This coffee comes from a washing-station at Adado, which is in the kebele, or village, of Shara, in the woreda, or district, of Guanga, in the Yirgacheffe region. This coffee is named after the local tribe, "Adado." In these coffees, typically apricots and peaches with supportive citrus and floral higher tones come together in a delightful cup. The Natural process of these lots really complement the typical profile of the washed coffee beautifully and even shine through the heavy berry overtones in a natural process. Coffees in Ethiopia are typically traceable to the washing station level, where smallholder farmers—many of whom own less than 1/2 hectare of land, and as little as 1/8 hectare on average—deliver cherry by weight to receive payment at a market rate. The coffee is sorted and processed into lots without retaining information about whose coffee harvest is in which bag or which lot.

Ethiopia - Adado

When it comes to coffee you won't get the hard sell from us. We're big believers in just letting the product speak for itself. Rather than just telling you about how we can help you, we prefer to show you.

The Good Coffee Cartel

Sometimes you just want a nice coffee flavoured cuddle. Sugar browning notes and some milk chocolate and pecan flavour characteristics make this a comfort coffee for when the world seems just a bit too mad. 

VARIETAL  - Catuai
LOCATION - Minas Gerais

Brazil - Ãgua Limpia

This is Blueprint. From time to time it's important to reflect on why we do things. Anything. Small things and big things. The day-to-day of life can distract us, so we feel it's important to pull out the blueprint and make sure we're keeping to our plan: to source and elevate beautiful coffees from beautiful origins. We have always wanted to present them to you in a way that reflects the huge respect we have for our producers at origin.

Natural Brazil meets Natural Ethiopia. Expect juiciness. Expect zing. Expect sweetness. Expect one of the most interesting coffee around.  

Blueprint - Seasonal Espresso Blend

In the last few years, Uganda has slowly been establishing a reputation for some very tasty coffees. This is the first lot we have bought from Uganda, and we’re very proud of the behind-the-scenes stuff that happens in getting this coffee to you. A partnership between our green bean buyer, Falcon Speciality and The Coffee Gardens brings us (and now you) this coffee. The Coffee Gardens are a Uganda-based organisation with a mission to offer above market prices, ongoing training and access to finance for farmers, as well as promoting gender equality, environmental protection and full transparency along the supply chain. Heroes. And it’s tasty too.  

VARIETAL  - Nyasaland, SL14, SL28
LOCATION - Lower Bukyabo

Nabiliwa

Big on flavour, low on anxiety levels. 

It’s taken us bloody long enough but here’s a decaf coffee that we actually like, sourced from Cafe Imports. The decaf offerings from Cafe Imports are cupped specifically for their quality and sourced by single-origin, either region or farm. They call them Decaf De Caña because they're custom decaffeinated in Colombia, using a special, natural process that utilizes a solvent of ethyl acetate, which can be derived from fermented sugar. Cafe Imports staff has personally visited the decaffeination plant several times, and were impressed by the process as well as the quality in the cup!

The process works by soaking green coffee in a solution of E.A., which bonds to the salts of chlorogenic acid in the coffee and allows for the removal of caffeine. The coffee is removed from the solvent and steamed at low pressure to remove the E.A. compounds, and the finished product retains its flavour integrity but contains almost no caffeine at all. (The beans will contain a maximum of 0.01–0.03% caffeine.)

Sounds tricky. All you need to know, really, is that this is a very fine Colombian lot that won’t give you heart palpitations. 

DECAF: Colombia Decaf de Caña

Speaking from personal experience, naturally processed Ethiopian coffees tend to be the coffees that make people do a double-take and go "what did I just taste?". The complexity of flavour, sweetness & fruitiness all abound in the natural Ethiopian lots we showcase. They're the kind of eye-opening coffees that illustrate the depths and diversity of this product that we love so much. 

