The first quarter buying season is where we lay much of the groundwork for 2026.
January has been a hectic month for Tom processing fresh crop samples in our Oakland lab, a pace that won’t let up for the next 3 months. With harvest happening in many key countries – like Ethiopia, Kenya, and all of Central America – it just might be the busiest quarter of the year for buying. By the end of March we will have literally tasted a couple thousand samples, and contracted more than 50% of our inventory for the year.
A big chunk of that work will be done at coffee labs in the producing countries. There’s a real benefit to sharing this work load, saving us countless hours of roasting samples, and setting up/breaking down cupping sessions. We also tend to see a broader selection of offer samples than if we were to manage them by mail, a detail we feel sweetens our chances at sourcing the best options available!
Our travel schedule also ramps up at the start of the year visiting with farmers, wet mills, coffee associations, and of course cupping coffee. The next two weeks will be spent in Ethiopia and Kenya (our second trip since December), followed by February and March trips to countries in Central America and Indonesia. It’s a time to check in with the groups we buy from old and new, as well as observe what’s happening on the ground. We value these opportunities to gain a better understanding of the work that goes into our coffee, and a big reason why we travel.
As for incoming arrivals, things are pretty quiet early in the year, but we do have a few to report. Over the last few weeks containers from Colombia, Rwanda, and Indonesia arrived in Oakland, most of which are still in the process of working their way from the port to us. I’ve left the Colombia and Rwanda coffees in our Incoming Coffees list below with a status of “ARRIVED” so you can see that list. However, the Indonesian box has already been released, and you will see coffees from Flores, Java, and Sulawesi showing up on our Upcoming Coffees launch schedule.
Burundi is the one country where we’ve experienced delays, and it’s not just us. Shipments are being held up by the Burundi coffee authority, ODECA, who rubber stamp the contracted prices for every coffee that’s exported. This, along with a shortage of shipping containers and available space on cargo ships, has led to longer than usual delays. Fortunately, our shipments were finally approved, scheduled to sail next week. Realistically, our first Burundi coffees should be available by early March.
Where are all the decafs and blends?
You may have noticed the number of decaf and blend offers dwindling over the past few months, and wondered what’s going on. In both cases, low coffee stocks have played a role in their disappearance.
We don’t source coffee specifically for either outlet. Instead, we look to our own catalog for high quality ingredients, a reliance that leaves us vulnerable to supply shortages like we saw last year. This rang particularly true for blends, which you can read more about here. We’ve since restocked most of our blends, and feel that in most cases, we have enough coffee on hand to help bridge the gap to the next round of coffee arrivals.
The reason we are low on decafs is a bit more complicated. Initially, we slowed down our toll processing with Swiss Water Decaf in Canada due to a change in volume minimums not working well with our quality program. Ideally, we can decaf several smaller lots of coffee in order to maintain a level of farm specificity, and supporting a wide variety of options. Instead, we found ourselves needing to blend multiple coffees to meet the higher minimums resulting in larger volumes of fewer options, losing some of the regional distinction in the process.
Tariffs also created a price barrier for decaffeination last year (coffee has since been exempted from tariffs). We found out the hard way that coffee crossing the border to be decaffeinated would still incur a 10% duty, regardless of whether or not we’d already paid a tariff to import the coffee in the first place. Our main supplier is Swiss Water in Vancouver, BC, and there are no alternatives in the US. The added 20% on top of the cost to decaffeinate was significant, and something we decided to minimize in order to keep prices reasonable.
This year we are looking for other opportunities to bring on new decafs. We’re working with import partners to select more manageable lot sizes, and increasing our the number of Farm Gate Colombian coffees that we process at the Descafecol plant in Manizales. It means a few less options for the near term, but the quality we vet for will not change. We had two new decafs coming online in February, and are expecting a couple more by April, including our own Ethiopia decaf from Swiss Water (the latter closer to late April).
Check out our launch schedule and list of coffees in-transit below
Scroll through the Upcoming Coffees lists below for an updated schedule of coffees rolling out through February. “Launch Week” is an estimate of when coffees will hit the site, but please keep in mind the timing can fluctuate due to issues outside our control.
Also, a reminder that coffees in our “Incoming Coffees” list with a status of “ARRIVED”, means the container is in Oakland, but not yet in our possession. It generally takes a few weeks for incoming shipments to be physically moved to the offsite storage facility we use. Once they are transferred, they will be removed from our “Incoming” list. On that note, just because a coffee’s disappeared from the list, doesn’t mean you missed them. It means they are now in our possession and you will see them on a future launch schedule.
Below is a list of upcoming green coffees currently on the schedule to be added to our website over the next two months.
