SUSTAINABLE COFFEE FROM MELBOURNE COFFEE ROASTERS

Colombia
Acevedo, Huila
Vergara Brothers
Finca Las Flores
Tabi Red Bourbon
1750masl
Washed

Raspberry, raspberry and raspberry.

We are excited to be introducing another Tabi from the Vergara Brothers on the Superfly menu. There's a bit of a difference between 'good consistent quality with no faults' coffee, and 'competition grade' coffee’. The most striking difference of which, is flavour complexity and clarity--they're just on another level.

This coffee is certainly of the latter, with driving factors evident across all facets of coffee production. 

Huila--complex and unique: Huila, in southwestern Colombia, sits between the Central and Eastern Andes, with the Magdalena Valley down the middle. The varied elevation and climate make it one of the country’s most complex and unique coffee regions. This exceptional coffee is grown at Finca Las Flores, under the care of brothers, Diego and Jhoan Vergara.  

The Tabi: Tabi coffee was developed in Colombia by Cenicafé (the National Coffee Research Center) in 2002. It is a hybrid created by crossing three coffee varieties: Typica, Bourbon, and Timor Hybrid. The goal was to combine the high quality of Typica and Bourbon with the disease resistance of the Timor Hybrid.

There's ripe and then there's right! The cherries for this selected Tabi lot by the Vergara brothers are harvested at 'just ripe' or what is sometimes referred to as the semi-ripe stage. This early picking ensures they retain their unique characteristics whilst avoiding any 'too intense' fermented flavours.

Well, that's just shocking: After selection, the cherries for this Tabi lot undergo several fermentation stages, including oxidation and thermal shock. With thermal shock processing, the fermentation process is abruptly interrupted by hot and cold water quenching. This thermal shock process helps control and eliminate microbial load and stabilises volatile compounds.

Precision drying: This Vergara Tabi lot is dried in a hermetically sealed stainless-steel dehumidifier until it reaches the perfect moisture content. This precision drying with a difference preserves the coffee's fragrance, aroma, and taste over its entire crop life and is one of the contributing factors to its exceptional in-cup consistency.

Origins: Ethiopia, Central and South America

Prime is unwavering in consistency and flavour. It’s built upon a base of sweet caramel and chocolate notes with a floral and fruity front. This coffee is great across all methods, black or white.

A fruit forward blend with balanced acidity, juicy sweetness and a floral finish.

Origins: Central and South America

Wayward is a full-bodied blend with berry sweetness, medium acidity and a milk chocolate finish. Sweet notes of chocolate and honeycomb are a fine representation of the blended origins.

A syrupy milk chocolate body with notes of honeycomb - awesome as a flat white or a long black.

Mewa Washing Station

Smallholder farmers

West Arsi

Ethiopia

Ethiopian heirloom/mixed JARC

2000masl

Natural

Tangerine, cola and cocoa.

West Arsi zone: The West Arsi Zone is located in central-eastern Ethiopia in the country's Oromia region. Historically, West Arsi had been grouped under the Sidama coffee classification, despite not being located within the Sidama region. While these regions share similar styles, traits and a border, specialty demand and administrative adjustments eventually separated The West Arsi zone into its own coffee region, showcasing the unique local climate and geography as well as giving the West Arsi region distinct market identity. 

Parts of the West Arsi zone lie inside the floor and lowlands of Ethiopia's Great Rift Valley. The mountains, volcanoes and great lakes in the highlands help maintain a climate which has high humidity and cool temperatures. The region's sandy loam soil and ideal growing conditions at altitudes above 2000 meters above sea level all contribute to the coffee’s exceptional quality.

Mewa Washing Station: This delicious Natural Ethiopian coffee is brought to us from the smallholders of West Arsi. Specialty coffees from Ethiopia are generally traceable to a washing station level, with this one hailing from the Mewa washing station in southern Ethiopia. Approximately 650 smallholder farmers with an average farm size of 2-9 hectares deliver their handpicked cherries to the Mewa Washing station in Nensebo Woreda. Communities here live rurally and make a living from farming, using few or no agrochemicals, making the coffee naturally organic. After an initial sorting and floating of the cherries for defects the beans are dried in the sun on raised beds, where they are constantly turned to prevent spoilage.

"The birthplace of coffee": The preceding phrase gets used a lot, and although it sounds pretty self-explanatory, there is more to it than just a championship-style belt or tagline. While Ethiopia indeed exports a lot of coffee, which it has in common with many coffee nations worldwide, it hasn't taken trees from elsewhere nor cultivated them as 'cash crops' as in many other parts of the world. We can see the implications of this with particularly striking contrasts.

Usually, when we think of coffee farms, we generally think of vast, organised coffee plantations stretching as far as the eye can see. But going back to the birthplace of coffee, we see coffee's humble origins and place in domestic life. Most Ethiopian farmers are smallholder sustenance farmers, often owning less than one hectare of land. It would be more accurate to describe these farms as 'coffee gardens' with plants thriving in intercropped wild and biodiverse forest gardens.  

So this title, 'the birthplace of coffee', clearly isn't hollow--Growing, processing and drinking coffee has been a part of everyday life in Ethiopia for centuries. It carries cultural significance, history and traditions for Ethiopia and its people.

Nyeri

Gachatha
Microlot
1800 masl
Batian, SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11
Washed

Plum, cooked apple and caramel.

