Our guide to navigating this limited holiday sale on six delicious green coffees
Tis the season for a holiday sale!
We’re channelingChanneling refers to the formation of small water jets during espresso brewing due to poorly distributed grounds. When high-pressure water is forced toward the espresso puck, the water... the holiday spirit by marking down six delectable coffees that offer a broad range of flavor characteristics from different coffee origins. Cup quality was the criteria in choosing these six, and with a discount as our spotlight, we’d like to call attention to their greatness! It also helps that their slightly larger volumes means they are likely to stay in stock for the life of the sale.
Instead of making you comb through each review, we’re providing an overview below of our recent cuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest.... of this set to help you navigate the range of flavors they offer at a glance. These notes are based off a single roast level, so be sure to check out the full reviews for our expanded notes on how they taste with different roast treatments.
Visit our “DEALS” page to see the expanded reviews and ordering information.
This holiday sale runs through December 31st or until we run out of stock!
Nicaragua Los Altiplanos Java Cultivar | This coffee is sweet, no doubt about it. But it also offers moderate complexity in the lighter roast levels too. Even at C+, I get these subtle tea and herbalA flavor descriptor in coffee reminiscent of herbs, usually meaning aromatic, savory, leafy dried herbs. Usually, more specific descriptions are given, whether is is a floral herb, or... accents that offer a nice twist on the crowd pleasing sweetnessSweetness is an important positive quality in fine coffees, and is one of five basic tastes: Sour, Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Savory (Umami). In coffee, sweetness is a highly...! |
El Salvador Comasagua San Antonio | This is a “daily drinker” type coffee, bittersweetBittersweet is from the language of chocolate, and describes the co-presence of positive bittering compounds balanced by sweetness. It is directly related to caramelization, but has inputs from... and balanced, and sure to garner wide appeal. Big bodyAssociated with and sensed by mouthfeel, body is sense of weight and thickness of the brew, caused by the percentage of soluble solids in the cup, including all... and mild acidityAcidity is a positive flavor attribute in coffee, also referred to as brightness or liveliness. It adds a brilliance to the cup, whereas low acid coffees can seem... are strengths in that regard. At City+City+ roast is an ideal roast level that occurs roughly between 425 and 435 degrees Fahrenheit in many coffee roasters with a responsive bean probe where First Crack... the cup proffers a delicious flavor note of toffee almond, molasses, and reverberant cocoa bittersweets. It also gets a resounding ‘YES’ to espressoA small coffee beverage, about 20 ml, prepared on an espresso machine where pressurized hot water extracted through compressed coffee.: In its most stripped-down, basic form, this is... use! |
Ethiopia Kayon Mountain Taaroo | Taaroo sure stand out on a table of coffees! The flavor profileFlavor Profile implies a graphical impression of a particular coffee, whether it be an artistic portrait or data graph of the perception of flavor compounds. In the case... is delicate and bright, with perfumed jasmineA very positive and intensely floral quality in coffee, usually with a strong aromatic component, reminiscent of jasmine flower or tea. There are many forms of jasmine; the... and rue herbal aromatics that add so much depth of flavor. This is the perfect ‘special’ cup profile to enjoy over the holidays. It shows how unique the coffees from EthiopiaEthiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia, or a coffee cultivar: Ethiopia, or more specifically the Empire under Haile Selassie, was known as Abyssinia. The name is Latin, derived from... can be, and should surprise those who think coffee flavors are monosyllabic. |
Ethiopia Nensebo Refisa | Like Taaroo, Refisa also carries an array of delicate floralFloral notes in coffee exemplify the connection between taste and smell. Describing the taste of a specific flower is near impossible...we always default to “it tastes like it... and tea-likeA term used to describe coffees with light, tannic, slighly astringent mouthfeel and tea aromatics. We find it in some Rwandan flavor profiles, among others. flavors, and consistently tops our list of favorite Sidama coffees. It also has a tangyAn adjective modifying a flavor descriptor, describing a sharp effect; tangy citrus, tangy bittersweet flavor, tangy green apple. citrus accent that helps set it apart from Taaroo. Not “better”, just different! Between the two of them, it’s a great opportunity to get your hands on two top-tier Ethiopia’s at very a nice price. |
Kiambu Fram Farm AB | Kenya’s command some of our highest scores, and demand puts them at a high premium as well. With that in mind, we wanted to be sure to discount at least one from our list. This AB lot shows incredible fruit flavors for a wet processWet-processing starts by removing the outer skin of the coffee cherry with a machine called a pulper, then fermenting the remaining fruit (with green bean inside) in water... coffee, berry and sweet citrus topped our notes, the latter underscoring an already bright acidic impression. Fram Farm is also planted 100% in the highly coveted SL-28Scott Laboratories of Kabete Kenya developed the selection SL-28 Kenya cultivar, a preferred type with Bourbon, in 1935. It supposedly is selected from Tanganyika Drought Resistant cultivar, found... cultivarCultivar is a term used interchangeably with Varietal in the coffee trade to indicate plant material, although there are distinctions.: The naming of a cultivar should conform to..., so this is a good chance to see what all the fuss is about. |
Zambia Mafinga Peaberry | One thing I really like about this coffee is the mix of sweetness and hefty chocolateA general flavor or aroma term reminiscent of chocolate. But what type? Usually described with more specifics.: Chocolate is a broad, general flavor or aroma term reminiscent of... roast flavors. ‘Bitter’ has to be balanced by ‘sweet’, a combination that Mafinga really nails in the medium roasts. Chewy chocolate taffy, black strap molasses, and a mild acidic impression that doesn’t get in the way. |