Ben also co-owns Just Bru with his partner Liv. Showcasing world class coffee in their subscription boxes.

Ben has experience working in almost every sector of the specialty coffee industry, most recently finishing his job as a coffee roaster for Kiss The Hippo, shortly before starting Harmony.

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Ben has a passion for barista competition, which he uses as a medium to extend his own knowledge and dedication to the craft.

He has won 11 open competitions across various distinctions.

He also placed 3rd in the UK Latte Art Championship in 2021 and at the time of writing is a Semi-Finalist in the UK Barista Championship, after winning his heat at Bristol.

Harmony was born out of a desire to share great coffee with great people.

It was a chance to build something that stays true to the values which we see as the most important pillars of the coffee world: Traceability, Quality, Ethics and Partnership. 

BOX 101

20•03•24

The Origin

The Hatuhei coffee from Harmony originates from the Letefoho region of East Timor.

For the last 4 years, Kar-yee and Stuart (Who together make up Karst Organics) have been working with the Hatuhei group. This is the second harvest we have featured and this years crop is the best yet.

Located in the extremely remote highlands of Letefoho, the trip to Hatuhei is an adventure which includes long and winding tracks deep into the mountains. 

Cultivated at between 1500 and 1600 MASL, this particular coffee is treated to constant sunny days and cool nights. 

The remote location of the village limits income opportunities for its residents, particularly during the wet season when the access routes are treacherous.

Carlos de Deus, the lead farmer of the Hatuhei group, is driven to find ways to optimize his community's earning potential through coffee.

Under Carlos's leadership, the group has worked closely together for the past three years, fostering a sense of togetherness and learning from each other.

They take the time to process their coffee to the highest quality, with the goal of continuous improvement.

Ongoing collaboration with Simao, the lead farmer of the Eratoi group, helps them share ideas on processing and maintain support with materials.

Carlos and the members of Hatuhei aim to share their knowledge with other smallholder farmers in even more remote locations, enabling them to enter the specialty coffee market and increase their annual income.

By leveraging their expertise and learning from each other, they hope to grow their communities and transform their futures.

What To Expect

Here’s an idea of what to expect from this delicious East Timor coffee from Harmony.

Team Batch brew method of choice - French Press.

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

Download Our Free Brew Guide PDF

BOX 60

10•08•22

The Origin

The Henry Perez coffee from Harmony originates from the Cusco region of Peru.

The Typica grown at Henry's farm, Pasñapacana, is cultivated at the unusually high altitude of 2100MASL.

This altitude provides a buffer against pests and the plants produce less caffeine than their lower altitude counterparts.

Due to the road quality in many parts of Peru, getting vehicles up to the growing regions is impractical as the terrain can make some routes impassable.

Henry's coffee is usually carried down the mountain by hand or by donkey to the local village, Santa Teresa.

This is not unique to Henry and is the reality of a significant proportion of the Peruvian smallholders

From here, the harvest is taken to Lima to be processed at Aicasa.

Henry has recently taken part in a community project called "Beecause we Care" which works to provides deep insight into cultivation practices that increase the percentage of the harvest achieving specialty grade, increasing the prices his coffees can achieve and increasing yield out of what is typically regarded as a low yield crop.

This particular lot has been graded locally at 85.00 points.

'Beecause we care' focuses primarily on encouraging organic, sustainable farming practices; reintroducing bees and other pollinator colonies whose numbers are weakened by commercial pesticides.

This aroused the curiosity of the producers, among them Floresmiro, who found that some Bourbon trees that until now had gone unnoticed, had not been devastated by rust.

The particular colour of the cherries of these trees was even more striking as they did not ripen red but rather a colour that resembles a pale pink tone.

From that moment, the producers began to renew their coffee plantations with seeds obtained from these trees, seeking to develop a crop that was not affected by rust.

A couple of years later, when the coffee plantations began production, the marketers had the opportunity to taste and found a cup profile very with notes of red fruit, dried blueberries, cherry, hibiscus, a very delicate coffee and it was given the name Bourbon Rosado, or Pink Bourbon, resembling a coffee with a feminine character.

Notes from Ben’s approach to roasting:

Peruvian cultivated Typica is a lot denser than its lower altitude Typica cousins found a lot in Mexico and Jamaica (Where it's called Blue Mountain - Don't fall for the 80's marketing!)

Instead it reacts quite similarly in the roaster to other high altitude washed coffees that you might expect from Kenya or Colombia.

In cupping, the coffee was super delicate, honeylike with an underlying acidity reminiscent of sweet blackcurrant juice, and this was something that I didn't want to lose through over-caramelisation so the roast approach was tailored with the drinking experience in mind.

What To Expect

Here’s an idea of what to expect from this fans favourite Peruvian coffee from Harmony.

Team Batch brew method of choice - Aeropress.

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