Sourcing well is mostly showing up — season after season, to the same washing stations, asking the same patient questions. This year that meant three weeks in the Guji zone, cupping through hundreds of samples to find the handful of lots worth roasting.
Why we keep going back
The easy way to buy coffee is from a spreadsheet. The good way is in person, standing on the drying beds, learning how a producer made the decisions that shaped the cup. Relationships, not transactions, are what get us the best lots and let us pay above market with confidence.
You cannot taste a relationship in the cup — but you can taste everything a good one makes possible.
From cherry to bag
The lot that became this year's Ethiopia Guji was picked ripe, floated to remove defects, and dried slowly on raised beds for around three weeks, turned by hand through the heat of the day. That patience is why it tastes the way it does: wild blueberry, jasmine, and a long cocoa finish.
- Hand-picked at peak ripeness
- Floated and sorted for density
- Slow-dried on raised beds, 18–24 days
- Rested, then shipped in GrainPro
By the time it reaches your grinder, dozens of hands have already made careful choices. Our job is simply not to waste them.
