When you think of burnt sugar and sweet orange, most people don't immediately think about coffee, but our brains here at Red Rock are dedicated to deciphering the amazing subtleties held in a well-tended, well-harvested, artisan-roasted, superior batch of coffee, in order to provide you at home with a unique experience. With that being said, I would love to tell you exactly how special this lot of coffee is.

The Ojercaibal project is a small amount of farmers from the Chitmaltenango region of Guatemala that have all pitched in their PERSONAL crops to this lot. That means that the coffee you are drinking was actually grown in or around the homes of these farmers. They were given the care and attention that a small garden would be given. They were spoken to, caressed, music was played for them, and generally treated like children. The multitude of varieties coming from these 61 gardens contributes to the complex and dynamic qualities of this coffee. This entire lot was purchased by our roaster (Four Barrel) and the whole community benefited from it. Approximately 300 families (1,300 people) now have schools, cooking appliances, clean water, and waste management. Yay for tiny coffee gardens!

The project is based in San Jose Poaquil, a town of all Mayan descendants - the Kaqchiquel - an indigenous Mayan tribe who rely entirely on agriculture to sustain their villages. So you are drinking coffee rooted in century-old Mayan agricultural techniques, which is pretty excellent.

Often, acidity in food, especially in most drinks, is considered negative and leaves a... bad taste in your mouth... so to speak. In the world of coffee, acidity is one of our greatest allies. Without acidity our coffee would be bland, flat and devoid of much of the character that makes specialty coffee so scintillating. This Kenyan auction lot delivers acidity and sweetness together in a special way. This lot benefits in these regards by being grown at high elevation and being a peaberry lot.
The Gakuyuini mill collects coffee from small farms at a lofty elevation of 2000 meters. Higher elevation deprives the fruit of the coffee shrub of oxygen. This slows the ripening process, leaving the seed in contact with the fruit for a longer period. That time infuses more sugars into the bean. Selection of the peaberries from the main lot also enhances the sweetness. Peaberries represent a small portion of the total harvest with seeds that do not split into the characteristic halves. The whole beans retain all of the sugar from the fruit that once surrounded it, rather than sharing it with the other half of the seed. These elements combine to provide an elegant marriage of raspberry acidity with red licorice sweetness.

A few days ago, we were in deep conversation with our friend Juan Valdez. On the topic of the best that Colombia has to offer, Juan eventually admitted that he really never "traveled the mountains looking for only the finest coffee beans" at all. In fact he was just a front man for a very large number of farms that belong to the ACEDGA co-op. He went on to tell us that these farms all hand pick and cup their finest lots of coffee that become the "Reserva" lot. The rest of the coffee, either cupped at "ok" scores or for some other reason far from exemplary, are homogenized and sold to the major coffee corporations. Now aren't you glad you buy your coffee from us? Thanks for the tip, Juan!

As a result of Juan's eventual honesty, we were able to procure you the Colombia El Jordan Reserva! ("hor-DON") As bright as a sunny morning and bursting with full frontal orange zest, the Jordan maintains a robust body drizzled with sweet carmel, a hallmark of a Colombian thoroughbred. Cup after cup, in a sweet soothing voice it delivers the message, "All coffee from Colombia is not dark... don't buy corporate coffee."

Roasted coffee is one of the most complex culinary items, with flavors ranging from chocolate to blueberry to tobacco to orange. Part of our mission at Red Rock is to promote the appreciation of fine specialty coffee.

Red Rock Coffee Tastings provide an opportunity to taste four of our fresh-roasted, single origin coffees side by side and better experience, understand, and appreciate the nuances of flavor that make coffee unique. Join our team of coffee aficionados for a sensory education experience.

- Develop your coffee tasting palate
- Grow your appreciation for specialty coffee
- Learn how to enhance your home brewing experience
- Take home a bag of the coffee you like best

Space is limited to 8 seats per tasting.
The tasting is only $25
Email John Dustman to reserve your seat today!

Sourcing from a roaster who buys seasonally can be frustrating. Your favorite coffees come, generate excitement, and then disappear. Sometimes these frustrations are balanced by the arrival of the next great lot of coffee from some new origin. Other times, the frustration is balanced when one of your favorite coffees returns the next year through a direct trade relationship. When Red Rock started serving Four Barrel in January, we had fallen in love with Guatemala Concepcion Pixcaya for its smooth body. We were not able to serve it initially because its season had passed and there was no more. So when we heard that Four Barrel bought the full lot from this farm in San Juan this year, we were elated.
The high elevation - 1828 meters - allows slow development of the sugars in the fruit, resulting in a sweeter cup. The syrupy goodness leading off the Pixcaya (pronounced "pish-AYE-uh") is reminiscent of marshmallow. This fades into body that will be familiar to fans of Guatemalan coffee. In this case the body carries heavy chocolate and subtle orange zest. The cup is pleasantly balanced and finishes very clean for its high body.

The Kenyan auction system provides some of the best coffee in the world. Producers in Kenya go to great lengths to bring out the best their climate and terroir have to offer. Some of this work is comparable to that done in other countries - attention to detail in the picking and production. Much of what makes coffee from Kenya stand out is their development of unique varietals designed thrive in microclimate systems and be resilient to disease. These factors are definitely at play in this peaberry lot from Kirimara.

The meticulousness of production leads to a clean cup that is characteristic of nearly all specialty coffee leaving Kenya. Varietals SL-28 and Ruiru-11 provide rich, dark berry flavors balanced with herbaceous notes of fennel and dill. Peaberries are a mutation of the seed, representing about five percent of a random lot of beans, causing the bean to not split. Typically, peaberries remain in bulk coffee. When they are sorted, they are often discarded. Recently, it has been discovered that their aggregation provides exquisite intensity of flavor and distinctive richness of body. These are definitely true of the Kenyan in your possession.