The 2019 harvest from Moises and Marysabel is in my opinion the best one we have ever tasted from them. Especially the Catuaí coffees were really sweet, with a rich mouthfeel. It is the first time ever that I only bought coffees that scored 86,5 - 87,5 points of this cultivar from them. Although they produce a lot of this cultivar of coffee, not all lots are produced the same way. Some are dried on patios and others in mechanical driers or on raised beds under shade. Over the years I have developed a protocol in cooperation with Moises and Marysabel on how to separate, process and especially dry and store the coffees and during the last 4-5 years they have been producing a lot of Catuaí coffees especially for us to choose from. This means that all the lots we buy are dried on raised beds in shade and are hand sorted and milled with extreme care and attention. It really makes a difference in the final cup. In fact Moises was the one who let me experiment with shade dried coffee in the first place and we found that the green coffee will stay fresh for a longer time and taste much cleaner than the patio or mechanically dried coffees they produce.

Caballero Catuai

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Tim Wendelboe

Flavour notes: Tangerine, jasmine and honey

Although last year's Geisha lot from Marysabel and Moises was quite intense in flavour the 2019 took me by surprise when it arrived Norway. I tasted through many daily pickings during my visit in Marcala in March, but did not find the coffees to be very intense. However, when the coffees arrived Norway they showed a much more intense floral and tangerine note with delicate honey notes in the aftertaste. Last year Moises decided to keep every daily picking separate so that I could taste through all the lots and pick the best ones. Since the lots are quite small due to the low amount of plants Moises and Marysabel have of the Geisha cultivar, the daily pickings could be anything from 50kg to a couple of hundred kilos. What was interesting when I tasted the different lots was that we found that one picking from one particular part of the farms could taste very different and with lower intensity compared to a later picking from the same trees. That is why we decided to continue with this separation practice also in 2019 and I managed to select what I though was the very best of their Geisha lots.

Caballero Geisha

Flavour notes: Sweet chocolate, caramel & red berries

This coffee is a blend of Variedad Colombia with a small amount of Caturra. There is not a lot of Caturra left at Finca Tamana since the trees have for several years been affected by leaf rust and the quality has been a bit up and down. That is why Elias has planted the majority of his farm with the Variedad Colombia cultivar as it is resistent to leaf rust and produces well. Also when you compare Variedad Colombia to the traditional Caturra cultivar and the new Castillo hybrid (which is a further development of the Variedad Colombia,) the Colombia cultivar has consistently been tasting sweeter than the Caturra and fruitier than the Castillo. This coffee was harvested during the peak of the 2019 main harvest  between June and July and is tasting super sweet and fresh. The reason why Elias’ coffees are maintaining their freshness for a long time is due to the quality protocol we have developed together with him. The coffees are dried slowly for 20-30 days under shade. This prevents the cell structure in the beans from breaking which helps preserve the fatty acids within the bean for a longer time and prevents the coffee from oxidising which would give a woody taste. The coffees are stored on the farm in tempered conditions in air tight bags before it is sent to the mill for export preparation. After milling, the coffees are vacuum packed and stored in Norway also in cool conditions. All these steps really help preserve the coffee and prolongs it’s shelf life.

Finca Tamana

Flavour notes: Winey, black currants & buttery

Gachatha is a small cooperative with only one wet mill located in Nyeri. The around 1000 members are all smallholder farmers cultivating on average around 150 coffee trees each. This means that getting our hands on this delicious coffee is not easy as the coffee produced at Gachatha has consistently been among the best coffees we have tasted in Kenya and there are plenty of buyers who want this coffee. Fortunately we managed to get our hands on a small amount this year.  The Nyeri area is famous for producing some of the best coffees in Kenya and therefore some of the best coffees in the world. The green lush environment with a climate that is always cool at night followed by warm days. This gives really good growing conditions for the coffee and paired with the old SL28 and SL34 cultivars that most of the farmers are cultivating you get an intense and fruity cup of coffee with the classic black currant flavour that is so unique for these coffees. Although a lot of farmers in Nyeri are planting the new Batian cultivars that are more resistant to leaf rust the coffee from Gachatha is still mainly made of the old SL28/34 cultivars. 

Gachatha

Flavour notes: Sweet chocolate, caramel & red berries

This coffee is a blend of Variedad Colombia with a small amount of Caturra. There is not a lot of Caturra left at Finca Tamana since the trees have for several years been affected by leaf rust and the quality has been a bit up and down. That is why Elias has planted the majority of his farm with the Variedad Colombia cultivar as it is resistent to leaf rust and produces well. Also when you compare Variedad Colombia to the traditional Caturra cultivar and the new Castillo hybrid (which is a further development of the Variedad Colombia,) the Colombia cultivar has consistently been tasting sweeter than the Caturra and fruitier than the Castillo. This coffee was harvested during the peak of the 2019 main harvest  between June and July and is tasting super sweet and fresh. The reason why Elias’ coffees are maintaining their freshness for a long time is due to the quality protocol we have developed together with him. The coffees are dried slowly for 20-30 days under shade. This prevents the cell structure in the beans from breaking which helps preserve the fatty acids within the bean for a longer time and prevents the coffee from oxidising which would give a woody taste. The coffees are stored on the farm in tempered conditions in air tight bags before it is sent to the mill for export preparation. After milling, the coffees are vacuum packed and stored in Norway also in cool conditions. All these steps really help preserve the coffee and prolongs it’s shelf life. 

