Dear coffee subscriber,
Happy new year and welcome to all our new subscribers. This is the newsletter where I write a little bit about the coffees we are sending out each month. You can of course as always get more in-depth information in the coffee tasting video I make every month too (video above).
I highly recommend tasting the coffees side by side and if you only subscribe to one bag, you can always use any other coffee to make a comparative tasting. You can of course also just enjoy the coffee alone while watching the video.
You may or may not know that we like to treat our subscribers with exclusive coffees that we might not offer to all our customers. This is because we buy a lot of small lots / batches of coffee and sometimes we don’t have enough to sell outside our subscription program.
This month we have decided to start 2023 with a big bang and are therefore sending out a delicious Kenyan coffee from the Warenew farmer group as an exclusive to our subscribers. For those of you who subscribe to 3 bags or more you might find the Geisha to be a good treat this January as this has been a favourite for many of our staff and regular guests in 2022.
I hope you will like the coffees we are sending you and we promise that we will work hard also in 2023 to make our subscription both interesting and consistent in quality in the coming year.
Happy new year from myself and all of team Wendelboe.
Warenew (1st & 4th bag)
Flavour notes: Red berries, floral & raisins
Producer: Several smallholder farmers
Harvest: December 2021
Origin: Embu, Kenya
Process: Washed
Cultivar: SL28 & Ruiru 11
Warenew is a company founded by a group of farmers who decided to start working together towards a common goal of increasing their production, value and quality of their coffee. (It was during a visit to some of their members´ farms where I learned the planting technique that has been a huge success at our own biological coffee farm in Colombia, Finca el Suelo.)
The farms are all located around Embu, in altitudes ranging from 1300 – 1800 meters above sea level. The members / farmers are mainly growing the SL28 cultivar that is famous for its fruity high quality cup profile, yet some of the farms located in the lower parts are still growing the Ruiru 11 hybrid.
We believe that because there is a mix of both SL28 and Ruiru 11 from low and high altitudes, the profile of this coffee is a bit different than what you might be used to from Kenya. It is both fruity and slight herbal with an intense body and vanilla like finish. The acidity is a bit more tamed compared to some of the coffees we buy from Nyeri, which are grown in higher altitudes.
Caballero Catuaí (2nd & 5th bag)
Flavour notes: Chocolate, dried fruits & roasted nuts
Producer: Marysabel Caballero & Moises Herrera
Harvest: February 2022
Origin: Chinacla, La Paz, Honduras
Process: Washed
Cultivar: Catuaí
Since we started buying coffees from Marysabel and Moises, we have focused a lot on perfecting the process together in order to make their coffees taste clean, consistent and have a long shelf life. Two years ago, Moises started working a bit more on the fermentation stage when processing his Catuaí coffees. His wet mill is equipped with Penagos de-pulpers that have mechanical mucilage removers. This means that fermentation is not really necessary because most of the mucilage is removed from the beans mechanically, before they get dried. Still, Moises wanted to see if he could improve the quality slightly by letting the coffee ferment with the small amounts of mucilage still left on the coffee. The coffee is now fermented overnight before washing and drying.
Since Moises started with the new protocol I have noticed more fruity flavours in their coffees and also the quality over the last years has greatly improved. The coffees are sweeter, have more concentration of flavour and the best lots have a delicious dried fruit, plum and red apple like flavour to them.
Although Marysabel and Moises produce a lot of the Catuaí cultivar, not all lots are produced the same way. Some are dried on patios and others in mechanical driers or on raised beds under shade. Over the years I have developed a protocol in cooperation with Moises and Marysabel on how to separate, process and especially dry and store the coffees. In the last 5-6 years they have been producing a lot of Catuaí coffees especially for us to choose from.
All the lots we buy are dried on raised beds in shade and are hand sorted and milled with extreme care and attention. It really makes a difference in the final cup. In fact Moises was the one who let me experiment with shade dried coffee in the first place and we found that the green coffee will stay fresh for a longer time and taste much cleaner than the patio or mechanically dried coffees they produce.
Caballero Geisha (3rd & 6th bag)
Flavour notes: Sweet mandarin, jasmine & honey
Producer: Marysabel Caballero & Moises Herrera
Harvest: February 2022
Origin: Chinacla, La Paz, Honduras
Process: Washed
Cultivar: Geisha
The Geisha cultivar is famous for its floral and citric cup profile. This award-winning coffee from the Caballeros is no exception. Unlike the Panamanian geishas which typically have a light bodied cup, this Honduran grown Geisha has a heavier mouthfeel, slightly lower intensity of acidity and a subtle herbal finish. Like last year, Moises separated all pickings from his Geisha trees and I was fortunate to be able to select my favourite lots.
When I am brewing this coffee with a V60 or filter coffee method, I sometimes experience a bit slow drawdown time during brewing (time for water to filter through the coffee). If you have the same experience, I recommend that you do not grind coarser to compensate for this but rather let it take some more time to make sure the coffee is extracted well. Since this coffee is lightly roasted you will get a more balanced brew even if you have longer brew times. In fact I personally would grind this coffee slight finer than for example the Catuaí from the Caballeros to make sure I get the most sweetness, fruity and floral flavours out of this coffee.