If you have been following along with these conversations about David Solano’s coffees, we are now getting out of the head in the clouds, inspirational stuff, and getting more into the realm of wild, once in a lifetime; I’ve never tried anything like this before.
This was the coffee that put this whole project into my head. I tried this coffee and said I want it, but I didn’t want to just have it by itself. It absolutely can stand on its own, but why wouldn’t we want to do something a little more fun? So, sitting in the lab in David’s coffee shop, 12 Onzas in Guatemala City, we talked through this entire project because this coffee wowed me so much.
Our plan for this Holiday Box Set is to share three coffees picked from the same trees at the same time and show how they taste radically different because of the processing and the fermentation. It takes inspiration from a yearly project I used to do with Hacienda Sonora many years ago, where we served the Honey Process and the Natural Process of two different varieties, but those were released on their own over time. This box is meant for you to explore David’s coffees in quick succession and see how each coffee differs even though the terrier is exactly the same.
For this Anaerobic Maceration Honey Process, the team at Conception’ Buena Vista pick the cherries from the tree and wash them thoroughly to ensure there is no contamination on the outside of the cherry skin. Then, the cherries are placed in food-grade fermentation tanks that can hold 2500 pounds at a time. These tanks are now built into the mill building and have scaffolding for easy loading, cleaning, and maintenance. They use food-grade tanks so that they can clean as much as possible between batches. Each tank is equipped with a pressure valve, relief valve, pH meter, and temperature meter.
In a regular Honey process, the cherries would have been depulped using a mechanical pulping machine and then laid out on a patio with the mucilage still on the coffee. With this process, David is using the airless environment, time, and a cultivated mossto brewed with pineapple yeast.
SIDE QUEST! What in the world is MOSSTO?
Mossto is a liquid created for or during the fermentation of a fruit that aids in the degradation of the mucilage of the fruit. Winemakers use mossto as an agent during fermentation to accurately control the fermentation process by controlling all of the inputs into the system. In coffee production, mossto is used to break down the skin and pulp surrounding the coffee seed, allowing the use of those nutrients in the fermentation process. Custom-made mossto recipes are popping up across the coffee world!
SIDE QUEST COMPLETED!
David’s mossto is made in their microbiology lab on the farm. Starting with fresh pineapple, they make a puree and let it ferment, creating a healthy population of yeast. They then separate the correct amount of yeast needed for each batch and create the mossto with that yeast culture for each batch produced.
Once the mossto is added to the food-grade tank, the lid is sealed, and the tank is flushed of oxygen for 75-90 hours to allow the yeast to eat as much organic material as possible and seal into the seeds underneath. The team at Conception’ Buena Vista covers the tanks with temperature control blankets and constantly monitor the pH level as it degrades during the fermentation process. Once the coffee is depulped to a honey, it goes into the covered greenhouse patio to dry on raised beds for 10-12 days, and then it is moved to raised drying beds outside to dry directly in the sunlight for 13 days.
This is why I am the way that I am, to be honest. It is topics like this that get me really excited about the coffee industry and the focus that is going into coffee production right now. I feel this way about coffee production, natural wine, and food. Anywhere that experimentation meets scientific inquiry in a consumable product is exactly where all of my passions in life align. My mentor once said to me, “I just want to eat and drink good stuff.” And there haven’t been many more things that I have heard that speak to me on the level that one phrase did.
I hope you are following along in this journey with me while we find excellent coffees and share them with you!
About the Buyer:
Jake Deserre is the Green Coffee Buyer & Head Roaster at Vibe Coffee Group; he has been in the coffee industry for 17 years and has been roasting and buying coffee for 10 years. His favorite way to drink coffee is without anything added, with his wife and two cats.
]]>Following our last submission, talking about my history with David Solano, I wanted to write more in-depth about each offering in this Holiday Gift Box. I wanted to talk about the washed process coffee first, mainly because I feel like it will be the one that is most underrated in everyone’s expectations. A good-washed coffee is not hard to find; grab almost any Colombian coffee or Guatemalan coffee off the shelf, and you will find a good-washed coffee more often than not.
