We held our breath and took the plunge on this gorgeous Anacafe! It was silly expensive, but sometimes you have to splash out to support good partners and get special things. Why is this coffee special, aside from tasting like raw cacao, raspberry syrup, and £20,000 Wray & Nephew rum? It's not only our most exotic-tasting coffee of the year, but the ethics of the thing are mega, too. Honestly though, it just tastes insane – but here are a few more reasons we love it as well:
1) Coffee from Equimite was the Mexican Barista Champion's coffee in last year's World championships, and we think this lot is even better than that one. Edilberto Zapata made it to the semifinals using this coffee, and it's pretty unheard of for a Mexican coffee to make it that far. Based on flavour alone, this is worth the price of admission.
2) Ensambles are one of our key importing partners/social value projects in Mexico. This coffee is from Gibran Cervantes' farm – and he's the founder of Ensambles!
3) El Equimite is a special farm. Gibran, together with his team, converted a 32-hectare farm from conventional agriculture/grassland to organic and then biodynamic in 7 years – while also earning the prestigious Demeter biodynamic certification for the past 6 years. El Equimite is also a private research centre for permaculture and specialty coffee. The knowledge gained at this farm by Gibran and his team is passed on to other farmers through consulting, and also to the Ensambles field coordinators who go there for 'best practices' training to then transfer to smallholders across the country (Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz). Specifically for us, buying this coffee helps subsidize the training of the farmers in Guerrero from whom we get our Guerrero lot, so it's a win-win!
All in all, we felt like if we were ever going to spring for a coffee this expensive, all the pieces were in place for this one. We hope you'll enjoy it too!
Elevation: 1200-1300 MASL
Varietal: Anacafe
Cup Score: 93
Price paid per kg: £33
Process: Anaerobic Natural
