June 11, 2018
The Northern Hemisphere Harvest Arriving Now
New crop coffees are beginning to pour in from all the Northern Hemisphere producing countries. These harvests have taken place over the months of November to March. The higher the elevation the later the harvest.
Expect the new Kenya Mamuto to be in at the end of the month – and available in early July. The good news: the AA are extraordinary – intense and very sweet. However, the amount of AA (slightly larger beans than ABs and more perfectly mature) will be even less than last year. We will also have some other Kenyas that struck us as exceptional.
Another highlight is the batch of Ethiopian coffees arriving. We have already started the new harvest with Yukro from Jimma, a sweet, syrupy Ethiopian coffee that features a delicate anise accent. We also have the great Duromina from the same region, which we will offer later this year. They are exceptional. After Borboya’s no-show last year (political disruption and quality issues) we will have a very big lot of it back: very floral, sweet complex coffee! Also, another Yirgachaffe – Sakaro will debut next month; it is equally exquisite. Overall a great quality harvest for Ethiopia and particularly this renowned Ethiopian region.
And finally, we have bought a micro lot of naturally processed Gesha Village from Ethiopia. This is an extraordinary lot; the fruity notes from natural processing (drying the cherries over week), so often overwhelming, are subdued enough to meld perfectly with the more delicate varietal-terroir notes. This produces what we consider to be a really complex unique coffee. Such a perfect balance may be due to the unique ideal weather conditions during harvest this year.
– George Howell