So, what sets this washed process coffee apart, and why is it not only worth putting in this gift box but necessary to compare it to the other two less traditional or more wild coffees? On my side of things, it is a simple answer: mastery. It reminds me of a chapter in Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel Musashi, about a roaming samurai searching across Japan and within himself the experience needed to become the greatest swordsman in the world. In a small village inn, he comes across a single Peony flower in a vase that, upon first glance, is unassuming but, with further inspection, bares the skilled cut of a sword master.
This is an abstract idea that has persisted in my professional life, and I find myself constantly being drawn to coffees that show the mark of mastery. This washed-process coffee from David Solano shows that Conception Buena Vista is not just an experimental processing mill. They have the technique and the ability to produce world-class traditional processes while incorporating the lessons they have learned during their experiments at the mill.
For this project, we chose the Red Bourbon from their La Joya farm. This was because of the natural shade the coffee trees receive, and the natural topography of the farm makes the tree healthier than similar trees grown with a terracing structure. The cherries are picked at 25-26% brix (1% brix is equal to 1 gram of sucrose per 100g sample, so 25% brix is equal to 25g sucrose in a 100g sample), once picked the cherries are thoroughly washed to remove any possible contamination that could affect the development of bacteria inside the fermentation tanks. With the cherries cleaned and sorted by density, they depulp the coffee using mechanical depulping machines and move them directly to large open fermentation tanks to be fermented for 48 hours. This step is where the mastery becomes apparent. In this 48-hour period, all of the previous prep work becomes very important for managing contaminants and balancing fermentation. Those variables are where you find overly fruity-washed, or unbalanced, or restrained-washed coffees. As soon as the coffee is done fermenting, it is put out on the drying patios for 7-10 days with constant movement every hour throughout the day.
During peak harvest times, Conception Buena Vista employs 8 people to work at the mill who ensure everything meets David Solano’s standards.
I find this thought of mastery all over the world and talk about it often in my personal life. Having a goal that doesn’t end at a particular point in time is important for us to grow as people. Anytime in my life that I have felt aimless in the grand sea of life, it was because I was exactly that: aimless. It is something that I really admire in David Solano as a man and as a coffee professional; his goal in life is to increase the value of Guatemalan coffee in the specialty coffee market and to bring experimentation back to what could be seen as a stagnant ideology.
I tell David this every time I see him “I am along for the ride.”
Let’s drink cool stuff.
About the buyer:
Jake Deserre is the Green Coffee Buyer & Head Roaster at Vibe Coffee Group; he has been in the coffee industry for 17 years and has been roasting and buying coffee for 10 years. His favorite way to drink coffee is without anything added, with his wife and two cats.
]]>David Solano: Excellence in Exploration
I first learned of David Solano in 2021 when I was putting together a special release coffee for an old roasting operation. I reached out to a few different importers in search of a new coffee that would wow my customers. My friend Michael at La Baia Coffee Supply sent me some samples of David’s coffee, and I fell in love immediately. I like to categorize myself as a realist, so for me to have such an immediate response told me that David was on to something special. I got to buy some of his coffee, and I believe it was a lactic maceration natural process similar to the one in our holiday box but not yet as refined as it is now. That coffee blew my mind with the clarity, the sweetness, and the perfection in the processing that is so rare in the grand scheme of things.
Since then, I have had the opportunity to buy David’s coffee every year, and with that, I have been able to watch David grow as a producer while also learning more about his life outside of coffee production.
Earlier this year, I found myself in Guatemala, traveling with Oscar to meet with producers in Antigua, Lake Atitlan, and Huehuetenango. I took the opportunity to reach out to David, and he graciously invited me to cup with him at his lab in Guatemala City on my way out of town.
David Solano has been a barista competitor for a number of years and won the 2018 Guatemala National Barista Competition, taking him to the World Barista Competition in Amsterdam in 2018.
With this success, David came back to Guatemala and pushed his family farm to focus on experimentation and imagination.
Concepcion Buena Vista mainly grows one variety of coffee, Red Bourbon. David’s father decided on this variety many years ago, and David and his brother, Eddy, continued this lineage when they took over the farm. Since all the coffee trees on the farm are older and well-maintained, it is easy for them to keep the trees happy and produce excellent coffee cherries.
