Microlot Coffees--An African Adventure--

Microlot coffee has become an adventure for true coffee lovers. This is a fun journey of specialty microlots, i.e. coffee that is produced by its date and origin, because each farm/area has its own terroir.

These farmers live within higher standards than their counterparts at other origins. About ten years ago many farmers started building their own micro mills in order to keep their coffee separate from commercial coffee and sell a superior product.

Here is the beginning of your journey!! A selection from a couple of lessor known coffee growing regions in Africa. These coffees that are the best of the best.

You will receive 2-8oz sealed, one way valve bags of each coffee. All of these coffees will be roasted to a City/Medium roast on Saturday January 30th and will be shipped on February 1st. These are small production coffees so we are limited in the number of orders we can take.

$86 shipping included for 4# of Microlot Coffee. Click this link to place your order.

Shipping is free on your Wine Berserker order with discount code BD2021

DR Congo- SOPACDI - Pygmies’ Coffee Project Micro-Station
Region: Mishebere and Ruhunde villages, Kalehe territory, South Kivu
Farmer: 105 smallholder farmer members of SOPACDI
Variety: Bourbon, grown at 1500 masl
Method: Washed
Notes: Rich cocoa, toffee, lemon and lemongrass flavors with tart citric acidity and a heavy mouthfeel.

This coffee comes from a group of 105 Pygmy people (including 51 women) who live and farm in the villages of Mishebere and Ruhunde in the Kahele territory. Historically, Pygmy people have faced terrible discrimination and disenfranchisement, including being forced into slavery and/or low-paying work.

SOPACDI (Solidarité Paysanne pour la Promotion des Actions Café et Development Intégral) is an organization comprising more than 5,600 farmers and has started this project to source and keep separate coffee from this group of growers in order to provide them a better income from specialty coffee as well more financial independence and autonomy.

The producers each own an average of 0.5 hectares, and deliver coffee in cherry form to the washing station. The coffee is depulped and fermented twice, first for 12 hours dry in tanks, and then for 12 hours underwater after it is washed and sorted in water channels. The coffee is dried for 16–25 days on raised beds under a shade cover of netting.

Rwanda- COOPAC - Kabirizi Rwinyoni
Region: Rwinyoni, Western Province
Farmer: COOPAC Cooperative
Farm: Kabirizi Washing Station
Variety: Bourbon, grown at 1500-2000 masl
Method: Washed
Notes: Cane sugar, lime, lemon, cocoa flavors.

COOPAC is a Fair Trade–certified cooperative located near Lake Kivu on the steep slopes of volcanic mountains. The organization founded by Emmanuel Rwakagara, who is the president of COOPAC as well as the owner of the Gishamwana Island coffee estate. COOPAC began with 110 farmers in April 2001, and currently has 8,000 members contributing coffee from Ack, Ubuzima, Tuzamurane, Kopabm, Abakundakurima, and Abanyamurava.

COOPAC is committed to environmental and social sustainability in addition to producing high-quality coffee. Waste by-products from processing are used as fertilizer rather than discarded into the lake, and shade trees are distributed to farmers to prevent soil erosion. COOPAC has assisted in the construction of a school, health-care clinics, and roads and bridges in the community. The cooperative also has a program to distribute cows and goats to the most productive farmers and provides farmers with an agricultural advisor to teach the latest production methods.

Kabirizi washing station was established in 2004 and has placed in the Cup of Excellence competition in the past.

This coffee is a lot separation comprising coffees grown and delivered from producers who live in Rwinyoni village.

Uganda-Gorilla Summit Coffee – Bwindi
Region: Bwindi, Kanugu District
Farmer: Various smallholder farmers
Farm: Finca El Guayabo
Variety: SL-28 grown at 1600 masl
Method: Natural
Notes: Sweet and heavy with tart fruit acidity, cocoa, coffee and mild berry flavors.

