SUSTAINABLE COFFEE FROM MELBOURNE COFFEE ROASTERS

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.

Brazil
Alta Mogiana, Minas Gerais
Jean Vilhena Faleiros
Santa Monica Estate
Catuai 2SL
1200-1240 masl
Anaerobic ORO Yeast 108 hours

Sugar cane, red delicious and 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 ORO Yeast: This strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast was developed specifically for coffee fermentation. In its design, ORO promotes a heavier body and is known for its ability to enhance red fruit and dark berry aromatics, increasing the sensory quality of the brewed cup. ORO in Italian and Spanish translates to ‘Gold”.

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. 

Keep an eye out for Jean Vilhena Faleiros: We are very excited to be welcoming back another stellar line up of coffees from Jean Vilhena Faleiros. This time around you will see 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.

Ethiopia
Yirgacheffe
Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples
Gedeb
Gedeo Zone
1900-2100 masl
Heirloom Varietals
Washed

Apricot, Caramel slice, and orange.

This coffee comes from the Gedeb district in the Gedeo zone, and is produced by the 'Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples' (SNNP) located in high altitudes in the area. In recent years, the region has developed a distinguished reputation for producing some of the most sought-after coffee.

Like many coffees from Ethiopia, this coffee collaborates with local smallholder farmers growing coffee in small lots typically less than 5 hectares. In a nurturing, unique microclimate under the shade of the native forest, cherry is selectively picked with quality and sorting controls essential, and stringent processing is vital.

Picking, sorting, and drying: Manually harvested and hand-sorted red ripe cherries are selectively picked at optimal maturity. This requires several passes but ensures consistency and uniformity across the lot.they are further sorted into grades using density channels, once delivered to a washing station, the coffee is pulped, fermented for 48-72 hours, washed, and the cherry is floated for defects, graded and placed on 70-cm raised beds for drying.

The chosen cherry is turned frequently and covered during the hottest parts of the day (12-3 pm). This prevents bruising and reduces the chance of cherries rotting or going mouldy while allowing natural fermentation to occur and ensuring steady and even drying.

At around 8-15 days, the cherries reach optimal moisture levels (11.5%), and the beans are ready to be separated from the cherry, known as ‘hulling’. Once hulled, the final step is dry milling, which is done by removing the outer skin from the beans. The coffee beans now become recognisable in their final raw form as green beans and are then stored for local sale and international export.

Varietal: Heirloom is an umbrella term used to identify the abundance of wild indigenous coffees that grow in Ethiopia. Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, has seen a plethora of wonderful breeding, cross-breeding, and endlessly mutating coffee varietals that number in the thousands. As is often the case, once a desirable varietal is discovered (usually with particular flavour attributes in mind), it will be separated and cultivated on a small farm where it may later be identified as a new varietal. This is one of the things that makes sampling and selecting heirloom varietals so enticing—a surprise almost always awaits.

Ethiopia
Halo Beriti
Yirgacheffe
2100-2300 masl
Heirloom varieties
Natural

Mango, Caramel, and Cacao.

Halo=Perfection: The Halo Beriti Washing Station has been around since 2014, facilitating 750 smallholder farmers to process their cherries. At Halo Beriti, smallholder farmers bring their cherries to the station, where a 'special preparation' intensive selection process ensures only perfect beans make it into bags. Rigorous station protocol ensures sort opportunities happen multiple times throughout the receiving and drying stages.

Many farms, little quantities: Typically, washing stations in Ethiopia handle hundreds, sometimes even over a thousand farmers during harvest season. This sounds like an unfathomable quantity, but it is really because the farms they support are incredibly tiny. So tiny that they are referred to as 'coffee gardens'. These coffee gardens are essentially organic household coffee gardens intercropped with vegetables for their family and false banana trees for shade.

Ongoing support: Since cherries from many producers are combined into 'day lots' (blended lots based on quality), it’s tough to trace coffee back to individual farmers. Still, our green importer for this lot, Cafe Imports, makes a consistent effort to establish close relationships and reliability by purchasing from the same washing stations every year. This strengthens partnerships with local exporters, mills, and producers, allowing them security, peace of mind, and to focus on producing the best coffee they can.

Birthplace of coffee: Ethiopia holds a legendary status in the coffee world- it’s not just the birthplace of Arabica coffee but also a place where coffee has been an integral part of daily life for centuries. Unlike most other coffee-producing countries, Ethiopia didn’t start growing coffee as a colonial cash crop. Instead, coffee has always been a local tradition, grown and loved by communities. For a lot of us coffee-obsessed folk, Ethiopian Coffee will always hold a special place. This lot shows why, with simple processing (nothing too flash required) and simple farming practices, it's a coffee you can drink all day- true to its roots, clean, sweet, and vibrant.

Las Moras
Pitalito, Huila
1700 - 1900 masl
Colombia, Castillo and Caturra 
Natural

Turkish delight, guava and pineapple.

Painting the Picture: This renowned region provides the ideal conditions for growing high quality coffee. Pitalito is located in the country's south, in the well known coffee producing Department, Huila. The city can be found nestled in the picturesque Valley of Laboyos (Valle de Laboyos) near the Magdalena River. At altitudes ranging from 1700-1900 masl this lush andean plateau has rich volcanic soils and cool mountain microclimates. These conditions help prolong the ripening period, giving the cherries more time to absorb nutrients and develop flavours. You’re in for a real treat with this one! 

Celebrated Varietals: The varieties used in this coffee are celebrated for their distinctive characteristics and contribute to the unique profile of Las Moras. These include Caturra, Bourbon Amarillo and Colombia. 

The three-stage processing method: Processing of Colombia Excelso Las Moras undergoes a rigorous processing method to ensure consistency and high quality. 

1. Once cherries arrive at the processing station they are washed, disinfected and sorted, removing any green or immature beans, leaves, stems and dirt. Right from the beginning this coffee is set up for sucess through selection and high standards.

2. The finest cherries then undergo a 24hour oxidation period before being de-pulped and washed to remove the mucilage. The oxidisation allows the natural enzymes in the cherries to enhance the development of the aromatic compounds, enriching the coffee's profile. The removal of the mucilage (key aspect in washed processing) contributes to the coffee's clean and crisp taste. 

3. Controlled and homogeneous mechanical drying is the final stage in this process. This precise drying method helps ensuring the beans stabilise and their intricate flavours are preserved. 

Excellent coffee: The term “Excelso” is used as an export grade classification, categorising the specific size and quality of the bean. “Excelso” is derived from the Spanish word for “Excellent’ and classifies beans that are slightly smaller in screen size than the Supremo grade.