Like all of our coffees, Archetype changes slightly with the seasons. Utilising coffees from north, south and pretty much bang on the equator with different harvest times, we aim for a seamless transition of fresh crops that will deliver a consistent brew year round. The flavour profile of this blend is all about big body, dark chocolate and caramel with a medium to low acidity. As an espresso it’s easy going and reliable, we like to pull shots of it short and strong to maximise that syrupy mouthfeel and bring out notes hazelnut, coco and molasses. In milk it’s super sweet like milk chocolate and butterscotch and although we usually use it in the espresso machine, a filter or french press will also deliver a satisfying and hefty brew.

Archetype

Since 1837 Atkinsons have been sourcing, roasting and brewing some of the best coffee and tea from around the world here in Lancaster.

Atkinsons Coffee Roasters

Variety: Bourbon 139
Harvest: March - June 2018

In 2008 Malcom Clear and Jaqueline Turner set up the charity ‘A New Beginning’ to help individuals, mainly widows and orphans of the 1994 genocide, who were displaced to an uncultivated area of savannah in the Rulindo district. After setting up a school and a health centre they then founded the Kinini Washing Station and started growing coffee in 2012, partnering with 633 local farmers, each with an average plot of about 0.5 hectares.

Although many of these farmers had previous agricultural experience, growing cash crops was new to most of them, never mind a complex crop like speciality coffee. However, with the on-going support and education of the Kinini washing station the group are producing extremely high quality coffee. What makes this even more impressive is the fact that coffee plants usually take 3-4 years to produce harvestable fruit, this means we are only tasting one of their very first harvests!

This is achieved by investment and a strong connection with the many individuals in this area. As well as the school and health centre, a road has been built for farmers to get their cherries to the processing plant quickly which improves cup quality significantly. The washing station is located next to a stream, providing fresh water for drinking but also for processing the coffee which aids clean flavour. There is an onsite cupping lab with sample roasters where the farmers can taste the difference between a good crop or bad crop, they also have 3 full time agronomists which work all year round with the producers educating them on best practices.

The very high altitude of this region, at 1800 - 2450 meters above sea level, puts stress on the plant as the air is thinner, this increases the maturation period and sugar content of the fruit, adding sweetness and complexity. The variety, Bourbon, is one that often finds its way into our roastery, Bourbon 139 is a sub-strain that does well in this area and has a medium yield but high quality cup. Once ripe cherries are hand-picked and quickly delivered to the washing station they are then de-pulped with modern, water efficient machines, fermented for between 5 - 20 hours and then sun dried for about 15 days depending on the intensity of the sun.

This complex coffee has a super soft, medium body and sweetness like ripe berries. As it cools a refreshing lemon acidity comes through with notes of cola and cherry.

Kinini AA

Our new Swiss Water de-caf is a decidedly nutty little number from Colombia. The lack of caffeine seems to accentuate the essential nuttiness of the Colombian bean. It also has a beguilingly smooth & honeycombed sweetness that is bright & clear not at all muddy or cloying.

It's roasting beautifully, packing plenty of lovely pop-corn aroma in super-abundance long before first crack. This big delivery of aroma is reflected in the taste, which never disappoints, lashings of peanut butter on a hot buttered crumpet, toasted to perfection! But then that's what you want from a de-caf, surely? Something super-tasty to compensate, as a special reward for missing out on all that crazy caffeine!

De-caf Colombian

Old Brown Java - As the name suggests Ageing the green beans (which take on a more brown colour) for months before shipping means this coffee losses some moisture content and consequently some of the complexity inherent in fresher green beans, giving it a more smokey, almost bitter taste. This is an age old coffee from Atkinsons shop and an acquired taste, maybe not recommended for the third wave coffee drinker! However, it elicits an almost cult-like status among its followers, Java drinkers are a motley crew of zealots, as befits its piratical origins in the South China Seas!