Nyeri Nitisols: The Aberadare Mountains combined with neighbouring Mount Kenya, creates the perfect microclimate for Nyeri. Here at high altitudes, Nyeri benefits from the region's porous, highly fertile, nutrient rich volcanic soils known as Nitisol. Nitisols are typically derived from parent materials like volcanic ash or basalt. The unique soil is highly acidic, loaded with organic matter and has excellent drainage and strong structural stability, giving coffee from this region its distinct winey or juicy acidity.  

Micro Microlots: In Kenya, microlots are either traceable to a specific factory like Gachatha, or sometimes down to individual farms. Small batches known as 'day lots' are graded and separated out, based on how good they taste in the cup. Since most Kenyan farmers only have 1/8–1/4 of a hectare, this sort of blended Coop processing is the most common in Kenya, with local farmers usually bringing their cherries to a nearby factory.

Blended microlot, blended varieties: This particular lot isn’t from a single variety, but a tasty blend of Batian, SL34, and Ruiru 11--some of Kenya’s best-known coffee cultivars.

Gachatha Factory: Between the villages of Muthuaini, Thiriku, Gachenge and Kianjau sits Gachatha Factory. This factory was built in 1963 and is operated by the Gachatha Farmers Cooperative Society. Gachatha Factory has 9 permanent employees who oversee roles such as receiving cherries and managing farmer payments. During harvest season the factory hires around 25 seasonal workers to support receipting and processing. Gachatha, being between so many villages, has built soak pits for water treatment to avoid contaminating water sources as well as following other precautions with regards to waste water and pollutants. There is a big focus from local communities as well as the factory, on preserving the indigenous plant life in that area, to protect local wildlife.

Brazil
Alta Mogiana, Minas Gerais
Jean Vilhena Faleiros
Santa Monica Estate
Geisha
1200-1240 masl
Anaerobic EC118 Yeast 94 hours

Orange blossom, toffee, vanilla.

The enduring legacy of the Vilhena Faleiros family: Santa Monica stands as a beacon of excellence in the realm of specialty coffee. As a third generation coffee farmer, Jean Vilhena Faleiros has seen knowledge, dedication and time honored traditions passed down from his family who have owned and operated the Santa Monica Estate for over 100 years. Under Jean's visionary guidance, Santa Monica Farm blends time-honored traditions, a commitment to organic farming and modern techniques, ensuring that the farm grows with both heritage and innovation. 

Processing at Santa Monica: Because anaerobic environments naturally limit the types of microbes that can survive, Jeans pick on these commercial yeasts gives precise control over the microbial activity,  helping him achieve specific sensory profiles, consistent flavours and allowing for highly unique coffees. 

Anaerobic fermentation involves fermenting coffee cherries or beans in sealed in oxygen free tanks. Producers closely monitor the 48 to sometimes several hundred hour fermentation process, keeping an eye on variables like temperature and PH. Inoculated fermentations consume natural sugars in the cherries and beans and produce carbon dioxide. Because carbon dioxide is a heavier element than oxygen, it pushes out any remaining oxygen through the one way tank valve, creating a totally oxygen free environment. 

Going Yeast Mode: Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains of yeasts consume the natural sugars in the coffee cherry and bean during the fermentation process, producing compounds which permeate the bean and produce distinct tasting notes like berries, wine, florals and fruit forward profiles. Saccharomyces cerevisiae are widely celebrated in the winemaking and brewing industries and are known for their ability to produce rich aromatic esters. 

Anaerobic EC118 Yeast: EC1118 is a champagne style yeast which is prized for its ability to preserve the characteristics of the coffee with its clean and neutral flavour profile. It is also known for being highly robust in its ability to tolerate high pressures, caused by a build up of C02 inside a sealed anaerobic tank. Originally this yeast was isolated in France's Champagne region from the in bottle second fermentation of sparkling wine.

Santa Monica Farm: In the southeastern region of Brazil, you will find Santa Monica Farm nestled in the Alta Mogiana region of Minas Gerais. The farm sits at an elevation of 1200-1240 meters above sea level, and benefits from an idyllic microclimate which nurtures the finest coffee beans. The reputation of coffee from this area is so prized because of its ideal geography, slow maturation and generational expertise.  

Geography is where it's at: The Global Coffee belt runs along the earth's equator, between the Tropics of Cancer, and the Tropics of Capricorn. It is defined by its latitude, sitting almost entirely between 25° North to 30° South. It is here that coffee plants thrive, receiving consistent warm temperatures, high altitudes, abundant wet seasons followed by dry periods and rich mineral dense soils. 

Brazil’s latitude ranges from 15°16’ North to 33°44’ South. The country covers 4,395km from top to bottom, with landmass in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Almost all of the country sits within the Global Coffee Belt, and is one of many factors making Brazil such a successful coffee producing country. 

Spotlight on Jean Vilhena Faleiros: We are very excited to be welcoming back another stellar drop of coffees from Jean Vilhena Faleiros. This time around we are showcasing 4 microlots from Jean Vilhena Faleiros Santa Monica Farm in Brazil on our filter menu as well as 1 on our espresso menu over the coming months. Across these lots you will see a mixture of varietals as well as processing methods. We are lucky enough to see the use of specific cultivated yeast strands during anaerobic fermentation on four out of the five of these coffees! It’s with great pleasure that we are able to share his fresh harvest with you again.