Here at Two Chimps Coffee, we ethically source our coffees from small farms and cooperatives all over the world.
At any one time, we have six single origin coffees to choose from, as well as two limited edition coffees. It is nice to have choice, isn’t it?
With our ever-changing limited editions, there certainly is that, and our limited editions are always unique and interesting!
Ethically Sourced Speciality Coffee
Ethically sourcing our coffee beans means that we buy through an importer who deals directly with the farm. We only ever use 100% arabica speciality coffee as it is the highest quality of coffee you can find.
Speciality coffee has to be graded to a certain level before it is given the prestigious title of being a speciality coffee. Firstly, the coffee cherries are picked by hand and only when they are ripe.
After picking, the coffee needs to be processed. If the process is a washed method, the coffee cherries are put through a depulper to remove the flesh before they are fermented to remove any excess sticky flesh.
To finish, the beans are laid out to dry naturally and turned by hand regularly to ensure they dry evenly and don’t rot.
On the other hand, if the process is a natural method, the coffee beans will be laid out to dry while still inside the coffee cherry. In both processes, once the beans are dried, they are hand sorted to remove any defects or impurities, such as damaged beans.
Coffee Grading
The coffee needs to be graded to be awarded a speciality title; this is done by Q-Graders. A Q grader is a certified coffee taster who has passed a recognised qualification in coffee tasting. The Q-Graders cup a sample of the roasted coffee beans at origin. They then score the coffee on several factors, including mouthfeel, acidity and aroma. Only if a coffee scores 80 points or above is it then classed as speciality coffee. Because of the care and time that has gone into growing, harvesting and processing our coffees, we pay between 30% and 150% more than the rate for commodity graded coffee.
Speciality coffee farmers may grow several different varietals of coffee on their farm. For example, often they’ll grow a main harvest of beans, along with several smaller plots planted with experimental varietals. These smaller lots are often known as micro lots. These smaller lots mean that they are more exclusive and rarer than their general harvest. This is exactly what we look for when we buy coffee for our limited edition coffees.
Due to the smaller harvest that is grown in a micro lot, we have been known to purchase the whole lot for one of our limited edition coffees. This means that we get full exclusivity of this crop, and you are getting a one of a kind coffee to try! How awesome is that?!
Limited edition coffees – where do they come from?
In short, anywhere. Well, anywhere that produces awesome quality speciality coffee that is. Our coffees come direct from the coffee farmers of small farms and cooperatives from around the world. Past limited edition coffees have come from Ethiopia, Honduras, Uganda and Kenya to name a few.
Take a recent limited edition coffee sourced from Honduras, for instance. This was grown by Francis Arturo Romero in Western Honduras, very near the border of Guatemala. Here, you can find the region of Corpan, and in Corpan, you will find Colque. At 1200 metres above sea level, you can find Francis’ farm, San Isidro III.
This coffee, produced by Francis at San Isidro III, has been processed using a relatively experimental technique known as a 90 hour macerated natural. For this process, the coffee cherries travel to the local mill, known as Aruco Mill. The climate here is more stable, making the drying conditions better for the coffees and less of a risk for farmers who may have coffee farms in an ever-changing climate.
At the Aruco mill, the coffee ferments in a sealed environment without access to oxygen for a total of 90 hours. Following this, they are laid out to dry in the same way a natural processed coffee would be; on raised beds or patios. This particular lot was laid to dry for 20-30 days, and turned hourly to assure even drying.
This outstanding coffee was produced during a challenging year. A huge amount of rainfall and a lack of workers to pick the coffee made harvesting in Colque very challenging. Regardless of these challenges, Francis Arturo Romero and his team have produced an excellent coffee for us to enjoy.
As well as our two ever changing limited edition coffees, we also source limited edition coffee for other events throughout the year. Like Christmas and Valentines day, as an example.
These are a perfect excuse for us to source something really tasty for you all to try. Our most recent Christmas coffee even tasted like Christmas!
We never use any additives in our coffee to create flavours. All of the coffee’s notes are naturally occurring due to the high quality of the beans.
Our most recent Christmas coffee was perfect. We interpreted the tasting notes for our Christmas Coffee to be: marzipan, spiced apple & Christmas cake – perfect or what?!
In order to get these flavours to shine through, we roast by hand and in small batches multiple times each week. Thanks to our extensive experience and knowledge of roasting, we know how to bring these naturally occurring flavours to life with a combination of time, temperature and development time.
We love to source and roast many different and unique coffees from all over the world. It makes us unique, and it gives you the opportunity to explore flavours that maybe you never knew existed in coffee.
Thanks to our great relationships with farmers and importers, and the short supply chain due to direct trade, it means that we can source new and exciting coffees. We get these fast before they run out and before anyone else gets their paws on them!
If you’d like to try our latest limited Edition coffees, then head over to our shop now.
Oh, and if you order before noon, we dispatch the same day too.
Meet the chimp behind this article!
Head Chimp founded Two Chimps alongside Laura in 2016 after being self-employed from the age of 21. He caught the coffee bug from using an at-home roaster, and the rest is history!
What Andy does outside of the treehouse:
When the weather’s nice, Andy loves going on bike rides with his trusty sidekick, microchimp Felix (who always leads the way, of course). Andy also enjoys spending time tending to the family’s vegetable garden, and looking after their at-home farmyard, which includes a cat, two guinea pigs, and six chickens!
Andy says…
“I believe every day is a school day, and I’m always looking for opportunities to stick my head in a book and absorb new knowledge. I also love a problem to solve and fix – there’s no such thing as problems, only solutions.”
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