Variety: Mixed
Region: Java

Old Brown Java

Like all of our coffees, this blend is seasonal so the ingredients will change a little bit throughout the year to get the best from them. Throughout the Winter and Spring months the blend will include coffee from Fazenda Sao Francisco in the Mantiqueira de Minas mountains in Brazil and during Summer and Autumn it will use the Menendez brother’s coffee from Finca Las Delicias in the Apaneca Ilamatepec in El Salvador. Although these coffees are different, they both provide notes of chocolate and hazelnut with a low acidity and lots of sweetness. The other part of the blend uses coffee from one of the producers we work with in Risaralda, Colombia. The beauty of this part of the world is that due to it’s latitude and altitude they can harvest coffee twice a year with a Main Crop and a Metaca Crop which allows us to roast freshly harvested coffee from there all year round! This Colombian counterpart adds more sweetness to the blend and lifts the acidity a little bit with notes of orange and blackcurrant to make a balanced and well-rounded cuppa.

Stereotype Espresso

Origin: Brazil Mantiqueiras de Minas
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Farm: Fazenda São Francisco
Farmer: Octaviano Ribeiro Ceglia
Harvest: July - September 2018

Granja São Francisco is located in the beautiful mountain range of the Mantiqueira de Minas in Minas Gerais. It sits at around 1,300 metres above sea level. This is a fairly high altitude for a Brazilian coffee. The area has ample and frequent rainfall with consistent mild temperatures and is recognised today as one of the best coffee growing areas in Brazil. The surrounding countryside is as lush and picturesque as a Romantic Landscape painting!

Turning Cows into Coffee

Granja São Francisco is a family run farm which was originally acquired by Otaviano’s grandfather. He was a renowned coffee exporter and recognised the potential of the Carmo de Minas as a micro region that would be perfect for growing speciality quality coffee.

The region had previously been known for cattle ranching. Consequently the beautiful loamy soil is fertile and the coffee bushes and their interplanted shade trees have created a much richer biodiverse environment than the overgrazed fields that they have supplanted.

The coffee fields continue to expand and I heard the phrase: "We are turning cows into coffee!" exclaimed on more than one occasion. This can be seen as an antidote to the practice of tree-felling for lumber that is going on in the rainforests of Amazonia. With the trees cleared and their delicate forest eco-systems destroyed the cattle farmers then move in and the cycle of slash and burn and over-grazing begins again

Family Trees

The farm is now run by Otaviano, his wife Maria and their son Luis with a team of 12 full time staff that live on the farm and have access to healthcare and education. When Otaviano took over the farm in the 90’s he began to diversify the range of varieties grown there. They now cultivate Acaia, Mondo Novo, Yellow Catucai and thanks to their high elevation they also cultivate Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon which thrive in slightly higher altitudes than most typical Brazilian varieties.

Going Bananas!

The Bourbon variety is known to have exceptional sweetness and mild acidity, which explains why it's such a house favourite here at Atkinsons. Yellow Bourbon is a spontaneous mutation that ripens to a yellow colour. It requires extra skill from the pickers to differentiate it from under-ripe red bourbon.

When I was on the farm I asked how they pulled off this magic picking trick. They made me hold out my hand and placed a swatch of different coloured cherries on my palm. Pointing to one that had flecks of brown appearing on it, they explained that this was the ripe one. "We call this 'banana' and this is the ripe stage".

I have encountered this fruit theme before when I asked the same question in Colombia: "We know the red cherries are really ripe when they are at the 'grape' stage." We might call it Burgundy but you get the idea! The Yellow Bourbon has similar flavours to the red but often displays increased malic acidity and brightness in the cup.

An Award Winning Family Business

The coffee is hand-picked, mostly by women and the farm is a good source of employment during harvest time in the local town, Carmo de Minas. After picking, the coffee is pulped to remove the skins but leave the sticky mucilage layer in which it is dried. Drying is done first on concrete patios in thin layers (4cm to be exact!) and then in rotating mechanical dryers. Thanks to the ideal terroir of this region and the hard work of the Ceglia family, this coffee has won multiple awards, including coming 5th place in the Cup of Excellence.