David and Eddy started experimenting on a small scale, and after a few years and a lot of investment, the farm is producing these excellent experimental coffees at a much larger scale.
On the farm, they invested in developing a laboratory that is able to develop cultures and yeasts from various acidic fruits. They spent a lot of time working with every fruit imaginable to find out both what happens to the coffee cherries with each fruit and figuring out what fruits produce the best yeast for this purpose.
Through experimentation, they found that yeast works better than the actual fruits because of the contamination caused by enzymes that can live inside of the fruits. These enzymes can produce over-fermentation flavors and contaminate an entire batch of coffee cherries, making them unusable.
Tasting through all of David’s different coffees with him gave me a great idea to share his passion for experimentation as a special limited-release offering. Together, we selected three coffees that share one complete thought when tasted together.
We selected three coffees that are all from the same plot of land but are processed differently: Washed, Anaerobic Maceration Honey Process, & Pineapple Yeast Anaerobic Natural.
I will go deeper into each coffee in this holiday box in the coming days; keep an eye out for those posts!
It has been a pleasure working closely with David Solano this year, and I am very excited to share his coffees with our customers at Victrola!
About the Buyer:
Jake Deserre is the Green Coffee Buyer & Head Roaster at Vibe Coffee Group; he has been in the coffee industry for 17 years and has been roasting and buying coffee for 10 years. His favorite way to drink coffee is, without anything added, with his wife and two cats.
]]>Online Sales & Marketing, Kendon Shaw and Head Roaster and Green Buyer, Dennis Peseau
You probably think we’ll say grind fresh unequivocally, don’t you? But this is not as straightforward as it sounds. Let’s begin by discussing the differences between burr grinders and blade grinders and journey to an answer from there.
A blade grinder is similar to an old-fashioned spice chopper. It contains a single blade that spins at high-speeds to chop material while mixing it. A burr grinder is a mill containing two revolving abrasive surfaces separated by a distance that can be changed per the user’s requirements.
What does this mean for the beans? It is difficult to regulate chop size in a blade grinder. The beans are hit by the blade multiple times which results in an uneven consistency. The grind becomes a mixture of coffee dust and larger particles, which will affect the uniformity of your brew. In a burr grinder, the beans pass through the burrs only once. The resulting grind is very uniform, resulting in a consistent brew.
Still think we are going to say grind fresh? Hold on. It depends on your circumstances. For instance, if you don’t have access to a good grinder at work, but will be drinking the coffee within a few hours of grinding it, use your burr grinder at home and transport your grind in an airtight container. However, if you were thinking of taking your coffee on a business or camping trip, and drinking it over the course of a week, you’d be better off using a blade grinder right before you brew.
Why, you ask? Because no matter how well you store your grounds, the volatiles hidden inside the beans begin escaping within hours after grinding. This affects the flavor of the coffee, and no amount of attention paid to measuring and water temperature can bring back taste.
Our answer? A burr grinder is better unless you won’t be preparing your coffee for some time. In that case, use a blade grinder and a French press, which is traditionally more forgiving with an inconsistent grind. At the end of the day, we recognize that palates differ. Try it both ways and see what tastes best to you. For more, check out our Brewing Fundamentals Guide.
We’d love to hear about your coffee quandaries. Please write in to info@victrolacoffee.com, or DM us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and we’ll answer either on the show or via e-mail. We’ll send you a free t-shirt if we answer your question on the show!
]]>Online Sales & Marketing, Kendon Shaw and Head Roaster and Green Buyer, Dennis Peseau
For those who don’t know, reverse osmosis is a process which removes dissolved solids (contaminants and minerals) from liquid, like water, by pushing it through a semipermeable membrane. The problem with using reverse osmosis water (or distilled) to make coffee, is that it is missing good minerals too, like metallic ions, which draw out the aromatic flavors of the beans. Without the ions, the coffee will taste flat. (Some RO systems may allow for adding minerals back in, which can be good.)
Pro Tip: Water quality is an integral part of a good cup of coffee and we recommend using filtered or spring water, whenever possible.
