Scenery Coffee

V3: Anoxic Washed, Typica, Heavy Roaster Influence - Best brewed with Espresso, Moka Pot, French Press
3 key notes: [Dark Chocolate, Hazelnut Brittle, Syrupy]

We roast on the lighter end of the spectrum and we've never hidden that, but we've always planned to complete the core range. Lightest, Light, Medium and now, finally, Heavy. This espresso is profiled entirely with traditional 9-bar 1:2 in mind, and a percentage of all sales will be donated to the Jerwood Space, a not-for-profit that subsidises rehearsal space for emerging theatre producers, writers, directors, choreographers and companies. By purchasing this espresso, you are directly helping the next generation of theatre practitioners access affordable, dedicated space to create their work.

We think a lot about the trilemma of green buying: out of cheap, ethical and high quality, you can only pick two. Here we're choosing affordable and ethical, sourcing from farms completing excellent ecological work, alongside buying the lower grade bulk production from producers already in our network. It's always frustrated us that speciality roasters will champion social good then only sweep in for the top microlot, leaving bulk production to the side. We've been guilty of this ourselves at times, and this espresso is our chance to make amends and become better partners with the producers with whom we work.

By shifting our focus from intrinsic cup quality (the hunt for sparkly acidity and intense aromatics) towards extrinsic value, the attributes that exist around the coffee rather than in it: who grew it, how the land is managed, and whether we're buying in a way that actually supports bulk production, we gain the space to lean into the flavours we add through a heavier roasting influence - roasting as a transformational value add.
This will not be some cheap, bitter & smoky afterthought - we intend to source and roast this with the same care and attention as everything else on the range, just pointed in a different direction.

We intend this to broadly be a single origin coffee, but future versions may also be blended.

V3:
When importers purchase coffee for "spot" (coffee that is available off the shelf, at the warehouse, to be bought at your leisure - much in the same way as you might purchase roasted coffee from this very platform) - they take on a risk that that coffee may not sell. The producers have been paid prior to export (in most cases! there are terrible exceptions to this) so the risk sits entirely on the importer that if a lot does not move, it will sit in a warehouse, racking up storage rent and financing fees, and eventually the season will move past it. This risk factors into the price - spot coffee is the most expensive option because you pay for that risk.
But small indie importers, especially those that are origin based/more exporter than importer - even with the prices factored in, the oft do not have the same deep pockets for risk and commercial channels to clear exposure that a gigantic multinational has, and often face much steeper rates for finance comparatively. It may be that having coffee on spot for too long can represent an existential risk; and a coffee that did not sell - and it could be for no fault of its own other than not enough of the right people even saw samples of it! represents a lower chance that that producers coffee get bought the next year - after all, it becomes a risky gambit.

With this latest Interval, we're helping Chacra coffee - a tiny, farm driven vertically integrated exporter/importer out of Peru clear some of their UK position. Fredis Rodríguez farms coffee in a region with extreme poverty; and was previously growing corn and maize with limited profits. Since moving to growing coffee as a cash crop, he has seen a significant improvement in income and support for his family, and it's indicative of the impact coffee can have - as a crop that can be dried and shipped for international export /relatively/ easily (compared to those that might need reefer containers, let's say), carrying value above and beyond fungible crops, it is capable of bringing measurable changes to peoples livelihoods in lower development areas that are suitable for growing it.

We think it's very, very easy at this point for a roaster to veer into a saviour narrative; so we should be very clear: Chacra have put in the hard yards finding and supporting producers in these extremely rural parts of Peru, and paid the maximum farmgate price and took the risk on to bring it to the UK - they are the one who is creating the impact. We're taking up a small part of that ensuring there was a buyer on the other end, because we think this coffee was delicious and perfect for the brief.

We're tasting:
Super chocolatey - we're tasting devil's food cake (think fudge & chocolate) with a syrupy body. In the finish there's a little dried fruit and hint of process character that reminds us of sherry soaked raisins, but the overall character is rich and low acid.

V19: 50% Nicaragua- CM Natural / 50% Costa Rica Trad Natural. Light Roaster Influence
3 key notes: [Black Forest Gâteau, Plum Jam, Apple]

Sourcing coffees that are exceptionally vibrant, bright and intensely expressive, then blending them together for a raucous cacophony of flavour. This blend will be an exploration of modern processing and vibrancy, a year round staple of intense fruit-forward notes. Coffee in full Colour, not just black and white.