VARIETAL - Ethiopian Heirloom
LOCATION  - Sagara, Bensa district, Sidama, Ethiopia

MORE ABOUT THIS COFFEE
This is one of the lots that have come from a group of small farmers in the Sidama region of Southern Ethiopia. With the changes to export laws in Ethiopia, small producers are now able to market their coffee directly, but this is still very challenging, and few have access to capital to make this happen. This group of farmers in Sidama all have between 3 and 12 hectares and all have their own export licenses, however, this year they have assigned Buriso Amaje as their group leader and he coordinated the milling and export of the coffee alongside the Falcon (our green bean partner) team in Addis. Since these producers are small, their main limitation is cash flow, so Falcon prefinanced the coffee in order to ensure they weren’t forced to sell their coffee locally for cash. This group have amazing potential and this year we are seeing some of that, but with the help of Falcon’s agronomist, we plan to train them on-farm management and picking, processing and drying. Bekele Belachew is the owner of 6 hectares of coffee in the Sagara village in the Bensa district of Sidama. Bekele and his six children and wife do all of the work on the farm, where they compost and add manure and have started pruning their trees. The coffee is grown under the shade of the native forest. Bekele and his family grow the 74158 and 74160 varieties which are both selections from the Jimma research centre. These varieties were selected from wild plants in the Metu-Bishari forest in the Illuababora zone in Western Ethiopia. They’re widely distributed varieties across Ethiopia and were selected for their resistance to CBD and high yield. These two selections are known to have very pronounced citrus and floral notes which are prized by coffee buyers. All of Bekele’s coffee is picked by himself and his family and then processed and dried at their family home. Like many small producers in Ethiopia, Bekele is still producing only natural coffee, since that is the tradition and they don’t have access to a pulping machine.

Ethiopia - Bekele Belachew

Might cop me a Bronco to ride for the summer. 

We are pleased to present our second seasonal espresso blend. This is Bronco. 

BRazil ON COlombia. Bronco. As the name suggests, it habitually bucks. A Pulped Natural Brazil is hazelnuts and chocolate, sugar browning. Washed Colombia brings clarity and character. We're still all about balance baby.  

Bronco - Seasonal Espresso Blend

COJONES /kəˈhəʊneɪz/
noun
1. a man's testicles.
2. courage; guts

Without the awareness that men’s health charities create around testicular cancer, The Good Coffee Cartel might never have existed. When one of our founders was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2013 it was a tough one to take - but at least he knew what to look for when, at the end of 2019, he was diagnosed again with a new primary cancer. Luckily in both cases the cancer was caught early and after surgery and chemotherapy he made a quick recovery and was back to his normal annoying self relatively fast. This is thanks in no small measure to a strong support network of family, friends and workmates but also to the hard work that men’s health charities put in around mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

That’s why, in our support of Movember, we are launching this limited edition coffee: ‘COJONES’. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to men’s health charities doing excellent work in mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

We could not have done this without the support of our wonderful green bean partner Falcon Speciality, who have very generously sponsored this coffee. Falcon exists to facilitate the relationship between coffee producers and coffee roasters - providing a clear line of sight between farmers and origin, and you, drinking a cup of coffee in our shop. Falcon’s core values include embracing diversity in all things, treating everyone they interact with, including one another, with dignity and respect, being of service, constantly seeking improvement through innovation, having a positive impact wherever they trade and being a good company to work for, and with. We second that. 

The Good Coffee Cartel

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The Good Coffee Cartel

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

Coffee items

Blueprint - Seasonal Espresso Blend

Brazil - Sitio Tres Barras

Bronco - Seasonal Espresso Blend

DECAF: Brazil Onze Mil Campo Alegres

Peru - Elvis Tineo Rafael

Rachel Brodrick

Rwanda - Gitega

Coffee archive

Brazil - Ãgua Limpia

Cojones: Limited Edition Coffee

DECAF: Colombia Decaf de Caña

Ethiopia - Adado

Ethiopia - Bekele Belachew

Nabiliwa