When using a Keurig or other pod coffee maker:
Coffee roasts get their names from visual cues. At the start of the roasting process, coffee beans are pale green to yellow-ish. After roasting, they vary from light brown to a very dark brown. The light roast, medium roast and dark roast labels are associated with their post-roast color.
Roasting influences the flavor and sensation of the coffee. A light roast will be lighter in body with a higher acidity present. With a light roast, you will experience mostly the inherent qualities of the coffee and its origin. As the roast gets darker, the body of the coffee increases, lessening the perceived acidity. The quality of the coffee will appear smoother and the characteristics from the roast itself will be introduced on top of the coffee’s origin. In short, the lighter the roast, the more you’ll taste the bean characteristics and the darker the roast the more you’ll taste the roast characteristics.
At Victrola, we are interested in sharing the story of the coffee. We want every cup to offer the best sensory experience possible, thus we do our best to match the roast to the origin and give you something to talk about and savor.
We’d love to hear about your coffee quandaries. Please write in to info@victrolacoffee.com, or DM us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and we’ll answer either on the show or via e-mail. We’ll send you a free t-shirt if we answer your question on the show!
]]>Online Sales & Marketing, Kendon Shaw and Head Roaster and Green Buyer, Dennis Peseau
Here’s how you can make the perfect cup of coffee at work:
Our unscientific research shows that sharing good coffee makes better work possible. Hope these tips help increase the productivity in your office.
We’d love to hear about your coffee quandaries. Please write in to info@victrolacoffee.com, or DM us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and we’ll answer either on the show or via e-mail. We’ll send you a free t-shirt if we answer your question on the show!
]]>I flew into São Paulo and was fortunate enough to spend a few days there seeing the sights. I ate some amazing food, checked out some local sights, and was even lucky enough to catch an intimate samba concert with the group of locals I was with. I would’ve loved to spend more time in SP, but we had a purpose. It was time to head four hours northeast to the coffee-producing gem of a town--Carmo de Minas.
Here's a coffee tree in the Pedreira Lot at Canaan Estate. We had coffee on our menu from this tree and hundreds of his cousins.
Carmo de Minas is truly a beautiful place. Coffee plantations sprawl sometimes almost as far as the eye can see. It’s a pretty small town--with population is just over one thousand--it is bustling and full of energy, with a laid-back almost coastal vibe. The cupping competition was held at the local coffee cooperative, Cocarive. Most of the farmers in Carmo and the surrounding areas do all of their wet milling and drying at their own farms; but take it to Cocarive for the dry milling. Farmers can either pay Cocarive for milling services and retain ownership of the coffees--something a farmer usually only does if he or she has their own buyer lined up--or they can sell their coffees to Cocarive, and receive immediate payment. A farmer can always get a little more money if he can line up his own buyer, but typically won’t receive payment for several months--usually when the goods are delivered to the buyer. However, if they sell to the Co-op, they receive payment right away. Some farmers are able to do a combination of both of these things, selling to the Co-op to meet their immediate cash needs, and selling directly to buyers to receive a premium. Most farmers though, are unable to access the buyers market directly, and sell all of their crop directly to the Co-op. Fortunately Cocarive is committed to providing sustainable income for its farmers, and pays more to farmers for their coffee than the vast majority of other local buyers. One of the goals of this competition is to facilitate connections between farmers and potential buyers, by generating excitement and interest among international buyers, so that more farmers are able to access the outside market. After a quick tour of Cocarive’s impressive facility, it was time to get cupping!
Let’s pause here for a little background on this cupping competition. Mantiqueiras de Minas is the name of the region in which Carmo de Minas, and many other coffee-producing communities lie. It is so named after the region’s famous Mantiqueiras mountain range. In Brazil, the federal government regulates how producers can label their bags to indicate where the coffee is from; and three years ago the Mantiqueiras region was awarded regional status by the government. Prior to this, producers were only allowed to say the coffee was from “Sul de Minas” (literally southern Minas, after the state that the coffee is grown in, Minas Gerais). For a little perspective: Minas Gerais is massive--Roughly the size of France; and Sul de Minas, is much larger than Switzerland. For the producers of Mantiqueiras, being prohibited from saying that their coffee was grown anywhere other than a region larger than Switzerland was absurdly vague to say the least; and after years of persistence the government finally awarded Mantiqueiras de Minas regional status in 2013.
