A 2020 Great Taste Award winner & a wonderful example of “Direct Trade” coffee, it is sourced directly from Nano-lots and Micro-lots from Nariño, Colombia with 100%v traceability back to the farm level.

The farmers in this area are constantly working to improve quality by refining the protocols of cultivation at different stages in the  process. To date this process has been very successful and is   reflected  in the quality of the coffee. 

This particular coffee is a rare example of long fermentation coffee  (48-50 hours) 

the normal fermentation time in this region is 18-20 hours. The extra fermentation time develops very special flavour characteristics. 

Variety - Castillo 

Rosalba Bados

A lifelong passion for food, wine and coffee eventually led Alan Phillips to roast speciality coffee by the sea in County Meath. Alan is a certified member of the European Speciality Coffee association, he learnt his craft from one of the best in the business, training under Kees Kraakmann of Amsterdam's Keppler Coffee. And when he launched The Studio it was very much in line with Kees' ethos of quality and consistency.

Alan explains, as roast volume grows, quality tends to decline, so we manage this problem by only roasting in small batches. Our green beans are all highly rated speciality grade, ethically sourced from farms in  Ethiopia, Brazil, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia and Peru and roasted as single origin lots on our 15kg Giesen. 

The Studio's sustainable approach to coffee sourcing is mirrored at our roastery which is largely powered by renewal energy. Our coffees and cold brew achieved numerous UK Great Taste Awards in 2018 and 2019, 3 coffees honored at the Irish Food awards and Best in Ireland award by McKenna Guide 2019 and 2020.

The Studio Coffee Roasters

Luis Botina and his wife Sereida  Portilla are a family who have been dedicated to coffee farming for over  28 years. Their farm is located in a small village called ‘Tambillo’  close to the town ‘Sandona in the province of Nariño, Colombia. 

Don Luis  was the local school teacher in Tambillo, during his career he started  to buy small coffee Microlots. Over time he has become an expert in  coffee farming and processing, and has been recognized by the Colombian  Coffee Federation for his dedication to coffee farming. 

He is seen as an  important figure in the village of Tambillo, helping to improve the  livelihoods of his fellow farmers. Now retired Don Luis dedicates his  time to farming ‘La Finca El Naranjo his farm which has 3.5 hectares  separated in 2 micro-lots. 

The farm has two different types of coffee  varieties, Caturra and Variedad Colombia. The trees are planted at a  distance of 1.6m x 1.2m. The coffee trees are shaded by various  varieties of trees including, avocado, orange, lemon and plantain trees.  

All coffee harvesting is conducted manually.

Variety - Variedad Colombia

El Naranjo Agrio

Located in Timbio just to the south of Popayan in Cauca is where the  Cosurca Cooperative is based and represents 11 farmer organisations and  1500 families.  

The coop is working to have all its members working organically as they  believe this is best for the prosperity and future of the farmers and  environment together. 

Rio Magdalena is made up of coffee coming from the prodcucer  organisations that was cupped and assessed by the team led by Alberto in  the lab at their mill. 

Variety - Castillo & Caturra

Rio Magdalena

Finca Bosque Lya achieved fame in specialty coffee circles when it took first place in the 2004 Cup of Excellence. Finca Bosque Lya is situated in the municipality of Santa Ana on the foothills of the Ilamatepec Volcano (or Santa Ana Volcano as it now more commonly known) in the Apaneca Mountain range of western El Salvador. The farm was established in 1932 when Gustavo Vides Valdes named his property in honour of his newly born daughter, Lya. The farm name Bosque Lya translates to - Lya’s forest.

Bourbon is the most prevalent variety on the farm – mainly red though but there is a little orange and yellow too - though there are many other varieties grown for experimentation and diversity, including Pacamara, Caturra and Typica. An altitude range of 1,473 to 1,650 metres above sea level brings about coffees of great complexity that are sweet and lively with nuances of berries, tea rose and dark fruit, such as plums. There is a little chocolate on the finish too.

Varietal: Red Bourbon

Bosque Lya

The farmers in this area have it all ; very high altitude, rich and fertile soils, Ethiopia's incredibly complex heirloom varietals and good rainfall. As a result the Duromina farmers produce coffees of outstanding quality with scores of 90+ being achieved which is in the top 2% in the world !