Many Brazilian coffees have a low acidity which can make them very popular and approachable coffees. The Sao Francisco Yellow Bourbon too has a low acidity but what stands out to us is the intense sweetness and incredibly clean finish with notes of milk chocolate, hazelnut praline and some fruit notes of melon and apricot.

São Francisco

San Lorenzo is one of the highest altitude districts in the main coffee producing Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. It produces some of the highest scoring, most beautiful coffees to be found on any cupping table in the world.

Our Historic Links

Atkinsons and Costa Rica go back a long, long way, perhaps even to the dawn of the Victorian Age. Just as we were founded in 1837 so coffee from Costa Rica started coming in to British waters. The trade routes that opened up made Cost Rican coffee one of the most popular origins on the dining tables of Britain. For the next century, up until 1945 and the end of the Second World War more coffee from Costa Rica made its way to Britain than any other consuming nation.

An Old Favourite

So, it is more than likely that some of it landed here at St George's Quay, when Lancaster was a major West-facing port. We have found some very old Atkinsons coffee menus with Costa Rican on the lists. I know that it was the favourite coffee of my predecessor, who worked here for more than 50 years and that resulted in a lot of personal recommendations! I can see in the old ledgers, that he only bought the best available at that time. It was always from Tarrazu, and usually San Marco or San Paulo. I carried on that tradition when we took over. When the Community Lots were introduced in 2011 we quickly joined the programme which provided us which traceable coffee, that also supported the local community in Tarrazu.

A Genuine Relationship

I immediately cleared my diary when the chance came to visit the region and I prioritised a trip to paradise. I witnessed a country so steeped in coffee that there is evidence of it everywhere you look. It's not surprising when you consider that the first trees were planted here in the 1780's. Some families have been working here in coffee for many generations. I had always been keen to connect with this origin and with Coope Tarrazu that we have been buying from for all these years. We share some common ground as a multi-generational family coffee business.

Waves of Beautiful Coffee

In the cupping room we supped and slurped our way through wave after wave of equally beautiful coffee, until we reached a point of excellence blindness! At this juncture it's always good practice to listen to the consensus and hear everyone's comments on what characteristics stood out in which coffee. San Lorenzo kept cropping up.

Highest Altitude. Highest Quality.

There's a certain vertigo rush that comes with hitting the heights of the coffee highlands up a dirt track in the back of a pick-up truck that is the pinnacle of any sourcing trip. (Think I've just written my epitaph!) Then seeing full sacks of freshly-picked, fully ripe red cherry by the roadside is just the cherry on the icing of the cake! The guest Nicaraguan pickers are here harvesting these trees late in the season. This is due partly to their altitude, as the working pattern is from the lower levels climbing up to the highest. The air is clearer and cleaner up here and the trees take longer to grow. They absorb a deeper, richer range of nutrients to give greater complexity to the yield.

The Flavours Revealed

In the cup we pick up refreshing acidity with notes of blackcurrant and floral hop aromas. The accents of spiced rum can be traced back to the natural process and contrast nicely with the syrupy sweetness of the mouthfeel. When cold, the body becomes more rounded and soft fruits appear like peach and papaya. The coffee leaves a good lasting impression, perfect for a seasonal change this Autumn, with the finish being wreathed in mists and mellow fruitfulness.

San Lorenzo

Sumatra Wonosari - Located in the Aceh region of Northern Sumatra, the Permata Gayo Co-op sits in the mountains just north of Lake Tawar. The co-op was founded in 2006 and now has 2,260 members and stretches across 43 villages. They have recently built their own processing station enabling them to take full control over quality from farm to port.

Variety: Catimor, Typica, Sigaratu
Region: Aceh
Co-op: Koperasi Permata Gayo

SEGREGATION of LOTS to ADD VALUE for the SPECIALITY COFFEE MARKET

They have also done great work in separating lots by region, variety and process adding value to this huge number of producers and this lot comes from the farms around the village of Wonosari. The coffee is triple Certified: Fairtrade, Rainforest and Organic. Recently the Permata Gayo co-op built a pre-school nursery allowing women from around the village to work on the farms whilst their children are cared for.

