$23.50
TASTING NOTES: Floral aromas lead to notes of bittersweet chocolate, lavender, and lemon with a silky body.
ROAST LEVEL: Light
COUNTRY: Ethiopia
REGION: Banko Chelchele Kabele, Gedeb Woreda
GROWER: Smallholder farmers organized organized around the Banko Chelchele washing station
ELEVATION: 1900-2100masl
PROCESS: Washed
OTHER: Traceable, Single Origin
FARM INFO
The municipality of Gedeb is a bustling outpost that links commerce between the Guji Zone and Gedeo Zones, with an expansive network of processing stations who buy cherry from across zone borders. Coffees from this community, much closer to Guji Zone than the rest of Yirgacheffe, are often the most explosive cup profiles from anywhere in Ethiopia. Fully washed lots are often sparklingly clean and fruit candy-like in structure.
The communities surrounding Gedeb reach some of the highest growing elevations for coffee in the world. Banko Chelchele is one of the communities east of Gedeb, part of a greater area known as “Worka”. This dense corner of Gedeb includes farmers that are cooperative-affiliated, as well as independent washing stations of various types, many of which are simply named “Chelchele”.
396 local farmers contribute cherry to Worka Chelchele. The washing station was built in 2021, on 2.5 hectares of land with 12 fermentation tanks and over 250 raised beds for drying. Washed coffees at Worka Chelchele are depulped and fermented for 48 hours, washed clean with fresh water, soaked again in fresh water, and dried on raised beds for an average of 18 days.
Worka Chelchele, as well as the entire export chain for this coffee, is owned by Tadesse Desta Import & Export, a small but modernized coffee logistics company. They use electronic color sorters at their small dry mill in Addis, and are currently in the middle of their organic and RFA certification processes, which they expect to have in place next year. Worka Chelchele is their main processing source for the best coffees they export.
Origin photo by Royal Coffee
$22.00
WE TASTE: Floral and malt aromas lead to a smooth cup filled with caramel, apple and bittersweet chocolate.
$23.75 $79.00
TASTING NOTES: Notes of chocolate fudge, molasses and tobacco in this full bodied coffee.
ROAST LEVEL: Medium
COUNTRY: Indonesia
REGION: Kintamani Highlands of Central Bali, Indonesia
GROWER: Producers organized through Subak Abian a traditional structure of farmer organization in upland Bali
ELEVATION: 1200-1600masl
SOIL: Volcanic loam
PROCESS: Hand-picked, wet-hulled, two-step sun drying on raised beds
OTHER: Traceable, Single Origin, Organic Farm
FARM INFO
Bali Blue Moon is named after the hallmark bluish hue of the bean produced from the wet-hulling process called Giling Basah in the Indonesian language. The bulk of Bali’s coffee production comes from small family-owned farms where each producer uses a few acres to cultivate coffee along with citrus trees in the volcanic soils of Mount Agung’s Kintamani highlands. They carefully sort their harvested cherries before depulping and fermenting overnight with their own micro-mills. Then the coffee is washed and laid out on patios to shed the excess water from the coffee parchment.
Next the coffee takes a detour from the conventional path of processing in other origins, wherein, the coffee parchment is removed while the coffee still has a high moisture content. This wet-hulling process or Giling Basah leaves the coffee bean exposed while drying on patios gives the beans their distinct bluish color.
Balinese producers continue to maintain a traditional rural lifestyle organized around a Subak Abian, which is a reference to the ecologically sustainable irrigation systems developed more than 1,000 years ago by Hindu priests who practice Tri Hita Karana (the three sources of prosperity), a philosophy focused on the harmonization between the environment, humans and God. These traditions are followed in coffee cultivation, which means pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are never used.
In recent years, local producer groups have begun to partner with regional exporters like Indokom to establish organic and Rainforest Alliance certifications, which harmonize with their traditional principles of conserving forest, soil, and water resources. Indokom also collaborates with producers to overcome logistical challenges like rugged roads and lack of infrastructure. Indokom provides logistics and milling facilities, which improves traceability and quality control throughout the post-harvest process, as well as, the ability to swiftly bring the coffee to the international market, ensuring greater producer earnings from direct trade relationships.
Origin photo by Royal Coffee
$22.75 $79.00
TASTING NOTES: Notes of milk chocolate, caramel, and cherry with bright acidity and a creamy body.
ROAST LEVEL: Light/Medium
COUNTRY: Costa Rica
REGION: Palmichal and Santa Ana Mountains
GROWER: Smallholder farmers organized organized around the Banko Chelchele washing station
ELEVATION: 1200-1600masl
PROCESS: Washed
OTHER: Traceable, Single Origin
FARM INFO
Romelia SHB EP comes from the cloudy region of the Palmichal rainforest which is famous for its unique acidity.
Manuel Rojas Arias was the pioneer coffee grower in Palmichal, located on the western slopes of the Escazu Mountains. Many farmers observed the success Don Manuel had with coffee and began to convert their sugar plantations into coffee farms. After Don Manuel’s death, he left his farms to his only sister, Romerlia. Thanks to her strength and perseverance, Dona Romelia was able to sustain the quality of her farm’s coffee.
European Preparation (EP) indicates that the coffee has been sorted to remove any defective beans and foreign materials. Additionally, the coffee was hand-sorted after being optically sorted during milling.
Origin photo by Interamerican Coffee