V19: Originally planned for V18 but arriving a fortnight too late; we selected a fun field blend CM Nat from our pals The Good Sourcing. Produced at Bridazul by combining the output from 2 farmers and 3 farms (Eudoro has 2), this coffee was super funky, boozy tropical and full of bassy loud notes and syrupy body. A mite more chocolate/redfruit forward on landing, we had a few ways we could have approached pairing with this coffee. Our traditional blending approach might have been a bright, high acid or top note heavy washed coffee, oft with low body - a best of both worlds approach.

But we thought - why not double down. This traditional natural Caturra from Hacienda Sonora, an ecologically minded estate in Costa Rica (with 45 HA of shaded production with high biodiversity out of a total of 100, with a 35 HA wild forest reserve) was the most traditional of naturals - we found heaps of cherry pie, grape and milk chocolate in a slightly pulp-y forward cup. Doubling up the funky natties, when we worked on test blending it was a bit like when two waves combine to make a larger wave - constructive interference - where they're very complimentary of each other and the end profile is Loud, Fun, Natty AF and emphatically "Colourful" - perhaps a little lower acid than some versions have been, but then Colourful has never been about perfect consistency in flavour as much as it is consistency in concept.

We're tasting:
Aromatics of red & purple fruits - we're finding blackcurrant, grape, strawberry alongside dates and dried figs. In the cup it's super rich and dense, with a chocolate fudge cake sweetness, boozy cherry kirsch and vanilla chantilly as the dominant notes - much like a black forest cake. As it cools we're finding lime boiled sweets, spiced plum jam, and mulled apple cider.

Traditional Natural, Guatemala, Lightest Roaster Influence - Best brewed with Filter
3 key notes: [Jelly Beans, Tropical Juice, Daiquiri]

We're growing to love the profile of the naturals that come from Fredy Orantes' farm. This Gesha is surprisingly good for Guatemala - whilst it's not on the more floral end of the cultivar expression, it's suuuuper sweet and fruity and absolutely hitting the mark.

We're tasting:
Big purple fruit notes on the aromatics - we're getting turkish delight, grape and cherry gummy sweets. In the cup it's definitely process forward - we're finding strawberry daiquiri, cocoa butter, mixed tropical juice, with a syrupy body. As it cools becoming a little bit more open - we're finding super sweet notes of mixed jelly beans, watermelon, and a slightly herbal florality akin to mosiac hops.

Traditional Natural, Dega, Kurume, Wolisho, 74110, 74112, 74158, Medium-Light Roaster Influence - Best brewed with Espresso (or chunky batch)
3 key notes: [Choc Orange, Strawberry, Peach]

We took the QC team to the Nordic Approach spring cupping back in April, and let them pick out some lots for the offer. Marta, our head roaster picked the Chelbesa washed, and Charlotte our QC assistant picked Chelchele. We decided to run this as an espresso, hitting that classic Ethiopian natural profile with some interesting lift.

Delightful as a straight spro, where we've found this coffee really shines is in a milky.

We're tasting:
Big flavours as a straight spro - we're finding chocolate ganache and blood orange, morello cherry and honeycomb, and as it cools becoming like ripe strawberry, black tea and a hint of clove. In milk: this is where it shines, tastes like peach & vanilla jam

Yeast Inoculated Anoxic Natural, Wild Guji Megadu (local landrace), JARC 74112/74158, Lightest Roaster Influence - Best brewed with Filter & Turbo Espresso
3 key notes: [Macerated Fruit, Custard, Pét Nat,]

Our final special prep release from Megadu and we saved one of our favourites for last - we bought two of the "Yeast Frenzy" lots, having finished the nano "lacto" inoculated natural we're finishing with this wine yeast version. Every lot we've featured have all had a distinct "Megadu" profile (from the enzymatically released terpenes from the cherry pulp + the base precursors in the seeds), with the fermentation developing unique iterations of it - who needs James & Lucia ;) - in this case we find lots of yeast derived esters, higher alcohols and acetates, in a natty wine profile.

Comparisons:
The Static cherry was a nice baseline - more classic "wild/spontaneous" Ethiopian/Guji nat flavours with additional intensity, perhaps the most floral of the lot, lightest body.
Lacto natural [Lot D]- funkier/more acetic, heavy body
Carbonic macerated [Lot H] - boozy cooked fruits with spice complexity
Wine yeast [This one, Lot B] - boozy patisserie + citrus + stonefruit

We're tasting:
A big high energy process forward cup - we're finding pineapple, yuzu, and berry aromatics. In the cup it's boozy and mega sweet - we're finding it quite like a sabayon, with macerated summer fruits (raspberry, blackcurrant, blackberry) and boozy custard, alongside white chocolate. As it cools the process note evolves to the wilder and brighter fruity notes of a pét nat wine - with white grape, pear, apricot and nectarine, and the floral tartness of tiger lemon.