A UNIQUE STYLE of PREPARING the COFFEE

Sumatra has a fairly unique style of processing in their Wet Hulled process. As soon as cherries are picked, they are pulped to remove the fruit skin and flesh, then they are fermented in water to remove mucilage before they are laid out to dry on tables or patios. So far, so normal. However, here comes the uniquely Sumatran part: This drying stage is stopped half-way, at around 25-30% moisture.

Usually the aim of drying in other coffee growing regions would be to get the moisture level down to 11% ready for export. The beans are then sent to the dry mill to remove the parchment while it is still soft from which they emerge swollen and with the trademark jade blue-green colour of Sumatran coffee beans. After dry milling, the beans are then laid out to dry again without the parchment to reach the final moisture content of 11-12%.

TRIPLE GRADED for TOP QUALITY

Once they are dried and hulled they are sorted in three stages:

1. First machines sort by density

2. Then they are sorted by size and shape through sizing screens and finally...

3. They are sorted by hand for defects.

In Sumatra this is called Triple Picked, which we see indicated on the bag stencil with a simple TP.

This beautiful coffee has the trademark heavy body that Sumatran drinkers know and love but it is also complex and interesting. The cup quality is very clean and it has a slightly fermenty sweetness similar to dried cranberries with notes of cocoa nibs and walnut.

Sumatra Wonosari

Region: Risaralda
Variety: Catuai, Caturra, Colombia
Harvest: September - December 2018
Producer: Don Mario

Bethlehem of Umbria

Welcome to the beautifully named farm Bethlehem of Umbria (Spanish name: Belen de Umbria) and it's farmer, Don Mario, our new Colombian Relationship Coffee. Victims of our own success, we used up all of our previous original Relationship Coffee, from Don Omar Arredondo at Finca La Maria but thanks to our friends at Café Granja la Esperanza  in Cali and D R Wakefield  in London, we have a worthy replacement from the farm next door.

The most exciting thing that we should stress here is that this coffee has never been tasted or marketed on its own before. It is the first time it's been segregated. And so we gladly enter into the deal, where we pay a premium for this extra degree of separation, as Don Mario's coffee was looking so incredibly good on the tree when we were there. Normally his coffee would be going into the general basket of coffees in the Co-op of Café Cristalina de Risaralda, so now we have a unique opportunity to taste a brand new stellar coffee, as though a star is born, in Bethlehem...

I remember on the morning we visited we saw some of the ripest, lushest cherries we had ever seen. So perfect, in fact, that we use the slides as examples of what a coffee tree can look like at the height of peak ripeness and in the full rudeness of health. I also remember our visit as being such an event that his wife filmed our every move on her smart phone. We were actually filming each other! Surely the first part of any relationship, as you suss each other out.

Thanks to an on-site wet-pulping machine, donated by Nestlé  no less, Don Mario is able to process his cherry straight from the field in micro-batches and dry the parchment on the sliding covered patio on the roof of his house. A very local, closed-loop process that ensures a genuine artisanal approach to the preparation of his coffee. "Artisanal?!" I here you cry and roll your eyes. Yes, I deliberately use this word, even if it has been worn out by over-use. This is because I recognise a certain approach to working intimately with the coffee that informs all the crucial stages of decision making and it is informed by instinct and experience. We adopt a similar approach to roasting micro-batches on our old Uno roasters. The sensory experience is a visceral gut feeling that comes through sheer dent of doing the actions over and over again, for ten thousand hours or more.

Don Mario doesn't need a Brix meter to tell him when his cherry is at peak ripeness. He's been monitoring it throughout the whole season as it gradually ripens, then accelerates towards the moment of maturation. He also doesn't need a colour swatch. For, as well as knowing from experience when the cherry has reached the perfect shade of Burgundy red, that cherry he has just chewed tells his taste buds that it is at a sensationally sweet honeydew melon degree of ripeness.

