
Finca La Bolsa, Guatemala
While we enjoy the last dregs of winter it’s all go in Central America where the crop is coming in and in Costa Rica the farms are at the peak of their harvest. This is the busiest time of the year on the farm with coffee being picked, processed, and dried – all in a matter of around six to eight weeks. We’re looking forward to visiting all the farms from which we buy coffee in Costa Rica over the next two months to see how the crop is coming in and taste samples. Coffees will need to be rested, graded, and bagged before export, so we expect them to arrive in late Spring.
We have just returned from a visit to Guatemala, where we visited Finca La Bolsa, El Sendero Cooperativa, and Finca Bella Vista. The trees were all laden with fruit in the last stages of ripening. Guatemala will begin harvesting now and coffees will arrive in late Spring. We are especially looking forward to Finca Bella Vista arriving. This is a new coffee for us, and we are excited to share their story later in the year.

La Divina Providencia, El Salvador
The teams at La Divina Providencia and La Bendición (El Salvador) are expecting a bumper crop this year and will be hitting the peak of their harvest over the next few weeks. They have had some interesting weather lately, including a cold and windy front from the north and occasional impressive downpours coming from the Pacific. This weather seems to have cleared and they’re expecting good conditions for drying. We plan to visit both farms and Malacara A in the next month or so.
In South America, post-harvest tidy up is in full swing and the last of the harvest is on its way. We’ve had shipments from Peru (Huabal, Finca El Morito, and Amoju) and Brazil (all our favourites including Fazenda do Sertão and Fazenda Irmãs Pereira) land recently. And our container from Bolivia which holds a range of washed, honey, and natural process coffees has just arrived. These will start to come onto our counter over the next few months. Our first container from the Huila main crop in Colombia has also arrived and we will finalise our second in March. The Nariño main crop will be harvested in late Spring to early Summer. Colombia is one of the few countries that has two main crops in opposite times of the year. This is due to their unique weather patterns which are affected by the mountain range that runs along the spine of the country.

Trabocca, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Lastly, to Ethiopia and Kenya. Ethiopia is at the very end of their crop with cherry off the tree and in its final stages of drying and processing. Once ready the coffee will be transported to warehouses in Addis Ababa where it will be rested, dry-milled, graded and bagged. We expect to taste pre-shipment samples from this crop in March. We are travelling to Kenya this month to visit farms and cooperatives and taste new crop samples.
Back in London we can expect a lot of changes coming to the counter in Spring as the new crops start to arrive. We’re also planning some storage solutions at our Dockley Road shop in Bermondsey, and a new cup washing area at our roastery for our reusable cups.
Monmouth x