Kaffebox – September 18 Box Preview: Vertical Coffee Roasters

Now it’s finally time for the next KaffeBox, the reason why it’s taken such a long time is that of Postnord (Swedish postal service) requires a declaration cost from the recipient and an added 21 days of delivery time. Just because Norway (KaffeBox is Norwegian) hasn’t joined the EU. I have to add that it’s very strange Sweden has no exception to our neighbors.

This will be the tenth time for KaffeBox, you can read the most previous post here. This month we will go back in time because Postnord kept the coffee for a month and I got it later.

This box is a little different, Kaffebox has a rule to only choose coffee from Scandinavian coffee roasters, but once a year they go against that rule and feature a non-Scandinavian coffee roaster they later call the yearly “Wild Card”. It’s important that this Wild Card has the same light roast as we Scandinavians often roast, so it’s almost the same methods and taste profile.

The coffee comes from the Swiss Unterlunkhogen roastery Vertical Coffee Roasters. This week we will review one coffee from Colombia and Kenya.

As usual, I start with an informative text about the coffee:

Vertical Coffee Roasters, Unterlunkhofen, Schweiz.

1) Argote Colombia
Personal cupping and recipe will be published 2018-12-02

Origin: Colombia
Variety:  Caturra
Farm: Argote Family Farm
Region: Nariño
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1 950 – 2 000 meters above sea level.

Cupping notes:
Apricots, oranges, caramel & juicy body.

Expectation: This honestly sounds like a fantastic coffee, I’ve missed a good Colombian coffee a while not and this one sounds like it would be good enough. I think this is enough to summarize my expectation, it will be a sweet Colombian this time!

2) Kambiri AA Kenya
Personal cupping and recipe will be published 2018-12-06

Origin: Kenya
Variety:  SL 28 / Ruiru 11
Farm: Decimah Mwayi
Region: Nandi Hills
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1 700 meters above sea level.

Cupping notes:
Blackcurrant, cranberry, sweet toffee & syrupy body.

Expectation: A classic Kenya! I’ve been longing for a really acidic cup of Kenyan coffee. I think that we will be really pleased with this fresh profiled cup of coffee!

Conclusion: I don’t think that I’ve been this hyped on a month like I am right now. It’s always exciting when Kaffebox features a coffee outside of Scandinavia. It’s also interesting to see how they roast their light roast like us, and that they honestly have two really great coffees this month. The sky is the limit on these two.

As usual, I always wish to give a respectful greeting to KaffeBox, which allows us to get together with coffee from all over Scandinavia so that we can see how we roast differently and at the same time give us the best coffee from there. As a Swede, I hope we support our wonderful neighbors and continue to subscribe.

If we battle these two coffees against each other I have to say I can’t see any winner, I believe they are fantastic in their own way. I can’t honestly pick a winner this month. Vertical Coffee Roasters has picked out two nice coffee profiles this month, and I hope you guys are looking forward to the reviews!

If you want to buy your very own KaffeBox and go through my recipes and reflections, be sure to order it so you can be ready for next month’s KaffeBox. Click here to order from their website. Use “kaffenytt” as voucher code, you’ll get 20% off your first purchase and I won’t get anything, this is only something I requested so I can give something to you readers!

Do you want to read all of the reviews on KaffeBox monthly boxes? Click here!