I'll never be a customer .

FWIW, that site might be violating the CoE wordmark, i.e., the actual CoE as you and I think about it will have the logo: https://cupofexcellence.org/logo-use/

I'm stocked up on my light roast beans for pourovers with all of the Africans from Sweet Maria's lately... can't wait to try that super floral Hambela Dabaye! Also bought some of the Kirinyaga Kamwangi, Nyeri Kagumo, Burundi Yeast Fermentation Yandaro and Colombia Urrao Heirloom Caturra, but with the descriptions I don't think I'll be pulling as many shots of those as I will be brewing them.

Are there any recommendations for espresso beans that I just can't live without? I'm getting down to my last couple of lbs of Brazilians and Colombians and am hoping to place an order for some good medium roast, chocolate/nutty/caramels for our morning cappuccinos. I haven't yet explored the world of Sumatra (other than Charbucks Sumatra way back in the day) and think that could provide some earthy, woody notes in small amounts to my blends, and the La Minita from Happy Mug sounds enticing.

Kenya Nyeri Gatomboya Peaberry is back at SM. I bought this last year and was quite impressed. This year's crop appears similar. Just passing along to anyone interested. Get it why you can!

I loved the Nyeri Gatomboya Peaberry last year. I've been drinking the Kenya Kirinyaga. It is still in stock, and is fantastic as well.

https://www.sweetmarias.com/kenya-kirin ... -7218.html

Got some of that and there's also a very limited washed Colombian from one of the farmers that usually makes up the collective lots sold as 'las Estrellas' (also I think their Colombian selection this year has had some really nice stuff)

https://www.sweetmarias.com/colombia-in ... -7159.html

I'm fielding this question from Milligan in the green/roast issues thread, arising from my observation that Ethiopian coffees available in Australia recently have seemed to be down a notch in quality from previous years:

Milligan wrote:I can corroborate here in the states that it can be hard to find a very fruit forward Ethiopian. I've had a box of samples from importers with various Ethiopians that I'm glad I sampled and didn't go by the descriptions.

luca, what regions do you find are putting out exceptional coffee right now compared to either their past crops or the coffee market in general? Anything that is at the top of your list that could help us zone in on regions that may not be as hard to get good results from? Thank you for this thread.

Exceptional is a big ask, so be realistic. Exceptional coffee doesn't come from regions or countries, it comes from particular producers.

I'm still buying a lot of coffee from Kenya, just I'm finding that it's 1-2 points lower in quality than in 2018-2019 and there's a much higher chance of buying things that are sigificantly worse. Kenyan coffee is still great, it's just that you can't just buy any random Kenyan coffee and be assured that for very little additional money you are going to get something that mops the floor with almost everything else. I have quite a lot of different green coffees around at the moment because I bought a tonne to try out but a huge amount are different Kenyan coffees.

If you like Kenyan coffees, I don't know much about Rwanda, but they seem to have at least some coffees that are processed in similar ways. I think that in Australia, the roasts of Rwandan coffees that I've usually bought commercially have, for some reason, focussed on trying to make them taste chocolatey and sort of like guats, but I'm learning that if you roast them differently, they can have kind of Kenyan type qualities, as in being scrupulously clean but yet having a good amount of fruit. I remember one very highly respected figure in the world of coffee tuning into an online virtual cupping and commenting, when it was revealed that one of the mystery coffees was a Kenyan, that he had never had a washed coffee with so much flavour and that he was sure it was natural processed.

Colombia has an incredible diversity of coffee and it seems like they can sell pretty directly fairly easily (at least relative to other countries). Lots of good coffee roasters seem to have multiple colombian offerings. There's lots of experimental processing happening, much of which I, personally, hate, but I respect that others might like those flavour profiles. And if buyers are willing to pay a significant amount of extra money because the producer had the cherries sit for a few days in a knotted off garbage bag, that's good news for all parties.

That's not an exhaustive list or anything, just a few ideas. And it's not based on what's available to me as a home roaster; it takes into account what I've tasted from commercial roasters.

olutheros wrote:why are they literally twice as expensive as everyone else

also lol they claim all their coffees have "Cup of Excellence scores" and list high numbers and it's pretty clearly a lie, like a rando espresso blend is $15 a pound and has a "Cup of Excellence Score: 87" which is literally not how CoE works at all

I checked with them on why their beans are more expensive compared to others, to which I was told it includes shipping, the 100% compostable beans are expensive than zip lock bags like sold by others, and beans are actually direct farm trade and high quality. I do agree that their cup of excellence scores are a bit confusing and I think they use the framework vs real score from the competition. After you incorporate shipping costs, I do think they have some good beans closer to competitors price if you buy on subscription price and 2 lbs or more.

Royal has posted a story about FAF on their website. And has a number of 'annexos' type offerings from the Croce projects in Brazil.

I like Bob o Link available from theta ridge and I remain interested in other FAF coffees and their ethos of sustainable land management.

TomC posted this a few years back Potential green coffee distribution Croce's Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza

Might there be another such distro?

Colombian Huila Manos Juntas Micromill Striped Red Bourbon Anaerobic Natural - Burman. Spiced hot chocolate, nuys, caramel, hints of black grapes quite lovely. More like a slightly exotic washed Colombian than an anaerobic. I expected this to be more fruit forward like the Natural from Manos Juntas Micromill so the spiced hot coco profile was a surprise. Having said that, I really enjoyed this espeically since there were no fermented or soy notes. Liked this so much that I placed another order for some more.

Dominican Ramirez Estate Natural by Burman won't won any cup of excellence awards. But if you want a coffee that smells like cookies baking, and tastes a bit like that too (cinnamon butter and apricots), this is it. The cup I'm drinking was roasted fairly light.