There’s no such thing as too much coffee. And when you get your beans from Ruby Coffee Roasters like we do, you drink a lot of coffee and you spend a lot of time learning about the different coffee regions around the world.
At Ruby, they source their beans from all over–Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and that’s just scratching the surface. They work with people based on the key principles of quality, sustainability, transparency, passion and collaboration, which allows them to find producers, exporters and importer partners who source responsibly.
Because of Ruby’s ever-rotating roasts, the coffee we brew at Blue Collar Coffee Co. varies, but you know it came from either Central America, South America or Africa. Each region offers a sometimes wildly different coffee due to bean type, growing conditions, how each farmer processes their beans and other growing practices.
Here’s how they vary:
Central America
Coffees from Central America have a diverse assortment of flavors thanks to altitudes that vary from high altitude to sea level. Central American coffees have the right amount of acidity that does a good job balancing honey, milk chocolate, caramel and toasted nuts flavors.
Honduras is the world’s fifth largest producer of coffee by volume, but what makes their coffee so great? Diversity. The small country is wealthy with different varieties, processes, altitudes and micro-climates, which makes for interesting flavor profiles in Honduras’s coffee.
Ruby’s Honduras Pedro Sagastume Pacas is fully washed, then dried on raised beds before taking a trip inside a solar dryer. Take a sip of this roast and you’ll be delighted by the taste of melon, persimmon and milk chocolate.
South America
You’ll find that South American coffees are well balanced, consistent and often delicate, depending on the bean’s growing conditions. Between Brazil and Colombia, South America is home to two of the top three top coffee producers in America.
Colombia is responsible for 12% of the world’s coffee production and gets its reputation for high-quality beans from its tropical temperatures and high altitude. Coffees from this South American country vary by region, but are between medium to high acidity and are predominantly shade grown.
Virgilio Lopez from Ruby Roasters is made from Colombia-grown beans and has a rich, syrupy sweetness that highlights fruit tones when pulled as an espresso. Taste the raspberry, cola, dark chocolate and tropical fruit notes of this brew.
Africa
In general, African coffees are known for being sweet, floral and fruity, but tasting notes range anywhere from citrus to blueberries. Multiple African countries produce coffee, but Kenya and Ethiopia are the two largest producers and the most well known.
Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, has a thousand-year-old coffee ceremony that includes harvesting, processing, roasting, grinding and brewing. They process their coffee the natural way, which gives it a rich, syrupy sweet flavor, in addition to washing, which produces a coffee that’s lighter on the palate. Typically, coffees from Ethiopia are full flavored and full bodied.
Yabitu Koba is one of our favorite roasts from Ruby. The fully washed and sun-dried beans hail from Ethiopia and, after a fine grind, deliver a coffee that’s brimming with notes of peach, honey, black tea and orange blossom.