Category Archives: FArm Direct coffee

Sumatra Gayo River – New Crop Arrival

| January 26, 2012




As always, the arrival of new crop Farm Direct Sumatra Gayo River is a cause for celebration, particularly when we take into consideration the challenges facing our farmers and producing partners in Aceh, Indonesia. The damaging weather patterns continue to hamper production, to the tune of a nearly thirty-percent drop over the past two seasons. The primary cause for this decline has been higher-than-average rainfall during the critical blossoming and ripening stages of development.

A period of dry weather is necessary to stimulate a timely and consistent flowering, and the extended rains have led to a scattered harvest with low yields. As a result, prices are higher than ever, but this coffee is worth it! We have transitioned into this new crop and it is one of the best yet, featuring everything we love about the Gayo profile — syrupy body, blackberry sweetness, and herbal complexity.

Pick up a fresh bag of these rich, organic beans at any Caffe Vita cafe or online.

2011 Holiday Blend

| November 17, 2011

We’re excited to announce our 2011 Holiday Blend, featuring organic catuai and pacamara coffee.

This holiday season we’ve created a blend to celebrate the fruit of the harvest and the spirit of exploration. Our farm direct partners at Finca Nuevo Viñas in Guatemala are no strangers to these two concepts, with their continual pursuit for the highest quality cherry and their willingness to adopt new strategies to achieve this goal. Each year presents new opportunities for improvement and experimentation, and among the many excellent coffees produced this past growing season, we’ve chosen two distinct and superlative lots to pair for our holiday blend.

The first is a rarity for Central America, a naturally processed catuai. Ripe cherries are hand harvested and taken directly to raised beds to dry in the wind and the sun. This process is quite risky and very labor intensive, as the cherries must be monitored and raked continuously to ensure prompt and even drying. The result is a cup with a distinctly spiced-fruit character and an aroma not unlike the juice of a coffee cherry. To achieve balance and depth, we’ve paired the natural catuai with a washed pacamara, the highly prized large bean varietal. The pacamara is processed in the typical fashion, in which the ripe cherries are washed, pulped, fermented and then sun dried. Its classic dark chocolate and citrus profile adds structure and stability to the blend.

Each component is roasted separately to achieve the distinct expression of the varietal and processing method and blended immediately after cooling. The result is a layered, festive blend with notes of baked pear, dark chocolate, and cinnamon. Flavors of dried fruit and aged rum lend rustic complexity to the spiced plum and walnut finish.

This unique blend is now available for sale in our online store. Happy holidays!

Introducing Eco-friendly Zoo Special Reserve coffee

| April 15, 2011

We are honored to partner with our good friends at the Woodland Park Zoo to release a special product that supports the Zoo and their conservation programs. Our newest coffee, Zoo Special Reserve, is organic and shade-grown using sustainable farming practices. The beans are from a farm in the Santa Rosa district of Guatemala and were certified by the Rainforest Alliance. The farmers who grow this coffee promote biodiversity by setting aside over forty percent of their land as a nature reserve, which protects the habitats of native tropical animals and birds such as gray foxes, armadillos, anteaters, parrots and butterflies.
Caffe Vita will donate $1 to the Woodland Park Zoo for every bag of Zoo Special Reserve sold in our cafes.

The Woodland Park Zoo is raising funds for their Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program, which works with indigenous landowners in Papua New Guinea to improve community livelihoods while protecting biodiversity and the habitat of the endangered Matschie’s tree kangaroo.
The 12-ounce bags of whole beans are available now at our six Seattle locations.

New Crop Farm-Direct Guatemala Arrives

| April 12, 2011


Ah, springtime is here, which means the arrival of new crop coffees from Central America and Africa. Last week, we unloaded a container from Ethiopia, including some lovely Yirgacheffe from the Kochere district, and today saw the arrival of our very own farm-direct Guatemalan coffee beans from Finca Nuevo Vinas. (Take a look at the source report and photos from our trip to Guatemala back in February.) The ripe cherries were harvested less than two months ago; this farm-direct coffee is extra fresh.


We are in the process of cupping and developing roast profiles for these coffees, and we’ll let you know when they are ready to brew and pour. Stay tuned!

New Farm Direct Coffee – from Panama

| November 12, 2008


Yet another Caffe Vita Farm Direct coffee. We found this brilliant farm through our dear friend and superstar chef Jan Birnbaum of Epic Roasthouse S.F.. We will be getting more of these gorgeous beans in the future – but right now we only have a very limited supply.

The farm is a remarkable organic property in Boquette Panama – with heavy plantings of the much sought after geisha varietal. The trees are farmed using an ancient lunar method and the beans are carefully hand picked and dried on raised beds. The flavor profile is unparalleled and reminds us more of a fine Ethiopian bean than a Latin American coffee. In short – this is a very rare coffee and it completely coffee blew us away. A decadent complex cup with fragrant hints of citrus blossom, pronounced blueberry and chocolate flavors.

Exclusively available at our retail stores – and on the Vita online store – click here to grab some.

CCC = Come Cup Coffee.

| September 18, 2008

The charming and dreamy Heather Ruiz is hosting a series of Coffee Tastings – next week – at each Caffe Vita location. Come down and see how we select and taste coffee before we purchase the pretty beans. Coffee cupping is the coffee equivalent of wine tasting – but without the pomp and cheese.

All Cuppings Begin At 2pm.

Monday, September 22nd @ Seward Park
Tuesday, September 23rd @ Queen Anne
Wednesday, September 24th @ Fremont
Thursday, September 25th @ Olympia
Friday, September 26th @ Capitol Hill

Michael Hebberoy + Gristhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

| June 4, 2008

Hebb is now blogging with Grist, talking about his Farm Direct travels with Vita.

“I have spent the past year traveling the globe with Seattle coffee roaster Caffé Vita in their search for coffee, and I have the more enviable and slippery task of seeking out stories. Many Grist readers know that coffee is the second most heavily traded commodity on the planet, but unlike the elephant in the pole position (oil), we hear very little about the realities of the cherry-red fruit on which we are also dependent.

As long as Grist lets me, I will throw out some thoughts from the coffee road, and the other “tablemaking” adventures in which I routinely find myself…” continues at gristmill…