Coffee Info
Want to know more about what's in your bag? Why of course you do (or you probably wouldn't be here).
We like to keep it simple on the sticker but we'd love to tell you a little bit more about the amazing producers and processes that make these marvellous beans on this dedicated page of information.
If there's anything else you'd like to see, let us know we're very happy to share all parts of journey :)
Guatemala - recommended for espresso, stove top and aeropress (with or without milk)
Region - Sacatapéquez Department, Antigua
Producer - San Carlos
Importer - Falcon Coffees
Process - Washed
Varietal - Bourbon and Caturra
1500-1700 masl
Roast - Medium
Notes - Red plum, milk chocolate, toffee, round buttery and structured
San Carlos is a 16 hectare farm owned by the same producers of Villa Estela and San Ignacio, these 3 farms are historic farms located amongst the ruins, tiendas and restaurants of downtown La Antigua, Guatemala.
The owner is currently not running the farms directly but he asked Josué at Los Volcanes to take care of them directly, that brought out the farms full potential for specialty coffee production.
Carlos Durán was the founder of these farms in 1850 and has passed them down through his family's generations.
The main cultivar found on this farm is 100 to 135 year old Bourbon varietals. These plants have been grown and managed and pruned in a way that at a certain height, around the average height of a Guatemalan, they bend and grow towards the ground, many with the tops now touching the ground. This method is used so that the pickers are able to reach all of the cherries without stunting the growth of this precious variety. The trick to keeping this variety productive for so long is by alternating between plants harvested every year.
The natural cycle of a coffee plant is to produce every two years, however, humans have been able to stress the plants to produce every year.
On San Carlos the plants remain productive and live longer by allowing plants to rest each year between production.
Also stripping the plants of every leaf and cherry at the end of the harvest season helps keep their ancient Bourbons healthy and productive, through continuous regeneration.
Aside from Bourbon, San Carlos produces 40 year old Caturra and Catuaí varietals. The main shade tree used on San Carlos is Gravilea and Inga. Particular care is given to those shade trees that get pruned once every 10 years allowing the trees to
grow higher than those found on traditional Antigua farms. The taller shade trees help protect the plants from the frost characterised by the cool Antigua nights while allowing a breeze to pass through the plantation to keep a lower level of humidity.
An interesting fact about this farm is the duration of their harvest season that start in December, sometime even November and lasting all the way through to April, the harvest season of this farm is remarkably longer than those of the neighbouring coffee farms. Most farms in this region are only in harvest from January to March. How they manage to achieve this long lucrative season remains a mystery!.
Bag Code - 11111122
El Salvador - recommended for pour-over, filter and cafetiere (with or without milk)
Region - Cantón Los Naranjos, Juayúa, Sonsonate
Producer - Finca El Zapote
Importer - Falcon Coffees
Process - Natural
Varietal - Bourbon
1350-1450 masl
Roast - Medium
Notes - Orange, White Chocolate and Shortbread
Los Naranjos Café it’s the result of the combination of hard work, struggle, and perseverance, dreams and hopes of three great friends, David, Sigfredo and Manuel. They met in the 80’s in high school, sharing dreams, ambitions, the intention to overcome in life, change the world and help others. After they finished high school, they took different paths without any clue that coffee production will reunite them 35 years later
FINCA EL ZAPOTE
It is the first farm bought it from Los Naranjos Café back in 2014, It has different varieties from bourbon, Pacas and Cuscatleco. The farm it is run by Don Angel, he has been the farm manager for the last three decades.
This farm it is located in the Apaneca-Ilampatepec Coffee Region, most accurate in Cantón, El Arado in the Municipy of Chalchuapa, Santa Ana.
The plantation management perform soil studies to determine the lack of nutrients and try to supply them with the fertilization. Also, the weed management we do it with “machete o cumas” not use of chemicals. Most of the coffee trees are from 5- 15 years old. We are renovated with
younger coffees to increase the production.
The farm utilises the practises taught at the Renacer field School which is headed Sigfredo Corado who had already started to help producers in this region before Renacer was established. Sigrfredo is a retired Agronomy Professor who had established with business partners the los Naranjos Group farms (Los Angeles & Finca Noruega) as well as a wet mill. At Renacer he leads a team of 6 field technicians to help small to medium producers in the area by focusing on best farm practises that are restorative for the land and soil as well as beneficial for the yield and quality of the coffee. The field school is based at the farm named Finca Noruega (another Los Naranjos farm) where there is a class held twice a month for the students.
Throughout the year there are 3 modules and these look to focus on the 4 R's the program have developed for soil health.
Right Source.
Right Dose.
Right Place.
Right Moment.
All the training takes place at Finca Noruega where the technical school is based the students work the test plots where they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms. Finca Noruega is 43 Manzanas planted with a range of varieties from bourbon to gesha.
This lot is made up solely of bourbon that was picked selectively before being taken to the wet mill and drying beds at Beneficio San Rafael located between the two hills of El Pilon and Cerro Aguila at 1450 masl. The position between the two hills allows for the flow of the prevailing wind to help dry the coffees slowly and evenly.
Here the bourbon is washed and floated before then laid out on drying beds for between 25 - 30 days where it is moved every hour until ready and dried between the hours of 0800 - 1430
Bag Code - 22222237
Ethiopia - recommended for pour-over, filter, cold brew (without milk)
Region - Raro Nensebo Kebele, Uraga Woreda, Guji
Producer - Wosasa
Importer - Falcon Coffees
Process - Natural
Varietal - 74110,74112 & Heirloom
2100-2350 masl
Roast - Medium
Notes - Blueberry, passion fruit, caramel dark chocolate, cherry liquor, rich and sweet
Wosasa is the name of a sub kebele in the Raro Nensebo kebele, a sub kebele is basically a village within a bigger municipality.
