Where our coffee comes from
Five origins in the shop - Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Indonesia - with El Salvador and Vietnam on the way. Here is what each one is, how it is grown, and what it tastes like in the cup, so you can pick by taste rather than by the name on the bag.
From Rs 1,450
Brazil
Rio Minas
Brazil grows more coffee than anywhere else, and the lot we sell is Rio Minas, in Minas Gerais in the south-east - high plateau, a long dry harvest, and farms that have been at this for generations. Most of the crop is dried in the fruit rather than washed, which is where the sweetness and the heavy body come from. It is the least fussy coffee we know: it does not need a scale or a gooseneck to taste like itself.
In the cup. Nutty, milk chocolate, low acidity. Good black, better with milk, and it holds up in a moka pot.
From Rs 1,950
Colombia
Colombian coffee grows on the slopes of three Andean ranges, which is why one country can taste like several. Nearly all of it is washed - the fruit stripped and fermented off before drying - and that is what gives it the clean, bright cup it is known for. A note on the labels: Supremo and Excelso are bean sizes, not quality grades. A smaller screen size is not a lesser coffee, whatever the bag implies.
In the cup. Orange and plum. Clean and bright where Brazil is round and heavy.
From Rs 1,400
Ethiopia
Sidamo
Arabica is from Ethiopia - not introduced, not cultivated into being, simply native to the forests there. Thousands of local varieties still grow that have never been catalogued, which is why Ethiopian coffee tastes unlike anything bred elsewhere. Washed lots come out floral and tea-like; the same cherry dried whole comes out tasting of berries. Same farm, same tree, two different drinks.
In the cup. Blackberry, orange and chocolate - the Sidamo lot. Fuller than an Ethiopian coffee is usually expected to be.
Sold out
Kenya
Nyeri Hill State
Kenyan coffee is grown high on volcanic soil around Mount Kenya, largely by smallholders who deliver cherry to a shared washing station. The SL28 and SL34 varieties were selected locally in the 1930s and are still what most of the country grows. The long, deliberate fermentation that follows is what produces the acidity Kenya is famous for. As with Colombia, the grades on the bag - AA, AB, PB - describe the size of the bean and nothing about how it tastes.
In the cup. Blackcurrant and grapefruit, over a sharp acidity. The loudest coffee on this page.
From Rs 1,750
Indonesia
North Sumatra
Indonesia does one thing nowhere else does at scale: wet hulling, or giling basah. The parchment comes off while the bean is still damp, months earlier than anywhere else would dare, and the result is a cup with almost no acidity and a body like nothing on this page. It is also where the word java comes from. One thing worth knowing before you shop elsewhere - Mandheling is not a place. It is a trade name borrowed from the Mandailing people, and it tells you nothing about which farm or which hillside the coffee came off.
In the cup. Dark chocolate, earthy, a note of nutmeg. Very low acidity and a syrupy weight - the opposite of Kenya.
Coming soon
El Salvador
El Salvador grows its coffee on volcanic slopes under shade trees, on farms small enough that the whole crop can be picked by the people who live on them. It kept Bourbon and Pacamara long after bigger producers replaced them with higher-yielding varieties, and those are what give the country its sweetness. The smallest origin in our range, and the gentlest.
In the cup. Caramel, peach and honey. Sweet and soft, with none of Kenya's edge.
Not in the shop yet.
Coming soon
Vietnam
Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world and almost nobody outside it can name a region. It grows on lower, flatter ground than anywhere else here, in dense regular rows, and the result is a cup built for strength rather than delicacy - which is exactly what it is drunk for at home, over condensed milk and ice.
In the cup. Earthy, roasted and nutty. The heaviest thing we will sell.
Not in the shop yet.
