Businde washing station serves a community of over 650 farmers who belong to the indigenous Twa people, a minority group making up just 1% of Burundi’s population. Premiums from the sale of high-quality coffee form an integral part of the economy for the Twa. This washed lot, with its shorter fermentation alongside stringent density grading, presents crisp, fresh fruit notes – sweet black cherry, mirabelle plums and Madagascar vanilla, with a subtle lady grey tea florality and an intense sweetness that reminds us of red gummy sweets.


Our second and final release from Burundi for the season sees us revisit the Businde washing station, juxtaposing the previous naturally processed lot with a fully washed coffee. Working with long-time CCR partners Raw Material and their local partner Matraco Coffee allows us to support a pricing structure that ensures the farmers are paid a quality-based premium significantly over the commercial rate. Expect to find a crisp, squeaky clean and floral coffee that abounds with fresh fruit characteristics, indicative of top quality processing.

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Comparing and contrasting processing methods from a single washing station is always an exciting prospect, allowing us to tease out the nuances of terroir and how this can be enhanced through the various steps of preparation. Following the stunning naturally processed lot from the Businde station (offered as a single origin espresso), we have a delicate, bright and complex washed coffee. We find a clear thread of commonality between the two: the natural lot showed tropical fruit notes underpinned by funky, fermented fruit characteristics, but the washed lot, however, contrasts this with crisper, fresher fruit notes.

To achieve this quality, the coffee is first floated in water to remove any under-ripe cherries. The riper cherries, which are denser and heavier, are then fed into a pulping machine, which separates the seed of the cherry from the skin and fruit. The seeds are soaked in a tank of water for 12-18 hours, allowing the local microflora to digest and loosen the last remaining bits of fruit attached to the beans. This short fermentation unlocks a crisp and bright acidity, the result of a complex interplay of microbial and enzymatic chemistry.

To finish the processing, the real ace up the sleeve is the use of grading channels, a practice widely confined to East Africa. The coffee is released from the tank into long winding channels, gently sloped with a steady stream of fresh water which washes and cleans the beans. By brushing and scrubbing them against the flow of the water, there is a further stage of density separation – the lighter, lower quality floating down the channel whilst the top quality denser beans remains sunk near the top. This allows the station to capture the maximum value for its coffee – separating lots into the top, medium and commercial grades to achieve the best price point for each. This value is fed back into the local economy with significant premiums paid to the farmers who contribute cherry to the Businde station.

Businde Washed

Specialty coffee roaster, sourcing the finest beans from around the world, roasting in London, supplying mighty fine craft coffee wholesale, retail and online.

Caravan Coffee Roasters

Mighty fine craft coffee since 2010! Our 10th birthday Special BRÜ is a testament to our epic 10-year journey sourcing delicious, sustainable and ethical coffees from around the world. To celebrate 10 years of Caravan Coffee Roasters, we’ve hidden ten tin tickets in our Special BRÜ bags − find one, and you’ll win free coffee for a year!

The fall 2020 version of our signature filter blend holds a proverbial torch against the waning days of sunlight, offering bright fruit and citrus notes, balanced out by a chewy, cake-like sweetness. This newest blend features coffee from two opposite ends of the globe, with surprisingly

The other half comes from producer Estela Domingo, who lives in Huehuetenango, in the northwest of Guatemala. Estela is a second-generation coffee farmer, and her farm Yulimox (Translating in the local Popti language as “Inside the Mountain”) sits in the volcanic region of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. By picking only ripe cherries and using intentioned practices during processing and drying, Estela ensures that the inherent qualities of the Huehue terroir and her hard work in maintaining the farm are fully expressed in her coffee.


At the Businde Washing Station, in the highlands of Kayanza, the minority Twa people delivery cherry throughout harvest season, paid a first payment in cash on delivery. In typical fashion for East African farmers, a second payment made at the end of the harvest, comprised from the quality premiums the coffee received. This system e

Special BRU V45

The Market Blend has been our signature espresso blend for a number of years now. Blended exclusively with coffees that we’ve sourced at origin with producers with whom we enjoy an open, active relationship with, the aim has always been to showcase high quality, in season coffees, with a clear and traceable provenance. 

At any given time throughout the year you can expect the Market Blend to consistently deliver intensely sweet notes alongside a light, bright, zesty acidity. Regular shipments of fresh green coffee year round help maintain our signature flavor profile and regular feature the best lots that we can source from East Africa, Central and South America.

Market Blend

Sourced and roasted with consistency and accessibility in mind, the Daily Blend is a progressive response and reboot of the traditional classic coffee. Sweet and clean with a low acidity, this is the blend that you will find us brewing at home and enjoying in Caravans restaurants after dinner.

The Daily’s signature flavour profile of dark chocolate, brown sugar and praline is achieved through a seasonal rotation of fresh crop coffees that steadily flow through our roastery. Each lot selected for the blend has been rigorously tested by our roasters, buyers and QC team, several times over before making it into your grinders and your cup. This careful and methodical approach ensures that with each new addition to the blend, consistency and quality is never sacrificed.

