April 14, 2016
Your favorite coffee from Sweet Maria’s is a seasonal crop and will one day in the next few months (brace yourself) go out of stock until next season’s crop arrives. It happens all the time, with all coffees. If you come across a single originSingle Origin refers to coffee from one location, in contrast to blended coffee. This term is particularly useful in discussing espresso, since most commercial espressos are made from... coffee that is available all year, the company offering it probably got a good deal, bought too much of it and is selling old coffee at a low price. As you wait for your favorite to return, consider this a good time to try new coffees with similar flavors and characteristics.
Here’s a few that we recently ran out of, and a few recommendations/replacements that we think you will enjoy. It would have been too easy to suggest replacements from the same countries, so in the spirit of adventure we did our best to recommend coffees from other places that still have characteristics in common with your long lost favorite.
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... Yirga Cheffe Kela Kochore
Kela Kochore had a delicate, shimmering profile with a saturated red honeyThe honey process has nothing to do with honey other than the fact that they're both sticky! It's a term that became popularized in Costa Rica as another... 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.... Mandarin orangeOrange aromatics and flavors are prized in coffee, whether they take the form of sweet orange flesh and pulp, or orange peel. Orange flavors or aromatics can range..., sweet lime brightnessA euphemistic term we use often to describe acidity in coffee. A bright coffee has more high, acidic notes. : A euphemistic term to describe acidity in coffee...., pomeloAncestral grapefruit from Southeast Asia - it has mild grapefruit flavor but low bitterness. In a coffee description , this mean a mild and not-so-aggressive citrus flavor, or... and 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... cocoa notes in darker roasts.
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BurundiBurundi coffee bears resemblance to neighboring Rwanda, in both cup character, but also the culture surrounding coffee. Burundi is a small landlocked country at the crossroads of East... Mutambu Rubanda
KenyaKenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both in the cup, and the way they run their trade, everything is topnotch.: Kenya is the East... Nyeri Gatomboya AB
Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea (PNG) occupies the eastern half of the island it shares with the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, part of Indonesia. The two primary areas for... Bauka Plantation
This coffee was very intense with deep sweetness and juicy, fruitedIn some coffee taster’s lexicon, “fruity” means the coffee is tainted with fruit, and “fruited” means a coffee is graced by positive fruit notes. We don't exactly see... accents. We tasted notes of honeyIn coffee, honey-like sweetness is often found, but we use terms such as refined honey (highly filtered and processed) as opposed to raw honey rustic honey sweetness. This..., molasses, pineapple glaze, guavaIn coffee, the very aromatic tropical fruit note of Guava. (Guayaba in Spanish), fruit teas and baking spice.
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ColombiaColombian coffee is highly marketed and widely available in the US. They have been largely successful at equating the name Colombian Coffee with "Good" Coffee. This is half-true.... Guintar de Anza Microlot
GuatemalaGuatemalan coffee is considered a top quality coffee producer in Central America. Due to our proximity to Guatemala, some of the nicest coffees from this origin come to... Patzun FincaSpanish 101: Finca is the Spanish word for farm. Sometimes the term Hacienda is used to imply an Estate, which would mean the farm has its own wet-mill.... Santa Anita
Fruit juice or bodied fruit nectar were the highlighted attributes of this coffee. Raw honey, darker fruits and cocoa flavors rounded out an already hefty, elegant cup.
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Ethiopia OrganicGrown without the use of artificial fertilizers, herbicides, etc.: Organic coffee has been grown according to organic farming techniques, typically without the use of artificial fertilizers. Some farms... Tencho Cooperative
Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca Rosma
Ethiopia Illubabor Baaroo Cooperative
Baaroo had a nice citrus notes without any jarring 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.... Juicy stone fruits, honey and spice accents rounded out this very sweet and versitile cup. We tried suggesting replacements that were from other contries but in this case, along with a RwandaA Bourbon cultivar variant from Rwanda and Burundi. Bourbon coffees are named for the island in the India Ocean where French colonists grew it. Some history from the... we had to steer you towards the two Ethiopias below because they are just that good!
