If you are a Bright and Lively or Roaster’s Choice subscriber, you will be among the very first to taste a special offering from Ruby Coffee. Naturally processed specialty coffees have been gaining popularity over the years, but you haven’t seen one on Ruby’s menu…until now. We are pleased to introduce to you Ruby’s very first single origin natural processed offering. Ever. Get ready for Honduras Proyecto Cabanas Natural. “What’s changed”, you ask. “Why now? What is a natural processed coffee anyways?” I’m here to answer those questions.
Let’s briefly differentiate between a natural processed coffee and a washed processed coffee, the type of processing we offer most often. I have to preface this explanation by saying there are a lot of nuances and variations within these processes depending on the specific origin, and even the specific farm, and there are many other processes besides washed and natural, but I’ll define these two in the most generic terms. With a washed process, the fruit is removed from the coffee beans before they are dried. With a natural process, the fruit is left on the beans and dried intact, and then the dried fruit and parchment layer are removed. See? Pretty simple. What’s not simple are the dynamic smells and flavors that can result from well-controlled and meticulously monitored natural processing. As you might expect, the resulting coffee beans often taste intensely fruity.
This leaves the question of why we are excited to offer this particular naturally processed coffee, especially when we haven’t offered a single origin of this kind before. In the past, many of the naturally processed samples we’ve tasted have leaned a little too far towards wild and fermented types of flavors for us and many of our customers. But, as this type of processing has gained popularity, processing methods have improved to result in coffees that taste cleaner and offer more than wild flavors. This lot from Proyecto Cabañas in Honduras is one of those coffees, with lots of syrupy sweetness, and a booming strawberry taste.
Okay, okay, the Proyecto Cabañas is special, we get it. Let’s not forget about the Rich and Sweet offering this month, a lot named El Llano from the farm Cerro la Cruz in Costa Rica. This coffee is reliably smooth, chocolatey, and sweet, with no frills, which is how some of us like it. A cup of El Llano is an easy, gentle, delightfully simple way to start the day. Or revive your afternoon - whenever and however you enjoy your coffee. If the Proyecto Cabañas natural lot were a crazy adventure in the jungle, then El Llano would be your safe place, like cuddling up under a blanket on your couch at home.
Whether you’ll be receiving Proyecto Cabañas natural or El Llano from Cerro la Cruz, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
Happy February!
Emily, Lead Roaster