Roasted for Filter  |  Lavendar, peach, honey

Incredibly scented and elegant, with a refined sweetness and creamy body. Vanilla & lavendar aromas complement peach yoghurt and honey.

For our seventh year working with Valle Inca, we have sourced from some old names and new, with a very special limited amount of Gesha from this producer in Tablahuasu named Alina Milagros Solona.

Alina owns Inka Tranca, a 2-hectare farm in Tablahuasi, Ocabamba, La Convención, Cusco, Peru. The farm is situated at a staggering 2,400 metres with the coffee planted under native shade and amidst various other fruit bearing trees. There is a strong community feel and history of coffee production in the area, with Alina and her neighbours practicing ‘Mingas’ (communal reciprocity) with the notion of ‘Ayni’ (today for you, tomorrow for me) when it comes to tasks like harvesting and pruning coffee trees. Access to the farm is via a rustic wooden bridge, which Alina and her family use for daily work on the farm and to harvest various food crops.

Their Approach:

Alina uses a method of batch processing whereby harvested coffee cherries are first floated and manually depulped before sealing in an airlocked barrel to ‘anaerobically’ ferment. This stage of fermentation can be done ‘dry’, where the mucilage-covered parchment is exposed to the elements, or ‘wet’ where it is submerged under water, likely fermenting slower due to the cool temperature, and potentially more evenly, but less intensely. Fermenting in a sealed environment produces CO2, which if you have a one-way valve fitted on your tank/barrel means that oxygen is slowly depleted and expelled from the environment. This will alter the types of microbes populating during the fermentation and consequently alter the flavour profile. We like that this process allows the producer to process small pickings or larger harvests ‘evenly’, meaning that multiple lots or outturns are more uniform and predictable. Really pushing these sorts of ferments can introduce layers of ‘funky’ characteristics, but if managed with expertise you are able to taste a balance of the flavours deriving from the terroir and cultivar bolstered and enhanced by the processing rather than covered up with ferment flavours.  

After fermentation the coffee is fully washed, and this water is reserved to irrigate the coffee trees. The clean parchment is dried on raised beds for up to 20 days, very slowly due to the high altitudes, before storing and ultimately being collected by José and the team at Valle Inca to take to their warehouse in Calca. 

The Cultivar: 

We have always been somewhat hesistant about buying Gesha coffees. Initially identified back in the 1930s the variety travelled to Central and South America via Tanzania and Panama. In the mid 2000s the coffee world exploded when a Panamanian Gesha sold for a record high price of over $20/lb, which has subsequently frequently been topped again and again by Gesha coffees selling upwards of several thousand dollars per pound. The hype and craze around Gesha has caused healthy plants to be uprooted and replaced, counterfeit seeds, plantlets and sacks of coffee to have been sold as Gesha, and skewed expectation, both in terms of price a producer hopes to receive as well as what a customer is asked to pay for a bag of beans or cup of coffee. There are instances though when we find a compelling reason to pursue a lot, rather than the more opportunistic approach of intentionally seeking out a Gesha and simply seeing what turns up. 

The climate and agronomical approach on Inka Tranca, coupled with controlled post harvest processing techniques, have really bolstered the Gesha cultivar’s genetic stock and potential to be incredibly floral, complex and elegant, and so we’re really excited to share this lot of Gesha from Alina and her family. 

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 Filter  |  Lavendar, peach, honey

Incredibly scented and elegant, with a refined sweetness and creamy body. Vanilla & lavendar aromas complement peach yoghurt and honey.

For our seventh year working with Valle Inca, we have sourced from some old names and new, with a very special limited amount of Gesha from this producer in Tablahuasu named Alina Milagros Solona.

Alina owns Inka Tranca, a 2-hectare farm in Tablahuasi, Ocabamba, La Convención, Cusco, Peru. The farm is situated at a staggering 2,400 metres with the coffee planted under native shade and amidst various other fruit bearing trees. There is a strong community feel and history of coffee production in the area, with Alina and her neighbours practicing ‘Mingas’ (communal reciprocity) with the notion of ‘Ayni’ (today for you, tomorrow for me) when it comes to tasks like harvesting and pruning coffee trees. Access to the farm is via a rustic wooden bridge, which Alina and her family use for daily work on the farm and to harvest various food crops.