Duromina, which means “to improve their lives” in the Afan Oromo language, is a coffee cooperative in southwestern Jimma Zone.

Region: Southwest Jimma, Oromia
Variety: Heirloom

Duromina

Biftu Gudina is one of the best examples of quality in Ethiopian coffee, with delicate aromas and vibrant acidity.

Biftu  Gudina means “ray of development.” The cooperative was established in  2012 and is located in the Jimma zone. 

The farm benefits from high altitude and rich fertile soils. The coffee cherries are hand-sorted to remove any unripe or over-ripe. Once this is done the beans are soaked in water for 8 hours and then sun-dried for 10 to 14 days. 

Biftu Gudina is renowned in speciality coffee circles, synonymous with quality, every new crop is eagerly anticipated. 

Their Heirloom coffee varieties include the improved varieties of the area that belong to the Metu Bishari Selection. These improved Heirloom varieties address common issues of coffee berry disease and leaf rust.

This particular Organic Lot 3 is as delicious as ever. Simply put,  its a classic. 

Region: Jimma
Variety: Heirloom

Biftu Gudina

Situated in the southern part of Minas Gerais in the area of Serra Da  Mantiquiera, Fazenda Santa Ines sits in a mountainous region blessed  with unique terroir,.

The region is comprised of 7000 coffee growers with an  annual output of 1 million bags. Santa Ines is located in the Serra De  Mantiquiera region, which became the first in the country to obtain the  Geographical Indication seal for coffee in 2011. The seal means that  coffees produced in this region have unique qualities and features that  are essentially attributed to their origin.

Santa Ines has been in the Pereira family since 1979. When they  initially inherited the farm there was much work to be done, and they  initiated a process of renovation and replanting of new varietals. The family was rewarded with  winning the Cup of Excellence in 2005 with the highest score recorded of  95.85 for the pulped natural category. 

Variety - Yellow Bourbon

Santa Inés

Varietal: Villa Sarchi
Location: West Valley - Naranjo

Aguilera farm is run by 12 siblings (8 brothers and 4 sisters) on a total of 50 hectares. 

A lot of experiments and innovation are done with varieties. They have various types of Geisha, Sarchimore, Pacamara, Venezia, Cidra, Catuai, including Villa Sarchi inter cropped with banana trees and avocado trees. 

10 years ago, they decided to create more value for their coffee controlling a bit more of the supply chain. They built the wet and dry mill and little by little were able to prepare their coffee up to export stage and  7 years ago, they invested in greenhouses for the drying as the area is very windy and drying the coffee without cover was tricky.

They also roast and grind their own coffee, the family itself consumes 69 kg of coffee a month and they sell about 50kg to neighbours per week. At the peak of the harvest, 45 pickers work with them in the farms. 

Coffee processing is Red and Black honey natural. 

The color of the honey is dictated by the amount of pulp and the time of drying (related to weather) but they can make the drying longer piling the coffee, spreading in thicker layers and regularly covering it from the sun. The honeys are not moved for the first day of drying. The naturals are not moved for 2 full days and then moved with the rake without stepping on it to avoid damaging the cherries. Naturals are then moved 3 times a day and every half an hour for the honeys. It takes them about 7 days to dry the Red honeys and 22 days for the naturals. 

They are the 3rd generation of coffee producers on this land and the 4th generation is at university studying and planning to takeover the farming business in a few years. 

Aguilera Bros

Varietal: Lempira

Norma Iris Fiallos owns the farm San Rafael, located in the Los Limos area of Corquin, Copan. 

Norma is one of the most innovative producers in the area, with a vast array of different varieties, including bourbon, catuai, maragogype and parainema. 

The farm is nestled within a pine forest, which greatly acidifies the soil, giving the coffee a very unique cup profile. The coffee is completely shade grown and the production area represents a fraction of the total land.

Carbonic Maceration

This is an adapted processing method in coffee initiated by Brazilian Farmers, imitating a winemaking technique of Beaujolais: 

Whole cherries are fermented in a carbon dioxide-rich environment prior to pulping.

Harnessing the power of fermentation is an important part of the coffee farmer’s work, and innovations are rapidly emerging as coffee seeks to improve quality and better establish standards for the process, as has been done in the wine and beer industries. 