It’s a lot to wrap your head around--I know! But if you’re still with me, hang in just a little bit longer. Within Mantiqueiras de Minas there are three cooperatives: Cocarive, CooperRita and Coopervas. The competition I was judging was between these three co-ops. They each submitted their best coffees to be evaluated and ranked by us. Side note: each of these cooperatives process over well one million pounds of coffee per year, yet they are considered microscopic on the national scale.The hardworking employees of these cooperatives managed narrow their very best lots into a top 120, and that’s where we come in!
The competition was separated into two parts based on processing method. Natural, and pulped natural. We began the cupping and continued for three days--tasting five cups each of the 120 samples. After two eight-hour days tasting cup-after-cup, we had selected our top 20. By the end of the third day, we had the top coffees ranked and numbered complete with detailed tasting notes! Overall, the naturals were a bit better, but both processing methods were quite impressive. On the last day we paid visits to CooperRita and Coopervas, and thanked all of the wonderful coffee professionals who facilitated and enabled us to participate in such an incredible event. That night, an award ceremony ensued and each farmer who placed in top 20 was awarded a certificate and a plaque commemorating their achievement. It was a truly special night, and we were very honored to be a part of it.
Online Sales & Marketing, Kendon Shaw and Head Roaster and Green Buyer, Dennis Peseau
Unless you are glamping, excellent coffee while camping can be tricky, but it is absolutely doable. The first determination must be how much you are willing to carry. Space and weight make a big difference when ultra-light backpacking vs car camping, however, there is never a need to compromise your standards for great coffee. Our experts weigh in on how to make the perfect camping cup of joe:
We hope to give you the Alton Brown version of this request one day, but in the meantime our CliffsNotes edition is top notch. Remember this always: The rule of thumb for coffee grind size is, the longer your water will be in contact with your coffee, the coarser your grind should be.
We’d love to hear about your coffee quandaries. Please write in to info@victrolacoffee.com, or DM us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and we’ll answer either on the show or via e-mail. We’ll send you a free t-shirt if we answer your question on the show!
]]>Online Sales & Marketing, Kendon Shaw and Head Roaster and Green Buyer, Dennis Peseau
Victrola Coffee is on a mission to help all coffee enthusiasts brew the perfect cup of coffee. To that end, Dennis Peseau and Kendon Shaw will be tackling your coffee questions in our new video series, Ask Victrola.
The best coffee-to-water ratio is between 1:15 and 1:18 grams. Contrary to popular belief, the ideal blend is determined by weight, not volume. That is, 1 gram of coffee to 15 through 18 grams of water. For a stronger taste preference, use 15 grams. Invest in a home scale to achieve the perfect balance. After all, the true secret to an ideal cup of coffee is consistency.
For the best pour over or Chemex coffee:
Whenever possible, reduce the number of variables. Much like our ideal water-to-coffee blend, the key to great pour over coffee is consistency. Check out our Pour-Over Brewing Guide to learn more!
The perfect grind size for coffee beans, when using an auto drip or pour-over, is roughly kosher salt size. Beyond that, it’s about the taste. If the coffee tastes bitter or astringent, too much was extracted from the beans, and the grind was too fine. If the coffee tastes thin or grassy or sour, the beans were under-extracted, and the grind was too coarse.
Grind several options, taste each batch, record your findings for future brews, and discover your sweet spot. Learn more about coffee grinding in our Coffee Brewing Fundamentals guide.
We’d love to hear about your coffee quandaries. Please write in to info@victrolacoffee.com, or DM us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and we’ll answer either on the show or via e-mail. We’ll send you a free t-shirt if we answer your question on the show!
]]>Don't let that sweet coffee gear collect dust. Here's a little bit about coffee ratios to get you started. Look for more tips on other variables like water, temperature, grind and more coming soon.
We use weight-based recipes because they are accurate, quickly repeatable, and makes us feel like caffeinated scientists. The range of coffee/water ratio recommended by the SCAA is from 1:15-1:18. Some coffees taste best slightly lower or stronger ratio (1:15) and some want to be slightly higher or weaker ratio (1:18).
