Tasting Notes: April 2021 Coffees
Started in 2013, Miro was founded by Daniel and David, who are passionate about what they do and have a keen eye for detail. During his studies in Australia, Dani discovered a new passion: coffee. One thing led to another, and after his return to Switzerland, Dani longed for Melbourne-style coffee. A year later, he decided to buy a five-kilo Probat roaster and started to roast his own specialty coffee. The rest, as they say, is history.
Miro Coffees | Switzerland
| Coffee | Information | Notes | Packages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linda Vista | The Finca Linda Vista is located in Tapachula in the state of Chiapas. Most Fincas in the Region were founded in the 19th century by European immigrants. The Finca Linda Vista located at 1100masl belongs to Joachim Erlich producing high-quality arabica on a 36-hectare farm. The conditions at Linda Vista are ideal for growing coffee and Joachim planted many shading trees, creating a perfect microclimate for coffee but also nature around it, like birds, insects and so on. The name 'Linda Vista' comes from the spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. | Tangerine, dark chocolate and spicy. Full-body | Selected Mix |
| Boa Vista | Miro are proud to serve you their first direct trade. David visited Sancoffee, the exporter and milling company in Campo das Vertentes in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Miro were on the hunt for a chocolate forward coffee that will please all types of coffee drinkers. After meeting many farmers, large and small, and cupping many different coffees, they decided to go for a blend of varieties of 6 different farms. Actually, there are only 3 different varieties, Yello Catucaí and Catuaí and Topázio. They are natural processed to bring out that sweetness you like in the cup. SanCoffee does some amazing work for the region and are B Corp Certified Company. They invest a lot into new technologies, as well as supporting a lot of grower families in the region. |
Chocolate, nutty and honey. Full-body | Dark |
| Arsosala, Ethiopia | Arsosala is a washing station founded in 2015 that currently serves about 1,200 smallholder-producers in the Urga Woreda of Guji. Washed lots at this washing station are delivered ripe, depulped the same day, fermented overnight, and washed before being soaked / fermented underwater for 8-16 hours. Then they are washed again. The total fermentation time is between 48-72 hours. The coffee is dried on raised beds for 9-12 days. Miro love washed Ethiopian coffees - they are juicy, with a nice acidity that shines in your filter brew and bring sparkle to you every day. There is no better way to start the day - period. |
Stewed stone fruit and dark chocolate. Sweet, smooth and tart | Light |
| Biruyi, Rwanda | What a coffee - no other way to say it. It's one that will challenge your taste buds. It starts quite simple with dried apricot flavours and ends with an anise like finish, that will leave you with brightness like no other coffee Miro have tasted. The Nkora Washing Station processed this Bourbon varietal as a washed. The cherries are sorted, floated, depulped, fermented and dried on beds for 21 days. It's a beauty, the incredible sweetness of this coffee - that reminds Miro of 'Dulce de Leche' - lingers from start to finish. |
Apricot, tomatillo, dulce de leche and anise | Plus 87, Rest of World |
| Chelchele, Ethiopia | This coffee comes from the Chelchele Washing Station, which is in the Kebele (village) of Chelchele, in the district of Kochere in the region of Yirgacheffe. Coffees in Ethiopia are typically grown on very small plots of land by farmers who also grow other crops. The majority of smallholders will deliver their coffee in cherry to the washing station. The washing stations on the other hand serve as many as several hundred producers. The blending of these cheeries into day lots makes it virtually impossible to know precisely which farmer contributed for each bag - hence making tracebility a bit difficult. Nonetheless, Miro love coffees from cooperatives or washing stations as for eg in this case you can find true beauties with a beautiful aroma like our Chelchele. Get ready for some fruit in your cup. | Floral, red berries, lime and caramel. Juicy and tart | Plus 87 |
Rather than a person, Andy is a philosophy: seeing the art in everyday things. Coffee is consumed daily by so many people and is often not valued for the amazing flavour bomb that it actually is. With Andy, the aim is to share a coffee’s true identity to a wider audienc, which is why their first Andy Blend was an easy to brew, low margin of error coffee. It stays true to their light roast, while sourcing coffees that naturally offer the chocolaty, nutty notes you all crave for. In addition to this, their range includes fruity, more complex coffees which will truly get your tastebuds going – enjoy!