The same reliable instinct, born of experience, also goes for putting the coffee cherry through the wet-pulper. Setting the pulping blades to the right distance and the speed of pulping will be calibrated by judging the situation, as he has done tens of thousands of times before. He knows his coffee and he knows the vagaries of his old machine and can coax the best out of them.

Up on the roof, regularly turning the parchment to achieve an evenly dried batch, Don Mario doesn't need a moisture meter to tell him when his pergamino has reached the right level of moisture and density to go to the mill. He can tell by the heft of the beans in his hand when it's time to go.

None of this wealth of experience has ever been sampled before because none of Don Mario's coffee has ever been available on its own before. So, both you and I are tasting the fruits of his labour and expertise, for the very first time. I feel quite honoured to have this privilege. I'm also extremely glad that the excellence of the cherries on the tree translates so well to the actual flavour in the cup. There is pleasant array of muted citrus notes, Amalfi lemon, satsuma and particularly lime but more akin to the lime in a chocolate-lime boiled sweet. In the background you can pick up a well-rounded nuttiness like macadamia or hazelnut and a spreadable buttery mouthfeel. The lasting impression, though is the lingering finish of honeycomb candy. When it comes to hitting the sweet spot of a coffee, I think Don Mario has prepared a fairly large target for us to aim for.

I hope you can enjoy this micro-lot of coffee all the more for knowing how unique this particular micro-moment in Time is in the long history of coffee. We can say we were there when a new bean was born in Bethlehem!

Bethlehem

This Brazilian De-caf Santos produces very consistent coffee for decaffeination through the MC process which maintains a lot more of the coffees flavour than other processes. Full body and notes of biscuit and chocolate.We actually sell more of this coffee to Regular Caffeine Drinkers than to 100% De-caf Drinkers! It is perfect to enjoy at the end of the day, for those who've been drinking coffee all day and still want another cup but also want a good night's sleep. So convincing is its placebo effect that we often get caught out here in blind cuppings, when we comment on how aromatic this mystery coffee is, not realising that we've been slipped a de-caf.! It is quite literally the diametric opposite of having your drink spiked. All our de-cafs are roasted on such a regular rota that the freshness is guaranteed. This is so much more crucial for the de-cafs, whose bonds have already been loosened at the molecular level and then put back together again. The fragrance is more powerful because the volatile aromatics are more fugitive. The downside is that they have an even shorter shelf-life. Happily this doesn't worry us because the stock is turned over so frequently. So, you can enjoy all the scrumminess of millionaire's slice in a coffee that smacks of caramel & shortbread without being smacked by a jolt of caffeine!

De-caf Santos

Prototype is the blend that we constantly develop for use in our own cafés. It is roasted light to medium to bring out complex floral and delicate soft-fruit notes as well as maximum sweetness, making it an espresso that works brilliantly on its own or in short milk drinks.

SEASONAL REFLECTIONS

At this time of year we are using coffees from both sides of the equator. Rwanda in the South and Ethiopia in the North. This is because the natural processed coffee from these producers are processed after the washed so we have this staggered change-over from Ethiopia to Rwanda. The Shalaitu is a naturally processed Heirloom variety from the Gerbota village in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. When we visited this farm several years ago it was such a game changer that it is still our favourite natural Ethiopian all these years later!

From Rwanda we have the washed Bourbon Kabuye from our newer friends at the Kinini washing station. Originally started as a charity to help get rural people back in to work and provide health care and education. Now it is also producing world class quality coffee. Combined, these two coffees have bags of sweetness and a silky mouthfeel with notes of natural wine, cantaloupe melon and rooibos.

Prototype

Region: Acetenango
Variety: Catuai, Caturra
Harvest: December 2018 - March 2019

Pensativo - The Thoughtful Coffee

Guatemala is known for its beautiful coffee and its dramatic volcanoes. Many of them are dormant or extinct but of the 37 or so, there are three active volcanoes. The most active is the aptly named Fuego.

