In My Mug

The story of Hasbean and Finca Limoncillo is a long and exciting one - we've been working together for 13 years now! A bakers' dozen of coffee harvests shared between Matagalpa and Stafford make us very happy customers. I've been telling the story of this relationship for many years now and I don't intend to stop any time soon because it's such a big, big, big relationship for me 🌟 So much of where we are today has come from this relationship. I'm really proud of everything that's happened in the past, and super excited for where we can go in the future.

Limoncillo (and a handful of other fantastic farms) are owned by Dr. Erwin Mierich. Having previously lived and worked in the USA, he returned to Nicaragua in the mid-1990s. He explained, "While I was living in the United States, I worked as a gynaecologist, but then I had to come back to Nicaragua and lead this farm. Coffee has been my passion since I was a little boy". In the years we have worked together Erwin has visited Stafford many times, and it's always a pleasure to have him around. Last time he was visiting we ended up at a Weird Beard tap takeover in Manchester, talking to two Weird Beards about crazy brewing/coffee farming ideas! A coffee from Finca Limoncillo (the 'Funky Red Pacamara') is used in two of Weird Beard's beers: Black Perle and Double Perle, both of which are mighty delicious beers! A fitting collaboration to evolve from our continued business dealings when you consider how much time the family have dedicated to showing me how Latin American people like to party! On my very first visit to Nicaragua, the two people who showed me around were Erwin Jr and Steve Mierisch, the sons of the farmer. It was really cool, lifelong friends were made, and they taught me a lot about coffee production in the region.

Our relationship with Finca Limoncillo began in 2007, and back then we were buying their delicious coffee as part of a buying group. I cupped the coffee and instantly loved it - I knew I had to have it. It was a wonderful surprise to discover after the auction closed that it was owned by a family in Nicaragua who were already good friends of mine, and indeed probably the only people I knew from the whole country! The following year I visited the farm with our Nicaraguan importers and through my phenomenal Steve Pester Powers I got them to agree to bring the coffee into the UK for us (probably just to stop the flow of emails and phone calls from that annoying ginger bloke!)

A few years ago we were notified by the importers that they would not be buying the coffee again (for reasons other than the cup quality) which led to some frantic phone calls on my part, and a dig down the back of the sofa for enough loose change to fund buying 12 months' worth of coffee all in one go. There were many, many obstacles in the way of doing this deal, but we were lucky in that we were able to pull everything together in a very short amount of time. The upside of all of this is that we now work directly with Finca Limoncillo instead of going via anyone else. This coffee has gone from a one-off Cup of Excellence buy to a fantastic long-term relationship that I'm so very proud to have.

Finca Limoncillo is located in the Matagalpa region of Nicaragua and it's a whopping 171 hectares in size, which is heckin chonky! 109 hectares of this is used for coffee cultivation, with the remainder used to raise cattle and horses, and left to natural woodland. The family have heaps of policies and initiatives to make everything as sustainable as possible on this vast farming area: their use of chemicals is minimal, and the impact on the environment is always minimised by careful and considerate land management.

It's owned and run by the Mierisch family who are, by now, very close friends, and well-respected producers in Nicaragua. They're known for their experimental processing, varietal work, and exceptional coffee. The family employ over 3000 staff during the harvest, and at Limoncillo over 60 families live on the farm full time. They are seriously loved by the guys who work for them, more than any other producer we buy from there is genuine love and respect between the family and their workers. The fact that the family are our friends helps us drill down into the details of what they do for the people who work for them. This information continues to prove to me that good people grow good coffee. My last visit was February this year (right before the world went into lockdown!) and it was truly memorable - myself and Joanna (of Drop Coffee fame) sat up with Eleane until 2 am chatting and drinking rum together... the farm visit the next morning was a very quiet one! Luckily Limoncillo is a beautiful location, it boasts nine waterfalls within the farm, which is exactly the sort of place you want to be when you've had too much fun with friends the night before. 

On the farm, the family: 

• The employers pay their staff 30% more than what is typical minimum wage, as well as:

This year we have purchased 9 phenomenal lots from Limoncillo (that meanie Roland wouldn’t let me buy as many as I wanted to!), which makes up a total of 21 from the Mierisch family's farms combined - 19 Nicaraguan and 2 Honduran. This particular lot is a Pacamara Peaberry.

