Ok so the neext week will be telling you what wonderful gifts I’ve got. Perhaps I should put it to music.

On the first day of christmas my postman gave to me a Bemor in a pear tree.

On the Second day of Christmas my truck delivery driver gave to me a Sack of fine coffee

OK enough silliness. Back in the day (I’m turning so street 🙂 ), I had an epiphany moment. A moment where everything to do with speciality coffee seemed to make sense. Let me tell you the story.

There was time, now I look back I wasn’t happy with what we stocked coffee wise. There was a time in the start up days, where we were very similar in many many ways to every other re seller out there. We stocked Brazil Santos, Colombian Excellso and thought we were the bee’s knee’s. By the markets standards we were not so bad, roasting fresh and with care, but our range was limited and the quality I now know was no where near as good as we have today.

A very good friend of mine sent me a small sample of a Brazil coffee that blew my world apart. I didn’t realise coffee could be so good. This sample was Fazenda Cachoeira 100% Yellow Bourbon pulped natural from Gabriel Carvalho Dias. To this day this is still one of my favourite coffees and a bench mark for our whole range. Its consistency is one of its greatest assets, and I think this coffee is the reason for all our quality coffee today (and yes I’m more than happy with our range today).

I’ve been lucky enough to meet Gabriel on a couple of occasions and have exchanged emails with him. I’m sure he is absolutely petrified of me, as every time I see him I’m like a crazed teenager meeting a boy band, saying all the wrong things and being all excited. But something seems to have sunk in, as he and the importers have given us a UK exclusive on one of his best experimental lots grown on the farm. Its an old varietal that’s virtually been wiped out in Brazil as its very low yielding and difficult to grow. But as we have found out low yields have a link with high quality, and this one seems to prove this school of thought.

The gift side came in the form of Gabriel took the time and more importantly the effort to pop our logo on one of his finest lots of coffee. Sure I’ve had this before with cup of excellence coffee, but this seems to mean a little more to me, and I’ve been quite touched by it, a great gesture. It also made me think how far we have come from those early days of coffee buying and how important partners like our importers and like Gabriel are to us.

Cupping notes are Very very sweet, very very clean, big hit or caramel with wonderful balance. If your looking for a coffee to show how good single estate espresso can be here it is.

I’m still playing with the coffee’s profile so don’t expect to see it on the site until after Christmas, but guess what’s going to be on my Christmas table this year 🙂