Please note, this is a pre-order which will be roasted and shipped on 2nd February.
Our Sourcing Partner
For the best part of a decade our primary partner in sourcing coffees from Latin America has been Caravela. We typically feature coffees from Colombia, sourced via their producer network and supportive framework, across our whole coffee menu. Whether featured as a component in a house blend like Article, running as our perennially available single origin coffee El Nevado or it’s decaf counterpoint, La Plata, through to seasonally rotating single origin filter coffees from unique farms, we always appreciate the extra levels of care, attention and provenance that these lots can bring.
Pinnacle: Version 3
More recently we have featured coffees in our Pinnacle range when the specific cultivar or processing approach endows the coffee with notably elevated and identifiable characteristics. Enter this latest iteration of Pinnacle! Version 3: Bella Vista Maragogype. We last roasted this cultivar back in 2019, and rarely encounter samples of Maragogype from our suppliers. The moment we cupped this selection from Finca Bella Vista we knew it was the right fit for a Pinnacle release.
The Farm & Producers
Finca Bella Vista is tended to by Arcesio Oino Pancha and his wife Yina Cuchumbe. Spanning 8 hectares at an altitude of 1,950 metres, just 1.6 hectares are planted out with coffee. From a young age, Arcesio was initially a coffee picker, who saved up their money over the years to be able to purchase a small plot of land and pursue their dream to become a coffee producer. After 26 years selling on the commodity market they are now accessing premium prices for their outturns on the specialty market, a testament to their efforts and dedication to quality coffee cultivation. The family all contribute to the farm tasks, from pruning and feeding the coffee trees to collecting the cherries and post-harvesting protocols. The coffee cherries are manually depulped before undergoing traditional fermentation and washing prior to slowly drying on mesh beds.
The Cultivar & Our Roast Approach
The specific cultivar that this lot is comprised of, Maragogype, looks totally different to other coffees we typically buy and roast. The natural mutation of Typica coffee, one of coffee’s mother varieties, makes for very large leaves, large internodal spacing and large cherries, which of course then means large seeds! Identified as far back as 1870, Maragogype has been prized for cup quality for a very long time, but comes with its own set of challenges. Low productivity and needing more space make it commercially less attractive to prospective growers, and after collection at harvest the larger cherries require a recalibration of the depulping machine discs so as not to bruise or break the internal seeds.
At the roastery we approach profiling of new coffees carefully and in a considered fashion, but this cultivar really warrants a unique approach. As such we are very modest in our heat application at the early stages of the roast, more brave during the middle section and again very even in reducing the flame during development time, to ensure even colouration throughout these large seeds. This results in a coffee with very crisp and complex acidity, a lingering sweetness and some really interesting high notes like florals and fragrant aromats.