As well as being a big ol' Pacamara, this is also a lil' ol' Peaberry; a thing that's normally big is a little smaller than you might expect. It's an interesting mix of unusual sizing that I hope you'll enjoy.

Normally the seed of the coffee fruit grows into the green bean that we all know and love from two fertilised seeds inside each fruit, but sometimes things are a little different and a Peaberry is born. When only one of the two seeds is fertilised, it produces a smaller bean that looks like a shrunken version of what we'd normally know as a coffee bean, and that's because only one seed has grown instead of two.

Some say Peaberry coffees are sweeter and more delicious than their regular cousins; some people even come to us specifically looking for these coffees because they crave them so much! I'll let you be the judge.

I get a big, big hit of juicy sultanas here with a tropical edge of pineapple to it. As it cools it becomes really creamy, but with a biscuity edge too which makes me think of a slice of cheesecake. On the finish is the perfect finishing touch to that - a sliver of dark chocolate.

• Country: Nicaragua

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5

Total: (max. 100): 88.5

Roast Information

Brewing Tip

I find going a little finer than I normally would and allowing more time for the grinder to get its teeth into the bigger beans often lead to delicious results. Don't push the grind quite as far as you would for a regular Pacamara, but still make sure to tweak what you're doing to help this coffee show off its natural awesomeness.

We've been working with Carlos and his family since way back in 2013 and this is a cracking example of the sort of long-term relationship that we are proud of developing with our producing partners. If you read through our Coffee Archive (and my rather excellent book Coffeeography) you can see just how far we've come together since our initial meeting - back when I first bought from his group of farms they didn't even have an official name! All I knew was that it was grown by a nice chap called Carlos Arietta and it was really, really delicious. In the years since that initial purchase we've learned so much, so now we're able to share all the fun deets with you folks! 

The name of their mill ARBAR comes from the combined family names: Carlos ARietta + Maria BARboza = ARBAR. Their children are Yessica, Karen, Esteban & Jose Ignacio. They run everything together, the micromill and 4 small farms, with 1 permanent worker and a few temporary staff during harvest season. This might sound like an awful lot of work to be shared between such a select team but Costa Rican farms tend to be on the smaller side compared to other producing countries. The four farms in the group are: La Casa, El Manatial, El Oasis, and La Isla. This year we have been fortunate enough to purchase coffee from all of the above.

Carlos has been growing coffee for about 40 years (La Casa being his oldest farm) with El Manatial and El Oasis coming next around 20 years later, followed by La Isla which is the latest project and still very early in it's production life. He only started processing his coffee himself at their mill from 2014 (while still paying someone else to pulp it for him... more on that in a mo) which meant he hadn't been able to present his coffee to a single buyer previously, this was fortuitous for us as this was how we happened to meet - via our mutual exporter in Costa Rica!

All of their farms are located in the Western Valley region near to the town of Lourdes de Naranjo. Carlos is very active in the local community and they have close relationships with their neighbours - which includes CoE winning producers like Herbazu, Vista Al Valle and Sumava. They operate mostly Organic processes, but aren’t Organic certified. They believe in the value of biodiversity on the farms and plants like fruit trees are positioned amid the coffee plants for shade and to help the soil - as well as providing food for the family. Activity from the Poas volcano at the start of 2019 has impacted a good deal of the Western Valley region, really quite badly in some areas, however ARBAR have been incredibly lucky to not be affected by this and have produced a good crop

This coffee hails from Finca La Isla, which is located at 1400 metres above sea level. The farm is roughly 1.4 hectares in size and is planted with a mixture of Villa Sarchi, Kenya, Geisha, and Ethiopia. Overall this area produces about 3500kg of coffee cherries, which translates to around 700kg of green coffee once processed or ~570kg of roasted coffee once your friendly neighbourhood Roasterman gets their mitts on it! This is their latest project and actually belongs to Maria’s niece. Carlos and Maria have agreed an arrangement with her where they will plant and farm the plot and share the profits with her, but it's only just starting to see production in the last couple of years.