This latest iteration of the Daily sees the addition of a naturally processed Brazilian coffee; a blend made up from farms in the Mantiqueira de Minas region. The combination of Brazil and Guatemala brings some seriously heavyweight chocolate, caramel and nut flavours to the blend, which find their perfect foil in the spicy, complex and rich pairing of Kenya and Sumatra. Low acidity, thick-bodied, fantastic with milk & suitable for all-day drinking.

The Daily

Decaffeinated in-country in Colombia using coffee from the El Carmen cooperative with whom Caravan have enjoyed a long-standing relationship. Using a byproduct of sugarcane fermentation to selectively dissolve and remove caffeine from the green coffee, this decaf lot is clean, sweet, fresh and delightfully tasty.

Beginning life as a washed process lot of Caturra & Castillo varietals, grown by over 300 smallholder farmers in the Huila region of Colombia, this coffee is a superlative example of our mission to redefine the standards of decaf. Caravan and the El Carmen cooperative are disrupting the traditional ideas that decaf drinkers do not deserve better, overturning the tyranny of lower-grade, past crop and dark roasted coffees without pleasant taste qualities.

Often described as the ‘natural process’ decaf, sugarcane decaf uses ethyl-acetate as a selective solvent to remove caffeine from the green coffee. Ethyl-acetate is naturally occurring organic compound produced by the fermentation of fruits, most often found in ripe bananas.

El Carmen Sugarcane Decaf

Started in December 2016 with the help of almost 400 Kickstarter backers, the goal of Finca El Fénix has always been to create a sustainable and accessible community wet mill for the farmers in and around the town of Calarcá, Colombia. This summer marks the first full harvest from the farm’s young coffee trees, all of them rare and experimental varietals, which formed the backbone of the Kickstarter project. This Pink Bourbon release is the first of eight lots Caravan sponsored to support the project. Each bag comes with a limited release booklet and El Fenix sticker!

El Fénix was founded by Raw Material, social enterprise coffee importer who are long-term partners of Caravan. Raw Material is the brainchild of New Zealand coffee pros Matt Graylee and Richard Corney, and El Fenix was the first big project ever undertaken by their now-global enterprise.

After speaking with producers in the area, Matt and Richard realised that farmers were struggling with two major issues: variable pricing, based on the commodity price of coffee, and the high cost of processing. These two factors led to a cycle of debt and low quality coffee which destabilised the local community. To address this, Raw Material started El Fénix: a farm, training facility, and a community wet mill which will pay farmers a fair and flat rate for their cherry, alongside top-quality processing, aiming to help farmer’s capture additional premiums.

To raise money to build the mill, Raw Material ran a Kickstarter campaign, where backers were able to choose from a selection of rewards: a tree planted in their name, right up to an entire lot of a rare variety. Caravan sponsored eight of these lots. This year marks our first harvest, with the Pink Bourbon kicking off our celebration of the success of El Fénix, who will open their doors to their neighbours for the first time this October.

El Fenix Pink Bourbon

Valdir Mansk’s farm Sitio Alto Santa Joana is nestled in the mountains of Espirito Santo, a region that defies the traditional expectations of Brazilian coffee. This pulped natural lot has a bright, juicy and complex acidity that abounds with citrus and red fruit notes, rounded off by a creamy body reminiscent of almond butter and dulce de leche.

Located on the east coast of Brazil, the mountainous region of Espirito Santo captures vast amounts of humidity from the south Atlantic ocean, with higher rainfall and chillier days and nights than would be experienced further inland. The weather patterns combined with steep, hilly topography (some of Brazil’s highest mountains are located in this region) delay the maturation of coffee cherries, allowing the development of sugars and complex acids that are the foundation of top-quality complex coffee.

But this also presents challenges – the weather and geography mean that using the traditional Brazillian methods for drying coffee (as a natural process with the cherry intact) can take up to 60 days, with frequent rain and humidity leaving problems of mould and Rio defect. As a result, the majority of coffee production in Espirito Santo is of low-grade Robusta. A revolution in technique (pulping the coffee prior to drying, using shaded patios or raised beds to ensure even airflow and protection against moisture) allowed producers in the region to take control of the drying process – unlocking some of the best coffee that Brazil has to offer.

Valdir Mansk is a third-generation coffee farmer who converted his production towards speciality grade coffee in 2010 with the purchase of a de-pulper. His 12HA farm Alto Santa Joana grows Red Bourbon and Yellow Caturra under the cooling protection of cedar shade trees, and dries his coffee on a covered patio making sure to control the drying process precisely. Bourbon and Caturra varietals are rare to find in Brazil – although possessing a high cup quality, their susceptibility to diseases such as coffee leaf rust has meant a widespread adoption of more resistant varietals such as Catuai.

Santa Joana

A coffee this unique could only come from one place: Ethiopia. As coffee’s birthplace the country is home to a diversity of flavours not found anywhere else on earth. The distinct terrior of each region, as well as the altitude, genetics, and advanced processing knowledge in Ethiopia mean that their coffees dominate the global specialty coffee market, winning taste competitions and gourmand accolades with unrivalled frequency.

