Heirloom Coffee Boutique

Dalat Paradise Blend
- Heirloom Variety: Bourbon Arabica, Robusta and Excelsa

Robusta flower and leaves

This coffee starts with a base of Indochine Estates heirloom Bourbon Arabica beans, shipped to us as green coffee beans, then roasted fresh by a local roaster. It's a special heirloom species of Arabica, trees which have been pampered on their family estate farms for multiple generations. These beans have a delicious buttery caramel taste that is very distinct, and a wonderful 'classic coffee' aroma that fill the kitchen with that scent we love. We then blended in about 20% Dalat Robusta peaberries to give the coffee amazing body and fullness, as well as improving the crema when brewed as espresso. These peaberry beans are the source of much of the chocolate tone you see in Vietnamese coffee. They are gorgeous beans, round and "robust" and full of flavor.

Until April, we have been producing this blend as a Bourbon Arabica and Robusta combination only, but we have been waiting for the new crop of Excelsa from Dalat to give the blend its signature sharp edge. The new crop of Excelsa is in and we will be using 15% Excelsa in this blend now.
Key notes: Caramel, butter, milk chocolate, "classic coffee" aroma.

Sumatra Lintong
- Rare varietal

Click to enlarge


Traditional Batak house in the Lintong coffee region
overlooking Lake Toba

An exciting new addition to our heirloom coffee selection, this Arabica has a fantastic aroma and smooth, low-acid taste that nonetheless has the desirable "edge" that sharpens the palate. When ground fine, it makes a really exceptional espresso, all intense flavor with no trade-offs. (Although, as is generally the case with Arabica, it produces only a thin layer of crema.)

The island of Sumatra has a unique geography, featuring high plateaus with steep drop-offs to the ocean. The combination supports several prized heirloom varieties of coffee, including this Arabica from the Lintong growing region located near Lake Toba. Sumatra Lintong gains much of its unique character from its processing methods, which involve a partial wet-process followed by a three stage drying cycle which "cures" the unroasted bean.

True premium Lintong coffee is very difficult to secure right now. We have bought a supply of green, unroasted beans and formed a partnership with a local coffeehouse roaster, allowing us to roast the coffee as needed and allowing us to offer Lintong without fear of market fluctuations interrupting our supply. Lintong needs to be roasted with care, since the cured bean roasts to a slightly lighter color than other beans and requires a delicate touch; the result is extraordinary.

Organic Shade-Grown Philippines Robusta
- by Bantai, makers of Bantai Kopi Luwak

The Mountain Province
where the park is located

Grown at high altitude under the shade of old-growth jungle, this Robusta will shatter all expectations with its depth and complexity. Growing Robusta this way is almost unheard-of, but the result is extraordinary. Low acidity and no bitterness make it easy to drink, too. Bantai is a coffee company that employs indigenous peoples to harvest the beans from wild trees growing in the national forest preserves of the Philippines, and supports local conservation efforts. This is the same ultra-premium Robusta that the Philippines civets turn into Bantai's kopi luwak. Key notes: Chocolate, vanilla, spice; surprising depth and richness.

Dalat Highlands Robusta Peaberries
- Regional Specialty

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Town in the Central Dalat Highlands region
showing coffee terraces in background

Vietnamese Robusta from the Dalat Highlands is the secret ingredient in Italian espresso. Its lush body, chocolatey taste, and excellent aftertaste are a product of the rich soil in Vietnam, and the fact that they are able to sun-dry the coffee cherries, which develops Robusta's natural sweetness. This peaberry Robusta is almost entirely peaberries, extremely high-quality and hand graded, for the most complex and flavorful brew.

Why Robusta? Scientific tests have shown that people around the world, including the USA, are evenly divided between "front palate" people and "back palate" people. We find that people who respond well to Vietnamese coffees in general tend to be "back palate" people, and Robusta excites primarily the back of the palate. In particular, Vietnamese high-altitude Robusta has developed indigenously to be almost its own subspecies, and the gourmet Robusta from this region is exceptionally delicious, quite unlike the low-altitude versions and Brazilian Robusta.

