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
Nicaragua La Bastilla Las Brisas Centroamericano
This coffee comes to us from La Bastilla Coffee Estates in the Jinotega region of Nicaragua. La Bastilla is well known for the high-quality coffees they consistently produce. These estates are worthy of a deeper look. The estates are two farms, Finca La Bastilla and Finca Santa Luz. They employ 50 permanent employees and up to 600 temporary employees during harvest season.
The estate is surrounded by a nature reserve called Cerro Datanli El Diablo. The reserve distinguishes itself by having a rich biological heritage. In the reserve, there are 80 species of trees, 21 different species of orchids, 90 species of birds (several of which are endangered), 75 species of snails, 28 species of mammals, 26 species of snakes, and 12 species of amphibians.
La Bastilla Estates is broken into several micro-farms, such as Las Brisas, for the sole purpose of letting each coffee reach its full expression in the specific micro-climate in which it grows. There are also micro lots on the estates where each micro lot is differentiated by coffee varietal; like Centroamericano and elevation. This coffee was grown at elevations between 4265 and 4921 feet above sea level. The Centroamericano varietal has shown itself to have great potential when grown at these high elevations.
This coffee is a wonderfully smooth, washed process coffee with a medium body and medium acidity. The flavor notes you might perceive include Milk Chocolate, Almond, Clementine, Dried Apricot, and Golden Raisin. With its silky mouthfeel and refreshing finish, we believe you will really enjoy this coffee. To appreciate it even more, try pairing it with Almond Apricot Biscotti.
Origin of the Quarter Q1 2025
Kenya ab lenana plus
Kenya shares a border with Ethiopia, where coffee was first discovered by Kaldi and his goats sometime around the year 850. One might think that coffee trees would be native to Kenya as well. That is not the case though. Interestingly, it was French missionaries who brought coffee trees to Kenya in 1893, more than a century after Kaldi made his world changing discovery.
Kenyan coffees have long been held in high regard for their quality and consistency. Meticulous farming on more than 600,000 smallholder farms, excellent management at washing stations, and the organization of Farmer Cooperative Societies (FCS), all contribute to Kenyan coffee excellence.
This AB Lenana Plus comes to us through FCS’s in the Kenyan counties of Murang’a, Kiambu, and Kirinyaga. It has won awards as both a light roast and a dark roast. We went with the lighter roast to bring out as much of the flavors as possible. This coffee is named after Point Lenana, one of the peaks of Mt. Kenya. This lot consists of SL-28, SL-34, and Ruiri-11 cultivars grown by local producers. Mt. Kenya is an extinct volcano and as such, the soil is deep red and black and rich in organic matter.
Perfect soil and high elevations (4900 to 6200 feet above sea level), combine wonderfully to produce coffees of superior quality.
This is a washed process coffee. Workers hand pick ripe cherries in the morning and take them to wet-mills, where they are spread on patios for sorting. At the wet-mills, the de-pulpers use clean
water to remove the outer fruit of the cherries, after which, the beans sink into fermentation tanks where they stay overnight while the mucilage breaks down.
The following day, managers check the tanks and decide to continue processing based on how the beans “feel”. The beans are then sorted by density and left to sun-dry in raised beds until they reach a moisture level of 10-12%.
Kenyan coffees are renowned world-wide for bold, fruity flavors and this is one you simply cannot miss. It is medium-bodied, full of flavor and very satisfying and earned a cup-score of 86. While
savoring a cup, you may detect hints of dark chocolate, caramel, citrus and black currant.