Blooms of Smoke & Blossom

I first saw Fuego on a beautiful spring morning as the sun came up over a coffee farm in Pacaya. It was gently blowing smoke rings into the sunrise. Its sister volcano, Agua, slept on into the glorious morning. We set off early to walk the farm, well before breakfast. As the day quickly warmed up we picked up the heavy scent of coffee blossom and the gentle murmur of bees. They were busily pollinating next season’s crop for us. In amongst the coffee trees the humming of the bees drowned out the occasional rumble of Fuego. It was shaking off the dandruff of ash from its sloping shoulders.

Coffee Farming Families

Amongst the bushes we first heard, then saw, occasional troupes of workers emerging out of the woods. They were steadily going about the constant job of pruning and mulching. Later that morning we visited the classroom on the farm and the kids saw the opportunity for distraction. This cohort could be amongst the last generation of coffee farmers. The teacher was seeing dwindling classes, as more families leave their mountain home for the city.

Twin Peaks

The silhouette of the twin volcanos were ever present on the skyline wherever we went. It was familiar to us from the stencils on our sacks of coffee back home but now endowed with greater meaning. We nervously checked the horizon to see if Fuego was still awake. Back on the road again we left the coffee highlands on tracks that saw little traffic. We made our way through lowland settlements on smooth highways before climbing again into patches of organically farmed rainforest.

Echoes of the Mayans

We drove past the faded splendour of an old coffee haçienda and on to see the elegant sun-drying patios in the flat spaces between the hills. The lowland farmers were practising the dubious art of slash and burn. Through the smoking sugar cane stubble we could glimpse the occasional giant frame of the sacred Saiba tree. Even today it can never be felled. This is a legacy of the ancient Mayan civilisation, now enshrined in modern Guatemalan law. Such is the lasting sense of respect commanded by these leviathans of the forest.

Selecting the Best

At the cupping lab in the Fedecocagua warehouse, Gustavo, surely the loudest whistler in the world of coffee, had prepared our cupping table for us. Belying his auditory flamboyance lies a deep expertise of these coffees.

He’s been cupping here for 30 years. So when Gustavo highlights certain farms, they're likely to be the best of the best. His is a palate so finely tuned to his terroir that we trust its veracity and wouldn't presume to question it. These are farms that had been singled out for us. Segregated from the basket of coffees that usually go through this huge mill. They are the ones deserving of special treatment, higher prices and value added for a job well done. I was drawn to one in particular, with the beguiling name of ‘Pensativo’ - meaning: Thoughtful…

A Volcanic History

We stopped overnight in Antigua, Old Guatemala City, itself the victim of volcanic destruction in colonial times. They moved the capital out of the so-called ring of fire to build Nueva Guatemala. The next morning we set off for another large wet mill, heading ever closer to Acetenango and even closer to Fuego. 

And so, we arrived at Pensativo, a place of grazing cattle, ordered patios and thoughtful farmers. The question hanging in the air, like the smoke venting way above us, was: "What’s it like living under the shadow of an active volcano?"

Business as Usual

One farmer, closest to Fuego, had already replaced the majority of his crop just recently, when the wind changed direction, dropping ash on his farm. The received wisdom was that as long as it kept on puffing on a regular basis, it was business as usual. It was when it stopped that the worrying starts…

PS

Later that same year at 12.00pm on 4th June 2018 when we were visiting coffee farms in Rwanda we heard the devastating news. After a pause in activity, the pent up fury of the Volcàn de Fuego violently erupted. It sent a destructive pyroclastic flow 40km from the crater. 

1.7 million people were affected by toxic clouds of sulphurous micro pumice. 

12,823 homes were evacuated. 

3,613 were left homeless. 

5,098 coffee families were displaced. 

110 people were killed.

200 are still missing.

9,420 hectares of land were devastated.

The cavernous Acetenango warehouse that we visited, now housed huge supplies of relief aid. Enough supplies to cater for over 300 of the worse affected local families for 6 months. The many tragic personal stories behind these stark statistics are those of people we have met working on the farms and mills that supply us.