Andy Coffees | Belgium
| Coffee | Information | Notes | Packages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nariño Yermy Pedraza, Colombia | Yermy Neyl Pedraza cultivates coffee at Finca La Joya in Chachagüí, Nariño at the high altitudes of 1,950 to 2,000 meters above sea level. After selective handpicking, Yermy visually sorts cherry and then places selected cherry in clean bags to rest overnight. After 24 hours, cherry is pulped and fermented in tanks for 92 hours. Then, parchment is washed in clean water and laid in a parabolic dryer. Yermy rakes parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 8 to 12 days for parchment to dry. The Nariño department sits in the far south of Colombia. It borders Ecuador and the high Andean peaks. It’s closeness to the equator enables coffee growing at very high altitudes. Many farms are located at heights surpassing 2,000 meters above sea level. While coffee growing is not traditionally seen at such high altitudes, it is possible in Nariño thanks to plenty of sunlight, dependable and frequent rainfall and rich soils. Furthermore, the landscape helps ensure nights do not get too cold for growing cherry. The heat that accumulates in the bottom of canyons rises into the mountains at night, protecting cherry from the extreme nighttime cold that comes with such a high altitude. |
Super sweet, candy like with a white grape acidity and a smooth white chocolate mouthfeel | Plus 87, Rest of World |
| Andy Espresso Blend | The Andy blend is an easy to brew, low margin of error coffee. Staying true to their light roast, Andy source coffees that naturally offer those chocolaty, nutty flavours you all crave. This blend offers a perfect balance between body and elegance. Perfect for your milky drinks or black. |
Chocolaty and nutty flavours | Blends, Selected Mix |
| Karambi Filter, Rwanda | This Red Bourbon, Rwanda from the Karambi farm in Nyamasheke in the Western Province , , caught our attention on the cupping table due to its intense sweetness. This cup is packed with elegant spices, such as nutmeg, star anise, cinnamon and has an orange marmalade sweetness that begs for a second cup. For Edmond Kanyamibwa, the owner of karambi Mtn coffee, quality comes before everything else. Edmond built his first washing station in 2014. He received good feedback on his processing and focused on improving the facilities at his washing station and expanding its capacity. At the end of the 2015 season, as he toured around his home village, he found an area with good coffee farms, but there was no washing station to help farmers process their cherries for good quality. He built Karambi Coffee washing station, and operated it that following season. His experience on managing wet mills helped him to deliver high quality washed coffees. At the station the cherry is delivered, floated and separated before then being pulped and fermented until the mucilage is loose enough to be washed off. From here the coffee is then washed in the the grading channels before being transfered to the raised beds for 10-14 days to dry to 11% moisture. |
Elegant spices, such as nutmeg, star anise and cinnamon. Well rounded with orange marmalade sweetness | Rest of World |
Pelicano are a Brighton-based coffee roaster that truly embody the spirit of their surroundings. As with many of the roasters we feature, Pelicano were born from a passion for coffee and sharing in the enjoyment of a damn good brew.
Pelicano Coffees | UK
| Coffee | Information | Notes | Packages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecoagricola Serra Do Cabral Tropical Fermentation, Brazil | The Flanzer family began farming in the Serra do Cabral (in the Chapada de Minas at the north of Minas Gerais) in the 1970s, when Henrique Flanzer – father of Marcelo and Roberto – bought land to engage in forestry projects. For many years, Ecoagricola was almost purely run for forestry. However, in 2000, Marcelo and Roberto (who had taken over management of the farm) began planning for the next 30 years, at which point they decided to diversify. | Floral berry, tropical mangoa and tart lemon | Light, Single, Selected Mix |
| Huila La Plata, Colombia | Our Colombian decafs are cupped as regular green samples and specifically identified for decaffeination, which happens in-country in Colombia before the coffee goes to export. This allows us to maintain both the integrity of the quality of the coffees we choose to decaf, but also to extend our intentional and responsible sourcing to our decaf offerings as well as our'regular'. | Sweet chocolate and vanilla | Decaf |
| Decaf, Organic | Waking up and going to work is never an idea we want to get used to. That is until Pelicano created the GRINDSTONE! The ultimate wake up and go blend for all the daily grinders out there. Finally a good reason to go to work! The seasonal blend is currently using Colombian and Guatemala roasted as always to medium to light but still packing a punch! |
Chocolate, nuts with a creamy toffee aftertone | Blends |
| Fazenda Santa Monicia 2019 Cup of Excellence, Brazil | This very special Natural Yellow Bourbon lot placed 26th at the 2019 Brazil Cup of Excellence Competition. Fazenda Santa Mônica, located in the stunning region of Sul de Minas, is perfectly poised for producing amazing coffee. Rich soil, high altitudes and many micro climates make Sul de Minas one of the best producer locations in the entirety of Brazil. | Floral berry, tropical mango and tart lemon | Plus 87 |
Tane are a newly founded coffee roastery based in Leuven in Belgium whose aim is to provide you with incredible, traceable single origin coffees; they do not offer blends to ensure the flavour profile isn’t compromised. They also do not roast different profiles for filter and espresso, instead offering only one optimized profile which creates one great experience.