What's a peaberry? The coffee bean is the seed of the coffee fruit, which is also called a "cherry." Normally, each cherry contains two seeds, which is why coffee beans are rounded on one side and flat on the other (flat from being pressed together). Sometimes, between 5% and 15% of the crop will contain only one seed inside a smaller cherry. The coffee bean within is round, like a pea. These peaberries used to be discarded, until someone realized that the peaberries have a more intense and complex flavor, with a characteristic bite. The Vietnamese Highlands region is particularly intriguing for its peaberries, which feature in most of its famous local coffees.

Vietnamese Dalat Bourbon Arabica
- Heirloom Variety

Town in the Central Dalat Highlands region
showing coffee terraces in background

100% pure fresh-roasted Indochine Estates heirloom Bourbon Arabica beans, shipped to us as green coffee beans, then roasted fresh by a local roaster, and finally vacuum-packed while still optimally fresh in foil one-way-vent bags. Indochine Estates is one of our favorite suppliers to work with because not only do they grow a delicious heirloom variety of Arabica on their multi-generation family farms, they are also deeply involved in their local community and sustainable growing pratices.

Bourbon Arabica beans are characterized by a roundness and mellowness of flavor that modern arabicas often lack, coupled with a balanced acidity and smooth mouthfeel. The trees these beans grow on were preserved on Indochine's estate farms when everyone else was re-planting their farms with modern hybrids, and we're very glad that they were!

Vietnamese Excelsa
- Exotic new variety

Excelsa is one of the four remaining genetically distinct commercial species of coffee and accounts for about 7% of world coffee production. It is used in Vietnam as a blending coffee, being added to other varieties of coffee to add complexity and depth. It's a vital ingredient in Trung Nguyen's blended coffees, including the famous Gourmet Blend, Buon Me Thuot Special, and Creative Four.

Our Excelsa was grown on coffee farms in the Dalat Highlands area of Vietnam. They have been processed by the traditional sun-drying method made possible by Vietnam's reliably long, hot summer. This all-dry process is sometimes called a "honey" process.

Excelsa has a distinctive tart, fruity, dark, mysterious taste. In blends, it enhances the middle and back palate and lingering finish of the coffee, giving the cup more substance and power. Brewed on its own, it is a compelling and unique coffee experience, like a good Scotch.

Award-Winning Paradise Blend: South American Decaf

This water-process decaf coffee is a blend of Brazilian and Columbian Arabicas produced to extremely high standards. In the July, 2010 issue of coffeereview.com, the World's leading coffee buying guide, this coffee was ranked as the best decaf coffee in North America; it was the only one with a score of 90 points. It's a medium-dark roast with great flavor, quite bold, with rich mouthfeel.

This is what the reviewers had to say: "Blind Assessment: Roundly balanced and deep. Flowers, orangey fruit and molasses in the aroma. In the cup soft, integrated acidity, syrupy mouthfeel, with the continuing orange-toned fruit and molasses adding a distinct chocolate complication. The chocolate and molasses carry into a richly sweet finish haunted, as the cup cools, by a faint wisp of flavor-flattening wood."

These beans are decaffeinated by the chemical-free, water process, the preferred decaffeinating method. Traditional decaffeinated coffee uses Methylene Chloride (MC) to remove the caffeine; however, the water process (in this case by the trademarked, patented Swiss-WaterŪ process) removes caffeine from coffee beans without the use of solvents or chemicals.

Southeast Asian coffee creaters don't really understand why decaf is so important to Western coffee drinkers. The closest of our usual coffees to decaf is Passiona, which is about 1/3 of normal caffeine. So, when our new partner, Mystic Coffee Roasters, offered to source us some of their fine Swiss Water process decaf, we jumped on the opportunity. Since then, it's been very popular at all our taste-tests.

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