With the new year comes new coffee. This season we’re celebrating with some of the finest South & Central American coffees. As usual we’ll be starting the studio’s day with a roasting and filling the air with the tantalizing aromas of these wonderful beans. To add to the coffee lovers delight, this season we’ve added a fabulous Gaggia espresso machine to the gourmet arsenal. Come be seduced!
The coffees:
Brazil Daterra Bruzzi This Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee is blended by Daterra to be “ smooth and nicely fruity with pronounced sweetness, medium to low acidity and with chocolate notes. Creamy with a smooth finish” Great espresso and also very nice in cafteieres. Daterra’s environmental philosophy of fully sustainable coffee production emphasises social responsibility, including labour, health and housing.
Brazil BSCA Monte Alegre This fully washed coffee comes from the estate of the Vieiria family in the south of Minas Gerais, known for the high quality of its coffees.The larger part of the estate is untouched native forest and protected wetlands. There is an extensive social program on the estate ranging from schooling and medical care through training to the right to unionize. The coffee is processed with full wet fermentation in clear mountain water to produce a cup with medium body and acidity. In the cup expect excellent balance with a full buttery sweetness.
Colombia Excelso La Zulia Produced on the La Zulia farm, a member of the Coffee Growers Co-op of Risaralda in the western highlands of Colombia. Certified under the Utz programme This coffee has all the balance to be expected of a good Colombian, with good body, medium acidity and fine flavour and aroma.
Costa Rica Dota Tarrazu Coop: Hermanos Dota This is the highest and most remote subregion of the renowned Tarrazu growing region and has the reputation of producing the finest coffee in the area. This is a classic and well balanced Central America coffee, medium bodied, aromatic, with fruity complexity and with spice tones.
El Salvador, Shekinah Estate The Shekinah estate is on the De Izalco volcano in the Ahuachapan, renowned as one of Central America’s prime speciality coffee regions within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. This high altitude shade grown coffee (1500 m +) is in a sheltered micro-climate that provides home for migratory birds. Here, Luis Ernesto Urrutia produces a fine blend of Bourbon and Pacamara beans. Depending on the degree of roast this coffee gives a semi sweet and lightly floral cup that develop nutty and chocolate flavours in a fuller roast.
Guatemalan San Francisco Tecuamburro The farm is uniquely located within the crater of the dormant Tecuamburro volcano. The altitude of 1460-1770 m provides ideal conditions for the production of coffee of the highest quality and the farm is planted with 80% Bourbon and 20% Catual. Sergio Barillas Escamilla oversees a farm using abundant shade cover and the resultant leaf mould provides a natural fertiliser for the soil. The coffee is sweet yet complex, with distinct lemony notes but also creamy chocolate.
Nicaragua La Bastilla estate, El Buey micro. The La Bastilla estate has been Rainforest Alliance certified since 2003. On the edge of the Datanli el Diablo nature reserve it protects primary rainforest. The ideal micro climate, shade growing, and the eco-friendly soil management combine to produce an excellent fat chocolaty and green fruity cup.