SPECIALTY INSTANT COFFEE

ORIGIN | EL RODEO, SAN MARCOS, TARRAZU, COSTA RICA

NOTES | CINNAMON SUGAR, CANDIED ORANGE, APPLE CIDER

We took some of our favorite single origin coffees and made them into instant coffee! We put as much care into our instant coffee as we do our roasting and produce everything in house. 

Take our instant and add hot water for instant coffee or even milk for an instant latte.  

This item comes with 6 pouches that make 1 - 8oz cup each

Description of Coffee | 

There are those of us who long for summer to go on and on forever, who actually dread fall as it threatens to take away our pool days and warm, sunny evenings. And then there is, well, the overwhelming majority of everyone else, who start buying up pumpkins and breaking out chunky sweaters the day after Labor Day. For these people - including yourself, I imagine - we are pleased to announce the arrival of our first Costa Rican cinnamon coffee of the season!

Esteban Zamora is no stranger to our menu - you'll recognize his name, and this uniquely processed coffee, from our offering list last fall. Esteban, a mechanical-engineer-turned-coffee-producer processes the coffee grown on his family's five-hectare plantation by hand! The process for fermenting a coffee anaerobically with cinnamon is tedious and long, but Esteban has sees it through beautifully.

Processing: First, fresh coffee cherries are brought to the wet mill where the fruit is pulped, but mucilage is not washed from the seed. Everything but the cascara (coffee cherry skin) is added to GrainPro bags and combined with 1 kg of cinnamon powder for every 46 kg of coffee cherries. This mixture is left to ferment in an anaerobic environment for six days before finally being moved to concrete patios to begin drying. This drying process is finished in stationary mechanical dryers at the mill because reactions between the cinnamon powder and the mucilage form a seal around the coffee seed, making it more difficult to dry and requiring the use of mechanical dryers. 

In the cup: The end result is a lovely, exceptional example of how cinnamon coffee can taste. The cinnamon note is - perhaps obviously - a pronounced one. But there's so much more going on in this cup! This coffee isn't merely warm and cozy; it's also vibrantly acidic, sweet, and complex. We experienced these characteristics as candied orange and apple cider. So, go ahead - you have our permission to break out the flannel, start a fire (even though it's probably 90 degrees in Raleigh today), and enjoy a cup of this fall-forward coffee from our friends in Costa Rica. 

Producer | Esteban Zamora

Farm | El Cedro

Washing Station | La Cruz Wet Mill

Process | Cinnamon Anaerobic

Variety | Caturra, Catuai

Elevation | 1600 - 2000 masl

SPECIALTY INSTANT COFFEE

ORIGIN | GEDEB, YIRGACHEFFE, ETHIOPIA

NOTES | GRILLED PEACHES, GRILLED PINEAPPLE, TOFFEE

We took some of our favorite single origin coffees and made them into instant coffee! We put as much care into our instant coffee as we do our roasting and produce everything in house. 

Take our instant and add hot water for instant coffee or even milk for an instant latte.  

This item comes with 6 pouches that make 1 - 8oz cup each

Description of Coffee | 

This (decaf!) coffee is really, really special to us - it's a project that's been in the works for a long time, and we are so excited to share it with you! Decaffinated coffee has long been maligned in the specialty coffee community, but recent breakthroughs in experimental processing methods have shown us that it IS indeed possible to enjoy a lovely cup of decaf coffee that maintains the majority of its origin characteristics - like a beautiful acidity and amazing sweetness, in the case of this lot from Halo Hartume.

Processing: The process which has made this possible is called Ethel Acetate Decaffeination. It's a fascinating and confusing science experiment, but at a very basic level: a sugar alcohol biproduct is used as a solvent to help dissolve the caffeine out of the coffee. Until now, we've really only seen this done successfully at a few processing plants in Colombia. When we heard about a plant in Germany that is experimenting with EA Decaffeination, we worked with our good friends at Atlantic Specialty to collaborate with them on this lot from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. In fact, as far as we know, this is the only EA decaf Ethiopian coffee available in the US right now!

In the cup: EA Decaffeination is the lowest-impact decaffeination process we've found, and we believe this lot in particular is an exceptional example of what is possible with this style of processing. In the cup, we taste delicious cooked fruits - grilled peaches and grilled pineapple, making us think of a tropical summer barbecue. This coffee also has depth to it, which we experience on the palette as toffee.

Whatever assumptions you may have made about decaf coffee up until this point, we hope you'll lay them aside and give this one a try. Many passionate, innovative hands and minds played a part in its journey from Halo Hartume in Ethiopia to a special processing facility in Germany, and finally to our roastery in Raleigh, North Carolina. We tip our hat to each of those hands, who are all playing a role in making exceptional coffee available to ALL people - including our fellow decaf drinkers.

Producer | Mijane Worassa

Process | EA Natural

Variety | various landrace

Elevation | 1900 - 2200 masl

SPECIALTY INSTANT COFFEE

ORIGIN | GEDEB, YIRGACHEFFE, ETHIOPIA

NOTES | GRILLED PEACHES, GRILLED PINEAPPLE, TOFFEE

We took some of our favorite single origin coffees and made them into instant coffee! We put as much care into our instant coffee as we do our roasting and produce everything in house. 

Take our instant and add hot water for instant coffee or even milk for an instant latte.  

This item comes with 6 pouches that make 1 - 8oz cup each

Description of Coffee | 

So many people want a half-caff option later in the day, but don't want to deal with the hassle of keeping regular and decaf beans on hand. So our Instant Team came to the rescue! We blended two excellent coffees from the Halo Hartume washing station in Ethiopia to produce a perfect afternoon pick-me-up that won't put you over the edge. The first coffee is a traditional washed Ethiopian coffee that brings those classic regional notes: brightness, acidity, and a touch of florals. The second is a naturally processed lot that has been decaffeinated with the EA process (more on that below!) which is sweet and delicious on its own. We're pretty proud of this combination, and we hope you will love keeping this lightly-caffeinated option around!

Processing: The Mijane family, who has been overseeing washing stations in the Gedeb region of Ethiopia for decades, have made it one of their primary goals to export fully traceable coffee from each community in Gedeb separately, helping to preserve the uniqueness of each lot. Mijane Worassa and his son, Daniel, manage the washing station at Halo Hartume where we picked up this incredible washed coffee. Here, the hand-picked cherries are de-pulped, fermented underwater for 24-48 hours, and then dried on African drying beds for 10-14 days.  

The decaffeination process which has made this blend possible is called Ethel Acetate Decaffeination. It's a fascinating and confusing science experiment, but at a very basic level: a sugar alcohol biproduct is used as a solvent to help dissolve the caffeine out of the coffee. Until now, we've really only seen this done successfully at a few processing plants in Colombia. When we heard about a plant in Germany that is experimenting with EA Decaffeination, we worked with our good friends at Atlantic Specialty to collaborate with them on this second lot from Halo Hartume. 

In the cup: EA Decaffeination is the lowest-impact decaffeination process we've found, and we believe this lot in particular is an exceptional example of what is possible with this style of processing. In the cup, we taste delicious cooked fruits - grilled peaches and grilled pineapple, making us think of a tropical summer barbecue. The washed component brings some brightness that can get lost during the decaffeination process, adding a hint of citrus in addition to the richer notes of toffee.

Producer | Mijane Worassa

Process | EA Natural | Washed

Variety | various landrace

Elevation | 1900 - 2200 masl