Koppi Roasters

The farm El Porvenir is found in the heart of the region Palestina in southern Huila, Colombia. The farm is run by Sandra Milena Mora and her husband Hector and they bought it back in 2006. They own 12 hectares but only produce coffee on 5 of them leaving the rest as a natural reserve. On the 5 hectares they have around 20.000 caturra trees, 4000 Tabi trees and 300 young Pink Bourbon trees. Out of the 18.000 Caturra trees they found 2 that are resistant to leaf rust. The past 3 years they have taken seeds from these 2 trees and now they have around 3000 new resistant Caturra trees on the farm. They haven’t yet come up with a name for the new variety but at the moment they call it Caturra Mejorado. The coffee is organically grown with no chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Sandra believes in the organic practises and is convinced that both the coffee and the surrounding natural forest and wild life benefit hugely from this. They make their own organic fertiliser that they apply once per year. The coffee is picked and sorted by hand and it takes about a month to pick the whole farm and then they start over again. The first small picking is in August but the main harvest is between late September to late November/early December. After the cherries have been processed the coffee is fermented for 36-48 hours before being washed carefully. The Tabi requires a longer fermentation time and normally takes 48 hours whereas the Caturra only needs 36 hours. The coffee is pre-dried on African beds for 5 days and then moved to the newly built shade house where it finish drying for another 20 days depending on weather. Big investments and lots of hard work has been put into the farm the last few years resulting in an excellent and smooth running operation. Their coffee is tasting incredible and this is an obvious result of their attention to detail. We have been buying their whole production the last couple of years and will continue to do so. Sandra and Hector have not only proven to be great coffee producers but they’ve also become great friends over the years. Every time we go they invite us to their home, cook amazing food and we always have the best time together. We are so excited to be able to showcase their coffees.

Finca Santa Elisa is an estate located in the Acatenango region of Guatemala near the town of San Pedro Yepocapa. You can find it positioned west of the slopes of the massive Acatenango and Fuego Volcanoes. Fuego has earned its name by being one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The farm is a large estate encompassing 506 total hectares with 360 hectares planted with coffee. Its size has made the farm an important source of income for many people living in San Pedro Yepocapa. Currently they have more than 300 people working at the farm. In 2017 despite its size Santa Elisa was struggling to produce with only 700 quintales of cherries harvested. One quintal equals about 250 kilos of cherries or 46 kilos of green coffee. An extensive refurbishment and more innovative style of management has dramatically increased the farm’s production and it is now producing around 34,000 quintales of cherry. This lot was processed at Los Volcanes mill in Antigua called Beneficio La Esperanza. They have to be extra careful with the cherries due to the large amount of ash that often covers them from Vulcan de Fuego. If not washed well the ash can cause issues for the cherry depulpers. Finca Santa Elisa is actively experimenting with and producing many different coffee varieties. This is the second year we have bought their Geisha. It is showcasing notes of peach, citrus with floral and citrusy aromatics.

Let us introduce our new espresso blend - Footprints. The name is borrowed from one of our absolute favourite jazz compositions with the same name, first released on Wayne Shorters album Adam's Apple in 1966. We love the name since it reflects our love for music as well as our firm belief that every part of the production chain has an impact on the final cup. Every part is important, everyone leaves a mark, everybody leaves a footprint. This has been a work in progress for many years and the time has now come to say farewell to Red Clay and Silent Shout. Although we have enjoyed working with two blends we have decided to focus on one from now on. Footprints is a smooth, rich and elegant espresso and we hope it will carry the legacy of Red Clay and Silent shout and be a beautiful merge of the two. The current components are: 50% Costa Rica - Lia Lia, white honey processed Catuai 50% Brazil - Dois Irmãos, natural processed Mundo Novo

La Lia is a farm and micro mill in the heart of Tarrazu owned by the brothers Luis and Oscar Monge. The farm has been in the family for almost 70 years but it was in 2008 that the brothers took over the production and started their own micro mill named after their mother Lia. The farm is divided in 7 plots of land with the highest parts reaching up to 2100 meters above sea level where the coffee cherries ripen very slowly resulting in high sugar concentration. They grow mainly Red Catuai on the highest altitudes and Caturra slightly lower. They also have extended their range of varieties to Bourbon, Pacamara, Tipica, Yellow Tipica, SL28, Kenia and Geisha to name a few. The annual production of the 60 hectare farm land is around 1000 bags of green coffee. All coffees are separated by farm, cultivar and picking date. The same families that have returned to work at the farm for 14 years are handpicking the coffee. The 60 pickers have been trained to only pick the perfectly ripe cherries and also to sort the cherries after the picking. This is hard work but very important to be able to produce delicious coffee. We have been working with Oscar and Luis since 2012. They are doing an amazing job and their coffees are consistently tasting amazing. Visiting Luis, Oscar and Lia each year has made them feel like family and it is always with great warmth we set foot in Tarrazu. To be able to work with people like Luis and Oscar means everything to us and we are so happy to be able to share their coffee with all of you year after year.

A new exciting process has been developed by Enrique for this year’s Tipica lot from La Mesa – it is called black wash. For this process the cherries are de-pulped and the skins are removed but all mucilage is left on the seeds. The coffee is put in a closed tank which is temperature controlled. It stays in the tank for 48 hours until it takes on a dark colour and after that it gets rinsed in clean water before being moved to the drying tables. The result is an incredibly clean coffee with a complex structure with intense notes of dark berries. We are very proud to have been working with Enrique and the family since 2010. The Navarro family is incredibly warm and friendly and on top of that they produce, in our opinion, some of the best coffee we have ever come across. Enrique started as the manager of the farm at age 17 and it has been amazing to follow the progress. In 2009 the two brothers Enrique and Josue decided to take over the family owned farms belonging to Monte Copey to produce some of the best coffee found in Costa Rica. They invested in a Penagos – a mechanical depulping machine – which was one of the first steps in their way to improve the production and quality. They also built 22 drying tables to get the coffee off the ground to avoid contamination and slow down the drying process. Monte Copey is divided into 5 plots of land adding up to close to 20 hectares of which 15 is planted with coffee. All coffees are separated by farm, cultivar and picking date. The coffees are separated by picking-day, cultivar, plot of land and process. Everything is monitored carefully. On Monday every week during harvest Enrique drive for 2.5 hours to the lab in San José to try all his lots so that he can potentially change the processing according to what taste the best. The same families that have returned to work at the farm for 20 years is handpicking the coffee. The pickers have been trained to only pick the perfectly ripe cherries and also to sort the cherries after the picking. 30 people are working in the field and 4 people are working at the micro mill during the harvest. At Monte Copey they are working with sustainable farming and use only environmentally friendly fertilizers and no pesticides. Every year they do a soil analysis to be able to keep the soil in good health and secure a good yield. The annual production from the 15 hectares is about 300-350 bags of green coffee. When we started working with them in 2010 they produced only 80 bags so they have done a fantastic job growing their production without compromising the quality.