Our new coffees: Natural Costa Rica Tarrazu, Don Pepe and Thai Doi Pangkhon.
Carrie Masek
The last two new coffees we received in 2016 are the two most interesting, surprising and inspiring. They are also delicious:
Natural Costa Rica Tarrazu, Don Pepe: Winter is the season of southern hemisphere coffees, and we usually don't see new coffee from Costa Rica until the spring. When we do, the coffee is either washed or honey processed (a process that combines aspects of both washed and natural procesing), but we rarely see beans that are 100% naturally processed. Until now.
Natural Costa Rica Tarrazu, Don Pepe is a naturally processed coffee from our favorite growing region in Costa Rica. It has the fruit topnotes, chocolate richness and smooth body we look for in a good Costa Rican coffee, but thanks to the natural processing, these aspects are all more complex. The fruit topnotes remind us of tangy apricot wine, the chocolate richness is sweetened further by toffee notes and the body is so smooth it feels creamy on the tongue. The lingering finish is very sweet and clean. In short, this coffee knocked our socks off. If you enjoy naturally processed coffees, this is definitely one you should try!
To learn more about Natural Costa Rica Tarrazu, Don Pepe, click here.
Thai Doi Pangkhon: Thailand is also in the northern hemisphere and has never been know to produce specialty grade coffee. Until now.
Thai Doi Pangkhon is the culmination of a project that started back in the 1990's to give poor farmers an alternative to growing opium for drug lords. Now, almost 20 years later, those farmers' children have grown up, graduated college and come home to further expand and improve on their parents' efforts. The result, Thailand's first specialty grade coffee. Smooth and easy-drinking, with nutty richness and light lemon topnotes, we would like this coffee even if it didn't have such an amazing story...but it does! Grown in Asia, processed like an African, and tasting like a Central American, this is a true international success story. If you'd like to try a coffee that not only tastes great, but actually, literally, beat opium, this is the coffee for you!
To learn more of Thai Doi Pangkhon's story, click here.
That's the new coffees of 2016. Starting next week, we'll be receiving the first coffees of 2017, including a microlot from Ecuador and new Colombia Gran Galope. With luck, we'll also get the new crop of Bali Kintamani. For more information, keep an eye on our blog page.
Photo courtesy of Cafe Imports.