We joined in the coffee industry's relief effort over the summer and contributed a generous sum from sales of this coffee. We thank all our loyal customers for supporting us in this. Our modest efforts contribute to a bigger picture that can have a real impact.

Now, with Pensativo in our own warehouse, we have the actual coffee from the immediate vicinity affected by the Fuego eruption. So, as you enjoy the soft nectarine fruit notes of your morning coffee and the lovely custard-creme biscuit mouthfeel, the pleasant low acidity and the joyous toffee apple finish, spare a moment to think of those stoic communities around Pensativo. Those who are even now picking themselves up and literally dusting themselves off, to start all over again.

Pensativo

Variety: Bourbon 139
Harvest: March - June 2018

In 2008 Malcom Clear and Jaqueline Turner set up the charity ‘Rwanda: New Beginning’ to help individuals, mainly widows and orphans of the 1994 genocide, who were displaced to an uncultivated area of savannah in the Rulindo district. After setting up a school and a health centre they then founded the Kinini Washing Station and started growing coffee in 2012, partnering with 633 local farmers, each with an average plot of about 0.5 hectares.

Although many of these farmers had previous agricultural experience, growing cash crops was new to most of them, never mind a complex crop like speciality coffee. However, with the on-going support and education of the Kinini washing station the group are producing extremely high quality coffee. What makes this even more impressive is the fact that coffee plants usually take 3-4 years to produce harvestable fruit, this means we are only just now tasting one of their very first harvests!

This is achieved by investment and a strong connection with the many individuals in this area. As well as the school and health centre, a road has been built for farmers to get their cherries to the processing plant quickly which improves cup quality significantly. The washing station is located next to a stream, providing fresh water for drinking but also for processing the coffee which aids clean flavour. There is an onsite cupping lab with sample roasters where the farmers can taste the difference between a good crop or bad crop, they also have 3 full time agronomists which work all year round with the producers educating them on best practices.

The very high altitude of this region, at 1800 - 2450 meters above sea level, puts stress on the plant as the air is thinner, this increases the maturation period and sugar content of the fruit, adding sweetness and complexity. The variety, Bourbon, is one that often finds its way into our roastery, Bourbon 139 is a sub-strain that does well in this area and has a medium yield but high quality cup. Once ripe cherries are hand-picked and quickly delivered to the washing station they are laid out to dry in the sun on raised beds where they are also sorted.

We have urged Malcolm and Jackie to produce a natural version of their beautiful coffee since we first met them a few of years ago and, after Jackie asked a friend for some tips, this is their first attempt, and it’s amazing! The sweetness is even more intense than the washed version and the acidity is bright and zesty with notes of pomegranate, lime, and milk chocolate with an exceptionally clean quality, which is amazing for their first ever natural!

Kinini Natural

Monsooned Malabar - This full-bodied coffee with a nutty, spicy aroma and very low acidity owes its soft earthiness to its exposure to the elements during May and June as the Monsoon winds sweep through the uplifted skirts of the Malabar warehouses. Not a trendy coffee these days but one that Atkinsons has been selling to regulars for as long as anyone can remember!

Region: Chickmangalur
Variety: Mixed

Indian Monsooned Malabar

Amidst a patchwork of pasture and woodland in the beautiful countryside of the Carmo de Minas nestles the picturesque and productive farm of Alvaro Antôn...

Farm: Sìtio Da Torre
Region: Mantiqueira De Minas
Variety: Yellow Catuai

Sìtio Da Torre

Yellow Bourbon Hybrid

Red Bourbon Honey

Koke

Rahmat Inara

Haru

Tapir Andino

Red Bourbon Washed Hybrid

Beloya - a Classic Yirgacheffe Coffee

Beloya is a classic Yirgacheffe coffee, with floral notes of honeysuckle, peach and almond. We roast it medium light to hang on to its delicate aromatics. It is so popular we will be roasting small batches of it several times a week. So bags of Beloya will always be on their way to you a couple of days after roast.

