Monthly Subscription Letter - October

Hello Subscriber (or Curious Friend), 

If you're reading this, your October coffees have arrived, or will very soon! This month wraps one full year, 12 months of subscription mailings. If you've been with us for the entire year, you've tried over 24 different coffees from about 20 different roasters. We have a lot of fun sourcing coffees for this subscription and being able to introduce you to some of our favorite and lesser known roasters, roasting amazing coffee from all over the world. We've recently made some new and exciting changes to our website to expand our lineup of coffees for purchase, but this subscription will remain as a more exclusive and hyper curated window into the world of specialty coffee. We thank you for being with us on this journey and hope you'll continue forward with us as we uncover more great coffees/roasters together in the year to come!

 

Man vs. Machine [Munich, Germany]

I first discovered Man vs. Machine years ago through social media. Some of our favorite roasters are out of Germany, with most being based in Berlin. Man vs. Machine was established in 2014 in the southern city of Munich, roasting on a vintage Probat, which are manufactured in nearby Hamburg. They consider themselves a quality driven micro-roaster, supplying Michelin Star rated restaurants and award winning bars throughout Europe.

The first coffee included in this month's box is El Tosoro from Colombia. We've brought coffee from other roasters in the past. This is a Tabi lot, which is a hybrid of Typica, Bourbon and Timor hybrid, which is more resistant to leaf rust but also carries with it hallmark tropical fruit notes.

FOUR COFFEE SUBSCRIBERS: The second coffee we included from Man vs. Machine came highly recommended by their sales representative - Bombe, a Natural process Ethiopia Sidamo. The development on this coffee provides some much appreciated balance in such a fruity coffee. We figured this was a nice contrast to the washed Colombian.

 

Jacu [Ålesund, Norway]

A friend living in Norway recommended that I check out Jacu, a smaller roaster that may be less known outside Norway, but has an outstanding reputation in its homeland. Jacu has been roasting since 2011 and takes a fairly straightforward approach: source great beans, roast great coffee. As a roaster myself, I value this simple approach: Find interesting, tasty green coffee and roast it to highlight its natural attributes without imparting too much flavor via the roast process.

I was especially excited to find that Jacu was buying coffee from Tade, the same Ethiopian producer we brought in from Solberg & Hansen a couple of months ago. So, if you were a subscriber in August, you'll recall how this coffee tasted. I think its always interesting to compare two different roaster's takes on the same beans. 
FOUR COFFEE SUBSCRIBERS: Again, with juxtaposition being the goal, I like that Jacu also bought a natural process lot from the same producer. This way you get another comparison of washed to natural process, this time with the same coffee. This is the best way to illustrate how process effects flavor. Which do you prefer, the washed or the natural (Bærtørket)?
 

Enjoy!

We hope you enjoy exploring this month's coffees. This group is a community and we encourage engagement and discussion. You can always reach out with questions or for brewing tips. And don't forget to share/tag on social media and let us know what you think of the coffees. If you celebrate it, have a spooky and safe Halloween, friends! 

Best,
Charlie Eisenstat, Owner & Curator 

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