Both myself and Roland (Head Roaster / Production Manager / Daft Fact Provider) have been lucky enough to visit Carlos and his family multiple times over the years that we've been working together and they are always guaranteed to be wonderful hosts. I'm not entirely sure I should even be paying Roland to travel to Costa Rica and go hang out with them... does it still count as work when he enjoys it so much? Our last visit was in 2019 and I tried to teach Carlos about Sunderland and how to shout “Ha’way the lads” (https://www.safc.com/news/club-news/2018/october/haway-the-lads) and promised to take him to a game if he ever visits the UK - according to Roland this might put Carlos off ever visiting the UK but I disagree!

This coffee has been processed at the ARBAR micromill using the Red Honey process. Honey processing is somewhat similar to a Pulped Natural (but uses less water), falling somewhere in between a Washed and a Natural coffee both in terms of contact between the cherry mucilage and the bean during drying time and in the resulting flavour profile. The outer skin and fruit pulp is removed from the seed (bean) of the coffee inside, and it's left to dry. The colour in the name refers to the amount of sticky fruit that's left on the surface of the seed after depulping - darker indicates more / lighter indicates less. This method can present some risk of over fermentation during processing but water is a precious commodity in this area of Costa Rica, so this method suits the location very well. Carlos definitely has the skills to pay the bills though so no worries about mucking up the Honeys at ARBAR!

Processing technique and equipment is one way that our long term relationship has benefitted us as buyers as well as Carlos and his family. Back when we first met, Carlos was taking his cherry to a local Co-op to use their depulper and then back to the house to process - this was obviously a lot of extra effort and meant that he couldn't have as much control over the details as he would have liked. That's where we joined the fun! In 2014 after chats with the family I stumped up the funds for their very own depulper - which was paid back by you lovely lot through a special price per bag on that year's coffee from ARBAR. (http://www.hasblog.co.uk/carlos-gets-a-new-depulper-thanks-to-you) Since then the mill has constantly been updated with additions and changes as they learn how to pulp better every season. The techniques and the skills they are developing are improving their coffee year on year, and it was already a dream when I first encountered it on that fateful cupping table in 2013, so that's really saying something.

There's a delicate orange at the start, but it moves quickly into a sweetness of digestive biscuit and caramel. On the finish it's cocoa powder, for a clean & well balanced easy drinker..

• Country: Costa Rica

Clean cup: (1–8): 6

Total: (max. 100): 86

Roasting Information

A desire to experiment is one of the big reasons that I love buying from Finca El Limon; we have been getting coffee from them since we were introduced by our mutual friend Raul Rodas (2012 World Barista Champion) seven years ago, and they're still impressing me!

The experimentation is thanks to the motivation of Guadalupe Alberto Reyes (known as Beto to his friends), He's been the owner of the farm for 21 years now, and in recent years he has really focussed on the farm and on continually striving to improve. He aims to take more care in every step they take on the farm, from picking, to processing, to shipping. They also take care with the agronomy of the farm; Beto's son, Saul, has been studying agronomy at the local college for the past seven years, and he uses his knowledge to benefit practices on the farm.

All the family have a part to play in the day-to-day farm running, including Beto's wife Maralyn; their children Saul, Elena, and Betio; Betio's wife Mafer; and Beto's brother Felix, who runs their mill. In addition to the family, they employ a team of seven workers outside of harvest. That team manages the weeding, mill upgrades and general farm work.

The farm itself is eighteen hectares in size and sits at an altitude between 1600–1800 metres above sea level. The farm mainly produces Caturra and Bourbon, with a smattering of Pacamara, San Ramon, and Pache alongside.

It is located roughly an hour's drive to the east of Guatemala City in the small town of Palencia, which Beto also happens to be Mayor of! He has helped to build and develop the town alongside running his farm – I honestly don't know how he finds enough hours in the day, what a guy!

Palencia is not part of the eight regions of coffee as defined by Anacafé (the National Association of Coffee in Guatemala), but you can see a lot of development in the zone, and this farm is a perfect example of that development. I like being in places that are working to be hot and up-and-coming, as well as those that are established players. Over time El Limon has become one of our favourite Hasrelationships, and back in 2013, they were the first producers that we ever bought from directly in Guatemala.

The dedication and care devoted to each step of production is reflected in the fact that the family operate their own wet mill, so that they can separate different lots and have control over the quality of the coffee. They are able to process many lots simultaneously and keep separate days' pickings, processes, and varietals in their own parcels. The wet mill also benefits the local community as neighbours within the region of Palencia also bring their coffees to the mill to be processed.