Gorilla Summit Coffee is a project founded by Gerald K. Mbabazi in 2012 with the express mission to allow farmers to earn better income on their coffee. The initiative began in the village of Kanugu, where local producers were only able to find local buyers at exceptionally low prices—sometimes less than $0.05 per pound. By offering training in order to improve farming and harvesting techniques, as well as building a cherry receiving station and installing modern processing equipment, Gorilla Summit Coffee was able to help farmers produce higher-quality coffee, and has helped bring this region of Uganda to the forefront of specialty coffee in the country.

In addition to higher overall prices for their coffee, farmers are also eligible for other livelihood-improvement programs such as educational opportunities for youth, diversification projects like chicken farming, and access to community health care.

These coffees are grown in an area near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and forest, a protected primeval forest that reaches elevations up to 2,600 meters.

Ethiopia- Grade 1 - Arsosala - Special Preparation
Region: Arsosala village, Uraga, Guji
Farmer: Various smallholder farmers delivering to the Arsosala washing station
Farm: Several cooperative members
Variety: Heirloom Ethiopian varieties grown at 1800 masl
Method: Washed
Notes: Sweet and mellow with lemon juice, jasmine, caramel and citrus fruit flavors.

Arsosala is a washing station founded in 2015 that currently serves about 1,200 smallholder producers in the Urga woreda of Guji.

Washed lots at this washing station are delivered ripe, depulped the same day, fermented overnight, and washed before being soaked/fermented underwater for 8–16 hours. Then they are washed again. The total fermentation time is between 48–72 hours. The coffee is dried on raised beds for 9–12 days.

Coffees in Ethiopia are typically traceable to the washing station level, where smallholder farmers—many of whom own less than 1/2 hectare of land, and as little as 1/8 hectare on average—deliver cherry by weight to receive payment at a market rate. The coffee is sorted and processed into lots without retaining information about whose coffee harvest is in which bag or which lot.

been buying from Eric for some time now. Great roaster. Light to medium—lets the coffee speak, not hidden behind char.

An always buy. Love the sourcing and the story behind these small growers. Like the second bag so I can revisit at a later date and keep the beans fresh.

Thanks guys–always love doing the WB coffees

Can’t access the cart (I also mistakenly ordered 2, but I can take care of that once I can access the cart). Maybe I need to create an account first?

In. Hoping that the roast leans toward the lighter side of medium/city, but sounds great - excited to try them.

I had to switch from Mozilla to Chrome and no problem. Also note code BD2021 is good for free shipping on your entire order if you want other coffees too (like me).

Did you have to create an account? I can’t seem to get to the cart.

Grabbed 2. one for me and one for a friend who is a coffee junkie. He will love these.
Thanks for participating.

Xavier

You should be able to do this without a account. We have gotten a few orders so I am not sure what is happening. If you click on the cart and/or checkout, where does it take you on the website?

Eric

I’m a tea person, not a coffee person, but this is right up my daughter’s alley - order in and I’m sure she’ll love these!

Jason

Yes to the lighter roast–i am an “anti” dark roast guy. If you want to hide flaws in coffee-- roast it DARK!!

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Eric - Coffees sound great and the story is amazing. Any sense of how long these will keep?

Xavier, I did not create an account. Used Chrome and placing order was smooth.

they are packaged in 1 way valve bags which allows the coffee to de-gas–and not allow air back in. While it wouldn’t promise 6 months, I have had some, similarly packaged, 45+days after roasting and it was still very good.

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Done. Just went to another browser that I never use. I’m generally on Firefox (work) or Safari (home). Looking forward to trying these! Eric, do you ever source beans from Yemen? Probably my favorite coffee.

Eric,

Will there be something in the box with the grower stories above, or do I need to copy and past them for my daughter?

And I second Xavier’s request for Yemen. Obviously difficult or impossible to source in the middle of a war, but it’s on my daughter’s “coffee bucket list.” Hopefully the war ends soon!

We will have coffees labeled but none of the story in the boxes. We’ll have to do that in the future boxes.

While I have never in our 25+ years of roasting had a coffee from Yemen, our importer has plenty of Yemen options. I’ll have to get some samples and give them a try. Thanks for the heads up about it!!

Eric

Order in. Excited to give these coffees a try.

So glad the coffee offer finally arrived!!! I’ve been running on fumes. Order in!