Rockstar
The Rockstar Coffee Club brings you the rarest and most unusual coffees in your cup every month. For the Rockstar subscription, our roasting team chooses two different, rare beans with exciting processing methods every month - the rock stars among coffees! The set always comes with a special theme that lets us discover the different facets of Sepcialty Coffee.
Your Rockstars in February
This month’s rockstar subscription is a mash-up between two of the world’s biggest coffee producing countries: Brazil and Ethiopia.
This collab comes thanks to the boundary-pushers at the Fazenda Santuario Sul in Brazil, who are defying expectations of what Brazilian coffees can taste like. Luiz Paulo Pereira of Carmo Coffees in Brazil and Camiro Merzizalde from the Colombian Santuario Project come together to bring newer, brighter styles to the Brazilian terroir, which is traditionally associated with richer, chocolatey tasting coffees. Their work has produced some truly amazing coffees that have fooled even seasoned tasters. This month’s coffees bring two ancient Ethiopian heirloom varieties to Brazil, where they’ve been grown, processed and fermented with world-class aplomb.
Cata Export - our Partners in Colombia
What can you expect? These two coffees show how the processing method can change the characteristics of the varieties. While the anaerobic natural processed method supports the fruity-floral notes of the Geisha coffee, the anaerobic honey processed method brings out the sweetness of the Sidra variety.
# 1 El Diviso Sidra — Colombia Rare Filter
Apple Cider — Blackcurrant — Jasmine
This Geisha variety from Jairo Lopez is grown in the Pijao region of Colombia. The anaerobic process differs from the aerobic method in that the cherries are fermented in an airtight tank, resulting in a slower and more controlled fermentation. The subsequent drying of the coffee cherries with pulp allows the sweetness to infuse into the coffee bean, which beautifully supports the fruity notes of the geisha variety.This filter coffee expresses the delicate, floral notes that geishas are known for. Fruity, vinous notes reminiscent of cider and blackcurrant.
El Diviso
Nestor Lasso and his brother Adrian took over the family business 5 years ago and turned to speciality and experimentation. Instead of just growing coffee like their parents. Today, at the ages of 22 and 24, the two have joined forces with Jhoan Vergara, also a coffee farmer's child, and other coffee farmers to create El Diviso. El Diviso unites the two family farms El Diviso (Nestor and Adrian Lasso) and Las Flores (Jhoan Vergara), near the town of Pitalito in the Huila region of Colombia. This partnership was great because these 3 young people used their knowledge to improve quality. Three years ago, Cat and Pierre, the founders of CATA Export and the three producers started to improve fermentation processes and protocols on the farm with the aim of selling these coffees directly to the UK market. This learning process was time-consuming and costly, but with an exciting result, as today these coffees will be used in many barista competitions across Europe. Recently they won first place in the Brewers Cup in Ireland and third place in Austria. Today, Cata Export and Finca El Diviso work as one team. Nestor and Cat's friendship is a good example of Cata Export's work. Working directly on the farms is a very important process for them, as not only the complexity of issues like growing conditions, but also existing relationships ultimately result in economic benefits for the Cata community. In this way, many more young growers like Nestor have stayed in the coffee industry and had the chance to build a career for themselves.
#2 Bella Vista Geisha — Kolumbien Rare Filter
Jonathan Gasca comes from a family of coffee farmers and was born in Pitalito, Colombia. Only in the last few years have they placed a greater focus on quality in cultivation and processing. The work is rewarded, this Geisha lot was processed anaerobically: Coffee bean processing begins with ripe coffee cherries being harvested by hand. In a second step, the cherries are sealed in plastic bags and fermented anaerobically (i.e. without oxygen). This takes place in the shade and lasts 4 days. Afterwards, the cherries are washed with a little water to remove impurities. In the next step, the cherries are dried in the sun for 5-8 days. Depending on the climate, they have to be turned 4 times a day. Once they are completely dry, the beans are removed from the cherries and can then be roasted and processed into coffee. We love this lot either way and look forward to tasting more from Jonathan. In the cup you taste a high floral sweetness, with notes of ripe citrus. The mouthfeel is silky.
Bella Vista
Jonathan Gasca comes from a family of coffee farmers and was born in Pitalito, Colombia. Although his family has always grown and sold coffee, quality was not particularly important to them, only quantity to generate a stable income. Jonathan originally wanted to be a football player, but eventually returned to the farm. He became interested in specialised coffee and experimented with different farming methods to achieve better quality. Although he initially had difficulties selling his coffee beans, he remained committed and now dreams of gaining worldwide recognition for the quality of his coffee.
