One Coffee, Three Ways: An Exploration of Processing

Caravan Coffee Roasters launches a special coffee tasting trio looking at how coffee processing can impact flavour

Caravan Coffee Roasters are delighted to announce the launch of their latest coffee from Finca El Fénix in collaboration with Raw Material, a social enterprise coffee importer and long-term partners of Caravan.
The El Fenix Tasting Set is an exploration of the unique flavours created by processing technology. Using three distinct methods to take the coffee from cherry to bean, we’ve isolated all other variables from this lot in order to examine how processing itself impacts flavour.

This is a very rare opportunity to taste the impact of this lesser understood aspect of coffee farming, and to appreciate just how amazingly diverse even just one coffee can be.

About El Fénix:
Finca El Fénix is a multi-use farm and community wet mill in Quindío, Colombia, founded and run by our close partners, Raw Material, a social enterprise coffee importer. In 2016, Caravan supported the buildout of El Fénix's wet mill by sponsoring eight lots of coffee: from which this coffee was harvested. Since inception, the aim of El Fenix has been to support producers in the local community, by offering higher, stable and transparent pricing for coffees, as well as by offering training and support for everything from how to raise rare coffee varietals to advanced processing methods and access to specialty markets.

About Coffee Processing:
In coffee, when we speak of processing, we are typically discussing the methods used to take the product from its original form – a seed inside a cherry – to dried, export-ready beans which can survive the long journey to their final destination. To do this, farmers and mill workers turn to many different forms of technology, often based on the terroir of the region where they are located, their access to resources such as fresh water and electricity, and the cultural contexts in which they live.

The El Fenix Tasting Set:
This tasting set comprises of three x 80g tins of whole bean coffee, processed in the washed, honey & natural style. Because the coffee is all the same varietal (Tabi) and harvested from the same lot, on the same farm, in the same week… the differences in the cup are overwhelmingly due to the differences in processing technique.
Washed Process: Depulped cherry fermented in fresh water before drying on raised beds for 14 days.
Tasting notes: Pink fruits, floral, black tea, custard

Honey Process: Depulped cherry with fruit pulp still attached, laid to dry on raised beds for 14 days.
Tasting notes: Red apple, condensed milk, apricot, sweet baking spice

Natural Process: Ripe, intact cherries, sorted for impurities and laid to dry on raised beds for 14 days.
Tasting notes: Blackberry jam, crème caramel, mango, treacle

Pricing
Available to buy at: www.caravancoffeeroasters.co.uk - £18 (3 x 80g whole bean)
Direct link: https://www.caravancoffeeroasters.co.uk/collections/coffee/p...

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For samples, brew guides, high res imagery or interview requests please contact Gabby Kirby gabby@caravancoffeeroasters.co.uk

About Caravan Coffee Roasters:
Caravan Coffee Roasters supplies coffee to both wholesale and retail customers in the capital and around the UK, as well as catering for the caffeine needs of the Caravan restaurant customers. Starting life originally in the basement at Caravan Exmouth Market, Caravan Coffee Rosters is now located in a huge, standalone roastery at Lamb Works, based just north of King’s Cross, complete with its own coffee school and sourdough bakery.

Our commitment is great tasting coffee that does good:
Throughout the ten years that we’ve been sourcing, roasting, and serving coffee, we’ve made relationships the center of our philosophy here at Caravan Coffee Roasters. For us, this starts with those who produce our coffee – our partners whose hard work and innovation we simply couldn’t do without. With current uncertainty taking a toll on the coffee community, we believe it has never been more important to support each other than it is right now. Therefore, alongside our strict standards on sourcing and roasting excellence, we are committed to becoming leaders in impact-driven partnerships throughout our supply network, ensuring that each batch we roast and each cup we serve helps support the communities we work with.
As of 2021, we have joined 1% For The Planet, giving 1% of our total revenue each year to environmental causes, and have committed to sourcing a third of our coffee from female coffee producers.
About Raw Material:
Raw Material is a social enterprise importer and long-term partner of Caravan, whose work on the ground in Colombia is helping bring greater economic freedom and market access to smallholder producersx. It is the brainchild of New Zealand coffee pros Matt Graylee and Richard Corney, and El Fenix was the first big project ever undertaken by the pair, back in 2014.
When Raw Material was setting up the El Fenix project, they raised funds for its construction by selling ‘lots’ of newly planted rare coffee trees to Kickstarter donors. Caravan was the largest single donor to this crowd funding campaign, having sponsored eight different lots of coffee ourselves.