If you’ve gotten to this text having already read the flavour notes for this coffee, you might be wondering why such creative liberties were taken (in the words of our Head of Quality: ‘blue drink? what even is that?’). While it’s true that sourcing such a wild-tasting coffee can run the risk of alienating certain palettes, we at Caravan are lovers of coffee from across its vast flavour spectrum, we couldn’t resist bringing in this lot that is practically ultraviolet.

A coffee this unique could only come from one place: Ethiopia. As coffee’s birthplace the country is home to a diversity of flavours not found anywhere else on earth. The distinct terrior of each region, as well as the altitude, genetics, and advanced processing knowledge in Ethiopia mean that their coffees dominate the global specialty coffee market, winning taste competitions and gourmand accolades with unrivaled frequency. Adding to this award winning combination, Ethiopia specializes in two different processes, having perfected both washed and natural techniques. It is exceedingly rare in coffee to find a country so confident in both, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone – Ethiopians themselves drink more than half their coffee, and love it as much or more than we do.

This particular lot comes from the Boji washing station, in the Kochere region. Washing stations in East Africa serve as collection points for local farmers to deliver and sell their cherry, but also as helpful geographical markers, since the farmers closest to the station, following common sense, will tend to deliver there. The area around the Boji washing station is one of the highest growing regions in Ethiopia, with farms all the way up to 2300 meters above sea level. The colder nights here equal slower cherry maturation, giving the trees more time to produce sugar-laden fruits which translate into sweeter and more complex beans. 

Boji Kochere

filter offering comes from a female producer in Huehuetenango. Maria Ramirez’s farm Finca T’zun Witz sits in the municipality of Concepción Huista. Maria's coffee has c

The arrival of fresh crop Guatemalan coffees is a celebrated event in the CCR calendar, and this season sees the return of two producers from the region of Huehuetenango who featured in our offer for the first time last year.  The first release comes from Maria Ramirez, who owns Finca T’zun Witz (Popti: “Birth of/on the Hill), which sits in the municipality of Concepción Huista. She is part of Cooperative El Sendero, a group who consistently produce exceptional coffees well above the already high bar set by Huehuetenango’s natural potential.

Mrs. Ramirez was able to buy T’zun Witz after her husband emigrated to the US, earning enough money to purchase the farm collectively. She is the first generation of her family to farm coffee, and is passing this knowledge down to her children with help from the co-op’s technical assistance team. Cooperative El Sendero was founded with the goal of improving the social and economic situation of its members and supports young producers and gender equality. With money earned partly through premiums on specialty coffee, the cooperative organizes projects and activities that contribute to the general health and prosperity of its members and the local community.

At T’zun Witz, Mrs. Ramirez grows the varieties Catuai, Caturra and Bourbon under Inga and Gravilea shade trees. She and her workers selective pick the ripest cherries with three passes over the fields during harvest. Following picking, she immediately de-pulps the coffee before leaving it in water to ferment for 36 hours. Following this long fermentation, the coffee is then cleaned with fresh water before patio drying. This period of comparatively long wet fermentation is necessitated by the cold nights of Huehuetenango, imparting a distinct fruity, berry-like tone to the coffee whilst keeping the bright and clean acidity of the washed process.

Mrs. Ramirez and T’zun Witz is a great example of why we’re so excited about Huehuetenango, one of the most unique regions in Central America. Our partnership with Primavera for the past several years, working with and meeting many talented producers, has only endeared us further as we get to know this beautiful community better. We are proud to support the Primavera Farmer Relief Effort through the sale of Mrs. Ramirez’s amazing coffee – thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Maria Ramirez

Finca Las Palomas, named after the flocks of birds which make their homes on this traditional six hectare farm, is located just outside the small town of Tarbaca in the mountains of San Jose province. The area is, like many places in Costa Rica, quite literally a paradise, with dramatic verdant hills covered in citrus and coffee trees, ribboned with natural springs which emerge from cracks in the soil.

Located deep within the agricultural heart of the country, Las Palomas is one of many farms here which go back generations, a family legacy which is becoming increasingly rare in many parts of the globe. Resplendent but remote, the region of Aserrí has struggled financially, particularly following the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in the late 90s. Specialty coffee has offered some producers in these highland cantons, or sub-provinces, a way to gain modest financial stability, using advanced processing techniques and meticulous farm management which raise the quality and price of the coffee grown here. ASOPROAAA, a local cooperative to which Las Palomas belongs, supports over 1100 producers in the region, helping to improve livelihoods and incomes by assisting with the processing and export of farmer’s coffee.

Don Jorge Monge Garbanzo and his wife Flor, the proprietors of Las Palomas, delivered these cherries to the cooperative’s washing station on the 18th of February this year. This small lot was processed the same day, with the skin of the cherry removed but the sticky fruit left intact. The coffee was laid out to dry on raised tables with the ‘honey’ still on, a process known by the same name which imparts additional fruit flavours to the final cup. Don Jorge has been an associate of the cooperative and a leader in specialty coffee for years, sharing his passion and some friendly rivalry with his brother Carlos, who owns the farm adjacent to him. 

Las Palomas

Tried Las Palomas myself, didn't quite like it. What about you @ilya-gruzdev? 

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