After chatting to Fletcher at Caravan coffee roasters for 30 seconds I could already tell that I was going to love working with them.

These guys have been around for over ten years now and in speciality coffee that’s quite a long time, they have now grown into a huge multi-venue coffee roaster that supplies coffee to cafes all over the UK.

Although they have now become one of the biggest coffee roasters in the UK on the back of their passion for sourcing and roasting high-quality coffee beans their personality and character have remained.

This may be one of the factors why Caravan has grown from strength to strength. 

It’s not just their clients and suppliers in the UK that Caravan has created strong relationships with over the last few years, their commitment to sourcing high-quality coffee and helping support the communities in coffee-producing countries has remained paramount in their principles of building a sustainable and ethical coffee business.

Caravan coffee, roast their seasonal and carefully selected coffee on a state of the art Loring Peregrine S70 (the Tesla of the coffee roasting world).

Loring machines are the most efficient machines on the market, using up to 80% less gas than the average drum roaster.

This is because the Loring uses primarily hot air in the roasting process, referred to as ‘convective’ heat, instead of ‘conductive’ heat from a direct gas flame-like many other roasters do. 

This convective heat model produces a remarkably clean taste in the cup, with less risk of scorching the beans due to contact with the hot metal drum.

What’s more, by superheating and then recirculating hot air, the energy within the Loring is recaptured, therefore using far less gas and creating much less smoke and chaff.

With a maximum capacity of 70kg, they can comfortably roast an entire 60kg sack of coffee within 12 minutes, reducing our carbon footprint and becoming more efficient in the process.

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THE ORIGIN

The Daanissa Coffee from Caravan coffee roasters originates from the Guji region of Ethiopia.

In this area of Guji, most farmers grow coffee under forest canopy, providing natural shade as well as increased moisture and nutrients in the soil.

This lot was grown by farmers in the Daanissa sub-kebele (similar to a ward of a municipality) where farms average approximately 3 hectares.

During harvest, cherries are picked in the morning and delivered from the farms in the afternoon to the local Wosasa washing station, where they are sorted for ripeness before being laid out to dry by individual lot

WHAT TO EXPECT

Here’s an idea of what to expect from this delicious Ethi from Caravan.

Team Batch brew method of choice - Pour Over.

If you loved this coffee and want it to have it in your life again order directly from Caravan Coffee Roasters now.

Free Brew Guide PDF Cheat Sheet

27•07•22

The No Boundaries Coffee from Caravan coffee roasters originates from both Rwanda and Nicaragua.

Although we seldom feature blends in our subscription boxes the No Boundaries coffee from Caravan is something special. It not only comprises of two fantastic single origin coffees it also celebrates two female producers.

50% of the No Boundaries comes from the Sholi Cooperative’s women’s association in Rwanda which was started in 2019 and currently comprises 70 members.

The group is run by an elected committee which meets once a month to discuss the association’s activities.

Within the association, the women run their own savings and loan scheme, with assistance from Sholi’s finance department.

Through this group lending scheme they are able to buy cows for the associations members, which they give out on a rotating basis, as well as other quality of life improvements such as new mattresses and small loans for house improvements.

The group collectively maintains a coffee plot which is just next to the main Sholi washing station.

Upon viewing the trees, Andrea, CCR’s Head of Coffee, says they are by far some of the healthiest and best maintained of any in the region.

The women work the community plot each Saturday all together, as well as tend an additional plot just for vegetables. Proceeds from the coffee and the harvest from the veg plot are all shared collectively.

The second half of the No Boundaries coffee is a Nicaraguan coffee grown by Arlin Andino on her farm, Finca Esquipulas, located in the Jinotega region in the north of Nicaragua.

Arlin is a young producer who comes from a coffee growing family, but wasn’t producing coffee of her own until 2017.

Her focus on quality is rooted in a belief that coffee cannot be improvised – it must be based on deep knowledge of the farm and every step of production.

Arlin and her partner Ernesto are also concerned about protecting local water sources with climate-smart agricultural practices, and are building a school on their farm where the children of farm workers can go to study during the harvest period.

Here’s an idea of what to expect from this pioneering coffee from Caravan.

Team Batch brew method of choice - Moka Pot.

If you loved these ground coffee beans and want it to have it in your life again order directly from Groundstate now.

18•05•21

One of the things that stood out for me when talking to Andrea who is head of coffee at Caravan was their focus on seasonality in coffee and their approach to purchasing smaller quantities of coffee that last for a month or two on the menu.

This not only keeps the coffee coming in as fresh as it can be while sourcing in-season green coffee but because of the short amount of time each coffee lasts on the menu this enables them to return to the same farms each year. 

The Maria Ramirez coffee from Caravan coffee roasters originates from the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala and is their third year purchasing coffee from Mrs Ramirez.

The harvest in Guatemala this year is something of a miracle. Not only did coffee farmers have to negotiate the impacts of Coronavirus with lockdowns and restrictions but with the looming change in climate and the worst shipping delays on record, it’s amazing that the crop even arrived on the shores of the UK.

She and her workers selectively pick the ripest cherries with three passes over the fields during harvest. Following picking, she immediately de-pulps the coffee before leaving it in water to ferment for 36 hours. Following this long fermentation, the coffee is then cleaned with fresh water before patio drying. 

This period of comparatively long wet fermentation is necessitated by the cold nights of Huehuetenango, imparting a distinct fruity, berry-like tone to the coffee whilst keeping the bright and clean acidity of the washed process.

Coffee has been growing in Guatemala since the 1850s and was always one of the main exports for the Guatemalan economy. Right up until the early twenty-first-century coffee was one of the main economic players in Guatemala. Unfortunately since the coffee crisis in 2001 and many farmers now choosing to farm other more profitable crops, coffee has been on the decline.

One of the great things about coffee production in Guatemala is the fact that many of the farms have their own wet stations so they are able to process their own coffee, meaning that many of the coffees leaving the country are traceable right back to the farm.

When the coffee samples from caravan arrived, I literally couldn’t wait to dive in. After speaking to Andrea and listening to the stories that come with the coffee that they showcase alongside the passion that everybody at caravan has for speciality coffee, I knew that these were not going to be your everyday coffees. 

The Maria Ramirez was a coffee that I spoke to Andrea at length about and I loved the fact that this year was the third time back for Caravan - that’s what speciality coffee is all about for me. 

The fragrance of the coffee when opening the bag was certainly sweet, I got a hint of almond and marzipan. The sweet tones continue into the brewing coffee when the sweetness evolves into more fruity flavours. 

Right at the front of the first sip, I tasted rooibos tea that mellows out into a delicious sweetness that carries into the aftertaste. 

Notes of plum layer into the tea-like body that creates a wonderfully balanced brew. The acidity is mild but there is the odd flash of lemon at the front of each sip as the coffee cools down. 

As the coffee reaches almost room temperature the fruity sweetness evolves into caramel, nicely finishing off the Maria Ramirez.

The coffee is complex and has many different flavour profiles to pinpoint. As the coffee got older I found that the sweetness intensifies and the delicious fruity flavours become even more pronounced. 

The medium body of the Maria Ramirez really lends itself to a paper filter. However when I brewed the coffee with my cafetiere there were flavours that I didn’t pick up on during cupping the coffee - so go wild and brew this coffee as you will and see what you taste.