_{Coffee growing under the shade canopy at Finca Fatima in Veracruz, Mexico}

October is here! In addition to cooler temps—and despite the presence of pumpkin spice everything—October is an amazing month for coffee drinkers. Due to its placement on the harvest calendar, the month of October falls in a window where freshness and selection overlap, creating an abundance of high-quality offerings from all over the world. 

Here in the U.S., almost all of the coffees from this year’s harvests in the northern hemisphere have landed and are in an optimal freshness window. Our Mexican coffees, including this month’s feature from Finca Fatima (more on that below), are the best they’ve ever been, and our Guatemalan offerings from Santa Felisa and La Cumbre are current favorites here at the roastery. 

At the same time, we are starting to see lots of amazing samples from the southern hemisphere, and our first containers from Brazil are set to arrive any day now. Add to that recent arrivals from Asia (fan favorite Tha Pye Gone is back!) and East Africa (learn more below about the wild Ethiopian coffees that make up our Violet Crown blend) and I’d say it’s a pretty great time to be a coffee drinker! Unfortunately, we could only choose two coffees for our October features, but they are, in my opinion, two very mighty coffees that I’m certain you’re going to love.

Featured Microlot: Finca Fatima

Finca Fatima is back! The fresh crop has arrived from Ernesto Perez’s farm in Coatpec, Veracruz, the heart of Mexican coffee production and home to, in our opinion, some of the best coffees in Central America. This year’s lot embodies what we love most about good Veracruz coffees—chocolatey, sweet, and citric with a creamy body and notes of stone fruits like peach and apricot. In addition to this special lot, you can also find Ernesto’s coffees as seasonal components in several of our year-round blends like Congress Avenue and Grackle. Check out my February blog to learn more about this year’s Mexico travels and some of the challenges we experienced sourcing these coffees, plus stay tuned for an interview with Ernesto later this month.

Ernesto Perez of Fina Fatima and APG Coffee

Roaster’s Choice: Violet Crown

Named for one of Austin’s many monikers (but surely its most regal) Violet Crown is the lightest-roasted and most complex of our year-round blends. Perhaps it’s not as “safe” as some of our more traditional blend profiles, but it is every bit as intentional and always a sensory adventure. Currently it’s made up of two newly-arrived Ethiopian coffees. These two very different coffees each carry a lot of complexity on their own, but blended together they create an intense cocktail with surprising harmony:

1. A washed coffee from the Guji region with a classic south Ethiopian profile of lemongrass, jasmine, and citrus fruits. It’s aromatic, delicate, and tea-like.

2. A natural coffee from Sidama. Unlike the delicate washed Guji, this coffee is bold. Heavy notes of ripe fruits like raspberries and peaches blend with sweet florals like rose and hibiscus and the whole is enhanced by a juicy and syrupy body.

_{Eric visiting Tariku Mengesha’s farm near Gedeb in southern Ethiopia, 2019}

As always, you can order these coffees a la carte or receive them as part of our monthly Microlot and Roaster’s Choice subscriptions, and you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates, exclusive offers, and other fun coffee stuff directly in your inbox. Enjoy the coffees and we’ll chat again in November!

Eric Wolf, Director of Coffee