It’s summertime, and this month we’re featuring all things cold brew plus a legendary Gesha coffee from one of the coveted variety’s pioneers in Veracruz, Mexico. 

FEATURED MICROLOT: FINCA GARABANDAL, MEXICO

This month we feature a beautiful red-honey processed Gesha from the Fernandez family’s Finca Garabandal in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico. Mario Fernández Sánchez (1947–2022) was a seventh-generation coffee grower and native Veracruzano whose family has been in the coffee business for nearly 200 years, and it is believed that he was one of the first in Mexico to produce the coveted Gesha variety for commercial sale.

In 2006, while working for the University in Xalapa, Mario was invited to visit the former varietal garden of Inmecafe. The government organization had been dismantled in 1998 and the land sold to a private citizen years earlier. Mario and his colleagues were informed that the garden would be dismantled and were asked to harvest and transplant the remaining coffee trees. Among those trees, Mario found six Geshas. He transported five to the University and planted one at his home in honor of the birth of his granddaughter. As the tree began to produce, Mario began using the seeds to populate Garabandal, and he eventually replaced nearly 100 percent of his coffee with Geshas from the mother tree. 

Sadly, Mario passed away in 2022, but his legacy looms large in Coatepec. We visited with his wife and daughter at the farm while visiting in June, and they confirmed that production was able to continue as usual with the help of the family and other community members. And we can confirm that the coffees were as good as ever this season, particularly the red honey, which, as always, was incredibly sweet and delicate with notes of jasmine, vanilla, and honey. A beautiful expression of the famous Coatepec Gesha.

For more on Mario and his coffees, you can read our 2022 tribute. We’ll also sit down later this month for an interview with Mario’s son, Mario Fernadez Alduenda, an accomplished coffee researcher in his own right and technical director of the Specialty Coffee Association. Stay tuned…

ROASTER’S CHOICE: COLD BREW BLEND

If you live in Austin and are a cold brew drinker, then hopefully you’ve tried our nitro cold brew in cans or on draft. In addition to Central Market, Wheatville, Royal Blue, Quickie Pickie, and a host of other fine retail locations, you can also order the cans, along with 64 oz ready-to-drink growlers, straight from our website for home delivery. There is, however, one caveat. You have to live in Austin. 

While we’ve formulated our recipe and designed our production processes to maximize freshness and food safety, we still recommend keeping our cold brew refrigerated for maximum flavor results over the long term. Simply put, since we can’t guarantee the absolute best quality when shipped at room temperature, we don’t do it. 

But for all you unlucky non-residents and do-it-yourself types, there is still hope. Our fresh-roasted Cold Brew Blend is the exact same coffee we use to make our nitro cans, kegs, and growlers. It’s available year-round in 12-ounce bags, whole bean or ground to your liking, plus we’ll ship it wherever you want (in the contiguous United States). We’ll even give you a brew recipe.

While there are many great and commercially available cold brew sets on the market (like Toddy, Coffee Sock, and Hario), I like to use a good old-fashioned mason jar, mesh strainer, and standard paper coffee filters for this recipe, items most people already have in their kitchens.

Ingredients/Equipment

• 4 oz (113 g) coarse-ground Little City Cold Brew Blend
• 32 oz room temperature filtered water
• (2) 1-quart mason jars
• Fine mesh strainer or sieve 
• Paper coffee filters (optional)

Process

1. Grind the Little City Cold Brew Blend beans on your grinder’s coarsest setting (No worries if you don’t have a grinder. You can always order pre-ground coffee from our website. Just be sure to choose Coarse Grind (French Press) at checkout.) 
2. Pour grounds into a clean mason jar and fill to the top with filtered water, completely saturating all the grounds.
3. Wait a few minutes while the grounds form a crust on the surface of the water, then stir to incorporate the grounds back into the water. 
4. Cap the jar and steep for at least 12 hours, but no longer than 24, occasionally and gently turning the jar upside down and back to make sure all the grounds remain under water. 
5. When the coffee reaches your desired strength, gently pour through a fine mesh strainer into another clean mason jar (TIP: for a less cloudy brew, line the strainer with a paper coffee filter to capture and remove finer particles.)
6. Taste preference and desired strength vary, but I treat this as a 2x concentrate, meaning I will typically mix 1:1 with filtered water before drinking. If you plan to use ice, milk, or dairy alternatives, you’ll want to use a little less water because these liquids will also contribute to dilution.
7. Keep concentrate refrigerated and use for up to a week in your favorite coffee drink, cocktail, or even food recipe.