Let's Brew 'HARMONY'!

We are excited to officially launch our new HARMONY Blend today!

We’re so grateful to each of you who participated on the naming process, and voted - ‘Harmony’ ended up winning by a large margin, and we’re thrilled to be - for the very first time in our history - naming a blend collectively with all of you, our Ethos family! We’ve combined three very special coffees in this blend: Poaquil Natural (our wonderful chocolatey, fruit-forward, high-impact, Guatemalan bourbon), Rio Coco (our nutty and sweet women-farmed ‘Cafe Femenino’ from Nicaragua), and an extra creamy Natural from the APROCEM Co-Op in Sul de Minas, Brazil - sourced for this blend!

The result is a complex cup with layers of fruit, hints of caramel, and a sweet, clean finish - that shines on both Espresso and filter methods like Pour-Overs, and Drip (aka. your good old coffee maker!). We hope “Harmony” adds a little more adventure to your coffee ritual this year, and we can’t wait to hear from you as you put it to the test on all your favorite methods! As a three-bean-blend, it is extremely versatile, so we highly encourage you to try it on as many forms as your heart desires!

Also, it is almost time for our 2021 RE: Summer Series! (i.e. our technical newsletter series we publish from June-August every year)… and we would love to hear if there’s any question you’d like us to deep-dive in! While we’ve previously covered general brewing principles, health benefits of coffee, and a variety of methods (from Cold Brew to Espresso), we would love to get to answer more specific questions from you this year! We promise our responses will always be well-researched and aimed at bringing your coffee expertise to a new level! (which we realize will be challenging, as some of you are already in the top 1% of most savvy coffee drinkers!). We’ll address your questions on the next three monthly newsletters, so if you think of anything between now and then… please send them to lisbeth@ethosroasters.com!

Oh, and if you’re in the area, we’ll be brewing Harmony (pun 100% intended!) every Saturday at the Downtown Lakeland Farmer’s Market for the next few weeks, so come say hi!… we truly can’t wait to finally see your wonderful, happy faces again!

Jolian & Lisbeth

PS. We’ll also be including Harmony samples on ALL your boxes for the next two weeks! We understand not everyone is close, or is ready to venture out, so no worries - your now fully vaccinated Ethos production team will ALWAYS be happy to ship your freshly roasted coffee to your door!

RE: Coffee Processing: Washed + Honey + Natural Demystified!

You have probably seen the terms ‘washed’, ‘honey’, and ‘natural’ in our coffee descriptions, yet we thought a more in-depth explanation would make it a little more meaningful - and take your coffee connoisseur game to a whole new level!

First, some context on ‘Coffee Processing’ - this is the crucial step that transforms coffee cherries into “green coffee” that’s ready to be exported/imported/roasted! ALL coffees - yes, ALL coffees - must be processed before we can roast them! Otherwise, we would be trying to roast a ‘coffee fruit’, not a ‘coffee bean’ (technically, a coffee seed). Specifically, we need to remove three main layers (from the outside in) to get to our precious seeds: (1) pulp or exocarp, (2) mucilage or mesocarp (a sticky layer high in sugars), and (3) parchment (a papery layer protecting the seed).

There are three main processes worldwide : (1) Washed or Wet Process, (2) Honey (and variations), and (3) Natural or Dry Process. And it is when the layers are removed that makes all the difference!

Washed coffees get the first two layers, pulp and mucilage, removed as soon as possible after harvest. This is achieved by mechanically de-pulping and throughly ‘washing’ the coffee beans, and leaving only the parchment layer during the drying process (which can be under the sun, using mechanical dryers, or a combination of those two). Once beans are dried to ~12% moisture, they’re milled to remove the parchment layer and packed in 60-70 kg bags for export. This is the most popular method for Specialty coffees, as it yields incredibly clean, consistent, well-balanced cups. The highest scoring coffees worldwide are typically washed.

Honey coffees are characterized by the partial removal of the first two layers (pulp and mucilage), always leaving some pulp and mucilage around the seed to ‘ferment’ during the drying process. Depending on the amount of pulp/mucilage left, you may have a ‘Yellow Honey’ (no pulp, little mucilage, short fermentation, closer to a Washed), a ‘Red Honey’ (some pulp, most mucilage, medium fermentation), or a ‘Black Honey’ (most pulp and mucilage, long fermentation). ‘Honeys’ are very labor intensive, as they require constant monitoring and care during the weeks-long fermentation/drying under the sun. They’re also risky, as the whole harvest could be lost in an uncontrolled fermentation (i.e. yielding rotten, alcoholic, or medicinal notes). Yet, they can also yield amazing, sweet, complex, unique fruit flavors!

Natural coffees are dried with all layers! This means they’re dried as a fruit, under the sun or a combination of sun drying with mechanical dryers. Dried fruits are then ‘milled’ to remove all three layers (pulp, mucilage, and parchment) and coffee is packed for export. This is the most common method for Brazilian coffees, yet, it’s worldwide popularity has risen in recent years. It leads to sweeter, fruitier, and more full-bodied cups (vs. Washed), yet, as in the Honey process, there’s always the risk of an uncontrolled fermentation due to the high sugar content during drying.

We have excellent examples of all 3 processes currently online: try Poaquil or Kenya AA vs. Los Pinos (yellow honey) vs. Red Honey vs. Yirgacheffe, for example! We’re also working on some exciting new additions on this front with our ‘Poaquil’ partners! (we’ve been secretly experimenting for the past 2 years to bring something really unique to you… hopefully in just a few months!)

I hope this was insightful… and left you a little inspired to try something new!

Always incredibly grateful to get to roast for you, and Brew Greatness in the world with you,

Lisbeth

PS. We’re so excited about our Guatemala trip next year!!! We have a few spots before we hit our maximum number of people for the trip (which we would love to do, as we probably won’t do another one for a while!). The penalty-free deadline has been extended to 7/24… if you feel called, join us!