CDP | Kenya Kirinyaga, Guatemala Coban, Nicaragua Dipilto, Ecuador Pinchincha
Balanced Profile | Light-medium roast
Tasting Notes: Lemon, Red Grape and Honey
IT ALL STARTS AT THE COFFEE FARM
Since starting Driftaway, each month we’ve roasted four distinct single origin coffees as each flavor profile. This month, we’re excited to share a different approach: instead of picking a single coffee that comes as close as possible to each flavor profile, we chose coffees that come together to build the best Fruity, Classic, Balanced or Bold flavors that we can imagine.
Learn more about our strategy for choosing the blend components here, and read on below to learn about each coffee, and what each one brings to this Balanced blend:
Kenya Kirinyaga
The Kenya Gachimi comes from the Baragwi FCS (Farmer Cooperative Society), the largest cooperative in Kenya both in volume and number of members. The cooperative has a total of 12 washing stations (or factories, as they're known in Kenya), and Gachami is one of the biggest.
At Baragwi FCS, the consistency of the coffee is very important, and the factory managers actually rotate factories every two years to ensure that best practices are implemented cooperative-wide. Also, the cooperative engages agronomists to train farmers, and every year, the farmers are provided with manure and seedlings.
This coffee gives the blend its brightest top notes and lots of delicious, fresh fruit. Look for it as a single origin coffee this fall!
Guatemala Cobán
This coffee was grown on Finca Santa Isabel, owned by Luis Valdes. Located near the town of San Cristobal Verapaz in the Cobán region of central Guatemala, this region gets pretty much constant rain. This causes the flowering of the coffee trees to be very staggered: there are as many as nine flowerings per year! After the tree flowers, the fruit grows - and what we know as coffee beans are the seeds of this fruit.
On Finca Santa Isabel, pickers have to take up to 10 passes, with breaks of up to 14 days between each pass) to ensure they are picking only the ripest fruit.
This coffee has both a crisp acidity and a honey-like sweetness, which builds really well on top of that bright Kenyan.
Nicaragua Dipilto
Finca Un Regalo de Dios, owned by Luis Alberto Baladerez, is located in the Dipilto-Jalapa mountain range in the north of the department of Nueva Segovia, and sits at a range of elevations: from 1,350 m.a.s.l. (meters above sea level) at the "low" end, with coffee growing as high as 1,800 m.a.s.l. at the top. In total, the farm is 179 acres, with around 130 acres planted in coffee.
The farm is situated in the municipality of Mozonte (in the community of Quisuli), and the clouded forest creates a microclimate with temperatures ranging from 10° to 16° Celsius (50° to 60°F). Finca Un Regalo de Dios has a loose sandy soil with abundant humus, and has a rich biodiverse environment of fauna and flora, with an abundance of broad-leaved trees and conifer species. All of this together, creates for optimal coffee growing conditions.
Sr. Baladerez is no stranger to producing exceptional coffees. This year, he received 6th place in the Cup of Excellence, a national coffee competition. He also won 1st place in 2020, 1st and 5th place in 2018, as well as 3rd and 13th place in 2017.
Adding just a little bit of this coffee to the blend yields a really wonderful floral aroma.
Ecuador Pinchincha
The province of Pinchinca in northern Ecuador is a very prestigious coffee growing region: it has high elevations and perfect temperatures for growing coffee. This lot comes from 10 small-scale growers (all names listed below!), and is the epitome of balance: it has bright citrus as well as sweet milk chocolate, and adds a sugary base note to the blend.
TRACEABILITY
COUNTRY
Kenya, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador
PRODUCER
Baragwi Farmers Cooperative Society; Valdes family; Luis Alberto Baladerez; Ricardo Edwin Vargas Lombando, Mack Arthur Melchiade Jara, Jose Rolando Sabedra, Cesar Urpiano Andagoya Atuapata, Jaimeivan Cabrera Bueno, Wilson Paul Proaño Chango, Enar Jony Perez Lopez, Hector Emilio Gomez Muñoz, Edgar Javier Abad Coronel, Mario Andrade
REGION
Kirinyaga, Coban, Dipilto-Jalapa, Pinchincha
VARIETAL
SL28, SL34, Batian, Ruiru 11; Caturra & Catuai; Pacamara; Bourbon, Typica & Sidra
PROCESSING
Washed & Natural
ALTITUDE
1350 - 1900 meters
DID YOU KNOW
The first recorded coffee blend was the Mocha Java, dating back to the 1600s. The word "mocha" doesn't actually mean that the blend tastes like chocolate (although, it definitely can!) - it actually refers to the port of Moka in Yemen, where unroasted African coffees were loaded onto ships to eventually be brought to Europe to be roasted. On the way there, ships regularly stopped at the island of Java in Indonesia to pick up more coffee: that coffee was mixed together with the African coffees already on board, and were then sold as one coffee blend! Nowadays, though the spelling has changed, roaster still choose a fruitier African coffee to blend with a more earthy coffee from Indonesia, and name that blend Mocha Java.
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
$4.61, $3.30, $5.30, $3.86
Price paid by Driftaway (per pound avg. across this months coffees)
$1.40
Fair Trade price per pound
$1.83; $1.51
Coffee C-Market price per pound
$0.05
Driftaway's World Coffee Research contribution per pound
The Kenya Kirinyaga coffee travelled 7,353 miles, the Guatemala Coban travelled 3,210 miles, the Nicaragua Dipilto-Jalapa travelled 3,620 miles and the Ecuador Pinchincha travelled 2,835 miles to the Driftaway Coffee roastery in Queens.
Love the coffee? You can share your compliments & tasting observations with the farmers.
WHY DID WE SELECT THESE COFFEES FOR THE BLEND?
From the Gachimi processing station, the Kirinyaga has 1200 contributing member farmers; the Cobán was grown by Luis Valdes in central Guatemala; Nicaragua Dipilto is a natural process coffee from Finca Un Regalo de Dios; and the Pinchincha was grown by 10 smallholder farmers in northern Ecuador.
AVERAGE CUPPING SCORE
87.5
/100
87.5
SCAA Cupping Score
20 x 69 kg
Bags purchased
1, 1, 2 and 1 years
Length of producer relationship
100% (in 2020)
Transparent coffees purchased
HOW DID WE ROAST THIS COFFEE?
This coffee is being roasted by Ian T. from 12th September to 06th October in Long Island City, Queens. We typically use the Loring Kestrel roaster for this profile. We have strict guidelines for each of the coffee profiles, and this roast has to pass the development time ratio test as measured in real-time by the roasting software, Cropster. Once it does, it is approved for production.
QUALITY CONTROL
We perform Quality Control via a process of coffee tasting called cupping on all of our production roasts once a week from home as per our Covid-19 shelter in place guidelines. Each cupping is conducted by our roasting staff Kieran D. and Ian T. using standard equipment, and is logged by our Q-certified cupper Ian T. All coffees are evaluated on a scoring scale of 0 to 3.
- 3.0 = exceptional roast - exceeds expectations
- 2.5 = on par with profile - matches expectations
- 2.0 = good roast, but 1 or 2 elements could be improved - needs improvement
- 1.5 or lower = failed - do not ship
AT YOUR HOME
Brew this coffee with your favorite home brewer and enjoy the taste of incredible coffee! Here are a few tips on how to make the best coffee on each brewer.
View other posts about how to make better coffee at home on our blog Coffeecademy.