Origin of the Month
Our monthly coffee selections!
Learn about our monthly coffee selections! Every 30 days we bring in a new exotic origin and a new premium origin every quarter.
Origin of the Month
India Allanasons Peaberry
We are so pleased that we chose this specialty coffee for the Origin of the Month. Dawn and I have been enjoying drinking the test batch very much. It is a very good coffee. We have previously brought you several other Peaberry coffees, but it is worth explaining what a Peaberry is again. Normally, two beans (seeds) form inside each coffee cherry. Sometimes though, a genetic anomaly occurs where only one bean forms. This one bean is called a Peaberry. They are rare, generally occurring in about one in nine coffee cherries. There is no such thing as a Peaberry coffee tree, so when a coffee farmer wants to put a Peaberry lot on the market, workers have to hand sort through all the beans and separate the more rounded Peaberries from the oval-shaped regular coffee beans.
We have found that Peaberry lots result in a full-flavored, well-rounded coffee that is sure to please. It is almost as if the one bean in a Peaberry coffee cherry gets all the good that two beans would get in a regular coffee cherry. This lot was grown in the Karnataka region of India at elevations around 4000 feet above sea level. Indian coffees are always interesting. For one thing, they are all grown in the shade of taller trees that are usually leguminous. Another thing is that coffee farmers in India intercrop the coffee trees with spices, like pepper, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, and others. This lot was intercropped with pepper, cardamom, vanilla, orange, and banana trees.
The Karnataka region is really the heart of India’s coffee production. Approximately 90 percent of Indian coffee is grown here and in surrounding regions. These coffees are noted for well-rounded, balanced flavor profiles and this Peaberry certainly has those qualities. Those of us with discerning palates may get notes of milk chocolate, red apple, and cane sugar.
The varietals in this lot are S795 and Chauvery (a sub-variety of Catimor). The S795 is interesting because it is a hybrid of Kent and S228 which is a hybrid of coffee arabica and coffee liberica (two different species of coffee). Liberica is a species of coffee that is not well known and is grown mostly in the Philippines, but it is gaining popularity among specialty coffee connoisseurs. Coffee has been grown in India since the 17th century when Arabica seeds were smuggled out of Yemen and planted in Karnataka. The height of Indian coffee production was in the 19th century, but leaf rust outbreaks caused many farmers to switch from growing Arabica to growing Robusta. Sadly, this trend continues today
because the hilly terrain in India makes coffee production very labor-intensive and Arabica plants are susceptible to leaf rust. About 60 percent of India’s coffee production costs are tied up in labor. More and more producers in India are making the switch to growing Robusta for its disease resistance and ability to withstand higher temperatures.
This coffee was graded in April of 2024 and received a cup score of 84.0
Origin of the Quarter
Dominican Republic Ramirez Red Honey
This coffee certainly deserves the Premium moniker. We first made this coffee available as the POOQ for the first quarter of 2022. It was so popular back then that when we saw it was available again, we couldn’t pass it up. It is an organic, honey-processed coffee that received a score of 92 (very good to outstanding) from Coffee Review.
Part of its quality can be attributed to its proximity to Haiti (same island) and Jamaica (you know, Blue Mountain). Like the coffees from Haiti and Jamaica, Ramirez Red Honey is a low-acid, slightly sweet coffee, with a creamy body that is super smooth. It was grown on the Ramirez Estate in the central region of the Dominican Republic.
The Ramirez Estate is worth talking about in more detail. It is a third-generation estate run by the Ramirez family. The Ramirez family employs about 400 people and it pays them wages that are 300 percent higher than the fair-trade standard. Before the Ramirez family purchased the land in the early 1990s, it was barren, natural water springs had dried up, and the previous owners had it used it to raise cattle.
What’s more, the parts of the coffee cherry that most farmers throw out are converted into natural gas through fermentation––in turn, this natural gas powers the Ramirez Estate. The water they use is recycled, filtered, and returned to water systems in the vicinity. Lastly, the cherry pulps and skins are added to compost piles where they are used as fertilizer for the Ramirez Estate and other nearby farms.
It’s not just the premium coffee they produce and the environmentally conscious efforts they employ. The Ramirez Estate also has built schools in rural areas, so local children no longer have to walk nearly twenty miles a day. They donate books to these schools, too.
All told, Ramirez Red Honey is an outstanding coffee. A while ago, I posted my top 5 of the 60 or so coffees we have brought you. This coffee was number 2. For me, it has smooth notes of milky vanilla with a nutty aftertaste. It is smooth and has a balanced sweetness. All told, this might be the best coffee you have ever tried.