Vintners would shudder at coffee fermentation. There’s hardly a winemaker in the world who doesn’t know the strain of yeast used for their wine, yet coffee farmers let the indigenous local bacterias and yeasts loose on their product. In this regard, coffee fermentation is more akin to that of cacao.

Some surmise that these indigenous microbes are intrinsic in the unique origin flavours of many coffees, but science had not yet offered a definitive answer to this presumption. As with other fermented products, the nature of ingredients down to terroir and plant cultivar, not to mention myriad other factors, play a  critical role in flavour expression.

Norma Iris Fiallos

Varietal: Caturra, Catuai
Farm: La Argentina - Roger Peralta

Sourced from the 80-hectare farm of Roger Peralta and his family who have been farming coffee since 1920. Many varieties of indigenous trees  flourish alongside the coffee and all kinds of flora and fauna. Such varied vegetation  provides ample shade for the coffee that grows there.

Ripe cherries are handpicked and  sorted between December and March. There is a wet mill on the farm where  the ripe red cherry is deposited and weighed from each picker. The  cherries then enter floatation tanks where the ripe and unripe cherries  are separated by density. Ripe dense cherries are then pulped in a de-pulper which removes the skin of the cherry.. The beans are then fermented for  between 14 and 18 hours before being washed in channels lined with  stones which provide friction to remove any remaining mucilage. The  washed beans are then taken to the drying patios at the nearby mill of  San Ignacio where they are regularly turned by a rake to ensure good,  even drying. The overall drying process will take around 10 to 12 days.

The  quality control at both the wet and dry mill is second to none having  benefited from visits by milling expert Jeremy Wakeford, who has made a  number of improvements to bring about greater consistency and a better  overall cup profile. 

In January 2010 the farm achieved Rainforest  Alliance certification in recognition of the great care that is taken  of the land and the people who work it. 

This  coffee scored a very high 84.5 in SCAA cupping. It is roasted to a  medium profile with flavour notes of lemonade, orange and milk chocolate  with a bright and juicy acidity.

Roger Peralta

Nelson is the owner of 3 hectares of land in the village of Nueva Esperanza in Chirinos.

His coffee, old pure Arabica varieties, won 2nd place three years in a row in the Chirinos coffee competition. Chirinos is a district of San Ignacio one of the best known regions for quality in Peru. We are happy to pay above the average market price for green coffee like this to help support farmers like Nelson who really understand the principles of quality.

Region: Neuva Esperanza, Chirinos, San Ignacio
Variety: Yellow Caturra

Nelson Mejia Cordovo

Region: Mbeya
Variety: Bourbon

Tanzania Mutwari has a lovely body and shining acidity that have given it a reputation as one of Africa's best fruity coffees.   

These beans are always in limited supply due to the small farm they come from. Get hold of some while you can!

Mutwari

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra & Catuai

EL SALVADOR

The El Cipres Estate is located on the North West slopes of the Picacho Volcano in the Bálsamo-Quezaltepec coffee region, within the municipality of Nejapa, San Salvador. The estate is made up of 90 hectares of coffee producing land and 5 hectares of natural forest. The coffee picked is a Bourbon varietal that has been grown under shade in the nutrient rich volcanic soil.

NICARAGUA

The municipality of San Fernando is located around 24 kilometres from the region’s capital, Ocotal. Santa Maria de Lourdes embodies a diverse range of luscious vegetation and wildlife brought about by high levels of annual rainfall.

The 50 hectares of natural mountainous forest has been under the ownership of Octavio Peralta since 1970, though for many years the area was used as war land during the Sandinista uprising and was heavily mined. The UN cleared the area of mines in the late 1980’s and Octavio began to restore exceptional coffee production to this relatively wild area in 1994. Octavio has been dedicated to this cause as well as preserving the natural habitat which is recognised as a main factor in the production of his fantastic coffee. Varietals found here include Caturra, Catuai, Java and Pacamara.

The Studio Coffee Roasters

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The Studio Coffee Roasters

🇮🇪 Ireland

Coffee Roasts

Aguilera Bros

Biftu Gudina

Bosque Lya

Decaf

Duromina

El Naranjo Agrio

Mutwari

Nelson Mejia Cordovo

Norma Iris Fiallos

Rio Magdalena

Roger Peralta

Rosalba Bados

Santa Inés

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