They have had the mill on-site since the very beginning but it's very much an ongoing project and they recently invested in a rebuild, alongside the construction of a QC laboratory, a new warehouse, and accommodation for their staff. Beto doesn't want to stand still and is continuing to invest in the farm. You can tell that this is a farm on top of their game. Whenever I visit, my questions are dispatched with exactly the right answer and every suggestion is listened to and taken on board.

As well as being skilled professionals, Beto and his family have always been the perfect hosts whenever I visit the farm. They are such welcoming people and take great pride in showing me around their farm. One of the kindest things they've done for me is to welcome me into their home when I am visiting, and they always prepare the most amazing meals! Every time I'm round they cook a dish called Kak'ik (basically translates to 'red and spicy' from Mayan). It's like a broth with a whole turkey leg in it, and it's BOSTIN! It is indeed very red, but it’s not terribly spicy unless you want it to be, and it's arguably the national dish of Guatemala, with versions of it having been made since long before the Spaniards showed up.

When you travel as much as I do, mid-trip you find yourself longing for something big, home-cooked, and not from a restaurant or roadside pop-up cafe. Traditional Guatemalan meals are just the ticket, and I always look forward to the food – but mainly I look forward to the company.

This is a classic easy drinker – it's all sweet malted milk biscuit covered in milk chocolate (some may say a moo cow biscuit!). As it cools, that milk chocolate becomes chocolate orange, with just a little red apple appearing on the aftertaste.

• Country: Guatemala

Clean cup: (1–8): 6

Total: (max. 100): 86

Roast Information

The Burka Coffee Estate is located on the outskirts of Arusha National Park, on the leeward side of Mount Meru and was founded in 1899 by German settlers just outside the town of Arusha in northern Tanzania. It's 80 kilometres west of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. Situated close to the Kenyan border, this north-westerly region of Tanzania is famous for the coffee it produces.

The neighbouring Selian Estate was established in 1910, and it was acquired by Burka in 1991. The first coffee trees were planted in 1918, and they now number some 1.3 million trees. They're mostly shade-grown varietals. Three hundred and fourteen acres are reserved for forests. A further 250 acres are reserved as natural grasslands.

There are around 200 permanent staff at Burka, a further 200 casual daily staff, and up to 5,000 temporary staff involved in picking and sorting at the height of harvest season. All permanent staff are provided with housing on the estates, and their salary is set at least 20% above minimum government requirements.

Staff have social security and labour union membership included in their contracts, and an estate credit union also offer loans and advice for education, health, and house construction. Each estate has its own nursery, each of which educates over 100 children, and two primary schools also cater for over 600 children from the estate workers' families and neighbouring communities. An on-site health centre with estate nurse and dispensary is available for all staff, and the estate has its own ambulance. It also has shops, sports facilities, churches, and a mosque.

Regular inter-estate and inter-camp football and netball matches occur, along with staff BBQs and other holiday celebrations. Workers are supplied with free firewood from stumped coffee trees, and fruit and nut trees are grown around the staff villages.

The staff at Burka have a combined wealth of agronomic experience, and over the course of many decades the estates have built a reputation for consistent production of fine Arabica coffees characterised by mild acidity with flavours of lemon, chocolate, and caramel.

Harvesting is carried out between the months of May and October. It's done by selective hand-picking of red ripe cherries, which is followed by further hand-sorting to remove any over- or under-ripe cherries. Cherries are then dried slowly on raised African beds for 12–14 days. The cherries are carefully maintained through consistent turning to ensure even drying and to avoid over-fermentation. They are covered at night to protect them from excess rain and moisture. Once the cherries have dried to the optimum moisture content, they are sent to Moshi for hulling, grading by bean size, and careful handpicking. They're then bagged in GrainPro for export from the port in the capital city, Dar Es Salaam.

This is a big, sticky coffee which reminds me of dark toffee. It's a little bit of a dried fruit edge, like raisins soaked in brandy, but it's that gloopy dark toffee which sticks for me.

• Country: Tanzania

Clean cup: (1–8): 6

Total: (max. 100): 86.5

Roast Information

We've seen some excitingly varied coffees from Ethiopia, but as varied as they are they've often come from a pretty small region - Yirgacheffe and Sidamo in the south. The coffees produced there are fantastic and one of the three major growing areas (along with Harrar in the East and Ghimbi in the West), but we were really excited to try this coffee, grown in the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia.

