Calmer than a Banana

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

If you want to know more, see our brew guides for making coffee.

In the 1850s, El Salvador became one of the world’s top coffee commercialised producers. However, nowadays, the country has shifted its focus to quality over quantity, with more than 70% of the coffee being sold at a premium, showcasing the unique flavours and care that go into every cup.

For six generations, the Aguilar family has been producing coffee from their land on the slopes of San Salvador Volcano. The estate spreads across almost 160 hectares at varying altitudes between 1,250 and 1,700 meters. The top of the farm sits at the highest point, which is unusually high for El Salvador but leads to superior coffee to be grown.

These beans are specially grown on a microlot from a unique single varietal called ‘Kenia,’ which is a Salvadorian twist on the traditional SL Bourbon variety from Kenya. Before the cherries are harvested, their sugar content is checked with a brix reading. This helps ensure the fruit is just right for picking. If the reading shows a sweet spot between 24 and 29, it’s time to go! You can also tell they’re ripe by their beautiful rich red-purple colour.

Every coffee is ‘cupped’ to determine its quality score. Here at Two Chimps Coffee, we only source and roast speciality coffee. In other words, we’re only interested in coffees that gain a score of 80 points or above. Q Graders score each coffee on a number of factors, including its taste, aroma and mouthfeel. Not sure what coffee cupping is? We have a page all about it – get clued up on coffee cupping right here.

We never ‘over roast’ our coffees – nor will we ever need to! We use the roasting process to bring out the natural flavours and aromas of the coffee, rather than following in the footsteps of most commodity roasters and masking unwanted tastes by roasting too dark. Overroasting replaces every flavour, good and bad, with burnt, bitter tastes. Not what you want for a standout cup.

We only ever start with high-grade beans, so have no need to overroast and hide yucky flavours. Instead, we can roast to showcase each coffee in its full light.

We’re proud to say that our coffees will never taste the same as each other. Some have naturally occurring chocolatey notes, while others have mentions of fruit. We owe the opportunity to roast awesome coffee to the coffee farmers and workers who grew them. So to them, we say thank you.

When you are happily sipping on our speciality coffees, you can rest easy knowing:

• Your brew has been ethically sourced via a short supply chain
• The coffee farmers who grew this coffee have been paid 30 – 150% more than the standard ‘going rate’
• You are supporting a small carbon-neutral company
• This coffee supports vital movements and programmes to better the coffee industry

Your little bag of coffee is changing lives. High five!

There is nothing calmer than a banana – agree? This is the perfect wind-down brew 🙂