Journal — April 2022

Happy May, everyone! Before we talk about this month’s roaster, I wanted to take a moment and thank you all again for your generous support during last month’s feature in Lviv. In addition to our order (where we paid Svit Kavy retail prices instead of wholesale for each bag of coffee), we were able to send over $1000 in donations to them. And starting the other day, they’ve been sending updates of where our donated coffee has gone. Most recently, they sent enough for a few thousand cups of coffee to a cafe in Kharkiv, the biggest city in Eastern Ukraine. This cafe recently reopened and have been brewing our coffee to serve to soldiers there on the front lines. Additionally, coffee from our order has been served in hospitals and in refugee centers around Lviv. So much feels like it’s going wrong in the world, and it can be hard to feel like we have the ability to make a difference. Often I find myself at a loss for words to post on social media, because it feels strange to talk about coffee when wars, pandemics, and human rights violations fill the news, but it meant so much to me to hear the difference that our order made to Svit Kavy, and now to that cafe in Kharkiv. It’s a good reminder that even small acts of kindness can make a difference. So thank you for your support. I hope you loved last month’s coffee, and that this inspires you to find some small ways to make things a little better too.

Okay. Getting off my soapbox. This month’s feature is a real treat.

If you’ve encountered the fantastic origami dripper, then you’re already familiar with Yasuo Suzuki’s work. Suzuki-san spent several years working in Scandinavia’s best coffee shops before eventually returning home to Nagoya and opening Trunk. A few years later, he developed the Origami dripper, which quickly became the coffee world’s new favorite brewing method.

Actually, though, most of our favorite drip coffee methods come from Japan. Coffee culture is wholly its own thing in Japan, but most of the internationally known cafes are in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. Nagoya had lots of traditional kissaten-style cafes, but Trunk is carving out a new niche there for specialty coffee.

This month’s lineup has some really beautiful offerings. The Gedeb Worka is one of the tastiest African coffees I’ve had in a while. You’re gonna love it. Wachuri is a delight as well, with bright, juicy malic acidity and caramelly sweetness to balance it out. But Rodrigo Sanchez’s Monteblanco lots are especially unique, and I can’t wait to hear what you think of them.