A coffee is not summed up by a country. It is understood through an altitude, a variety, a process and a pair of hands. This page brings together the fourteen terroirs of the KÚPS selection and serves as a starting point for navigating between them.
Why origin changes everything
Four factors explain most of the differences in the cup.
- Altitude. The higher a coffee tree grows, the more slowly the cherry ripens, and the more sugars and acids concentrate. That is what produces the most complex cups.
- Variety. Bourbon, Typica, Geisha, SL28: each variety has its signature, much like a grape.
- Processing. Washed, natural or somewhere in between, it radically transforms the result. We explain it in this article.
- The producer. A cooperative rigorous about sorting and drying does more for quality than any marketing claim.
The Americas
This is the best represented region in our selection. High altitudes, old arabicas and a strong washed-coffee culture make for cups that are clean, balanced and easy to read — an excellent way into specialty coffee.
Nine coffees: Pangoa, Geisha and Yellow Bourbon from Peru; Palanda from Ecuador; Kitché from Guatemala; naturally dried Majahual from El Salvador; Extra Tarquino from Cuba; decaffeinated El Triunfo from Mexico; and Blue Mountain from Jamaica, the highest scored lot in the house at 88 points.
See the coffees of the Americas
Africa
East Africa is the birthplace of arabica, and it retains a genetic diversity found nowhere else. The profiles are recognisable among all others: floral and tea-like in Ethiopia, dense and brightly acidic in Kenya.
Three origins: Ethiopian Galesh, Kirinyaga from the slopes of Mount Kenya, and Ugandan Zomboambe.
Asia
Two opposing traditions. In Yemen, coffee has been grown on terraces for centuries and dried as whole cherry, giving deep, spiced, almost wine-like cups. In Java, Indonesia, the aim is body and a rounded, woody character.
Two coffees: Alchemy Wadi Jannat and Kayumas.
Where to start
If specialty coffee is new to you, take a washed Latin American: it is the most legible profile for learning to spot acidity, body and length in the cup.
If you are after fruit and indulgence, go towards a natural. If you want the rarest the selection has to offer, our exceptional coffees bring together our four most remarkable lots.
In every case, brewing matters as much as the bean: our extraction guidelines will save you the most common mistakes.