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Honduras Bella Vista Alex Ponche
Mango, Berries, Sweet Asparagus
Alex inherited the farm from his father and has been working on coffee since he was little. With his years of experience, we have seen Bella Vista (meaning Beautiful View) constantly placing within the top 20 of the Honduras COE year after year. Outside of the more popular Santa Barbara coffee growing region but with quality that’s equally excellent
Roaster’s Notes:
We’ve been blessed and really enjoying the great flavors of this year’s Honduras offerings. All exhibited clarity in flavors which is very encouraging to see amidst how badly workforce and logistics have been hit at farm levels due to COVID. Do not be put off by the asparagus note as it comes together surprisingly well with the very fruit forward nature of this origin
Area: La Paz, Cabanas
Process: Natural
Variety: Catuai
Altitude: 1628 meters
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Sumatra Mandheling
Spices, Dark Chocolates, Big Bodied
The northern most part of the country is ‘Daerah Istimewa Aceh’, one of 27 provinces in Indonesia which has special status. The Mandheling coffee is grown around lake Tawar, near to the town of Takengon. The soil is rich and volcanic and has grown coffee for many years. Many areas work on the single stem pruning system, and cut the main trunk every 3 years or so – this gives a very solid central producing wood. The surrounding district is pretty tropical rainforest, with coffee sometimes growing wild amongst other trees, other times in cleared areas. The coffee is produced on many small holder plots, and usually pulped and sun dried on patios, without being fermented. There are very few plantations. The final quality is determined by the exporters, who are based in Medan, close to the port, where they hull and polish the green beans.
Area: Lake Tawar, Takengon, Daerah Istimewa Aceh
Process: Giling Basah (Wet Hulled)
Variety: Catimor, Typica
Altitude: 1200 meters
Brazil Fazenda Dutra Jatoba
Caramel, Roasted Almonds, Mild Citrus
Fazenda Dutra is a family run farm owned and operated by Ednilson and Waltin Dutra—brothers and great friends. Ednilson is the commercial manager; Waltim handles day-to-day production and PR. They have been coffee producers all their lives—their father started the farm with one hectare, buying a second and third hectare from the farm's profits until he had grown his land to 500 total hectares. The different lots in Fazenda Dutra represent the original names of the individual farms that Don Dutra absorbed into his property. Don Dutra passed away in an accident on the farm when his sons were young, but Ednilson and Waltim have continued operations of the Fazenda in his honor and in the family name. The brothers have been growing their operations year by year, and have won a number of national competitions, including the 2014 Cup of Excellence.
Area: São João do Manhuaçu, Minas Gerais
Process: Natural – beans are patio-dried with mucilage intact while they are still in the cherry
Variety: Catuai Amarelo
Altitude: 700 - 1300 meters
Bolivia Caranavi ASOCAFE
Rock Sugar, Guava, Brazil Nut
Caranavi province is the heartland of Bolivia’s coffee production. Rivers that flow from glaciers 4,000 meters above carve deep valleys and create an ideal landscape for the cultivation of exquisite coffee.
In an origin that has developed a reputation for being a difficult place to work, ASOCAFE has emerged as a reliable source for Fair Trade/organic coffee. The cooperative is located in the Yungas region of western Bolivia, characterized by lush, tree-covered mountains that plunge into deep river valleys. It’s one of the more visually stunning areas in the coffee-producing world, yet a weak infrastructure, limited technical know-how, and lack of resources have created obstacles to Bolivia becoming a go-to for high-quality coffee. In contract to many of its neighboring cooperatives whose members depulp at the farm level, ASOCAFE has two centralized wet mills that allow for better quality control. Atlas always has selected lots from the Amor de Dios washing station which is located at 1,650 meters above sea level and where cherries from the highest elevations are delivered.
Area: La Paz, Caranavi
Process: Honey
Variety: Mixed
Altitude: 800 - 1800 meters
Kenya Kathakwa
Apple, Raspberry, Baked Peach
Established in 1964 the Kathakwa factory is situated in the Central part of Kenya, Embu County, well known for producing high quality coffees. It is affiliated with the Kibugu Farmer Cooperative Society (FCS), and the factory serves two nearby villages of Kibugu and Nguviu. Other crops grown in the area include passion fruit, maize, beans and tea. Factory manager John Njue Kamwengu is assisted by a few permanent staff with additional help added as the harvest comes in. Their daily responsibilities include weighing cherry, selection and grading of coffee, handling cash and addressing the farmer’s needs. The area experiences two seasons of rainfall, the long rains from March to May and the short rains from October to December. On average Kathakwa factory will receive 1500mm of rain per year.
Typically the climate ranges from 12 to 25 degrees Celsius year round. Production cycle follows the standard timeframe with main crop harvested October through December/January and fly crop harvested April through June. After picking, ripe cherry is brought to the factory by smallholder farmers, before it undergoes processing to remove the skin and pulp—known as the wet processing method. The nearest water source is the Kii River. The factory is currently using a three disc pulper to remove the skin and fruit from the inner parchment layer that is protecting the green coffee bean. After pulping, the coffee is fermented overnight to break down the sugars, and using flowing water in channels to clean and density sort the coffee, the clean parchment end up in a soaking tank, where the coffee is submerged in water for an additional 12–24 hours. Finally, the coffee is brought out on the raised drying tables where it undergoes several rounds of hand sorting. Time on the drying tables depends on climate, ambient temperature and total production volume undergoing processing. Drying can take from 7 to 15 days in total. Wastewater is managed through the use of soaking pits. The water used for processing the cherry will spend time in the pits to insure that the nutrient rich water created during depulping will not be returned to the nearby water source without proper treatment. This additional step will cut down the risk of contamination, after adequate time for reabsorption the water will be recirculated. Currently, Kathakwa is using eight pits for this process.
Area: Embu
Process: Washed
Variety: SL28, SL34
Altitude: 1600-1700 meters