About this Coffee
The organic Market Blend is inspired by our first Caravan restaurant and roastery on Exmouth Market. It’s a timeless blend crafted for sweetness and vibrancy. Perfect as an espresso, with or without milk.
The Market Blend has been our signature espresso blend since we first opened our doors and began roasting in 2010. The blend is built around coffees from producers with whom we hold active partnerships, showcasing high quality, in-season coffees with a clear and traceable provenance. We craft the Market Blend to highlight lively flavour notes; noticeable hints of fruit whilst retaining overall balance and high sweetness for a delicious and lip-smacking espresso.
As we enter the new year, we are refreshing our flagship espresso blend with a new, freshly arrived lot from one of our favourite origins: Peru. This lot was grown by just two women, Maximina Cordova and Maria Emita Garcia, both members of the farmer cooperative Frotera San Ignacio, whose members live in and around the district of San Ignacio in the Andean mountains. Many farms in this region are located in strategic buffer zones with protected habitats for such animals as jaguars, peccaries and the spectacled bear.
Both Maria and Maximina’s farms are located at a very high altitude, even for this mountainous region. Both women are members of the cooperative’s women’s association, Las Damas de la Frontera, and have been very active in both the cooperative and the women’s group. By participating in workshops and training sessions on quality and sustainability, both women have grown their knowledge and enthusiasm for organic coffee production of exceptional high quality, a commitment which shows very clearly in our cups.
The second component in Market Blend is a washed coffee from the Sholi Cooperative in Rwanda. Caravan has been working with Sholi for three years, a relationship which has grown significantly during that time. This lot was grown by the group’s women’s collective, which manages a plot of land on which they grow coffee as well as teach classes and test out different farming methods which they can then implement at their own farms. The profits from the collective plot are used in different ways each year, and are decided by vote. In previous years such uses have included the construction of a health centre, buying livestock for each member, or simply distribution of the cash.
Sholi members deliver ripe cherry to one of the cooperative’s two washing stations during harvest, sometimes sorting the coffee again upon arrival to ensure only the best cherry goes through to processing. The workers at the station then begin by removing the skin of the cherries and floating them through long concrete channels which allows for under or overripe beans to naturally separate. Following the washing process, the coffees are laid on raised beds on the hillside above the station where they are carefully turned for even drying over approximately 14 days. The resulting coffee is one of the cleanest Rwandan cup profiles we have ever tried, with notes of juicy blackberry acidity and dark brown sugar.
Both lots in Market Blend have been organically grown without chemical agri-inputs. As always with Market Blend, we aim to bring the finest in-season and sustainably-grown lots to coffee lovers worldwide, highlighting the works of exceptional producers that we enjoy a close relationship with. Clarity, sweetness, and a bright yet balanced acidity define this blend, with the two components combining to create a truly vibrant and exciting espresso, with or without milk.