Their Approach:

Alina uses a method of batch processing whereby harvested coffee cherries are first floated and manually depulped before sealing in an airlocked barrel to ‘anaerobically’ ferment. This stage of fermentation can be done ‘dry’, where the mucilage-covered parchment is exposed to the elements, or ‘wet’ where it is submerged under water, likely fermenting slower due to the cool temperature, and potentially more evenly, but less intensely. Fermenting in a sealed environment produces CO2, which if you have a one-way valve fitted on your tank/barrel means that oxygen is slowly depleted and expelled from the environment. This will alter the types of microbes populating during the fermentation and consequently alter the flavour profile. We like that this process allows the producer to process small pickings or larger harvests ‘evenly’, meaning that multiple lots or outturns are more uniform and predictable. Really pushing these sorts of ferments can introduce layers of ‘funky’ characteristics, but if managed with expertise you are able to taste a balance of the flavours deriving from the terroir and cultivar bolstered and enhanced by the processing rather than covered up with ferment flavours.  

After fermentation the coffee is fully washed, and this water is reserved to irrigate the coffee trees. The clean parchment is dried on raised beds for up to 20 days, very slowly due to the high altitudes, before storing and ultimately being collected by José and the team at Valle Inca to take to their warehouse in Calca. 

The Cultivar: 

We have always been somewhat hesistant about buying Gesha coffees. Initially identified back in the 1930s the variety travelled to Central and South America via Tanzania and Panama. In the mid 2000s the coffee world exploded when a Panamanian Gesha sold for a record high price of over $20/lb, which has subsequently frequently been topped again and again by Gesha coffees selling upwards of several thousand dollars per pound. The hype and craze around Gesha has caused healthy plants to be uprooted and replaced, counterfeit seeds, plantlets and sacks of coffee to have been sold as Gesha, and skewed expectation, both in terms of price a producer hopes to receive as well as what a customer is asked to pay for a bag of beans or cup of coffee. There are instances though when we find a compelling reason to pursue a lot, rather than the more opportunistic approach of intentionally seeking out a Gesha and simply seeing what turns up. 

The climate and agronomical approach on Inka Tranca, coupled with controlled post harvest processing techniques, have really bolstered the Gesha cultivar’s genetic stock and potential to be incredibly floral, complex and elegant, and so we’re really excited to share this lot of Gesha from Alina and her family. 

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  | Dates, kola nut, tamarind

A7 information cards for use on retail shelves, at POS, on grinders and to display alongside brewed coffee. Please add to your cart the amount you wish to receive with your order.

Roasted for Espresso  |  Cherry jam, candied ginger, toffee

A7 information cards for use on retail shelves, at POS, on grinders and to display alongside brewed coffee. Please add to your cart the amount you wish to receive with your order.

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.

Our single origin coffees vary throughout the year, depending on what is tasting best each month. We have, in recent years, found that with careful planning we are able to curate a line of Colombian coffee that tastes fresh and expressive throughout the calendar year, thanks to this producing country having multiple harvesting and shipping periods. Given our soft spot for coffees from Huila region we are thrilled to formally launch El Nevado, which will be a perennially available Colombian single origin offering.

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 8 farmers who contribute to the La Magdalena  community. A select few of the farmers who have contributed significant chunks of coffee to this lot include Nicomedes Benavides, Nito Arbey Molina Navia and Edgar Yony Melo Gomez, the latter two having cup of excellence awards amongst their accolades. The members grow their coffee in the municipality of San Agustín in Huila, which is one of our all-time favourite regions of Colombia, in the veredas (wards) of La Argentina, La Llanada, La Muralla and Naranjos. Dotted on their various coffee farms are shade trees including Cachingo, Guamo (Ice-cream Bean), Carbonero and various citrus and avocado trees. The farms range from just 1 up to 5 hectares in size, and are planted out with a combination of Caturra, Castillo and Variedad Colombia, spanning from around 1,700 all the way up to 2,100 metres above sea level. 

Fertile soils with volcanic ash deposits coupled with the high altitudes, quality varieties and agronomical training and support from Caravela all lead to a group of coffee growers who are reliably producing clean, sweet lots that we feel make for very juicy, complex espresso. Each farmer may practice variations on fermentation, size of batches and for different periods, so we can’t be hugely specific with any fermentation details here. Some of them then use raised beds in a polytunnel to dry their coffee, whilst others use their rooftop patios which can be shaded from the sun or sheltered from the rain by sliding a corrugated iron cover over the drying coffee.

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.”