Upcoming Coffees January
| Launch Week | Coffee Name | Bags |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Brazil Pulp Natural Patrícia Carvalho | 30 |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Colombia Buesaco Rio Juanambú | 11 |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Ethiopia Dry Process Buno Dambi Uddo | 80 |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Flores Anaerobic Dry Process Turelelo | 5 |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Guatemala Xinabajul Miriam Gomez | 14 |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Java Wet Hulled Gunung Tilu | 25 |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Kenya Nyeri Rukira Peaberry | 8 |
| 1/26 – 2/3 | Peru Organic Guardian del Bosque Gesha | 20 |
Upcoming Coffees February (so far)
| Launch Week | Coffee Name | Bags |
| 2/2 – 2/6 | Colombia Buesaco EA Decaf | 30 |
| 2/2 – 2/6 | Costa Rica Zarcero Monte Brisas Typica | 16 |
| 2/2 – 2/6 | Ethiopia Dry Process Hambela Goro | 80 |
| 2/2 – 2/6 | Flores Dry Process Manggarai Colol Robusta | 20 |
| 2/2 – 2/6 | Kenya Kirinyaga Kainamui AB | 20 |
| 2/2 – 2/6 | Peru FTO Chirinos Coop WP Decaf | 40 |
| 2/2 – 2/6 | Sulawesi Tana Luwu Tibussan Village | 20 |
| 2/9 – 2/13 | Colombia Honey Aponte Laureano Martinez | 7 |
| 2/9 – 2/13 | Ethiopia Yirga Cheffe Banko Gotiti | 80 |
| 2/9 – 2/13 | Flores Bajawa Eko Heto | 20 |
| 2/9 – 2/13 | Kenya Nyeri Karuthi AA | 24 |
| 2/9 – 2/13 | Nicaragua Maracaturra | 20 |
| 2/9 – 2/13 | Peru Comite La Palma | 39 |
| 2/9 – 2/13 | Rwanda Nyamasheke Coproca | 30 |
| 2/16 – 2/20 | Costa Rica Zarcero Monte Brisas Cassiopea | 20 |
| 2/16 – 2/20 | Ethiopia Honey Process Barkume | 45 |
| 2/16 – 2/20 | Kenya Kirinyaga Kariani Peaberry | 15 |
| 2/16 – 2/20 | Sumatra Wet Hulled Aceh Tengah | 30 |
| 2/23 – 2/27 | Colombia Honey Vereda San Francisco | 11 |
| 2/23 – 2/27 | El Salvador Miravalles Sampacho | 20 |
Incoming coffees currently on the water: February Onward
Please keep in mind that names may change when we list the coffee on our website. Location status of “TBD” are also a bit of a wild card, as logistical disruptions are out of our control! You also may notice some of the coffees from last month’s list have disappeared. Don’t worry, you probably haven’t missed them. They are now in our possession and should be on our launch schedule soon. Thanks for your patience!
Africa
| Lot ID | Bags | ETA |
| Rwanda Nyamasheke Mutovu | 20 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Nyamasheke Gatare | 55 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Dry Process Karongi Gitesi | 35 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Dry Process Gitwe | 25 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Dry Process Tumba | 15 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Honey Process Gatare | 20 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Milles Collines Peaberry Lot 2 | 50 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Inzovu (name will change) | 40 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Rulindo Tumba 3 | 30 | ARRIVED |
| Rwanda Dry Process Kivu Kageyo | 30 | ARRIVED |
| Zambia Anaerobic Dry Process Kasama Misambo | 25 | ARRIVED |
| Zambia Dry Process Kasama Misambo | 25 | ARRIVED |
| Burundi Mutambu Migoti Hill | 38 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Collines Masenga | 42 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Monge Murambi Hill | 41 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Collines Rugembe | 16 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Collines Rugembe | 31 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Mutambu Migoti Hill | 38 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Monge Murambi Hill | 36 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Dry Process Nyabiraba Kinama | 33 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Dry Process Collines Kigina | 33 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Dry Process Nyabiraba Kinama | 12 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Dry Process Kibingo | 25 | ETA MAR |
| Burundi Dry Process Nemba | 25 | ETA MAR |
South America
| Lot ID | Bags | ETA |
| Colombia Honey Aponte El Páramo | 10 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Pitalito Franky Peña | 18 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Huila Pink Bourbon | 23 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Productores de Pitalito | 32 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Edward Sandoval Wush Wush | 6 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Edward Sandoval Chiroso | 12 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia La Plata Raul Hector | 8 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Buesaco Maricela Ordoñez | 9 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Oporapa Pink Bourbon | 17 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Inzá Maria Ilma | 7 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Buesaco Miguel Paz | 7 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Nariño Alto Naranjal | 27 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Buesaco Alianza Granjeros | 26 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Buesaco Río Juanambú | 39 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Inzá Cresta El Hato | 21 | ARRIVED |
| Colombia Inzá El Tabor | 16 | ARRIVED |
| Brazil Cerrado Ana Maria Menezes | 59 | ETA FEB |
| Brazil Espírito Santo Rubens Correa | 52 | ETA FEB |
| Brazil Jacuí Tulio Arantes Vieira | 65 | ETA FEB |
| Brazil Dry Process Patrocinio Fazenda Paraiso | 35 | ETA FEB |
| Brazil Machado Adilson Moreira Soares | 109 | ETA FEB |
Indonesia & SE Asia
| Lot ID | Bags | ETA |
| Timor Leste Dry Process Laklo | 20 | ETA MAR |
| Timor Leste Small Producer Lot | 60 | ETA MAR |
32 Responses
When can we hope to see some more Colombian’s available? I have been anxiously awaiting the Edward Sandoval lots, as well as the Pink Bourbon lots. Those are auto-buys as far as I’m concerned.
