We have had several new incredible coffees arrive in the past couple weeks. It’s an awesome variety of some of our favorites of 2021. Here’s the rundown:
Ethiopia Kossa Geshe is a natural processed coffee with hints of dark chocolate, blackberry and strawberry. Kossa Geshe is located in Western Ethiopia’s Limmu Kossa District, in the highlands of the Kebena Forest. This 1,000 hectare farm was established in 2009 as a land grant from Ethiopia’s investment agency to safeguard some of the last remaining dense forest in the country. Read more HERE.
Honduras Lempira is a well balanced washed coffee that reminds me of some of my favorite Colombian coffees. It’s full bodied with great sweetness and has notes of red grape, cherry and chocolate. This lot comes from the Lempira department of Honduras, located in the western part of the country. Read more HERE.
Guatemala Ayarza This is an exceptional, naturally processed coffee from the Lake Ayarza region in Guatemala with notes of blueberry, wine and rose. This is the third year we have purchased this particular coffee. It’s always a favorite at Mundos. Read more HERE.
Rwanda Kinini Village is an exceptional coffee with a great story. It has notes of orange, caramel, brown sugar. "Kinini" means, literally, 'this big thing right here'. It is the name of the collaboration of cooperatives seeking to pool their efforts to improve their lots. 85% of the members are women-- we met this group through the IWCA and found the lot from Tumba Village to be something worth sharing. To understand how a group can produce 87 point coffee in their first year of production, you have to understand the people behind the coffee. Dreamers. That's what everyone called Jacquie Turner and Malcolm Clear when they wanted to start a school for children in Eastern Rwanda 10 years ago. Read more HERE.
Kenya Nyeri Peaberry is one of my favorite coffees of all time. It’s exceptionally sweet, balanced with layered acidity and notes of clementine, peach, pomegranate. Nyeri Hill farm lies just 3 km from the famous coffee town of Nyeri, in the heart of Nyeri County. The large estate is run and managed by the Catholic Arch Diocese of Nyeri and is one of the earliest and largest coffee farms in Kenya. Read more HERE.
Kenya Handege is an amazing washed coffee from the Handege Coffee Factory and has notes of red grapefruit and cherry pie. The Handege Coffee Factory is allied with the nearby Wamuguma Coffee Factory under the Ritho Farmers’ Cooperative Society. With headquarters in Gatundu, Ritho has ben operating since 1972. Kenya is an enigma. It occupies a top spot in specialty – Kenyan top lots are always amongst the most expensive of any harvest. But yet it’s a country where coffee production is dropping year over year. Kenya is a place where traceability is given, but knowing what you want and how to get it are two different things. Rarely do we find partners more capable, and loyalties more difficult to navigate than we do in Kenya. For all the aforementioned reasons, competition in Kenya is fierce, making prized coffees feel like even more of a success. Read more HERE.
Mexica Oaxaca Lachao Swiss Water Processed Decaf is the best decaf we have ever had. It seems like the more we search the better the decaf we are able to find. This particular coffee has notes of chocolate, caramel and fig. Oaxacan coffee is grown on small plots spread over a large, diverse range. Well, three ranges actually. Oaxaca is where the Sierra Madre del Sur and Sierra Mixteca ranges come together to form the Sierra Madre Occidental as it heads north. If you follow these ranges south of Oaxaca city towards the coast you find a unique climate - soft, pine-filled forested mountains that give way to steep, craggy coffee fields as you head into the heart of La Pluma. Read more HERE.
The challenge of “that cup” is one we constantly try to find. Most everyone who loves coffee has had that “best cup of coffee” they’ve ever had.