It's not actually the first time we've had a coffee from this region - for those of you with a long memory, we had the Lake Tana Natural way back in 2009! However, we haven't seen anything really from the region since, so we're excited to share this one with you.

Ayehu Farm is a 500-hectare single estate situated at 1,750masl. It's located in the Western Gojjam area, whose northern border is Lake Tana (map)

It's also an unusual varietal for Ethiopia - K7. This is a varietal we normally see planted on farms in Tanzania or Kenya (Kiriga Estate has a little bit of K7). It was originally released in Kenya in 1936 after being picked out from the famous French Mission selective program at Scott Labs. Find out more information about K7 at WorldCoffeeResearch.org here.

This coffee was dried slowly in the sun on raised African beds for 18 days, turned periodically to ensure even drying and prevent over-fermentation.

In the cup I get a really sweet green mango, with an edge of dark chocolate to it. As it cools a little, you get lemon rind joining it on the finish, along with a treacle flavour that carries on to the aftertaste.

• Country: Ethiopia

Clean cup: (1–8): 6

Total (max. 100): 87

Roast Information

This is our fifth year buying from the folks at Finca Carmela. The 3-hectare farm is owned by Allan Oviedo Rodriguez and his family, along with the neighbouring Finca La Cumbre, and the Don Joel micromill which services the processing needs of both farms (along with occasional small lots for their neighbours when there's space as they've got a good reputation for it).

Finca Carmela is located right on the border between the Central and Western Valleys, in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. Situated around 1600 metres above sea level, the farm is just a short 5 minute drive away from their first farm La Cumbre on the other side of the hill. 

When Allan inherited his first farm La Cumbre (the larger family farm was divided between him and his brothers when Don Joel passed away) he decided to implement changes to improve their lot. During his early years of owning the farm he used to work as a taxi driver in San Jose by night and managing the farm by day to make ends meet. But owning the farm was his dream and he was ardently focused on giving that security to his family.

With a mix of willingness to try new things, an eye for detail, and the ability to learn quickly, Allan was able to keep improving his farm. A regular visitor to the wet mill where his coffee was being processed, he took a keen interest in how the processes worked and how the best results could be achieved, which lead him to build his own micromill on La Cumbre, naming it after his father. He began to work on replanting the land with a focus on high-quality cup profile. The varietals he chose to work with were Caturra, Catuai, and Villa Sarchi.

Finca Carmela followed when Allan was able to invest in expanding his growing area, and here planted mainly Villa Sarchi and Typica, which he's now been tending for 4 years. Allan employs 2 staff outside harvest season, and staffing during the harvest will depend how good the year is - 7 people in a bad year, up to a maximum of 20 in a really good year.

You can see Poás Volcano from La Cumbre, which makes the farm roughly North-East facing, whereas Carmela is more South-East as you can see back towards San Jose. Think about it like planting up your garden at home - south facing? lots of shade? good drainage? Shelter from wind? all of these things are going to have an effect on what sort of plants are happiest living there, and happy plants are the first step towards tasty coffee!

It's milk chocolate and lime all the way here. Super sweet and clean, on the finish there's an unusual delicate hint of mint which I love, before the aftertaste brings sweet caramel and chocolate again.

• Country: Costa Rica

Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5

Total (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information:

A desire to experiment is one of the big reasons that I love buying from Finca El Limon; we have been getting coffee from them since we were introduced by our mutual friend Raul Rodas (2012 World Barista Champion) 7 years ago, and they're still impressing me! The experimentation is thanks to the motivation of Guadalupe Alberto Reyes (known as Beto to his friends), he's been the owner of the farm for 21 years now and in recent years he has really focussed on the farm and on continually striving to improve. He aims to take more care in every step they take - from picking, to processing, to shipping. Also in the agronomy of the farm, as Beto's son Saul has been studying agronomy at the local college for the past 7 years and using his knowledge to benefit practices on the farm. All the family have a part to play in the day-to-day running, including Beto's wife Maralyn, their children Saul, Elena, and Betio plus his wife Mafer, and Beto's brother Felix who runs their mill. In addition to the family, they employ a team of 7 outside of harvest that manages the weeding, mill upgrades and general farm work.

