Dear Coffee Subscribers,
Here in Norway, we have a word called “koselig”, which loosely translates to feeling cozy, warm and content. And as we know, coffee has always been a great way for people to come together. So even though we are physically apart, here is something that will hopefully cheer you up in the coming days.
For this latest subscription pack, we have some extra special coffees picked out for you. First of all, all filter coffee subscribers will get a taste of a brand new coffee called “Wearenew” from Kenya. 2-bag subscribers will also get the much-anticipated honey-processed Geisha from Marysabel & Moises. And for 3-bag subscribers, we have the SL28 coffees I planted with Elias back in 2013. Don’t forget to check out our latest Coffee Subscription Tasting with Friends videoto learn more about these coffees and get to meet the man behind our branding, Alex Muskaug.
Filter & Espresso
Wearenew, Kenya 1 bag
Producer: Several smallholder farmers
Harvest: December 2018
Origin: Embu, Kenya
Cultivar: SL28 & Ruiru 11
Process: Washed
Flavour notes: Blackberries, red apples & rose hips
Warenew is a company founded by a group of farmers that decided to start working together towards a common goal of increasing the value and quality of their coffee. They are working in a more organic way that is common in Kenya, mainly with manure as fertilisers, no herbicides and they only use copper spray for preventing leaf rust, which is strangely enough allowed in Organic farming in small quantities. In 1993 their leading agronomist, James Kariuki, started researching everything from farming practices to processing of coffee cherries to figure out a better way to do things. The results are astonishing, and not only are the farmers able to produce over 100kg of coffee cherries per tree per year (the country average being 2kg per tree) they have also built and are running the cleanest wet mill I have ever seen in Kenya and are processing their coffee with extreme care and attention. Their members / farmers are all growing SL28 cultivars from 1300 – 1800 meters above sea level, with only a few farms still growing Ruiru 11. This makes this coffee very delicate, fruity and clean.
Caballero Geisha Honey, Honduras 2 bags
Producer: Marysabel Caballero & Moises Herrera
Harvest: April 2019
Origin: Chinacla, La Paz, Honduras
Cultivar: Geisha
Process: Honey
Flavour notes: Tangerine, jasmine & honey
Two years ago, Moises decided to do a small batch of honey processed Geisha for us. For those of you who are not familiar with this process, Honey process is where the coffee cherries are de-pulped and the parchment coffee is taken directly to be dried on raised drying beds with the mucilage still on the parchment coffee. It is sort of a process in between Natural process (coffee cherries are dried with the parchment coffee inside) and washed coffees (cherries are de-pulped and the mucilage is removed from the parchment coffee either through fermentation and washing or with a mechanical mucilage remover before it is dried.)
Normally we are not the biggest fan of this way of processing because when it is not done with special care you tend to get a slightly more rough cup and with off-flavours from uncontrolled fermentation during drying. But when I blind tasted a test batch of honey processed Geisha among the washed processed lots while visiting in Marcala in March 2018, I was surprised to learn that it was a honey processed coffee. It was so vibrant and clean with even more intense acidity and flavours than the washed lots. The coffee was so delicious that I decided to ask Moises to make some more for us in 2019.
We have secretly kept this lot for special occasions throughout the year but I have also been waiting for a good occasion to send it out to our most loyal customers, which is our subscribers. Since the world is going through a covid-19 crisis at the moment I decided it was time to give you a little highlight in this depressing period and send this little gem to our 2 and 3 bag subscribers. Unfortunately there was not enough of this coffee to be able to send to our 1 bag subscribers.
Finca Tamana SL28, Colombia 3 bags
Producer: Elias Roa
Harvest: July 2019
Origin: El Pital, Huila, Colombia
Cultivar: SL28
Process: Washed
Flavour notes: Winey, blackberries & floral
I planted these SL28 seeds with Elias in 2013 and the trees were planted in the field in early 2014. Since then we have been waiting to get this coffee in our shop. In 2017 we got 24 kilos ,and in the last years we have gotten an increasing amount of this coffee, but it is still not a lot. I wanted to send this one out to our 3 bag subscribers as I think it is a special coffee that is at the moment some of the best that Finca Tamana has to offer along with the Bourbon that we sent out last month. The SL28 at Finca Tamana has some of the classic SL28 flavours but tastes very different from the Kenyan SL28 coffees. It has a bigger body, lower acidity and an interesting spicy and sweet note that makes it really different from the brighter and more intense Kenyan grown SL28.
Thanks for reading and as always, we hope you enjoy our coffees and learning from our monthly videos. If you need some brewing tips, visit our website.
Cheers,
Tim & Co.