The lot takes the name of the village where the twenty five farmers that contributed to this lot live with their families, all of them are growing Gibirrina/Serto variety (74110 & 74112) those are local selected variety with high disease resistant qualities.
Farmers are growing their coffees under the shade of indigenous trees mainly rich loam soil, on average every producer own 3.5 ha of land around the Wosasa sub bekele.
All of these farmers are trained in agronomy and post-harvest practices by the "King of Guji", Ture Waji, whom is also running the drying stations.
What's unique about how these drying stations are managed, including Wosasa, is how the drying beds had been handled, each day lot is tracked with a tag and kept separate from the other.
Each tag is listing the specific delivery and the start date of drying and relative Moisture Content Readings for each day, in order to guarantee a slow even drying process to insure quality and longevity of the coffee.
Bag Code - 33333343
Colombia - recommended for all brew methods, with or without milk
Region - Argelia
Producer - Cauca / Siruma (female owned)
Importer - Falcon Coffees
Importers Cup Score - 85
Process - Sugar Cane
Varital - Mixed
1700-2000 masl
Roast - Medium
Notes - Papaya, Rhubarb, Fig, Dark Chocolate.
This coffee comes from the municipality of Argelia which is situated in the south west of the department of Cauca. Cauca is the 4th largest producer of specialty coffee in Colombia with around 90,000 small holder farmers all producing coffee on approximately 1ha of land. Often these farmers are part of small associations who have very limited access to market as well as limited resources to find channels to sell their coffees at the premiums they could achieve.
The Argelia municipality is located in an area that has been plagued by the civil unrest and illegal drug trade for many years. This is still a pertinent problem for the families living here and many of them are looking to make a living though legal channels where they can support their families and communities.
Siruma Coffee a small specialty female led exporter have launched a project in this past season that started in 2020 in Argelia for an initial 15 months period until early 2022. The funding has come from USAID to support 5 small Associations incorporating about 220 families who grow coffee for their livelihood. Siruma have been providing technical assistance of the ground with their agronomist helping provided educational sessions on pre and post harvest techniques for the families that wish to join. Baseline data was established from the producers who each annually produce approximately 17 bags of green exportable coffee. The producers are also being trained in sensory analysis of the coffees and how their own coffees taste and the impact of processing on quality. Siruma are also helping to provide commercial specialty channels for the coffees though the partnership with Falcon Coffees who are buying all the coffee sourced from this project.
The farmers from these associations all have small 1 ha farms and have mix of varieties including Typica, Tabi, Caturra, Castillo and Colombia. As well as producing coffee they also produce small amounts of food for consumption including bananas, avocado and oranges. Some of which they can sell to also generate extra income. In the harvest they will pick the ripe cherry with their family and will do this every week as the coffee ripens at varying stages even on such small plots. Once picked they then wash and float the cherry before then pulping the coffee and leaving it to ferment overnight for 12 - 18 hours.
After this the wet parchment is floated and immatures removed before being dried for 8 - 14 days in parabolic tents or on covered roof patios.
The coffee is then taken to the association where it is stored and the producers receive the initial payment for their coffees. The coffee is then assessed by the Siruma team and all coffees purchased that meet the physical quality specifications required.
Initially in the first phase of the project in total there have been 165 producers who have attended training and from this in total 92 of these have delivered coffees to Siruma. All of these 92 producers have received on average 9.5% more than the local market rate for their coffees.
The Sugar Cane Decaf Process
The coffee first undergoes steaming at low pressures to remove the silver skins before then being moistened with hot water to allow the beans to swell and soften. This then prepares the coffee for the hydrolysis of caffeine, which is attached to the salts of the chlorogenic acid within the coffee.
The extractors (naturally obtained from the fermentation of sugar cane and not from chemical synthesis) are then filled with moistened coffee which is washed several times with the natural ethyl acetate solvent, to reduce the caffeine down to the correct levels. Once this process is finished the coffee then must be cleaned of the remaining ethyl acetate by using a flow of low pressured saturated steam, before moving onto the final steps. From here the coffee is sent to vacuum drying drums where the water previously used to moisten the beans is removed and the coffee dried to between 10-12%.
The coffee is then cooled quickly to ambient temperature using fans before the final step of carnauba wax being applied to polish and provide the coffee with protection against environmental conditions and to help provide stability. From here, the coffee is the packed into 35kg bags ready for export.
Bag Code - 44444450
fyi
All our coffee beans are specialty grade, sustainably sourced through a selection of passsionate importers. As we grow we hope to work directly with farms but all aspects to this process and approach can be improved and will always look at what we can do to be as transparent and conscious and are always open change.
Each bean is designed for how you brew and drink your coffee but there are no strict rules, feel free to experiment and mix them up. You could just find you favourite new flavour combo.
To keep our packaging as minimal as possible we only stamp the best before date, if you're interested in the roast date, it will be 3 months prior to the date shown on the bottom of the bag. We recommend storing in an airtight container or rolling the top of the bag as tightly to the coffee as it gets used. The batch/bag codes relate to the coffee inside. Beans will change seasonally and subject to stock but rest assured all coffee will be carefully chosen and roasted follow our themes for each bag and brew method.