The farm itself is 18 hectares in size and sits at an altitude between 1600 - 1800 metres above sea level. The farm mainly produces Caturra and Bourbon, with a smattering of Pacamara, San Ramon, and Pache alongside. It is located roughly an hour's drive to the east of Guatemala City in the small town of Palencia, which Beto also happens to be Mayor of! He has helped to build and develop the town alongside running his farm - I honestly don't know how he finds enough hours in the day, what a guy! Palencia is not part of the eight regions of coffee as defined by Anacafé (the National Association of Coffee in Guatemala), but you can see a lot of development in the zone, and this farm is a perfect example of that development. I like being in places that are working to be hot and up-and-coming, as well as those that are established players. Over time El Limon has become one of our favourite Hasrelationships, and back in 2013, they were the first producers that we ever bought from directly in Guatemala.

The dedication and care devoted to each step of production is reflected in the fact that the family operate their own wet mill, so that they can separate different lots and have control over the quality of the coffee. They are able to process many lots simultaneously and keep separate days' pickings, processes, and varietals in their own parcels. The wet mill also benefits the local community as neighbours within the region of Palencia also bring their coffees to the mill to be processed. They have had the mill on-site since the very beginning but it's very much an ongoing project and they recently invested in a rebuild, alongside the construction of a QC laboratory, a new warehouse, and accommodation for their staff. Beto doesn't want to stand still and is continuing to invest in the farm. You can tell that this is a farm on top of their game. Whenever I visit my questions are dispatched with exactly the right answer and every suggestion is listened to and taken on board.

As well as being skilled professionals, Beto and his family have always been the perfect hosts whenever I visit the farm. They are such welcoming people and take great pride in showing me around their farm. One of the kindest things they've done for me is to welcome me into their home when I am visiting, and they always prepare the most amazing meals! Every time I'm round they cook a dish called Kak'ik (basically translates to "red and spicy" from Mayan) - it's like a broth with a whole turkey leg in and it's BOSTIN! It is indeed very red, but it’s not terribly spicy, unless you want it to be, and it's arguably the national dish of Guatemala, with versions of it having been made since long before the Spaniards showed up. When you travel as much as I do, mid-trip you find yourself longing for something big, home-cooked, and not from a restaurant or roadside pop-up cafe. Traditional Guatemalan meals are just the ticket, and I always look forward to the food – but mainly I look forward to the company.

A wonderfully easy-drinking coffee, this reminds me of a chocolate-coated digestive biscuit, with hints of white sugar and caramel in the background. There's just a hint of white grape acidity, balancing out that full, biscuity sweetness.

• Country: Guatemala

Clean cup: (1–8): 6

Total: (max. 100): 86.5

Roasting Information

Here at Hasbean we love to celebrate the awesome things that happen when strong relationships are built between roasters and producers, and Finca Licho is a shining example of that ethos.

We first bought from this farm way back in 2007 when it was awarded 4th place in the Cup of Excellence. Fast forward 13 years (gosh I feel old now) and Licho has become a firm favourite with both customers and our little Hasbean team - the arrival of coffees from Finca Licho is greatly anticipated every year. I really feel that this coffee showcases our development as a roaster over the years as we've moved from buying via an importer to buying directly from the farm ourselves.

5 years ago I visited the farm and made a deal with the brothers for a European exclusive on these coffees, and this year we continue that. You'll not see these coffees anywhere else in Europe - they're so tasty we wanted them all for ourselves! I love the fact that I simply walked onto the farm after cupping a particular lot in the exporter's office, had a chat about how much money they wanted, and then we shook hands. We got back into the 4x4 and drove away with a very happy Steve!

This method can present some risks during processing but water is a precious commodity in this area of Naranjo, so this method suits the location very well. The beans end up clinging together whilst drying because of their sticky layer of mucilage (hence the name "honey" processing) so the coffee needs to be turned regularly to break apart these clusters of beans. Over-fermentation can happen at this stage and you can end up with undesirable flavours developing, but the Aguileras are well-versed in this method and are some of the most skilled in Costa Rica! 

Want to know a little more about honey processing? Here's a video you might enjoy!

This starts with fresh raspberry and a sweetness of white sugar. On the aftertaste that sweetness is joined by almond, making me think of frangipane - it's a Bakewell Tart in coffee form!

