Global Coffee Updates: March 2021

By Oliver Stormshak

Happy New Year. We are excited to source, roast, and brew some of the very best coffees in the world in 2021.

We can feel the energy of change approaching us. As Spring moves closer, so, too come the longer days, optimism around our vaccination rates, and a general hope towards a safer, brighter future.We're going on a year now without travel and visiting our coffee producers, but it feels like our on-the-ground sourcing efforts will be deemed safe as soon as this Fall. If everything goes as planned we hope to return to visiting producers in Colombia in late Summer as our first return to origin trip.This month is a busy one in the countries we work in; the 2021 harvest, for above-the-equator producers is now over or ending and the rush to dry, mill, and package coffee for export is on! Below is an update to our supply of coffee in our roastery, what is on the way, and what is happening at origin this month.


Colombia
In the roastery, it's definitely Colombia season. We started the month with Amparo Pajoy's 28th micro-lot, launched another coffee from super-producer Lucas Melo, and by mid-March, we will be featuring our first-ever micro lot for Zacarias Chavez! This lot will begin the flow of many of our new commitments coming from new producers in the Nariño region. Later this month, we will release our fourth micro lot from Yomar Quilindo from Inza.

You'll find Colombian coffee playing a role in each of our blends, lending sweetness and caramel notes to our lineup. In Colombia, March is one of two months of the year where very little harvesting takes place. Coffee cherry is currently developing on the trees marking the end of the 1st semester of Colombian harvest; April typically marks the beginning of the 2nd semester. Our selection of Colombian coffee typically is year-round at Olympia Coffee.

Ethiopia
The 2021 annual harvest in Ethiopia is now closed, coffees are in the process of drying and curing at this point. For the first time in a decade, we went a year without traveling to Ethiopia and visiting producers to make selections on the ground. Our work will need to remain remote this year like so many others in the world.
In the roastery, we still have a hefty supply of our Ethiopian selections in stock and more offerings ready in waiting. We started the month roasting Eshetu Natural; this has been one of my personal favorites with a ridiculously sweet, fruity, and impeccably clean profile! Soon, we will be releasing a new natural process coffee from Wolde Hirbe of the Adame Garbota Cooperative. This will mark our first time featuring a natural processed coffee from the village of Wenago. I'm really excited about this. Coffees from areas north of Yirgacheffe village tend to be the most floral coffee on Earth. On the washed side, our Zelelu Ararso lot has been topping our production roast scores with these insanely sweet, floral notes. Zelelu Ararso is from the above-mentioned area of Wenago Kebele and is also a member of Adame Garbota Cooperative. Towards the end of the month, we might get into our last washed Ethiopian coffee from last year's harvest. This will be the annual harvest from producer Desta Gola.

El Salvador
The harvest in El Salvador is still at its peak in March, especially at our partner farm El Aguila. The days are long with harvesting and processing late into the night for the Ariz family who are in their first full year of processing their own coffee. The harvest in the Chalentenago outside the town of La Palma is pretty much over. Our first cuppings from producers we are working with have been awesome. My breath was taken away recently when I had a chance to taste the Pacas selection from our longtime producer Melvin Flores. We are in the process of booking our shipping schedule for our El Salvador coffees but we typically receive these coffees around July. We currently do not have any El Salvador coffees in our position.

Guatemala
The harvest in Guatemala is really at its peak in the towns of Concepcion Huista and San Pedro Necta where our El Templo sourcing project is based. We really loved our Guatemalan offerings from the El Templo project last year and are hoping to reproduce last year's success. This project is not as developed as our other origins so we are taking it a bit slower in Huehuetenango post COVID-19. We plan to return to visiting producers in person, developing a network of more producers, and purchasing larger volumes in future years. We currently do not have any Guatemalan coffee in our position.

Kenya
The 2021 harvest is now over in Kenya. Our partners at Long Miles Coffee Kenya have moved the production over to KCCE Dry Mill for milling and we are working on consolidation of our coffees into a container for export. We will be cupping each micro lot produced by Long Miles Coffee Kenya to curate our collection for the year. We are purchasing the majority of the premier harvest, but there will be a bit of selection to cup through. Right now, we have just about another month of Karatu on our shelves, which is still tasting stellar.

Burundi
After 3 months on the water in shipping our Burundi micro lots will be arriving into the country this month. By April we should have the release dates scheduled for amazing lots from Mikuba and Gitwe in all three processes: Fully Washed, Honey, and Naturals. Once released, we will feature these beauties for the next few months straight. In Burundi, farmers are preparing for the annual harvest that will commence in April and run through July typically.

Peru
It's been really great to be roasting Peruvian coffees again. I know all of you have been excited as well our top tier selection from our Espirítu Wari project sold out in record time. We are now on to our El Guayacan Reserva lot, another top quality lot from Northern Peru. By the end of March, we'll already be roasting our third lot from Peru this year as we return back to the Cusco region for our Espirítu Cusco lot. The Espirítu Cusco is a selection of micro lots that we built and blended in a slightly larger scale primarily for our Sweetheart Blend. We will also be featuring this coffee as a single origin showcase for its lower acidity and friendly chocolate profile.

Hawaii
This month we are excited to be receiving a selection of samples from our farmers in Hawaii. We will hold a few days of cupping through samples and selecting our favorites to feature this year. We hope to source more than one offering from Hawaii, but as I'm sure you know these coffees are in very high demand and just because it's from Hawaii doesn't mean that we lower standards for quality. It's extremely rare to find Kona and other Hawaiian coffee scoring as high as our regular offerings from other origins, but we're confident we can find a few this year. With tourism still at a low, we are hearing that there is more available to purchase. Fingers crossed.

Mexico
We are dipping our toes into the waters of Mexico, a region we have previously sourced from in the past and always intended to return to. Our priorities shifted in previous years to support projects that needed more attention, but we're proud to report that we are working remotely through a few channels of exporters on the ground to learn more and develop this origin from afar. We have already committed to purchasing a very small amount of Mexican coffee this year. The Mexican harvest is currently live and word from the team is that quality is great. Stay tuned.

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