MKC | MEXICO CHIAPAS AND BURUNDI BUHORWA
Cold Brew Balanced Profile | Light-medium roast
Tasting Notes: Milk Chocolate, Orange, Vanilla
IT ALL STARTS AT THE COFFEE FARM
The Balanced cold brew for this month is a blend of the Mexico Chiapas and Burundi Buhorwa.
The Mexican coffee was grown by several small holder farmers, and comes from the highlands of Chiapas near the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. El Triunfo has almost 300,000 acres dedicated to the protection of wildlife and vegetation, and it contains the very last of the Central American cloud forests, where naturally occurring condensation is trapped by the forest, making it a super fertile habitat for a ton of various species animals and plants - and of course, coffee.
And as for the Burundian coffee, Buhorwa is the name of the washing station where the community around the town of Bukeye sells their coffee. And 550 farmers in the community contributed to this lot of coffee! Once the coffee is collected at the Buhorwa washing station, it transforms from being a fruit (a coffee cherry) into the dried seed that we roast.
TRACEABILITY
COUNTRY
Mexico & Burundi
PRODUCER
Motozintla & Kamira
REGION
Chiapas & Bukeye
VARIETAL
Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Mundo Novo & Jackson
PROCESSING
Washed
ALTITUDE
1300 - 1890 meters
DID YOU KNOW
Burundi is super unique because it’s made up of approximately 800,000 tiny backyard farms, and coffee is its single largest export. Coffee farms and other agricultural activities employ more than 90% of the country’s population.
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
$3.55 & $3.86
Price paid by Driftaway (per pound avg. across Feb 2020 coffees)
$1.40
Fair Trade price per pound
$1.51 & $1.12
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?
We’ve been roasting both of these coffees for multiple years, and they represent the longstanding buying relationships we aim to build: three years in a row for the coffee from Chiapas, and six years for the Burhorwa. We get more excited year after year as we taste the new crops, because each of these coffees keep getting better.
AVERAGE CUPPING SCORE
86.75 & 86.75
/100
86.75 & 86.75
SCAA Cupping Score
20 x 69 kg; 20 x 69 kg
Bags purchased
3 & 6 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 15th August to 8st September 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.
