GKN | Guatemala Coban, Kenya Kirinyaga, Nicaragua Dipilto, Ecuador Pinchincha
Cold Brew Balanced Profile | Light-medium roast
Tasting Notes: Lemon, Red Grape, Honey
IT ALL STARTS AT THE COFFEE FARM
For this Balanced cold brew profile, the Kirinyaga and Cobán create a juicy top note, with a dash of Nicaragua Dipilto for a floral perfume, and Ecuador Pinchincha adds a sweet sugary base note.
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.
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.
Farmer Clever Abad and PECA program coordinator Ivan Rengifo
Coffee trees surrounded by shade
TRACEABILITY
COUNTRY
Guatemala, Peru, Costa Rica
PRODUCER
Various smallholders of the La Danza Women Producer's Group; around 300 small-scale growers, Several smallholder producers
REGION
Sacatepéquez/Acatenango; Cajamarca; Tarrazú
VARIETAL
Catuai, Pacamara, Typica, Caturra, Bourbon
PROCESSING
Washed
ALTITUDE
1280 - 2100 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
$3.85, $2.50, $3.03
Price paid by Driftaway (per pound avg. across Feb 2020 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
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
85.5
/100
85.5
SCAA Cupping Score
20, 6, 25 x 69 kg
Bags purchased
2, 1 and 1 year
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.