March xPods
March is the month of experimental as we are happy to onboard new roaster and coffeehouse Humble Origins known for their long-standing representation of Myanmar coffees here and crowd favourites Roundboy Roasters with an interesting variety from Tanzania.
For the East-side folks, Humble Origins Coffee Roasters comes as no stranger and has been known to champion Myanmar farmers and their coffees for the longest time. Did we tell you how much we love them putting the faces of the hardworking farmers on their coffee bean bags? This month, we are happy to showcase our first ever Myanmar coffee on the xPod – the Shio Koji.
As you may have guessed how the name was derived, the Shio Koji are coffee cherries that are marinated and fermented in barrels with koji rice before left on the beds to dry. This comes at the past 3 years of experimentation in elevating the coffee profile to something that is more delightful and refreshing. Simply put, we love how the coffee has been interestingly processed but has a clean flavour to it without being overly funky. It can certainly make for an iced filter as well by toning down the brew ratio.
In our opinion, you can never go wrong with coffees from Roundboy Roasters and we generally love how they have made their coffees more accessible by roasting generally more darker to a medium or medium light. This generally allows for more versatile brews across espresso and filter but also makes it less straining on grinders which struggle with grinding finer with denser coffees. We’ve loved they’ve taken some exotic varieties from before and made it accessible like the Arufa, a PNG coffee with jackfruit afternotes (that’s made it into their regular lineup) and back this month with Nsoga, a N39 variety Tanzania coffee.
For the longest time, Tanzania has had no association with coffee until the 19th century and as plagued with coffee wilt disease and environmental challenges. In recent years helped by the government through Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies or co-op farms (similar to Ethiopia), coffee production has improved with a downward channel to the Nsoga River established. As such, this coffee holds testament and tribute to the work of the farmers and the producers there and is a surprisingly jammy coffee with notes of raspberries, plums and apple juice-like acidity.
Humble Origin Coffee Roasters Morning Star Series
Shio Koji
Roast Level: Light
Type: Mixed Varieties
Process: Anaerobic Natural
Varietal: Catuai, Caturra, SL34, S795
Elevation: 1500 MASL
Origin: Pinlaung, Shan State, Myanmar
Roundboy Roasters Morning Star Series
Nsoga
Roast Level: Medium
Type: Mixed Varieties
Process: Washed
Varietal: N39, Compact
Elevation: 1739 masl.
Origin: Mbozi, Songwe, Tanzania
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