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Ethiopia Organic Tencho Cooperative
TanzaniaIn terms of the Tanzania coffee character, it belongs to the Central/East African family of washed (wet-processed) coffees, bright (acidy), and mostly aggressively flavorful of which Kenya is... Mara District PeaberryA peaberry is a green coffee "bean" that has a rounded form: Coffee is the dried seed from the fruit of a flowering tree - each fruit having...
This coffee balanced out sweet and bittersweet notes. We really enjoyed notes of blackberryBlackberry flavor in coffee sometimes relates to slightly more developed roast levels.: Blackberry is found as a fragrance, aroma or flavor in some coffees. I find that it..., citus juices, bittersweet bakers 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... and cacao.
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Colombia Tolima Planadas-Ataco
CongoKivu is the general name for East Congo (Kinshasa), covering a very broad geographical area, and the lake of the same name that divides them. It borders on... Bweremana Tufadike Cooperative
HondurasHonduran coffee was absent from the top ranks of the Specialty market, but that has changed. It has all the environmental factors on its side: soil, altitude, climate.... Ocotepeque Lentago Farm
This was a very balanced cup with caramelized sugar, lightly fruited, 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. acidity, vanilla-caramel and cocoa nib notes.
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Guatemala Huehuetenango Finca Rosma
Guatemala Huehuetenango – El Turbante
PanamaPanama coffee ranges from medium quality lower altitude farms to those at 1600 - 1800 meters centered in the area of Boquete in the Chirqui district near the... Boquete Camiseta EstateA "coffee estate" is used to imply a farm that has its own processing facility, a wet-mill. In Spanish this is called an Hacienda. A Finca (farm) does...
Colombia Pavón – La Galunga “Orfir”
ComplexThe co-presence of many aroma and flavor attributes, with multiple layers. A general impression of a coffee, similar to judgments such as "balanced" or "structured" sugars and fruit notes defined this cup. Fruit juices too, with layers of caramelizing sugar sweetness
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Colombia Caicedo Las Aguacates
Ethiopia Gedeo Zone Gedeb Asasa
Congo Bweremana Tufadike Cooperative
Guatemala Antigua Finca Pavon
This Guatemala had up-front brown sugarBrown sugar is a type of sweetness found in coffee ...a sweetness characterized by a hint of molasses, yet quite refined as well. Since Brown sugar of the... notes, fruit juice acidity and raisin-like cacao top notes.
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Guatemala Huehuetenango Xinabajul PeaberryThe Spanish-language term for Peaberry is the same for "snail". See Peaberry for more information on the single bean fruit of the coffee tree. A peaberry is the...
BaliCoffee from the Indonesian island of Bali was formerly sold mainly to the Japanese market. Perhaps it is the changing face of world economics that finds the first... Bangli Manikliyu
JavaThere are several types of Abyssinia variety coffee, but they are not from Ethiopia but rather Indonesia. Abyssinia 3 = AB3. PJS Cramer, a Dutch plant researcher, introduced this variety... Gunung Owa
Panama Horqueta La Gloria Estate
This is what we consider a “coffee” coffee, a coffee with great basic notes that we think would be great to drink every day. It had cane juice, bittering cacao notes, roasted almond and a pleasant tea-like acidity.
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MexicoMexican coffee originates from South-central to Southern regions of the country. For that reason, coffees from Coatepec and Veracruz are much different from Oaxacan Plumas, which are in... Organic Celso Garcia Co-op
NicaraguaNicaraguan coffees from the Segovia, Jinotega, Ocotal and Matagalpa regions are nice balanced cups. They often possess interesting cup character along with body and balance, outperforming many other... Finca Buenos Aires CaturraCatimor is a broad group of cultivars derived from a Hibrido de Timor (HdT) and Caturra cross, highly productive, sometimes with inferior cup flavor. The main issue is...