We usually start at about 1:16 ratio and adjust from there based on taste. (more on that in a minute) So, for a V60 pour over, that would be ~18.5g of coffee to 300g total water. It also works for other methods like french press. ~45g of coffee to 720g water for a typical 32oz press. (Note that this does not work for espresso, which is a different delicious animal)
When we're talking about ratio, we're talking about brew strength. And not "puts hair on your chest" strength. Strength is defined as "soluble concentration" or coffee solids vs. water.
Science moment: ~30% of coffee solids are capable of being dissolved in water but only 18%-22% of those are desirable flavors. So we want to drive the car far enough, but not too far.
Next stop, Tastyville.
We should have a good balance between aromatics, pleasing acidity, sweetness and spice/earth flavors. So, in general, if your coffee tastes bitter, astringent, or like charred wood, we drove the car too far, or OVER EXTRACTED. If the coffee tastes sour or very acidic, grassy and lacks sweetness, we didn't drive the car far enough, or UNDER EXTRACTED. This next sketch shows Strength vs. Extraction which helps prove it's not always about how much coffee you use.
If you know that you're within the Golden Ratio, then you can adjust the grind to get more or less out of the coffee, depending on what you taste.
Here's a recipe for V60 Pour Over to taste our 3 Process Costa Ricas with (or a starting place for any other coffee for that matter).
• 18.5g Coffee (Ground to slightly finer than kosher salt)
• 300g Water at 203º (plus more for rinsing)
• V60 dripper, V60 filter and mug.
• Pouring kettle
• Scale
1 Place filter in dripper on top of mug on the scale. Rinse the filter with some hot water and discard the water
2 Place the ground coffee in the filter, tare the scale to zero
3 Start 3min timer and pre-wet the grounds with double the weight of the coffee ~36g of water
4 At 45 seconds, pour in a circular motion until you arrive at 300g total, (keeping the slurry level at least 1/2" below the top of the filter)
5 Your total brew time (when the stream breaks) should be about 3m total. If it takes a lot less time, make the grind a little finer, if it takes a lot more time, make the grind a little coarser.
Our 3 Process Costa Rica is perfect way to nerd out on this stuff at home. You get the same coffee processed three different ways at origin then roasted by our amazing roasting crew. The Washed process, Honey Process and Natural process taste like a progression of fruit ripening and sugars caramelizing and playing around with ratios is an awesome way to explore the coffees. Check out more about the Costa-Rica here.
This is a very exciting opportunity to taste three remarkable coffees from a single farm’s lot of a single variety. Because the processing method is the only variable with this trio of coffees, we gain a rare glimpse into exactly what effect coffee processing has on the final cup. We are thrilled to be partnering with Alberto Guardia from Hacienda Sonora to present these astonishing coffees.
The three processing methods on showcase are the Washed Process, the Honey Process and the Natural Process. Coffee is the seed of a sweet fruit, and these the three processing methods are special because of how much of that sweet fruit pulp they each leave on the bean during the drying process, before being washed off completely.
In the Washed Process, the beans are removed of their pulp and briefly fermented to remove any excess fruit that is clinging to the outside of the bean. They are then washed clean, and allowed to dry on raised beds.
In the Honey Process, the beans are removed of their pulp as in the Washed Method, but instead of being fermented to remove the excess fruit, the beans are immediately laid on a patio to dry, and the fruit remains on the bean. The sticky fruit that remains on the bean is said to resemble honey--hence the term Honey Process.
In the Natural Process, the beans aren’t pulped at all, and are laid on a patio to dry with the fruit completely intact before washing it off. The coffee seed is infused with all the sugars and flavors from the cherry itself, imparting a very fruit forward cup.
On the cupping table, we found each these coffees to be unique, and distinctive from one another. An interesting way to approach tasting these three coffees that we’ve noticed throughout our cuppings, is to think of a fruit--such as a peach, cherry, or cantaloupe--in various stages of ripeness.
In the Washed Process coffee, we picked up a pleasant nutty characteristic which was reminiscent of toasted hazelnut or almond. There was an pleasant undertone of milk chocolate; a spicy quality that evoked peppercorn, and dried ginger; and an interesting vegetal/leguminous quality that evoked fresh snap peas. The acidity was pleasant, but toyed with an astringency that you might find in an underripe cherry.
