Jaguar Espresso Fair Trade Organic

by Equator Coffees
Wholebean

Tasting Notes

Strength/Intensity

9/10

Roast

Dark

About this Coffee

A complex espresso blend that combines organic and Fair Trade certified coffees from the world’s major growing regions, Jaguar takes a new world approach to a traditional-style espresso.

Our goal is to develop flavors of fruit, dark chocolate and spice that result in an espresso sweet enough to taste great on its own, while maintaining enough richness and intensity to stand up to milk.

A fully washed coffee from Latin America is the foundation of Jaguar Espresso. Like most agricultural products, coffee is seasonal, so throughout the crop year the origin country changes to ensure freshness but, we always source coffees that provide clarity and sweetness.

For complexity we add dry processed coffee from the Kayon Mountain Estate in Southern Guji, Ethiopia, which adds flavors of berries and bittersweet chocolate.

A wet-hulled coffee produced by the Ketiara Cooperative in Sumatra’s Gayo Mountain region rounds out the blend. Ketiara is a women-led group that is committed to producing high quality coffee and empowering women of the local community. This coffee’s classic Sumatran character perfectly complements the blend’s other components by adding body and flavors of spice, resulting in a rich, full-flavored espresso.

WHY WE LOVE THIS COFFEE

Jaguar is a complex espresso blend that combines coffees from the world’s major growing regions: Latin America, East Africa, and Indonesia. With this blend we take a new world approach to a traditional-style espresso. Our goal is to develop flavors of fruit, dark chocolate and spice that result in an espresso sweet enough to taste great on its own, while maintaining enough richness and intensity to stand up to milk. This is darkest espresso that Equator offers.

While there are many variables that contribute to dialing in espresso, here are the parameters that have been yielding the best results in our lab:
1:2.3 coffee to water ratio in 30-32 seconds.

GOOD COFFEE, BETTER PLANET

Environmental awareness is rooted in the ethos of the Sol & Café community, and much of the coffee cultivated there is organic and Fair Trade certified. While better for the environment, organic production can create challenges for producers, limiting their options to combat pests and diseases and the types of fertilizer that they can use. Addressing the issue of access to organic fertilizer, the Chirinos co-op maintains a large plant that produces organic compost which is distributed amongst its members.

Kayon Mountain Estate owner Ismael Hassen Aredo provides training for 140 nearby smallholder farmers, helps finance social initiative projects such as the construction of schools, and plans to build a bridge across the Sawana River to make the walk to school for the children of the community more safe.

In addition to producing great coffee, one of the reasons we were initially attracted to Ketiara, is the fact that it is led by a charismatic woman named Rahmah. After working in coffee for many years, she helped found Ketiara in 2009 with just 38 members and currently serves as the co-op’s chairperson. In the years since it was established, the co-op membership has expanded to nearly 2,000 smallholder farmers, over 50% of them being women. The coffee Equator purchases is exclusively from the women members of the co-op; they refer to this special selection as Queen Ketiara. We pay an additional premium for the “Queen” designation, with proceeds going to programs that benefit women.

All of Jaguar Espresso’s components are both Fair Trade and Organic certified.