DECEMBER SUBSCRIPTIONKieni, KenyaI hope this email finds you well and that your year is peacefully coming to an end. We are really looking forward to next year and taking on new challenges as a roastery.This month I wanted to share a coffee that captivated me ever since I tasted it from a roastery in Copenhagen, Coffee Collective, in 2014. It was such a distinct expression of Kenyan coffee and I was blown away at how lightly it was roasted, yet how expressive it was. I have since bought a bag of this coffee (roasted) from them each year.This year, we had the chance to work with this mill and we are looking forward to being able to purchase their coffee...
NOVEMBER SUBSCRIPTIONMinani, RwandaAfter a recent conversation with the CEO of the green coffee importing/exporting company, Caravela, I came to realise something vital. We at Made of Many are one of the few roasters that make sure that relationships are at the forefront of how we buy coffee.A big issue facing the producers in the coffee world is the lack of certainty and the economy-of-scale of a small farm, which is the case for most coffee growers worldwide. They can't grow enough coffee to be profitable because they don't have enough land. And they won't risk buying more land and planting trees if the market stays volatile without contracts for the demand in which they are the supply.We as roasters need...
OCTOBER SUBSCRIPTIONAlbeiro Calambas, ColombiaThis month's coffee, from Albeiro's farm, was an easy choice. It has been a crowd favourite and is a coffee that makes me feel that there is no need to buy unique, limited-release, rare variety coffees. This coffee has everything you would want in a coffee — big sweetness, clear distinct flavours, present and pleasant acidity, and great mouthfeel. The best thing, however, is the farmer, Albeiro, is truly passionate.Albeiro has chosen to keep his farm smaller so that he can continue to have control of his production. He has worked out the sweet spot between producing enough coffee and growing coffee that can be processed with enough attention to the details that the quality is never...
SEPTEMBER SUBSCRIPTIONTerrazas Del Pisque, EcuadorWe have had this coffee for about 6 weeks now and I have been trying to find the best way to roast it, which has been a fun learning process.This coffee is a varietal called Pacamara, which means it is a hybrid between the Pacas variety and the Maragogype variety. The Pacamara takes after the Maragogype in the way of bean size. It is very large, and herein lies the challenge for a coffee roaster.In the heat transfer (roasting) process, it is important to penetrate the centre of the bean to bring out the coffee's character. If not roasted evenly enough the coffee can taste thin, sour and astringent. If the outside gets too roasted in...
AUGUST SUBSCRIPTIONShale, EthiopiaMy favourite time of the year is coffee season — the time of year when most of the coffee-growing world has finished all harvesting. After the coffee has been harvested, it then makes its long and painstaking journey in container ships all around the globe. It is at the end of July and early August when I start to get emails from importers about our arrived coffee lots.In the case of Ethiopian coffee, this year we tasted all the pre-booked lots alongside some new coffees that hit the importers' product/offer list. Shale was one of these coffees. Shale was the most expressive coffee of the Ethiopian coffee offerings we tasted in several tastings across multiple importers. We have...