• Country: Costa Rica

Clean cup: (1–8): 6

Total: (max. 100): 87.5

Roast Information

Ethiopia is widely considered to be the birthplace of coffee, and it's the only indigenous place in which coffee grows. Some of the plant stock can only be found in Ethiopia and has the ability to offer some of the most amazing and diverse cup profiles. With this diversity comes all manner of coffees from different ends of the spectrum (I have tasted many very ordinary lots that I would never stock) and it's why Africa remains a tough place for us to find consistent and amazing coffee – but I have also tasted some of the most special coffees ever from this region, and Africa has the ability to show the non-believers that coffee can taste of other things.

Located in the the Kochere Region, near Yirgacheffe, is the Banko Gutiti Mill, where the combination of high altitude, fertile soil, consistent and plentiful rains, and an abundance of local knowledge all come together to produce, arguably, some of the most in-demand coffee in the world. Owned by Alemu Bukato, and in the ‘Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples’ (SNNP) region of Ethiopia, there are almost 650 smallholders who contribute to the coffee produced at this mill! These smallholders typically have a very small (hence the name!) patch of land, on which they grow their coffee, and they are able to bring their ripe coffee cherries to this wetmill for sorting, processing and selling.

Once the cherries are delivered to the wetmill, they are carefully sorted and pulped, before being fermented for 36-48 hours, depending on the climate and humidity conditions. Once the cherries have been fermented, the coffee is thoroughly washed and graded by bean density before being dried in the sun on raised African beds for 12 - 15 days. During this drying period, there's a lot that goes in to making sure the coffee is dried evenly: In the daytime the coffee is raked and turned periodically to ensure a consistent drying process. The coffee is also covered between 12pm and 3pm to protect it from the hot sun, and at night time to protect it from rainfall and moisture. This requires a lot of careful attention and we think it really shows in the cup!

Up front this is lemon cordial, refreshing but also sweet and juicy. There’s a hint of black tea on the finish and a delicate floral edge running through it all, but the citrus is the there again on the aftertaste as orange zest and reminds us this one is all about the fruit.

• Country: Ethiopia

Clean cup: (1–8): 7

Total (max. 100): 88

Roast Information

The Junqueira family started growing coffee on the highlands of southern Minas Gerais 150 years ago. The current owner is Tulio Junquiera. He's from the fifth generation of the family, and he's combined tradition with innovation to make Carmo Estate a sustainable farm dedicated to the production of specialty coffees. Tulio is also a former president of the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA).

Carmo Estate’s mission is to produce exceptional coffees while providing its employees with a good quality of life and respecting the environment. The farm is located near the town of Heliodora in the southern state of Minas Gerais, which is a stunning region with mountainous terrain, mineral water springs, and ideal conditions to grow specialty coffees.

Carmo Estate has 220 hectares (545 acres) of land dedicated to the coffee varieties Mundo Novo, Catuaí, Catucaí, Bourbon, Acaiá and Icatú. The owners’ personal attention, the agronomists’ specialist supervision, and the fertile soil contribute to an average yield of 40 bags per hectare. That's more than twice the national average. Coffees from Carmo Estate are grown at altitudes ranging from 950 to 1,200 metres above sea level (3,100 to 3,900 feet).

The milling facilities at Carmo Estate were developed especially for the production of high-quality specialty Naturals and Pulped Naturals. The spacious drying patios are complemented by mechanical dryers, which are used when weather conditions are not favourable. The farm stores all of its coffee in wooden silos and has its own warehouse.

Carmo Estate is committed to the wellbeing of its employees and partners. Healthcare, on-site schooling for children, programmes to encourage workers to build their own housing, adult education projects, and the importance of environmental preservation are all hallmarks of the farm. Carmo Estate also runs an innovative profit-sharing programme, in which employees are invited to become partners in Carmo Estate and thus become entitled to a share of the profits earned from the sale of its coffee.

Each year this coffee brings us lovely, sweet caramel, and this year is no exception. Alongside that, you get a hit of digestive biscuit before it finishes on pecan nuts. There's just a nod to dark chocolate too, adding depth to it all.

• Country: Brazil

Clean cup: (1–8): 6

Total (max. 100): 87

Roast Information