Flavour notes: Red currants, apples & chocolate

Nacimiento is a small farm owned and run by Mr. Jobneel Caceres Dios and his wife Fany. The farm is situated at the top of the El Cielito branch of the Santa Barbara mountain in Honduras. The high altitude and moist, cool climate makes this one of the most unique areas for growing coffees in Honduras. We always separate Jobneel’s coffees by both cultivars and picking date in order to make sure we keep the best lots separate from each other. Also the harvest period starts in January and continues throughout June and if we mixed an early picking with a later one we would risk the coffees ageing (tasting woody) faster. Instead we work under the principle first in-first out. This particular lot is an early picking from the lower part of Nacimiento (1500 masl. - 1600 masl.). Normally the early pickings are not as intense as the later ones, but I do find this Pacas lot to have a very nice fruitiness with some herbal character to it, almost like the red berries you can find here in Norway.

Nacimiento Pacas

 Gachatha

Flavour notes: Winey, black tea & floral

This is the second harvest we have of the red and pink Bourbon cultivars from Finca Tamana. I managed to get some seeds from a really nice red Bourbon in 2014 that I gave to Elias. We planted these seeds together in June 2014 and the trees were planted in a small hill at Finca Tamana in August 2015. At the same time Elias had gotten a handful of seeds from a neighbour of some pink Bourbon. The difference is the red and pink colour of the coffee cherries when they are ripe but they also taste slightly different in the cup where the pink one is slightly more floral and the red one is slightly more fruity. I am very happy that so far it is one of the best coffees we have tasted from Tamana. That is why Elias is currently working hard to plant more seeds of these tasty Bourbon trees so he can increase the production of this coffee. A really fruity coffee with delicate floral aromas. We sent this coffee out to our subscribers a couple of months ago, but had a 30kg batch left that we are now selling in our webshop and store. This coffee was harvested during the peak of the 2019 main harvest  between June and July and is tasting super sweet and fresh. The reason why Elias’ coffees are maintaining their freshness for a long time is due to the quality protocol we have developed together with him. The coffees are dried slowly for 20-30 days under shade. This prevents the cell structure in the beans from breaking which helps preserve the fatty acids within the bean for a longer time and prevents the coffee from oxidising which would give a woody taste. The coffees are stored on the farm in tempered conditions in air tight bags before it is sent to the mill for export preparation. After milling, the coffees are vacuum packed and stored in Norway also in cool conditions. All these steps really help preserve the coffee and prolongs it’s shelf life.  

Finca Tamana Bourbon

Flavour notes: Stone fruit, strawberries & floral

Echemo is a 35 hectare coffee farm located at 2100 masl in Goma, Jimma (close to Agaro) owned and farmed by Khalid Shifa who inherited his farm from his Grandfather.  Khalid is mainly growing old cultivars that was planted by his grandfather many years ago. When establishing the farm, Khalid’s grandfather selected seeds from wild coffee trees from the the nearby Coche forest and the trees he planted are still producing well today. Most of the old trees are so tall that you are literally walking underneath a canopy of coffee trees while walking around the farm. Workers even have to climb the coffee trees in order to harvest the cherries.  Khalid is also actively planting native shade trees on his farm in order to preserve the natural fauna and protect the coffee trees from too much sun.  After we bought coffee from Khalid last year, he managed to build a new small wet mill where he will be fermenting and washing coffee. He is also producing Natural and honey processed coffees on his farm and obtained his organic certification in 2019 for these coffees. Although Khalid has been planting some of the new cultivars from the Jimma Agricultural Research Center in the recent years, the majority of his coffee is still from the old forest «wild coffee trees» that his grandfather planted. I believe that these old cultivars are the reason why Khalid's coffee is very different from the coffees you will find in the nearby areas. It is not the typical "in your face" floral and fruity coffee like you might expect from an Ethiopian coffee. Instead it has a great rich mouthfeel with a sweet honey like flavour, sometimes with notes of baking spice and mint in the aftertaste. Still you will find a pleasant fruity and floral character, but much more subtle than your typical Ethiopian coffee.

Tim Wendelboe

5.0

Tim Wendelboe

🇳🇴 Norway

Served in Coffee Shops

Coffee Roasts

Gachatha

Caballero Catuai

Caballero Geisha

Echemo Natural Organic

Finca Tamana

Finca Tamana

Finca Tamana Bourbon

Gachatha

Nacimiento Pacas

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