Monday morning cupping — Ethiopia vs Rwanda
Every Monday morning we cup coffee.
Not for any complicated reason — it's just how we decide what goes in the bag this week. We roast a few different coffees over the weekend, cup them on Monday, pick the one that's right, and that's what ships.
The others go back to the roaster.
What cupping actually is
Cupping is the industry term for tasting coffee in a controlled way so you can compare multiple coffees side by side without the variables that come with different brew methods. Same grind size, same water temperature, same steep time for every cup. You break the crust, you smell it, you slurp it — loudly, which is the point, it aerates the coffee across your palate — and you evaluate what you taste.
It sounds fancier than it is. It's just paying attention.
What we're looking for
We're not chasing a specific flavor profile. We're looking for the coffee that's doing something interesting — something that rewards the extra thirty seconds of grinding it fresh and brewing it right.
That might be brightness. It might be depth. It might be a specific note that surprises you halfway through the cup. Ethiopian naturals tend toward fruit — blueberry, citrus, stone fruit. Rwandans tend toward chocolate and caramel. Neither is better. The question is which one is at its best right now.
This week we cupped an Ethiopian natural from Durame Village in the Kembata region and a Rwandan. The Ethiopia won. It had Meyer lemon brightness up front, dark chocolate in the middle, and a blueberry finish that was clean and distinct without being artificial. The Rwanda was good — it'll be back — but this week the Ethiopia was sharper.
That's what's in the bag.
Why we do it this way
The honest answer is that we roast what we drink. We're not sitting on inventory of a single coffee for months at a time. We're evaluating what's coming off the roaster each week and putting the best version of it in front of you.
Roast-to-order means we roast after you buy. Weekly cupping means what you buy is what we'd drink ourselves. Those two things together are the whole coffee program.
What happens to the others
The coffees that don't make the cut this week aren't bad — they're just not at their peak for this roast profile. They go back to the roaster with a different profile. Maybe lighter. Maybe darker. Maybe a different development time. We cup them again next week.
Sometimes a coffee takes two or three roast attempts to find its best version. That's fine. We're particular about it.
Following along
We'll post the weekly winner every Monday — what it is, where it's from, what we tasted. If you want to know what's in the bag before you order, that's where to look.
This week (5/11): Guatemala, La Flor Del Cafe, Antigua. This is a classic cup of coffee, full body, subtle chocolate nutty notes. Roasted to your order. → Shop the coffee