGION |
Various municipalities within Huila |
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COUNTRY |
Colombia |
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ALTITUDE |
1,650 to 2,150 metres |
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Roasted for Espresso & Filter | Baking Spice, Toffee, Jammy Fruits
Baking spice, toffee, jammy fruits
Comprised of seasonally refreshed lots from our most trusted and established producer relationships. This elevated blend offers a complex and nuanced cup, delivering a sweet, jammy cup with integrated fruit tones.
Developing this blend has been driven through the desire to support our core producer groups through paying premium prices for larger volumes and more lots of coffee. The flavours are very complementary, and we have been honing our roasting approach to ensure the resulting cups are harmonious and balanced. We really hope you enjoy this coffee and are grateful for your support.
Current Composition:
50% Washed Bourbon from Manuel Patillo in Cusco, Peru.
50% Washed Kurume, Dega & Wolisho from Snap’s Raro Boda wet mill in Uraga, Guji Zone, Ethiopia.
Component Information:
We're updating our Legacy blend with this fresh arrival from Snap's Raro Boda washing station, in Ethiopia's Guji zone. Snap Coffee are our primary supplier from Ethiopia, with whom we've worked for the last 8 years.
The Farmers
Around 257 farmers deliver their coffee cherries to the Raro Boda washing station, located in Guji Zone’s Uraga woreda. Amidst natural forest and vegetation, they are working completely organically, tending to a range of cultivars, some of which are improved landrace selections such as Wolisho, Dega & Kurume. There are also pockets of JARC (Jimma Agricultural Research Center) identified and released varieties, dubbed 74110 and 74112 after having been initially catalogued in 1974, which are being promoted due to their resistance to coffee berry disease. Each farmer tends to around 2,000 coffee trees.
The Washing Station & Their Approach
Named after the kebele (small town), Raro Boda washing station has been recently refurbished and fitted out with a Penagos eco-pulper and white tiled fermentation tanks. These innovations and investments allow greater control over the processing of the fruit delivered by smallholders in the kebele. They process the coffee by depulping and fermenting under water for 48 hours before the parchment coffee is graded, initially in washing channels and then by hand during the time it spends drying in the sun on raised beds. To ensure uniform drying the layers are spread around 2cm deep and spend 10 days or so before they are consolidated, and samples are sent to the cupping lab.
Raro Boda wet mill’s QC manager, Medhin Tamiru, is an experienced cupper with over a decade of experience in the industry, and who is a judge for the Ethiopian Cup of Excellence competition. He will continue to oversee operations ensuring the coffee produced at Raro Boda is squeaky clean and of the highest quality.
The Exporter
Snap Coffee was established in 2008 by Negusse Debela Weldyes and the group are responsible for the running and operation of several coffee washing stations which feature in our coffee range each year. Snap oversee the processing facilities but also take on the task of dispensing agricultural knowledge to their contributing farmers. Steps such as tiling fermentation tanks to enable better cleaning, as well as implementing strict drying protocols, have gone long ways to improving the clarity, cleanliness and longevity of the coffees’ characteristics. They are committed to recycling waste by-products from coffee processing at each of their stations where they have also built schools and provided them with computing equipment from the other arm of their business which is in electronics. They have improved the roads to streamline access to the washing stations and have built health clinics to provide access to better healthcare for their contributing farmers as well. Lots from the most recent harvest have been dry milled at Snap’s own processing and warehousing facility. This has afforded the group even more control over the final exportable product that we get to work with, leading to improved consistency and uniformity.
We’re always impressed by the sweetness, structure and overall performance of the high-quality outturns from members of the Valle Inca Association in Cusco, Peru. Here we have a 32hr fermentation washed Bourbon from Manuel’s farm, Finca Limonniyoc in Yanatile Dristrict, to run as the Peruvian base component in our house concept blend, Legacy.
The Farm
Manuel inherited Finca Limonniyoc from his parents, and has renovated areas of Catimor with Bourbon to produce specialty calibre coffees in partnership with the Valle Inca Association. They have expanded their area of production, which reaches 1,800 metres above sea level, as well as improved and renovated the processing and drying infrastructures. Valle Inca are not just dispensing agronomical advice, but through their ecologically holistic approach to coffee cultivation and membership in the association Manuel’s farm is certified organic. Pacay trees are planted for shade and to encourage biodiversity. There are many secondary food crops including Rocoto peppers, chirimoyas, oranges, avocadoes and limes. The most common method for nourishing the coffee trees is to apply a homemade compost, composed primarily of spent coffee pulp and bird poo. Some of the farmers are working to ensure moisture is kept in the soil if they are in a more arid area, whereas those for whom there is excess humidity are pruning back the lower growth on their coffee trees to promote adequate ventilation.
Their Approach
Coffees are harvested by hand and floated to remove underripes before they are fed through a manually cranked depulper. Coffee cherry skins are removed during a sieving stage before the clean parchment is placed into GrainPro sacks before being sealed into plastic barrels fitted with a carboy style airlock. After a period of 32 hours has passed the native microbiome has broken down the mucilage surrounding the coffee’s parchment layer and is ready to be washed off. Valle Inca have funded the building of drying infastructures at many of their members’ farms, and these allow the lots to be dried in ventilated secadores on raised beds, which we are confident is adding to the stability, uniformity and reliability of their producers’ coffees. At Finca Limonniyoc the coffee takes around 18 days to get to stable and homoegnised moisture content.
