Welcome to the October 2024 edition of For The Love of Coffee. A blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.
October’s featured coffee will be one of Vienna Coffee’s best offerings, the one and only Highlands Blend! This coffee has long been a customer favorite and one of our top sellers. The combination of beans used in the blend creates a wonderfully satisfying cup of coffee perfect for any season. Let’s take a closer look at what goes into this unique blend.
Highlands Blend is comprised of four excellent coffees, each of which makes an exceptional cup of coffee in its own right, but when blended something truly magical happens! The largest component, which makes up 50% of the blend, is one of our relationship coffees - Finca San Jeronimo. As many of you probably already know, this coffee comes to us through our Deeper Roots family who have been working closely with the Brassani family in Guatemala for many years. Their coffees are meticulously cultivated through every stage of planting, harvesting, production, and shipping and contributes the largest “flavor factor” in the blend providing notes of dark chocolate, black cherry and almond.
Les Stoneham talks with Finca San Jeronimo’s third-generation owner, Georgio Brassani about how they are are combating leaf rust on their coffee farm using natural methods.
The second coffee featured in Highlands Blend which accounts for 25% is the consistently clean and balanced taste of Costa Rica. This coffee comes from a large coffee-growing region called Tarrazu where some of the best coffees in Costa Rica are grown at an altitude of 1,220 Meters, or 4,000 feet above sea level! This high altitude makes for slow development resulting in more density and natural compounds in the bean, resulting in a coffee with wonderful balance, clarity and subtle notes of brown spice and pear.
The third and fourth coffees that complete Highlands Blend each come in at 12.5% of the total. They are Colombia Tolima and Tanzania Mwika. Both of these exceptional coffees come through our Deeper Roots connection and serve to complete the overall complexity and balance in the cup. Colombia Tolima provides rich notes of maple and cocoa nibs, and some amazing caramel and citrusy notes from the Tanzanian resulting in a delicious and lingering finish to the coffee.
A fresh bag of Colombia Tolima sits in the roastery at Vienna Coffee waiting to be blended into the next batch of Highlands Blend.
Above: A sense of pride is common in the people of the Mwika Cooperative in Tanzania.
Below: Some of you may remember the images from a few month’s back, when Tanzania Mwika was our featured coffee, of the new and improved washing tanks that Deeper Roots was instrumental in helping the farm acquire and complete.
Highlands Blend will be rolling out to the coffee bar soon, and each of you will be receiving a 4oz sample to take home and enjoy. We will also be doing some cross-promotion with Maryville College as well as they celebrate their Homecoming October 25th - 27th. Go Highlanders!
Stay Caffeinated,
Matt