Destination Notes
Aug/Sep 2010 – Brazil
Brazil, Brazil, they sure have a lot going for them other than sun, sand and lifestyle. This month’s Bourbon Collection coffee hails from the Daterra estates around Campinas, São Paulo. A foil-sealed, boxed green bean, this stuff is definitely from the top end of the market.
The Bourbon Collection is a blend of the fruit from both red and yellow bourbon trees. A pulped natural blend with remarkable and complex characteristics, creating a high quality single origin estate cup, with a delicate and clean finish. When just right, the coffee is harvested during the dry season at 3800 ft above sea level, producing a consistently high-quality bean every year – can you taste the difference here?
What to look out for:
- Mild, well balanced acidity
- An intense body
- A quite delicate flavour of clean, light lemon
- People rushing into your house asking you to pull them a cup!
Map of the growing region:
Jul/Aug 2010 – Panama
Grown in Panama between Colombia and Costa Rica, with high mountains and deep volcanic soils and separating the world’s two great oceans for moisture, this round’s coffees are a cross between the mildness of a Colombian and the acidity and body of a Costa Rican.
There are primarily three coffee producing areas ranging in elevation from 3,500 to 6,500 feet, with Boquete as the oldest and best known. What makes this mountaineous area so unique is that it’s many valleys create micro-climates, with most spanning less than six square miles. The winds blowing over the mountains from the north, create a fine mist called bajareque that acts as a huge air conditioner slowing the ripening of the coffee cherries, you can see it in action blurring out most of the satellite map below.
The bean is wet-processed and is composed of 100% old-growth Caturra and Typica plants. Growing between 1100 and 1800 metres above sea level, the rich volcanic soils ensure these beans are in their prime before picking.
Overall, the Panama Single Origin is a balanced coffee with medium to high acidity, and a low to medium body.
What to watch out for:
- High nutty-ness factor
- Maple flavours
- Hints of vanilla
- Faint whispers of caramel and white chocolate beneath
Map of the growing region:
Jun/Jul 2010 – Guatemala
It’s Guatemalan bean time!
For the Jun/July rounds, the Coffee World Tour is inviting your tastebuds to Quetzaltenango, south of Huehuetenango in Guatemala.
Grown at over 1200 metres, this is a washed Arabica (mostly of a youger-than-5-years-old Caturras variety) bean processed with water-reducing technology for that extra pinch of energy saving.
It all comes from just two farms to the West of Antigua who process in Chimaltenango and ship from San Jose, south of Guatemala city to Australia. The use of organic micro organisms as fertilizers and wholly organic pesticides contribute to the bean quality as well as the local community in which they are grown.
To further the quality of the beans, these plantations are maturing, yet are kept at low yield per hectare in order to achieve better cup. Quality over quantity – that’s what we like to see!
What to look out for:
- Uniquely sweet and satisfying flavour with a mildly strong aroma.
- Rich, yet soft on the palate with fig/raisin notes breaking through.
- Chocolate tones and a medium to light body.
- Also a lively citrus acidity.
Map of the growing area:
May/Jun 2010 – Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
“The Elephant” has thundered its way onto the world stage!
The destination this round is the Indonesian island of Sumatra with our latest single origin: Mandheling “The Elephant”. Taking its name from the Sumatran ethnic group, the bean is wet hulled and possesses an interesting character.
Hailing from the Northern Sumatran area of Aceh, the green beans have a variable visual finish and possess an almost blue-green quality. When roasted, the Mandheling appears lighter to the eye than the actual degree of roast, when compared to other coffees visually.
Sumatran coffees can be the most earthy, low-toned, and rustic of the Indonesian coffee-growing world and our Mandheling “The Elephant” is in line with these characteristics. Overall it is a complex, yet down to earth cup.
Look for:
- Low-acid, deep and complex flavour.
- Tends to be entirely sensed in the anterior regions of the palate.
- Heavy, syrupy body.
- Slight notes of sweet fruit
- Dark Chocolate undertone
- Short finish
- A brooding, bass-note experience
Map of growing region:
Apr/May 2010 – Papua New Guinea
The second destination of the Coffee World Tour is Papua New Guinea with the Coffee World Tour’s P&G Sigri: “Redbird”
This months single-origin slice of heaven hails from a series of four farms in the Waghi Valley, located in the Western Highlands Province. Exported to Australia by Carpenter Estates, this exceptionally aromatic bean is grown at 1555m above sea level, consists of Arusha and Typica varieties and was washed and twice hand-sorted before export.
The Coffee World Tour’s Sigri Coffee is the perfect follow-on from last months Bluebird with a looooooong, sweet finish. As the “Redbird” beans are immersed in water for a full day after washing and then sun dried (no machinations or drying-boosters involved here) every sip breaths the life of the rich Papua New Guinean soils.
What to watch out for:
- Exceptional aroma (intense!)
- Smooth, rich and deep body
- Looooooooong, sweet finish
Map of growing region:
Mar/Apr 2010 – Columbia
The first destination ever, the place where the World Tour kicks off from, is in the Huila department, a region located in the southwest of Columbia.
This single origin coffee (grown on the map below near Acevedo, Garzon and Gigante, all centred around Guadalupe) is a Columbian Supremo 18 “Blue Bird”, a sweet, intensely rich Columbian that needs to be tasted to be believed. Mild and well balanced all the way through, this large, deep-mountain bean is washed in pure mountain water and carefully sun dried. Believe us, it shows!
Map of growing region: