Rwanda Nyamasheke Karengera

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During our travels last year, we had one of the most delicious cup from a Rwandan bean - Rwanda Musasa, roasted by HAS Bean. Since then, we have been on the lookout for interesting beans from Rwanda. This East African country has great altitudes, rich volcanic soils and an abundant labour force for coffee farming. Though coffee has always been a staple export in Rwanda, the country was never a player in the specialty coffee market. Over the past decade, there has been an impressive turnaround in quality. Through the work of several international development projects, foreign aid came in to kick-start a specialty coffee industry by building new coffee washing stations, organising farmers into cooperatives, and training local farmers, cuppers, and agronomists on quality. Since then, the coffee industry began to blossom & flourish in international markets.

This new coffee is from Karengera, a coffee washing station in southwestern Rwanda. The town and mill of Karengera is in the Nyamasheke district that lies near Lake Kivu, and the borders of Burundi and Congo. This is a Bourbon varietal, wet-processed coffee. We have been previewing this bean for the past 2 weeks as our daily brew offering. This weekend, we are pleased to finally roll out this bean on our bean rack.

This coffee reminds us of the inherent flavour characteristics of African beans. In the cup, we get berries with hints of lemony zest. Floral aromas at the beginning, followed by juicy strawberries & blueberries. This is a very clean cup. Sweetness comes through as it cools. We like brewing this with the Kalita wave dripper to highlight further the floral notes & clean finish. With the aeropress, the juiciness is further enhanced. Drop by for a cup & get a bag from our rack before it runs out. Limited stocks only.

New El Primero

Introducing the latest revision of our popular El Primero blend, a new take of the original classic when we first launched with the opening of our retail/roastery shop. Out goes another of our favourite coffee Finca El Carmen from El Salvador, to be replaced by another carefully sourced bean from Finca La Escondida from Nicaragua. Together with our trusty Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza from Brazil, we are really excited that our seasonal espresso is now 100% direct trade and sourced directly from our partner farms.

In this cup, honey and caramel sweetness flows through the moment you take your first sip. Red cherries on a syrupy body dominates, lifted by a soft grape-like acidity and finishes cleanly with lingering hints of toffee and cacao. We are very happy with this new creation and reckon it will be here to stay for a while. Come by and let us know what you think!

New coffee: Finca Los Placeres Pacamara

Some of you might have had a preview of this new coffee at our shop recently, Los Placeres. This single origin, single varietal fresh crop coffee comes from our latest direct trade import from Nicaragua. Its name means ‘the pleasures’ in Spanish. This is definitely an apt name for its cup profile, one which got us to discover the simple pleasures of an everyday cup.

How we came about this coffee traces back to our travels last year which started with New York, a city that meant a great deal to us for the inspirations behind Nylon. While coffee crawling in the Big Apple city, we found out about a coffee event at a then new restaurant, Vandaag. It was a free tasting event with well-known names from Scandinavia, including Casper Rasmussen of Coffee Collective (Denmark), Tim Wendelboe himself (Norway, 2005 WBC champ), Tim Varney (Roaster @timwendelboe) and Stephen Morrissey (Ecco Cafe/Intelligentsia). An opportunity to taste coffee from the Nordic roasters was like an early X'mas gift for us. The experience was priceless. We had the most amazing v60 pourovers from Tim Wendelboe, Coffee Collective and Ecco. Besides having a chance to connect with these roasters and world-class baristas, we also got to speak to Steve Mierisch, who works for Intelligentsia. Steve is a member of the Mierisch family, who has been farming in Nicaragua for over 100 years. We chatted with Steve about our upcoming trip to Central America, and he was so kind to offer to connect us with his sister, Eleane, who might be able to show us around their coffee farms if our schedule permits.

Unfortunately, we did not get to visit the Mierisch farms, but we did get a chance to visit a small coffee farm in Matagalpa to learn more about the local farming and processing operations through a small cooperative, CECOSEMAC. Fast forward to November, we traveled to Seoul to attend the International Cafe Show, where coincidentally, we met Erwin Mierisch, brother of Steve, at the trade show! We were thrilled to meet the farmer himself and shared with him our encounter with Steve & the beautiful coffees we had from their farms, Finca Limoncillo and Finca La Escondida.

Our brief run-up with Erwin helped to lay the path towards the start of a direct relationship with the producer. We were initially worried that given the volume constraints we have as a micro-roaster, they might not be able to work with us. However, our worries were unwarranted as the Mierisch family are truly supportive of working directly with roasters. So despite our “mini” size, they sent us a bunch of samples that cupped very well. We selected 3 farms of different varietals, each with characteristics that we thought are interesting to share with our customers.

One of which was Los Placeres, which blew us away the first time we cupped this coffee, for the explosion of flavours. The bean varietal, Pacamara, is a hybrid between 2 varietals - Pacas and Maragogype. This giant bean type is quite a nut case to crack when we test roasted the new arrivals with different roast profiles. We finally pinned down a roast profile which brought out the intricate citrus & fruity notes ending off with a chocolate finish. We love it being super clean and balanced, with hints of honey and caramel as the cup cool. We think this is a very pleasing “everyday” cup of brew and the pleasant body will attract many more fans.

We have started brewing Los Placeres in the shop and it is definitely becoming a crowd pleaser. It works particularly well on the Kalita and Clever dripper and is recommended as a filtered coffee only.

National Day Popup with Sadie Rose

09.08.2012 :: 0930 - 1430

The gals from Sadie Rose are back again on National Day with their fresh and delicious bakes! Come in your reds & whites, flags and anything & everything patriotic; to celebrate Singapore’s birthday together…with some lovely pastries and coffees!

And be sure to check out our new refreshed El Primero seasonal espresso blend, pulled from our beautifully restored GS2. See you then!

Ethiopia Kochere

This delicious coffee comes from the Teklu Dembel washing station, located near the Ch'elelek'tu town in the Kochere Woreda (“community”) of Yirgacheffe. This lot was contributed by approximately 600 small-holder farmers, with altitude ranging from 1800m to 2000m.

This is probably one of the most interesting Yirgacheffe coffees we have tasted. When we cupped it, the intense aromatics and citrusy flavours wowed us from start to end. The aroma is lusciously floral with hints of bergamot and honey. We taste citrus peels, lemon grass, tangerine and blueberries (especially when it cools). A delicate tea-like body doesn’t take away the incredible caramel sweetness that emerges with every sip make this an unforgettable cup experience.

We feel this beautiful coffee works best as a brewed coffee. The intense aromas together with the harmony of floral and fruity flavours make this cup a feast for your senses!

• Location:Kochere, Yirgacheffe 
• Varietal:Heirloom varietals
• Process:Wet-processed
• Altitude:1800m-2000m

This is a very limited run of this coffee so make sure you grab a bag to try or drop by soon for a cup to taste!