Hey William, editing my previous response. We have a Chiroso lot from Edward Sandoval available right now. The others, along with the Pink Bourbon, are not yet available to us, but we hope to start listing those in the next month. We currently have 7 non-decaf Colombia’s on the site, and generally try to keep 6-8 stocked when we have the inventory.
Hope that helps.
-Dan
Bring on the premium Colombian lots! FOMO on the first Edward Sandoval lot, told myself I’d wait for the new crop. Really looking forward to the Wush Wush and 2nd Chiroso lots from him.
Hey William, FWIW, the last Chiroso we had and what’s coming up (Wush Wush/Chiroso) are both from the same crop, just different parts of the harvest. We are launching Wush Wush next week! Chiroso should be available mid-March.
Best,
Hi William, just a heads up that Wush Wush is available and selling fast! I want to make sure you don’t miss it.
Cheers.
I really enjoyed Burundi DP Masha last year as well as Honey Gakenke and Honey Gatara Masha. I’m guessing you weren’t able to source any quality lots of those coffees this year?
If they are anything like last year’s DP lots, I certainly won’t complain! What about honey processed lots?
Hey Todd, we were not able to pick up Masha unfortunately. Hopefully this harvest season! The DP lots we did pick up are excellent quality though. Hopefully they’ll be here soon.
Best,
Completely unrelated and I imagine the market for this is mostly just me, but if you ever make a t-shirt of the “I sense beans arriving” Coffee Sourcerer I will buy it so fast
haha – thats a good one! can we work a ups truck into the design?
Yes! Put the UPS logo on the sail of the Viking ship.
Zambia Anaerobic Dry Process Kasama Misambo
Any updates on the release of this?
Thanks!
Hey Chris, we’re looking to add that to the site week after next.
Cheers.
Will we be seeing any Costa Rica beans from Tarrazu region any time soon? These are my go to and haven’t seen any in stock in a while! Thanks!
Hi Slater! We have one final anaerobic natural from Los Santos region going up, and that’s it until approximately June. We are heading to Costa Rica next week to start making selections for that shipment.
Best,
Dan
Any beans from Guatemala coming soon?
Hello Jennifer,
We are adding one coffee from Guatemala this week, one next week, and one more the following. After that, the next crop will be arriving in May/June.
Happy roasting!
Will there be any lots of Timor Leste Aifu Ermera washed or Sumatra Ribang Gayo washed this year?
Hey Todd, we’re hoping to have the AIFU coffee this year, but nothing booked yet. We did pick up a few lots from Ribang Gayo, including their washed coffee! THat should be here early-to-mid Summer.
Is it crazy to think that the Burundi coffee is stuck in the Strait of Hormuz?
Coffee generally doesn’t move through the Strait. This shipment was held up because of a new policy that contracts be approved by the coffee authority which just really slowed things down. The coffee is moving, and we expect it late April.
I’m new to coffee roasting and still learning the seasons of everything.
When does Java Sunda Cimara come back into stock?
Hey Jaymes! We’ll start making our Java selections toward the Summer, and would hope to see new crop available closer to the end of the year. Cimara is a small producer blend, more or less. Our current Siki Alit coffee would be a great replacement since it’s also from that same general region near Tilu.
Best,
Dan
Have there been any recent Ethiopia coffees arriving? I’m excited to try some dry process at its freshest. The options on the website still list an arrival date of September or October 2025.
Hey Louis, new crop Ethiopia is going to ship very soon, but we don’t expect any new lots until late Spring/early Summer. FWIW, they are some of the most stable coffees we buy.
Best,
Dan
What happened to the 20 bags of Huehuetenango Boqueroncito? Thank you.
Hi Dan, we wound up selling that lot through our wholesale site, Coffee Shrub. We are finalizing contracts for Guatemala right now, and I’m happy to report there’s a very nice lot from Boqueroncito. We won’t likely have that until Summer, but it should ship very soon.
Best,
Thanks for the update and additional information. I’ve only been roasting and purchasing from you (both sites) for a few years. Did this lot even hit the Shrub site?
Hey Dan, you bet. It was available directly from the Annex (here’s our Annex list). We will have one more washed Huehuetenango lot available next Friday – La Bolsa – but that’s it for the season. It’s also from La Libertad region, so similar altitude, cultivars, etc. Really nice, well-balanced cup.
Hope that helps!
Do you have any coffee from Yemen on the way?
Hi Sandy! We do, but not until July/August. You can see the full list in our most recent Outlook.
Best,
Dan
Thank you, Dan! I feel much better now! With all of the recent events, I have been worried about the Yemen supply. I will be looking for it in the summer.
Sincerely,
sandy m.