Interval Espresso

It's no secret we enjoy roasting on the lighter end of the spectrum. Buying sweet coffees and trying not to get in the way, we're always cautious to add more flavours of the roaster than we feel strictly necessary.

But we've always had the plan to release one final core coffee, completing the set from Lightest, Light, Medium and now, finally, Heavy. This espresso is profiled entirely with classic & easy styles of brewing in mind (and especially for those that like milk in their coffee).

A percentage of all Interval Espresso sales will be donated to the Jerwood Space, a not-for-profit that subsidises rehearsal space for emerging theatre producers, writers, directors, choreographers and companies. By purchasing this espresso, you are directly helping the next generation of theatre practitioners access affordable, dedicated space to create their work.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Espresso, Moka Pot, French Press

Best rested: Ideally at least 1-2 weeks before brewing as espresso

We profile and quality control this blend to produce a solid shot around 18g of coffee in for 32-36g coffee out, in 25 seconds - easy peasy.
Works great in a french press or Moka Pot too!

We’re tasting:
Bonfire toffee & toasted nut aromatics. In the cup it's like high quality dark chocolate, with predominant cocoa flavours but hints of dark red fruits (dried cherry especially), overall bittersweet with a thick body.
In milk - Dark chocolate & toffee.

Traceability (V2)

Country of Origin:	Colombia
Region:	Bruselas, Pitalito, Huila
Producers:	Caimo Collective - 29 smallholders contributed parchment to this lot.
Farm:	Field Blend
Variety:	Majority Colombia, Tabi, Castillo, Caturra, Cenicafe
Elevation:	1600 - 2000 MASL
Process:	Traditional Washed, each producers exact methodology & drying set-up may vary
Import Partner:	Nordic Approach
Harvest	25/26. New Purchasing Relationship

 

The Story:

We've talked before about the trilemma of green buying: out of cheap, ethical, high quality, you can only pick two. With this range we want to focus on coffees that are affordable for a mainline espresso and put ethics front and centre, without holding them to the same quality bar that defines the rest of the range.

It's always been a bug-bear of ours that speciality roasters will champion impact and social good, then only sweep in for 2 bags of the top microlot while leaving bulk production to the side, literally skimming the cream of the crop. We've been guilty of this at times since we started, and this espresso offers us the chance to make some amends.

We'll be focusing our sourcing on farms completing excellent ecological projects (regenerative agriculture, native forest protection and similar endeavours), alongside impact projects, and buying the bulk production from producers in our network, which is where we can really move the dial. What we're doing here is shifting our emphasis towards the extrinsic value of a coffee, the attributes that exist around it: who grew it, how the land is managed, and what it represents, rather than chasing intrinsic cup quality as the sole measure of what makes a coffee worth buying. To satisfy the trilemma, we're nominally trading quality for ethics, but by leaning into the additive flavours of a heavier roaster influence we can create a final outcome with a quality of its own, letting us buy deeper into the production of the farms with whom we work rather than just the top lots.

Brilliant for milk, easier to extract, and a safe choice for those who want a syrupy bodied, low acidity, more traditional espresso.

We intend this to broadly be a single origin coffee, but future versions may also be blended.

Version 2:

We selected this coffee to run as both a Facility component and Interval, as we get a handle on the volumes we need to buy and get the upstream pipeline rolling properly. Caimo Collective is a project in Bruselas, Pitalito, Huila, ran by Nordic approach and built around delivering higher income to producers with whom their coffee would otherwise disappear into generic blends.
By aggregating these lots into a traceable communal offering, the project gives growers access to speciality pricing and market access they could not reach alone, with payment split into two stages: an initial payment on meeting the programme's quality threshold, and a reliquidation once the lot is sold, tying producer earnings to the final commercial outcome.
Alongside price, the project extends into post-harvest education, financial literacy, and access to financing, with the longer aim of building loyalty among returning producers and steadily bringing more growers into a system that rewards the quality they are already capable of.