Tane Coffees | Belgium
| Coffee | Information | Notes | Packages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kayumbu | In Kayumbu, Rwacof has worked to increase the prices the 1,055+ farmers delivering to the washing station receive by focusing on meticulous, quality-oriented processing at the station. This coffee is part of Farmer Connect, a company focussed on increasing transparency, honesty and sustainability throughout the supply chain. | Blood orange, vanilla and nectar | Light, Single, Selected Mix |
| Decaf de Caña, Colombia | This ‘decaf de caña’ is an outstanding Colombian coffee that is decaffeinated using ethyl-acetate derived from sugarcane. It’s not only super tasty but also the most sustainable decaf they could find. Instead of shipping coffee around the globe to get it decaffeinated, everything was done in Colombia. | Apple, cherry and milk chocolate | Decaf |
| Marco Delgado | Marco Geovanni Bastidas Delgado cultivates coffee at Finca El Carmen in Consacá, Nariño at the high altitudes 2,000 meters above sea level. The lot that Tane selected is a very fruity and syrupy washed Castillo. | Cherry, pomegranate and cane sugar | Rest of World, Plus 87 |
| Ngogomo | The story of coffee production on Ngogomo hill begins with a fisherman who began coffee farming when the fish disappeared from the stream where the station is now located. The fisherman-turned-farmer’s coffee-tree success story inspired his neighbors to take up coffee farming in the excellent conditions in Muyinga, Burundi. Today, the resulting coffee is outstanding. | Lemon and oolong. Creamy | Plus 87, Rest of World |
| BASE, Gavãio | This coffee is consistently sweet, full and balanced with just that little hint of fruitiness peaking around the corner. | Chocolate, caramel, round and fruity | Selected Mix |
A returning favourite, Redemption were founded in 2017 and were born from the belief that reoffending within the UK could be reduced through the production of specialty coffee. Reoffending is a significant social issue in the UK so Redemption’s core purpose has been to add value and help tackle this problem. The way they have sought to do this is through setting up a series of barista training courses in prisons across England, as well as offering concrete routes into employment to the inmates that graduate from their courses. We’re honoured to be working with them and proud to support the work they do.
Redemption Coffees | UK
| Coffee | Information | Notes | Packages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Gate | This blend is designed to suit bean-to-cup brewing or those who prefer a darker espresso. The components combine to produce a full-bodied blend packed with loads of dark chocolate, dried fruit sweetness and a slight rum-like booziness. The base of our Red Gate Espresso is a blend of naturally-processed Brazilian lots sourced and milled by the Regional Coffee Growers’ Cooperative of Guaxupé (known as “Cooxupé” for short). Cooxupé represents around 12,000 members, 97% of which are smallholder farming families. Through the cooperative, these producers have access to robust health and scholarship programs, as well as education and agricultural training with a focus on building sustainable farming systems for the future. This is complemented by a washed Ugandan coffee from Kingha Estate. Redemption staff were fortunate enough to visit Kingha in 2018, purchasing the Outgrowers coffee early last year at a price higher than Fairtrade. In partnership with nearby Bugiri Primary School, Kingha has constructed a small coffee garden for the students, and during harvest season purchases the cherries at a premium price. The school uses the income to subsidise students' educational costs. If successful, Kingha will offer this program free of charge to other local schools in the area. |
Rum, raisin and dark chocolate | Dark |
| La Naranja, Peru | This coffee comes from three small farms in the small town of La Naranja - El Trapiche, owned by Maria Domitila Flores Puelle, and El Mango and La Hondura, owned by Esbin Bellasmin Carrasco. Born and raised in La Naranja, Maria purchased her two hectare plot six years ago, and operates it with four of her eight children. The name of the farm (“Trapiche”) comes from the sugar mill that used to be on the farm. Esbin inherited his one hectare farm, El Mango, six years ago as well, and expanded by purchasing La Hondura, an additional hectare, three years later. On all three farms, consistent ‘selective’ tree pruning is conducted to maintain the quality of the crop and to increase its yield. Farmers work in 15 year rotations, focusing on each variety individually; at the end of each cycle, coffee trees will be dramatically cut back using the ‘Zoqueo’ practice, stimulating the emergence of new growth. |
Green apple and raisin clove | Light |
| La Serranía Decaf, Colombia | Decaf coffee holds a bad reputation, and oen for good reason - most coffee exporters or roasters will send only their lowest quality or old, faded lots to decaffeination plants, to avoid degrading the nuanced flavour in the coffee. However, the “sugarcane” decaffeination process, which involves soaking the harvested coffee in a natural compound derived from sugarcane, preserves and even enhances the flavour profile of the original crop. This coffee was grown along a chain of mountains within the central cordillera of the Andes, running through the municipalities of Pitalito, Acevedo, Palestina, Timaná, and Suaza. It is the result of the work and dedication of more than 20 farmers and has gone through exactly the same quality control process as regular coffee. The result is an incredibly complex cup representative of the Huila terroir. |
