Coffee Of The Month - Christmas Coffee

For this super special batch, we have chosen to work with small-scale producers from Colombia & Brazil: two countries that are well known for their excellent coffee production, and perfectly capture the feelings and flavours of the season.

From the cool, green hills of Sul de Minas we source our beans from the producers, Fazenda Samambaia. Sul de Minas provides ideal conditions for coffee growing of some of Brazil's finest coffee.

The region is known locally as ‘Vertentes’, because it forms a border between two very important basins in Brazil: the Grande River Basin (which runs to the south) and the São Francisco River Basin (which runs to the northeast).

Henrique Dias Cambraia, a farmer of Fazenda Samambaia, attributes the success of his farm to a combination of various factors. Including the farm’s geographic location, competent technical management of the plantations with individualised controls of the planting fields, constant training based on total quality control programs; and, most importantly, the involvement of the whole team that works on the farm.

We chose the varietal called topazio (a hybrid between Mundo Novo and Yellow Catuai), which has been processed using the  natural method. It gives fruity, naturally sweet, nut and milk chocolate flavours with a slight citrus edge.

Thinking of a good complement for the Brazilian profile, we chose a lot produced in La Plata - a region of Huila, Colombia.

"La Estrella del Ostro" gets its name from the Star of the Southern Wind, which shines just above the mountain range where this coffee is grown. On a clear night, this bright star points towards the top of the mountain in La Plata.

Estrella del Ostro started with a few small-scale producers from the township of Belen and, over time, the number of contributing producers has increased.

This coffee is a blend of the varieties castillo, caturra and colombia, which are sun-dried on parabolic covered patios and covered raised beds. This results a very fruity coffee, that combines caramel sweetness and juicy notes of red apple, pomegranate and stewed dates.

Celebrate the festive season with a sweet and unique cup: festive, fresh flavours of juicy pomegranate, red berries and apples meets syrupy dried fruit notes of stewed plums and dates. The cup finishes with a smooth and creamy texture, with hints of hazelnut nougat and honey.