Alpaca Lips – Sample

While this coffee tastes awesome in every device, our favourites are an espresso machine, Aeropress & moka pot.

Head over to our brew guides for making coffee for more.

All of our coffees come to us from small farms and estates. This means that when a coffee has been harvested, processed and drunk, it has gone for good.

With our other coffees, we aim to swap coffee every 8-12 months. With this limited edition, this will change more frequently, most likely every 3-4 months.  The coffees available as limited editions will be interesting and diverse in flavour to each other and will not necessarily follow a pattern of flavour.

If you are looking to try new coffees every few months or so, then this could be for you.

This coffee comes from Mondul Estate, a 211-hectare farm on Mondul Mountain, 25km from Burka town in Tanzania’s Arusha region. Established in 1931 and acquired by Burka Estates in 2007, the farm employs 200 permanent staff and 200 additional daily workers.

During the busy harvest seasons, up to 5,000 seasonal workers are hired to assist with picking and processing. Permanent staff receive on-site accommodation across Burka, Selian, and Mondul Estates.

Their base salary is at least 20% above the government minimum, and benefits include social security and Labour Union membership. The Estate credit union also offers loans and advice for education, healthcare, and home construction, ensuring a higher quality of life for the staff.

To determine the quality score of a coffee, a process known as cupping is used. Trained tasters known as Q graders will taste the coffee and score it dependant on a number of factors. A score of 80 points or higher is required to gain a speciality title. If it scores lower, it doesn’t make the grade. Fancy giving it a go? Read our guide about coffee cupping to learn more.

When we roast our coffees, we like to bring out and enhance their natural, amazing flavours. We don’t over roast any of our coffees, so we avoid any burnt or bitter tastes. The coffees that we roast are full of many natural flavours, it would be a shame to mask these or turn them into bitterness.

Some of our coffees will be very sweet and creamy, and others will be delicate and almost tea-like. We are thankful for the hard work and care that the coffee farmers put into growing these beans and want to do them proud when we roast their beans. We always aim to find a great selection of coffees and flavours that stand out from the rest.

Roast Style: Medium

Location: Arusha, Mondul Mountain

Varietal(s): Blue Mountain, Kent, KP423, N39, Red Bourbon

Processing: Natural

Altitude: 1600-1800 metres above sea level

Country: Tanzania

Produced by: Mondul Estate

Certification: Speciality

Score: 83.5

What does this all mean? Check out our Jargon Buster.

The coffees that we choose are ethically sourced from small farms or single estates around the world. We purchase the best coffee and pay much more than the going rate price to the farmers – so when you buy coffee from us, you are in turn, helping the farmers. In fact, we pay between 30 and 150% more than the ‘going rate’ for coffee beans. This supports the farmers in their crop, their development and also ensures they have sufficient living conditions for them and their families.

We also keep the chain between the farmers and us as short as possible. A shorter chain means more of the money will make it to the farmer and their workers to spend on next years crops. So, all in all, buying one bag of coffee can make such a difference – thank you!

Have you ever heard of an apocalypse? Well, get ready for something a little more fun: an ALPACAlips!