The Association
In 2018, our first year buying coffee through Valle Inca, the group had around 100 members. Thanks to word of mouth, with producers telling their neighbours of the premium prices that they were able to receive having been able to access a more discerning coffee market through the association, the group now works with around 300 producers in the Cusco region and have recently expanded their operations to include Puno. All the members are working organically and are certified as such via the Valle Inca group. For a member to join, there needs to be a baseline of quality met, dictated in part by altitude and the type of varieties planted, but ultimately it is down to the desire of each member to improve their quality through hard work. The group provide agronomical advice and training as well as pre-financing, so the farmer members are supported in multiple ways. Several of their members reliably place well in Peru’s Cup of Excellence competition.
Roasted for Espresso & Filter | Dark Chocolate, Maple, Raisin
Article is the name of our house coffee, a high performing, consistent blend offering reliability and a satisfying, classic flavour profile. Components are seasonally refreshed and roasted to accentuate deeper caramels and chocolate tones.
With each iteration we aim to compose a coffee that has great balance, packed with classic coffee characteristics whilst retaining a sweet, clean finish.
Current Composition:
50% Washed Bourbon & Typica from San Ignacio in Peru.
50% Semi washed Mundo Novo & Catuaí from Chapada Diamantina in Brazil.
Component Information:
Chapada Diamantina, Brazil
This season we cupped lots of samples from Brazil to ensure we found the right coffee to use across our house blends. Our preference has always been for coffees that are clean and sweet that taste fresh and vibrant. The same goes when we source our Brazil coffees, where we seek out lots that have a creamy body, fresh but mellow acidity and bags of brown sugar and milk chocolate sweetness. This season we have sourced a field blend of Mundo Novo & Catuaí cultivars, produced by a community of smallhold farmers in Chapada Diamantina. Typically, we have bought from large landowners with sprawling estates, but through Ofi sourcing we have been able to collate the work of several farmers who tend to coffee on around 20 hectares, whilst supporting a tree planting program in the community to promote biodiversity, increase shade coverage on the farms and facilitate carbon capture.
The Producers & Their Approach:
Around 30 families are ultimately responsible for growing the coffee cherries that have made their way into this community lot, named ‘Saravá’ which loosely translates to “Respect” or “Blessing”. The cultivars are Mundo Novo and Catuaí. The farms span from 900 to 1,300 metres above sea level. Joel Marques de Oliveira is one producer, whose farm Rio Brilhante is in the locale of Ibicoara. He has been motivated to pursue specialty coffee production having won awards for cup quality in 2019. Another producer is Nilson Aguiar Ferreira, who grows coffee on Fazenda Encanto up to 1,100 metres. He learnt the ropes of coffee production from his parents and has been working here since 1997.
We predominantly buy washed coffees, as we love their clarity, vibrancy and clean taste. In Brazil it is highly unusual to see any fully washed lots, with ‘pulped natural’ or honey processing more the norm and ‘natural’ or dry process also common. With our Saravá blend the harvested cherries are initially depulped and put through a demucilaginator or ‘mechanical washer’ which removes the fruit mucilage, bypassing the need for fermentation and decreasing the water requirements. The parchment is then slowly dried with a minor amount of residual mucilage present.
The Cultivars:
Mundo Novo represents a natural cross between Typica and Bourbon that was initially noted in Brazil in the 1940s. Over the subsequent decades, breeding programs in Brazil have made refinements and selections to this tall tree, which offers a good yield and cup quality but is susceptible to leaf rust and coffee berry disease. Mundo Novo has since been cross-bred with Caturra, which itself is a dwarf mutation of Bourbon, to create Catuaí. It’s compact nature allows a denser planting, and the tree itself is quite productive. Catuaí has been far more popular in terms of spreading to other producing countries, Costa Rica in particular.
Offering a clean, soft cup with tonnes of sweetness and a creamy body we have been enjoying sample roasts and initial tests of this lot drunk as a single origin, which tastes round and warming. The cup profile is quite versatile and so it lends itself well to blending with other coffees that offer a little more in the way of top notes, acidity and aromatics.
Workshop Select, Río Blanco, Namballe, San Ignacio, Peru
Returning as a top note component in Article for a second year, we are featuring a beautiful community coffee from the Río Blanco Coffee Growers Association in Namballe, Cajamarca.
We made selections from 19 distinct producers, growing coffee across Namballe and Piura this year, and parcelled them up into our Workshop Select and Workshop Reserve lots, so that we could release them in workable volumes across our house blends and single origin programs respectively. The 12 producing families from Namballe whose coffee is featured this year in Article are growing their coffee from around 1,550 up to 1,850 metres. Coffees from San Ignacio in the north of Peru tend to be a little more pointed and fruit driven than the other lots we source from the Huadquiña and Valle Inca associations in Cusco, with a slightly riper and more pronounced acidity. We feel this pairs very nicely with the creamier, chocolatey base note from Chapada Diamantina in Brazil.
Cultivars are primarily Typica & Bourbon, with some small lots of Caturra, Pache and San Ramon. Farm sizes are typically around 1-2 hectares and the coffee trees are planted under native Albizia and Pacay shade trees and amidst secondary food crops like yucca, citrus and bananas. All of the Río Blanco producers are working to high standards and undertaking harvest and processing methodologies in the manner typical to the region. Coffee is organically grown under shade, the coffee cherries are hand harvested via communal work in tandem with their neighbours, The cherries are manually depulped and then wet fermented between 18 and 24 hours before washing and slowly drying for around 15 days on raised beds.