Dear subscriber,
I am really happy to inform you that we have received the coffees from Kenya and Ethiopia in time for the July subscription. This month you will be receiving a real treat: one of the best Geisha lots from Finca El Puente from last year’s harvest, which is tasting very expressive at the moment.
We have also included a fruity and refreshing coffee from Kapsokisio on Mount Elgon in Kenya, and, last but not least, probably the best coffee we bought this year: freshly harvested coffee from Echemo in Ethiopia. Enjoy them both hot and cold.
Have a great summer!
Finca El Puente Geisha (1st & 4th bag)
The Geisha cultivar is famous for its floral and citric cup profile. This award-winning coffee from Marysabel and Moisés is no exception. Unlike Panamanian Geishas, which typically have a light-bodied cup, this Honduran-grown Geisha has a heavier mouthfeel, slightly lower acidity, and a subtle herbal finish. Like last year, Moisés separated all pickings from his Geisha trees, and I was fortunate to be able to select my favourite lots. This particular lot is from their first picking period in 2025.
Despite extremely challenging weather conditions, with excessive rain and some nights of frost during the harvest, Marysabel and Moisés were able to produce a clean and aromatic Geisha this year too. Moisés said that almost 50% of the beans had frost damage and had to be sorted out. Fortunately, they have their own dry mill, so they were able to pass the coffee through the different sorting stages several times until it met their and our quality standards.
This lot is from the later harvest in 2025 and has more intense floral and citric flavours than the earlier pickings.
Kapsokisio (2nd & 5th bag)
About 90% of the farmers who deliver cherries to the Kapsokisio wet mill grow the K7 cultivar, which means only about 10% of the coffee consists of SL28 and SL34 cultivars. This is probably one of the main reasons why Kapsokisio coffees taste so different from coffees from central Kenya.
When we started buying coffee from Kapsokisio in 2012, the cooperative was struggling with drying capacity during the peak of the harvest, when the best coffees are processed. Therefore, in 2013 we decided to invest in building new drying tables at the wet mill in order to increase drying capacity at the factory. We managed to raise about $10,000 USD from our customers during our 6th and 7th anniversaries, which was donated to Kapsokisio in order to build new drying beds.
Ever since, we have been trying to get our hands on some coffee from this wet mill, as it is such a unique coffee with crisp, fruity flavours.
Echemo (3rd & 6th bag)
We have been buying coffees from Khalid for many years now, but it was not until my visit to his farm in November 2023 that I was able to make an impact on the quality of his coffees. During that visit, I was able to go through his production steps to see if we could agree on a protocol for him to follow in order to elevate the quality of his coffees.
As usual, there were many small details that could be improved, some with a small and others with a major impact on final quality. A few of the major ones included separating every daily picking, and keeping each daily lot stored in airtight GrainPro bags after drying. Drying the coffees under shade nets, improving control of fermentation, and slightly adjusting the process were also part of what we changed and improved. This meant that I was able to evaluate several samples, each representing a daily picking, instead of just 2–3 samples like in previous years, when the coffees had been bulked together.
By doing this, we were able to remove lower-quality lots from the higher-quality ones, and in combination with better processing and drying practices, the coffees really cleaned up and became more expressive.
The washed coffees from Echemo are normally very delicate and soft. I find it is like drinking a white tea with some nice notes of peach and florals. It is very different from the typical Yirgacheffe or Guji coffees from southern Ethiopia, most likely because it is grown in a different area and from different cultivars. Having said that, the coffees from the 2025/26 harvest are by far the most intense coffees we have bought from Echemo. The aromas and flavours are much more pronounced. Expect lingering, intense stone fruit flavours and aromatic floral notes.
