Best of '25
It's been a mad year. We've basically been running at walls since February, and I mean that literally as well as figuratively. We've expanded, stretched, and begged our way to building our own roasting facility. While all that's been going on, we've been working with some incredible partners and producers to present a deluge of diverse and delicious coffees... let's take a minute, round up the best of them, and give thanks to those who made it possible.
1. January
Honduras - Don Amado - Natural
Shout out to Sandra Trochez (pictured), Benjemin Paz, and Matt at Langdon Coffee Merchants for making this happen. Sandra’s story with Dom Amado is emotional and inspirational! This coffee was crazy, moving from tropical through to blackcurrant notes over the months we roasted it.
We finished the lot of in the Lighter Side of Life forum subscription. We've not done anything like that before; it was really cool to see everyone commenting and trying to guess the origin. It's got me thinking, maybe we'll do a discord for the webstore in the new year so you can give feedback and compare brews.
2. February
Rwanda - Bumbogo - Washed
This came from Raw Material and Muraho, but with Emmanuel Rusatira’s (pictured) fingerprints all over it. We loved this coffee, all apples all year. This was one of those coffees that just sparkled however we brewed it. If you judge a coffee by how much volume of it you can consume the Bumbogo probably takes the price for us in 25, you could just neck it.
3. March
Burundi - Masha - Honey
This coffee is basically what we mean when we say coffee isn’t Pokémon - a large washing station lot that slayed half of the fancy Colombians we cupped last year, it was all the berries! We bought the lot through Sucafina, and the station is operated by Greenco. With over a thousand smallholders contributing to lots, we’ll never know all the names of all those involved in production.
Pictured: 3 employees and drying tables at Masha CWS.
4. April
Colombia - Villamaria - Natural
One of Raw Material’s community projects, Villamaria is a big name for us. The station serves a community of farmers that previously processed their lots individually; by clubbing together at the station they benefit from better access to market and facilities, making large and consistent naturally processed lots possible. We'll probably try and pick it up again next year, their naturals are always right on that line between fruit and funk (I hate using that word to describe coffee), this year it was yellow tropical fruits with hint of booze.
Pictured: The flotation tank, station workers and Matt and Miguel from RM, this is the first stage of quality control at the station.
5. May
Indonesia - Sadayana - Anaerobic Natural
This one was insane. We never usually buy stuff without cupping (hence the name) but we got a tip off from a contact at Sucafina about this killer. Sadayana is a pretty new station in West Java, with around 200 contributing farmers. The goal is to diversify processing methods in the area, to maximise potential returns and overcome the rising issue of less predictable drying conditions. It was a total fruit bomb, dank and purple.
5. June
Colombia - Jose Elcias Martinez - Washed
We love this coffee so much! It was the first release from my trip to Colombia. Purchasing a coffee out there, receiving it in the UK, and profiling it for sale to our clients was a personal highlight of my career so far. It’s just the perfect example of everything we love about washed coffee, super clean, big juicy blackcurrant flavours. Jose Martinez (pictured) produced it, and we purchased it through Caravela Colombia.
7. July
Colombia - Linarco Rodriguez - AAA Honey
Another Pink Bourbon from the Colombia trip, selected on a visit to Caravela HQ in Bogota. It was a team favourite, which was a shame because we sold out of it fairly quickly thanks to @Grapefruit. It’s funny, I was dead excited to bring this lot home to show Harley, when I did he informed we’d already had a pink bourbon honey lot from the family, we had Linarco’s sister Maria’s release of it in 23, I just hadn’t made the connection. It was amazing, tasted like raspberry yoghurt and fizzy sweets.
Pictured: Linarco, Maria, and other members of the Rodriguez Ospinosa familia.
8. August
Colombia - Edinson Argote - SL-28
Everyone has been nuts for these coffees all year. Edinson (pictured) is a top shotta at the moment, setting trends and breaking rules, processing like he don’t give a damn. It was so fruity we were all a bit sceptical, wondering if it had been a cheeky secret co-ferment… then Jonny at Micafe sent us over the fermentation protocol. He messed about with it for about 2 weeks before drying, thermal manipulation, rehydration, yeast… it’s legit. It tasted like those cute little bottles of cherry wine.
9. September
Burundi - Butegana - Yeast Inoculated Natural
We’ve still got this on the list (just about). Harvests have been lower than anticipated in Burundi for the past few years (this year’s looking better) so the team at Greenco have been looking at ways to add value and improve expected the prices of larger lots, this is one of those ideas come to fruition. The addition of Cima yeast boosts the complexity and sweetness, pushing from the experimental to the extra-mental for a commercial scale CWS lot. It’s super complex with pineapple sweet cakes notes. We bought it from Sucafina.
Pictured: Yeast being added to a fermentation tank at Butegana CWS.
10. October
Costa Rica - Aquiares - Natural
We actually didn’t release it till November, but we’re drinking it and loving earlier. I think Natural Costa Rica’s are just the best coffees (I'm drinking a cup right now). You can forget everything we’ve ever said about other coffees, these just hit the spot, big body, chocolates, cherry berry sherry… if we get over ourselves we can all just admit that this is it. We scored this direct from Diego Robelo at Aquiares with an assist from Algrano on the finance and logistics.Pictured: Seasonal pickers from Panama, waving bills after receiving payment.
11. November
Colombia - El Fenix - Wush Wush
Miguel's (pictured) coffees have been wonderful. I really went in about visiting El Fenix in a blog that almost no-one read, lol. It’s an incredible project, from the incredible project that is Raw Material. This is the first of 2 Wush Wush releases planned, it’s a mosto inoculated washed process, and we’ve a natural to follow. It’s a hype variety and there no need to wonder why, it tastes like berries and nectarines with a big silky mouthfeel to boot.
12. December
Rwanda - Burenga - Anaerobic Natural
It wouldn’t be Cuppers if we didn’t sneak out a cheeky Rwandan natural to finish the year off. The Fugi AN was an absolute stonker, as the anaerobic lots always are from Emma, but this one is actually better. It’s the first lot we’ve released from Baho Coffee that’s not under the station name, and that’s because it’s a mix of their western lots (from Ngoma and Akagera). We put some faith in it, with Emmanuel assuring us this was the best way to get the profile we were looking for; it’s actually exceeded expectations. It’s super sweet with cherry notes, a fleshy ripeness that’s really hard to describe, and some bangin chocolate truffle/ganache notes to round it out. This one was a direct trade with Baho, with finance and logistical help from Sucafina.
Pitcured: Cherries being floated for QC at Akagera CWS.
