Our second Guatemalan coffee of 2020 yields some beautifully complex chocolate notes and a seriously tasty espresso shot!
 
The indigenous Mam people of Guatemala trace their history to a kingdom in the Mayan empire, based around the ancient city of Zaculeu. The modern city in this location, Huehuetenango City, is the capital of Huehuetenango department - one of the most well-known coffee growing regions in the country and world.

The smallholders who contribute to this coffee have been using the same traditional farming techniques for years. These include using the organic fertiliser from sheep, harvesting communally and growing different crops based on the steep slopes of the landscape in the region.

Farmers process their own coffee with the help of the many streams and rivers that populate the area. After hand-picking, the cherries are hand-pulped and fermented. The remaining mucilage is then removed and the beans are washed laid out to dry on raised beds and patios.

We are Cloud Picker, a micro coffee roastery established in 2013. We roast seasonal speciality coffee from all over the world and supply cafés & restaurants throughout Ireland, Europe & beyond.

Cloud Picker Coffee Roasters

50% Brazil - Cooperativa Cooxupé 
50% Honduras - Ocotepeque

A classic espresso, reimagined for the modern palate.

Formation brings together top coffees from the best-known coffee growing regions, roasted to make a consistently sweet and comforting blend. 

Formation

Last year, the Fazenda Passeio was one of our most popular coffees and we were thrilled to meet the owner, Adolfo Henrique, in Berlin last summer. We even gave him a try of our roast of his beans - we had a few bags on hand!
Fazenda Passeio has been owned by the Vieira Ferreira family for four generations. Adolfo puts a strong emphasis on protecting the environment and biodiversity in and around the farm, and on supporting his workers through initiatives such as providing schooling for their children.

After Fazenda Passeio lies near the town of Monte Belo in the southern part of Minas Gerais, an area well known for producing some of Brazil's finest coffees. The farm has 130 hectares dedicated to coffee production.

This coffee is hand picked, which is unusual in Brazil. Handpicking generally results in more evenly ripe cherries going into production. The cherries are pulped the same day as picking to avoid fermentation defects, then dried on patios for a few days before being finished in mechanical dryers.

Variety | Yellow Catuai, Mundo Novo, Acaia

Fazenda Passeio

50% Brazil - Pe de Cedro
25% Peru - Monte Verde
25% El Salvador - El Molinito

A blend of 3 coffees, Sam is a well balanced coffee... a crowd pleaser if you like! Beautiful as an espresso. Works well with milk or as a filter coffee.  

Our latest Swiss Water Process decaf is all-out chocolatey goodness - it really hits the spot!
Cerrado is one of Brazil's most well-known coffee growing regions. It is relatively flat which makes picking easier and is considered by the World Wildlife Fund to be the most biodiverse savanna on the planet.

The Swiss Water Process first involves the production of Green Coffee Extract (GCE) which is created using a batch of coffee beans soaked in water. After the water removes the caffeine as well as other flavour compounds, the beans are disposed of and this liquid is filtered to remove the caffeine. A batch of coffee can now be soaked in this GCE and because of the flavour compounds already in this liquid, the beans will retain these compounds while releasing their caffeine.

Caffeine levels, time and temperature controls are monitored and adjusted for about 10 hours until the coffee is 99.9% caffeine free.

Variety | Bourbon, Catuai

Decaf - Cerrado

This coffee is a perfect pourover option - the combination of tropical fruit and tea-like notes really comes out in a cleaner brew and had us hooked from the get-go.
Set up in 1956, the Othaya Farmers Co-operative Society Limited initially counted 250 members. 64 years later, the cooperative has 19 wet mills, nurseries for coffee seedlings, a dry mill and 15,000 smallholder farmers as members.

The co-operative's wet mill of Ichamama is located between Nairobi and Mount Kenya, in the famous Nyeri county which boasts so many of the country's finest coffees. The combination of fertile volcanic soil, high altitude, cool temperatures and seasonal rainfall gives fruit to coffees with tremendous quality of acidity - and this coffee's grapey acidity is no exception.

On arriving at the mill, the cherries are pulped, fermented for 12-48 hours weather-depending, washed and dried on African raised beds for 2-3 weeks. They are then processed in Othaya dry mill where it is graded and prepared for export.

Ichamama AA

We're delighted to have an Ethiopian washed coffee back on the menu again - this is a great example of the light, tea-like cup the country is known for!
The Layo Taraga washing station serves 500 smallholder farmers around the town of Haro Wachu in Uraga. These farmers typically own about 1/2 hectare of land.

The cherries are sorted on delivery to the station and then depulped and fermented underwater for 48 to 72 hours. They are then washed and soaked for another 8 to 16 hours before drying. The drying takes place for 9 to 12 days on raised beds.

Like our recent Guji natural offering, Arsosala, this coffee is considered to be of the Bourbon and Typica varieties, even though these are normally associated with origins other than Ethiopia. In the same way, this refers to local varieties with disease resistance rather than the Bourbon and Typica found in other countries.

Variety | Bourbon, Typica

Layo Taraga

Our first Zambian coffee and it's packed full of autumnal fruit notes and treacly goodness! 
The Kateshi Estate was set up in 1972 and is one of the oldest coffee farms in Zambia. The Zambian government at the time was pushing for a 'coffee after copper' initiative and this farm was one of the first to benefit from this vision.

Situated close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the farm has a particular focus on improving gender equality: the employment of local women working in traditionally male-dominated jobs is an effort to improve prospects for women in the area. The estate owners are heavily involved in local conservation, providing water and education for the local village and even sponsoring the local football team, 'Kateshi Coffee Bullets'!

The process of Natural Gold or Speciality Natural is a Zambian term denoting the best cherries being handpicked twice for consistency before drying. The cherries are spread thinly and turned regularly to ensure even drying over the course of three to four weeks.

Variety | Catimor 129

Kateshi Estate

For the first time in a few years, we have had a chance to source coffee from West Java, locally known as Sunda.
Wildan Mustofa and his wife Atieq began coffee farming in 2010 but their commitment to the highest standards and imaginative processing have helped their beans stand out in a region with a rich coffee history.

Java is well known for wet-hulled coffee but the wet and dry mills on-site means Wildan can do things a bit differently.  This coffee is fully washed and Wildan's farm is also known for experimenting with unusual fermentation methods. The distinctive cleanliness of this coffee is a tribute to Wildan's hard work.

The Sigarar Utang variety was developed in Indonesia in the 1980s. It is a semi-dwarf plant which has a high yield and can give its first crop a year after planting.  The farmers who took out debts to buy the plant were thus able to repay sooner than expected. This quick debt repayment is the origin of the variety's name.

Variety | Sigarar Utang

Frinsa Estate

50% Brazil - Pe de Cedro
25% Peru - Monte Verde
25% Rwanda - Gakenke

A blend of 3 coffees, beautiful as an espresso. Works well with milk or as a filter coffee. This blend has a healthy acidity. 

Henry

Colombia | Asociación Palestina

@em Thank you so much. I really enjoy the possibility of recording everything almost like a coffee journal. So I have the option of going back and comparing. Very cool platform I must admit

Cloud Picker Coffee Roasters

5.0

Cloud Picker Coffee Roasters

🇮🇪 Ireland

Served in Coffee Shops

Coffee Roasts

Colombia | Asociación Palestina

Decaf - Cerrado

Fazenda Passeio

Formation

Frinsa Estate

Henry

Ichamama AA

Kateshi Estate

Layo Taraga

Mam

Sam

New Coffee Review