The first trip of the year usually takes us to Antigua, Guatemala. This picturesque colonial town is the coffee centre of the whole country. We spend a few days cupping new crops at beneficio Bella Vista, owned by Luis Pedro Zelaya and never miss a chance to visit Juan Chen and his farm called El Pilar. It’s only a few hours’ drive or a short flight to El Salvador where we work with Mathias Hernandez. At the very beginning of the doubleshot’s history, we used to be a part of a very ambitious educational programme for local farmers there. It has been quite interesting to watch the changes and improvements on the farms over the last seven years. The road trip to Santa Barbara in Honduras from Chalatenango is quite tough. The views of the Yojoa lake from Edwin Pineda´s El Pozo farm are definitely worth it. Edwin is the only farmer that sells his entire crop to us. This is our 5th year of buying coffee from him. You will not be able to taste it anywhere else.

We serve these coffees from May until December, depending on the logistics and crop time.

February means visiting Kenya and Ethiopia. During this time, you bump into each and every specialty green bean buyer from around the world. Competition for the best cupping microlots is really tough. If you are here at the wrong time you will simply miss out. This year, we were introduced to a private farm owner Mrs. Mary Maina from the Manyeki farm in the Kirinyaga region. Hopefully, she will become our supplier of Kenyan coffees for future years.

Flying from Nairobi to Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia, is quick and easy. Heleanna Georgalis has already prepared samples of new crop lots from Yirgacheffe, Guji and Kaffa for us. Meeting with our good old friend Seife, who has been one of the very first green been suppliers of doubleshot, is never complete without visiting some traditional Ethiopian dancing clubs.

Buying coffees in Africa is always tricky when it comes to planning and logistics. These coffees may be offered by us at any time from May until January. Fortunately, they age really well and usually taste great even a year after harvest.

This is the time of the year when higher elevation farms in Central America finish their pickings. Costa Rica and Panama are among our dearest coffee producing origins. It was there, where we spent one year working at various farms prior to starting our roasting business in Europe so we never skip a visit of our friends in Boquete.

Coffees from these regions are offered by us from June until December.

Spring is the most beautiful when you can walkaround the coffee farms in Burundi and Rwanda. These two neighbouring countries in central Africa share their histories yet could not be more different. Burundi is rough and beyond all understanding. We have only the biggest respect for Ben and Cristy Carlson, founders of the Long Miles Coffee Project, who have been able to set up an ambitious programme which includes several thousand farming families in the Kayanza region. The result is fully traceable microlots with amazing flavour profiles not yet known to the world due to the political situation of the country.

Crossing the border to Rwanda is like going back to Europe. Twongerekawa Coko washing station, managed by Mrs. Therese Nyirangwabije, is to the north of the capital of Kigali. Coko buys cherries from local producers and processes them using traditional fully washed method as they do not have the means. Every year, we try to buy more volume of green coffee so the COOP members can improve their lives as well as quality of the product. Being a long-term customer we have a little advantage over the competitors.

You can enjoy drinking these coffees from November until May.

Crop in the Cundinamarca region of Colombia is at its peak. Our baristas take part in the annual exchange programme organized by the La Palma y El Tucán coffee farm. This project, run by Felipe Sardi and Elisa Marie Madrinan, is possibly the most technically advanced in the whole world.

We are only able to buy very small amounts from LPyET so we sell these gems in our 200g limited editions throughout the year.

¡Bom dia Brazil! Travelling to Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza is more like a vacation than a business trip. This place is simply a paradise. Pristine nature, organic food (omg the cheese!), great people, it’s all there. Buying coffee from Joao Hamilton, his brother Ivan or the Celso and Gertrudes family is both a pleasure and treat. There is also a lot to cup! Different processing styles, varieties, day lots etc. These coffees will make it to our plant in December.

The region of Caparao, with a National Park on the border of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo is quite new for us. There is an immense potential for great coffee crops. Two years ago, we have started working with Clayton Barrossa, Deneval Miranda and Maria Aparecida. The flavour profiles are unique and totally different. Forget the stereotypical "Brazilian" taste!

We usually start roasting our Brazilian lots in January and finish in June.

We try to visit Carlos Imbachi and his Buenavista farm just before Christmas when he is about to finish the main harvest. Carlos is possibly the first producer with whom we started working back in 2010. Since there are 2-3 crops harvested in Huila now, we do not even count the number of crops we have purchased from this compassionate producer.

Coffee from Carlos Imbachi is one of our bestsellers. We try to offer it all year long. Just say: “A cup of Carlos, please!”