Red apple, pear and cranberry | Decaf |
| Altos De Saraguallas, Ecuador | Produced by 82 smallholder farmers from five different cantons - Olmedo, Zosoranga, Carimanga, Espindola and Quilanga - this coffee presents a bright citric acidity, delicate melon and berry notes with a delicious lemon drop sweetness and held together with a so, silky mouthfeel. Deep in the mountains of Loja, Ecuador, at the convergence of the two water streams Saraguallas and Santa Ana, lies an area rich in culture, tradition, and coffee agriculture. The local communities place great value on crasmanship, and this extends to their heritage-steeped coffee production processes, with the use of traditional varieties and techniques established over generations. Grown in the shade of fruit trees and natural forest, this coffee, although produced by a number of farmers, is testament to the strength of their traditions in that the resulting cup is as clean and bright as a single-estate lot. It goes to show that you don’t necessarily need unique varieties or experimental processing techniques to produce a delicious coffee. |
Glace cherry, cantaloupe and lemon drops | Single, Selected Mix |
| Humure | The Humure Washing Station in Gatsibo District, in the Eastern Province of Rwanda, is managed entirely by women, and supports its associated farmers in more ways than just processing and preparing their coffee for export - it provides small, year-long loans to help with the costs of production and other expenditures such as medical bills and school fees. The station also grows seedlings and distributes them to farmers to help them renew aging rootstock. Humure also organises local Farmer Field Schools, groups of 20-30 farmers who live and farm close to one another. Each group elects a representative who attends agricultural training at the station, then teaches their group using a centrally located demonstration plot. Through the FFS, farmers learn about soil conservation, water protection, waste management and more. |
Blackberry, orange and cocoa nibs | Single |
| The Mount Blend | The Mount Blend was launched in January 2020 to commemorate the move to our new roastery at HMP The Mount in Hemel Hempstead, and the inauguration of our top-line new roaster, ‘Laura’ the Loring S70 Peregrine. A lot has happened since then, but one thing hasn’t changed - our drive to produce top quality coffees whilst training and rehabilitating prisoners, proving that premium products can come from the most unexpected places. This is the second version of The Mount, and we have sourced two incredible lots from two different continents which remarkably displayed similar complex and high-quality flavour profiles.The first component is from Los Naranjos, a farm in Urrao, Antioquia, Colombia. The farm is run by Elkin Raúl Urrego, who has produced this lot consisting of both the classic Caturra variety, and Chiroso, which won this year’s Cup of Excellence competition in Colombia - the cup displayed wonderful floral notes like tea-rose, with an intense berry sweetness, and a delicate silky mouthfeel. The second element is sourced from the Boji Washing Station in Kochere, Ethiopia, which services 500 local smallholder producers. Kochere borders the Yirgacheffe region, famous for producing world-class coffees, and the lot we have selected here is no exception - bright lemon acidity, blackcurrants and raspberries, with some jasmine in there too! | Raspberry, blackcurrant and tea rose | Blends |
| Aylesbury Blend | This version of our staple espresso blend has a Colombian base, from the Nariño Department on the border of Ecuador. The region contains five volcanoes including ‘Galeras’ which, aer 10 million years of activity, went dormant in 1978… but only for 10 years. The good news is that volcanic soil creates the ideal conditions for growing coffee! The middle component is a Ugandan lot from our first direct trade relationship, Kingha Estate. Run by Idah Ngabirano, Kingha focuses on sustainable growth and social impact - the farm workers are locally employed and paid a fair wage, whilst children from nearby Bugiri Primary School are taught valuable agricultural skills. Topping the blend off is Altos de Erapuca from Honduras. The farm is mostly natural rainforest, with a small area for coffee growing and a solar-powered house for staff. The owner, Carlos Efrain Paz Sevilla, has attained Organic and Rainforest Alliance certification, showing his dedication to environmental sustainability. |
Peach, cream and dark chocolate | Blends, Selected Mix |
| Las Palmas | Despite having no agronomy training or experience producing coffee, Gloria was forced to take over management of Las Palmas in 2011, aer her husband severely injured his back and was no longer able to work. Shortly aer, the farm was decimated by coffee leaf rust, and as a result Gloria wasn’t able to produce a single exportable bag from her harvest for two years running. She was very close to giving up on coffee. In 2016 Gloria decided to join the Falcon Specialty Agronomy Project, which meant the Aruco technical team visited Las Palmas on a weekly basis to coordinate picking at the farm. Since then, Gloria’s coffee quality has risen a staggering 9 points on the SCA scale, and she is now receiving 167% more for her coffee. She now produces a variety of lots through different processes at the mill, including red and yellow honey coffees. Gloria is also now teaching other producers about organic farming, providing an area on her farm that the growers use together to create organic fertiliser. |
Orange, lime and grape | Plus 87 |
GUSTATORY (adjective): curating excellence in taste.