Economics - Ethiopian Coffee Culture

It grows in abundance where coffee first originated from in the fertile forests of Ethiopia. Coffee is so deeply engrained in Ethiopian culture that they are the only coffee producing nation that actually consumes domestically more coffee than it exports of this precious commodity. Despite this it is still the main export of their economy

Botany - The Indigenous Bean

In most coffee producing countries, coffee was introduced as a cash crop through colonialization. However, in Ethiopia, coffee has been growing naturally for thousands of years. As a result It now has thousands of varieties of coffee that have evolved over time. We are right now entering a new age of naming these varieties and giving them the recognition they deserve.

It is as if they are emerging from the dappled shade of their forest habitat into the sunny uplands of the verdant highlands that rise here from the Rift Valley. Now for the first time they are falling under the spotlight of the wider world of coffee enthusiasts, eager for this new information.

Macro Geography - Yirgacheffe - ‘East of the Rift’

Further South, in the tea plantations of Kenya, there is a traditional quality designation known as 'East of the Rift'. I'm sure we can borrow this marque of excellence or appellation from the tea industry for our own purposes. After all the same climatological, topographical and geological conditions combine in these hills to give us the perfectly natural growing conditions for coffee.

Micro Geography - Beloya Washing Station

Beloya is a small washing station located in the Kochere district. This is one of six 'waredas' or shires in the Yirgacheffe region. At harvest the coffee cherry is hauled into the washing station for processing from remote farms by local small-holders in the surrounding area. There are currently 310 farmers delivering to the washing station.

Agriculture - Every Single Hectare Counts

Each one has less than one hectare of land that they have been farming for many years. All this innate experience and expertise is a huge contributing factor to the consistently high quality now exhibiting itself in the cup of this delicate and elegant style of coffee.

Though the washing station has been around for over twenty years it has recently been bought by an exporter called Tracon Trading who have been investing in the facilities to increase quality and efficiency.

Organic Farming - Best Practice and Processes

They now have 12 fermentation tanks and 136 raised beds allowing them to separate different lots of coffee and keep a closer eye on quality. The coffee is farmed at high altitudes in rich soil and most producers employ traditional practices, such as intercropping to provide shade, which also reduces the risk of pests spreading and is better for soil quality. They also fertilise and control pests with organic techniques which they have practiced since time immemorial.

Taxonomy - A Vocabulary of Varietals

Wolisho, Dega and Kudhume are three varietals that grow locally in the Gedeo Zone. Most farmers grow at least two of these varieties. Although there is little documented history on them. We still don’t know for sure if these are specific varieties or a branch of a larger family of coffee. Other zones also have these varietals under slightly different names. So it is not uncommon to find a small variance in spelling.

Taxonomy - A Range of Sizes

Kudhume (Kudhumi, Kurume) has a small bean size and is known for disease resistance, is also popular in the Guji region. Dega sits in the middle with average bean size and tree height. Wolisho (Walichu) exhibits a larger bean size. The names stem mainly from local indigenous trees. Dega is commonly used as firewood and has a reputation for its fragrant characteristics. It could also come from a linguistic term in Amharic relating to the altitude and temperature that coincide with its terrain.

Sensory - It Is What It Is

Working with these coffees we enjoy and celebrate this odd variety of varieties. When opening a new crop sack we are not surprised to see the full range of different sizes. It is what it is. The main thing is it smells fantastic! Especially these days as it comes in a securely fastened Grain-Pro bag inside the traditional hessian sack.

Gastronomy - The Flavours Revealed

What are we picking up in the cup? Well, we’re getting some sweet Yirgacheffe signature notes of soft stone fruits like peach and apricot as well as some beautiful light, floral aromas especially of rich honeysuckle. In fact, for us, Yirgacheffes are all about aroma. We have always found coffees from this region to have a unique meadow-sweet-like fragrance but we’re also getting some lovely rose notes in this coffee which also gives us a super sugared almond finish

Atkinsons Coffee Roasters

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Atkinsons Coffee Roasters

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

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