This coffee has been specially sourced for our Special Reserve line-up. Light-roasting this coffee highlights bright notes of apple and sweet notes of caramel and honey that are inherent in these beans. This coffee is produced by the 110 members of the Association de Productores Organicos del Cauca cooperative located in the mountainous Cauca region of southern Colombia.
Rich and lusciously full-bodied with nuances of dark chocolate, cardamom, and caramel. This powerhouse coffee is an ideal foundation for a first-rate cappuccino or caffe latte. Coffees from the Americas are combined with select Pacific Rim beans and roasted to a deep dark oily brown. This measured, but aggressive style of roast transforms the unique characteristics of beans from the two different continents into a hearty and supremely satisfying organic blend.
The name means "beautiful song", and we take great care to make sure the flavor of this blend matches this image. We develop this complex Northern Italian style espresso like a great painter would organize his canvas; first we create a base layer of low hues, which are heavy and nutty beans from the Americas, onto which we splash bursts of vibrant color which are the fruit kissed coffees of Ethiopia.
Selva Negra Estate, a farm Allegro has partnered with since the early 90's, provides the base for our Organic Breakfast Blend. One third of Selva Negra is reserved as virgin forest, one third is for shade grown coffee and the remaining third for other projects including a rotating herding system, organic horticulture, worm composting, and an organic mushroom project which will provide an additional food source for workers on the farm. In addition to Selva Negra, we blend with an Ethiopian coffee called Moredocofe, one of the few Rainforest Alliance coffees in Ethiopia. Allegro has been purchasing from this beautifully forested farm for three years. This combination of beans creates a lively blend, bursting with citrus, apricot, milk chocolate, and caramel notes.
This hearty southern Italian-style espresso blend is powerfully aromatic with a rich, velvety finish. A combination of Latin American and East African beans roasted to a hearty, dark degree which makes the perfect base for an espresso drink or for a luscious, full-flavored brewed coffee.
The Adado community is located just south of the Great Rift Valley in the region of Yirgacheffe. The small-scale farmers here grow their coffee intermixed with fruit trees and false banana, a main food staple, in garden-size plots behind their traditionally round thatch-roofed homes. The high elevation of the Yirgacheffe region and specifically of Adado at 7000 feet contributes to the intense aromatic characteristics of the coffee. Our lot was produced using a natural sun-dried process. This means the coffee cherries were harvested and allowed to dry around the beans inside. This method helps develop a deep body and tones of dried fruit and spice in the cup.
The Grapos cooperative is located near the town of Tapachula in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. There are a total of 888 members in this group. The farms surround both El Triunfo and Tacana Volcano biosphere reserves. The farms both work as a buffer around these endangered biospheres and the co-op works directly in these areas on conservation projects.
This balanced coffee offers smooth body and pleasing brightness with undertones of sweet juicy raisins and dark chocolate. The co-op members of St. Adelaida grow their Bourbon variety coffee using organic methods under a dense forest of shade trees — consistently producing one of the best organic coffees in all of The Americas. The co-op which began in 1980 as a result of agrarian reform in the country, maintains three schools, a medical facility and housing for their 250 members' families.
In 2008 we established new relationships with three co-ops in the town of San Ignacio, Peru called Aprocasi, Chirinos, and Frontera. Farmers in San Ignacio enthusiastically adhere to an integrated system of farming that allows for no chemicals to be used. They say, "If you use a chemical to kill a pest, then you also kill its predator, thus killing the entire ecosystem." The monies they receive from their Fair Trade premium go to social programs and technical farm support.
Spicy, sweet and smoky. This is a blend based on contrast. We take a light roasted base blend of high mountain Latin American beans and to that add some of our Pacific Rim influenced French Roast to create a coffee that is as distinctive in taste as it is in appearance.