In the Honey Process coffee, we noted that the undercurrent of chocolate and peppercorn that we picked up in the Washed was still present, but was a bit more subdued. The mouthfeel was heavier than the Washed, and the body was full, and smooth. There were additional fruit notes--cherry, raspberry, and a faintly savory note that reminded us of cantaloupe.
In the Natural Process coffee, fruit flavors dominated in the cup. The previous chocolate and peppercorn were still present, but reminded us of chocolate-covered strawberry, and cherry cordial. The cantaloupe note that we noticed the Honey Process was present as well, but the melon was full ripe, juicy and sweet.
Alberto was gracious enough to take the extra effort to process this coffee three distinct ways and we couldn't be happier with the result. We have a very limited supply of this special coffee, so if tasting these three coffees interests you or someone you know, order some today while we still have it.
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At long last, we have these two lovely micro lots here with us and can begin the process of developing a roast profile for each coffee. We will keep you posted with our progress, but be looking for these two coffees to hit the menu around the end of the month.
]]>\Burundi Kayanza Province Mpanga Washing Station - New RESERVE Coffee from Victrola
In 2008, Jean Clement Birabereye, took his 15 years experience and started SEGEC, which built and currently operates the Mpanga washing station in north Burundi. The station receives and processes coffee from over 300 farms in the surrounding area. We are pleased and excited to offer this lot which was washed using double fermentation, a method commonly used in the processing of coffee from Kenya. It is sun dried on raised beds. The cup exhibits layers of stone fruit, brown sugar and coriander seed.This is the first coffee Victrola has directly purchased and imported. We strive for transparency in our coffee sourcing and have developed strong relationships with the importers, co-ops and farmers from whom we buy coffee. Even in our most direct relationships, we traditionally rely on another party to actually import the coffee. With this special lot, we bought the coffee directly from SEGEC and worked together to import the coffee to the US. We couldn't be happier to offer this Reserve Coffee directly from Burundi to you for the first time!
Facts Region: Kayanza Washing Station: Mpanga Elevation: 6496 ft Process: Washed Varietals: Bourbon Producer: SEGECTasting Notes: Fragrance/Aroma: Date, Dried Cherry, Spice, Cocoa Flavor: Stone Fruit, Brown Sugar, Coriander Seed, Citrus Body: Meduim Finish: Clean Acidity: Bright and Balanced
Harvesting is a family affair
Sorting Coffee Cherries
Safely arrives in the Roastery
]]>New Coffee Release from Victrola - Click for more info!
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We write our own history. Victrola has always worked hard to be able to stand behind a coffee menu that is diverse, flavorful, unique and honors the farmers, producers and planet that gave us the product. Sometimes the story of a coffee highlights the men and women who harvest and mill the coffee at origin. Other times we roast a coffee that preserves the land around it as it grows and flourishes in fields that provide home to native birds and critters. This month Victrola wrote another page in our history book by importing an award-winning micro lot directly from the co-op at the mill in Burundi, Africa instead of going through a middle-man. Someday if you catch us post-production at the Pine Box on Capitol Hill, we'll share the whole story of customs snags and long distance negotiations over a beer. But for now, you'll just have to trust us that it was a long road to be able to share these photos with you and we're so proud of the coffee inside this burlap. It is amazing and will be available in the coming weeks. Keep it tuned in to FB, Twitter, IG to read more chapters in this Burundi Story. We can not wait to dial in the roast profile & invite you all to be part of the history Victrola is writing every day!
sample roasting for first cupping:
Bravely Blind-Cupping the Burundi Mpanga against some other Burundi samples in the Roastery.
Luckily, we all liked the one we just imported from 9,000 miles away. Whew!
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You can taste the Brasil and all Victrola's coffee offerings at our weekly coffee cuppings every Wednesday at 11 am at the roastery & cafe at 310 E Pike St in Seattle.
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We have some very special coffees to offer you this month - an heirloom varietal from Ethiopia Yirgacheffe and a natural coffee from Mexico. Read more here: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe & Mexico Nayarit
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