Legacy Filter - 250g

Developing this filter blend has been driven through the desire to support our core producer groups through paying premium prices for larger volumes and more lots of coffee. The flavours are very complementary, and we have been honing our roasting approach to ensure the resulting cups are harmonious and balanced. We really hope you enjoy this coffee and are grateful for your support.

Current Composition:

33% Peruvian washed Bourbon from Juan José Huillca Singuña
33% Guatemalan washed Caturra & Pache from Marvin Carias
33% Ethiopian washed Kurume & Wolisho from Snap's Aricha washing station

Aricha, Ethiopia

Around 700 smallholder coffee farmers in the Aricha kebele have contributed towards this lot. The varieties being grown are Wolisho, Dega & Kurume, which are tended to completely organically in a semi-forest system. Each farmer has between 0.5 and 2 hectares planted with coffee, amidst bananas and natural shade trees, with 1,500 to 2,400 coffee trees per hectare. Each tree only produces around 3kg of coffee fruit per season, which is delivered on foot or by mule to the washing station. Coffee is grown under shade amidst secondary crops like bananas, maize and other cereals, which not only provides food but improves the root structure on the farms which can protect against erosion. 

The cherry reception and processing is undertaken under the watchful eye and scrutiny of Henok Admassu, the mill manager. Henok and his children have been working at this mill with Snap Coffee in a vertically integrated fashion since late 2021. 

After depulping the received coffee cherries using an Agaarde disc pulper the coffee is fermented under cool water in ceramic tiled tanks for 72 hours, before washing and grading in long channels. The seeds are effectively graded by density in these channels and will be graded again once fully dried when the quality is refined at the dry mill using vibrating density sorting tables. It makes for a reliable product for us to roast, as the seeds are small and compact yet very dense, allowing an efficient transfer of heat through each seed and the entire batch. 

Snap Coffee was established in 2008 by Negusse Debela Weldyes and the group are responsible for the running and operation of several coffee washing stations which feature in our coffee range each year. Snap oversee the processing facilities but also take on the task of dispensing agricultural knowledge to their contributing farmers. Steps such as tiling fermentation tanks to enable better cleaning, as well as implementing strict drying protocols, have gone long ways to improving the clarity, cleanliness and longevity of the coffees’ characteristics. They are committed to recycling waste by-products from coffee processing at each of their stations where they have also built schools and provided them with computing equipment from the other arm of their business which is in electronics. They have improved the roads to streamline access to the washing stations and have built health clinics to provide access to better healthcare for their contributing farmers as well. Lots from the most recent harvest have been dry milled at Snap’s own processing and warehousing facility. This has afforded the group even more control over the final exportable product that we get to work with, leading to improved consistency and uniformity. 

Marvin Carias, Guatemala

We’ve worked in Guatemala with Primavera since 2012, and have come to really enjoy the diversity of flavours from various producers located across the country’s many diverse growing regions. Typically we are sourcing our coffees from Huehuetenango for bright, light filter roasting, but when it comes to espresso options and finding the right component for our house blend we knew that we wanted to explore Jalapa in Fraijanes. When visiting it is encouraging to see lots of shade trees and biodiversity on the farms here, as well as attention to detail and cleanliness at the processing beneficios. Cupping with Nadine and her team in the quality control lab, La Central in Guatemala City, we always find the top lots from Fraijanes to deliver that pleasing combination of sweet dried fruits, resinous aromatics and a very complex structure. This lot from Marvin Carias and his neighbours is a great example of why we love these sorts of coffees.  

Given that Marvin has surplus capacity at his own beneficio he not only processes fruit from his own coffee trees, a mixture of Caturra, Bourbon, Pache & Catuaí, but also transforms cherry from his neighbours into dried parchment at his own facilities. They are very choosy about cherry selection, having the notion ingrained over many years of working with Primavera that ripe, uniform cherry is the backbone of producing specialty coffee. The coffee trees are grown under shade trees such as Gravilea and amidst lots of pine trees, at altitudes of between 1,600 and 1,700 metres. The trees are nourished using a compost derived from decomposing spent coffee cherry pulp, a by-product of producing washed coffees. This helps to reintroduce nitrogen and other key nutrients into the soil with a far lower environmental impact than using artificial chemical fertilisers. 

Primavera are one of our longest standing exporting partners, who have in recent years invested in a brand-new dry mill. Installing solar panels and being kitted out with Pinhalense grading and milling machines, they have also installed a digital colour sorter to further refine the quality of the lots they’re buying and exporting. As well as taking care of the quality analysis, dry milling and export logistics, Primavera have a boots-on-the-ground approach, sending their team of agronomists to visit their producers throughout the year with the intention of supporting them with both harvest yield quantity and quality. 

Juan José Huillca Singuña, Peru

Juan has been producing coffee on his 2-hectare farm, Finca Altos Cedruyoc, since 2015. It is named for the wealth of cedar trees in the area. Coffee production is a family endeavour on the farm, and Juan is working in tandem with his wife and two children. They are continually working to produce high quality coffee, of both Bourbon and Maragogype varieties, and Juan uses his experience as an agronomist in tending to their crops. When we visited some of the Valle Inca members with the group president, José Prudencio, we were able to connect with Juan for dinner and he was very gentle and forthcoming, even after a long day of picking and processing coffee with his family.

The family farm is quite remote, amidst lots of native wildlife and vegetation, which Juan does his best to preserve and respect. As well as mature coffee trees that are already bearing fruit, Juan tends to a small nursery of coffee seedlings which will allow them to replace sick and tired trees as well as expand their production. They are working organically at Finca Altos Cedruyoc, applying natural fertilisers to their coffee trees, and growing the coffee under shade canopies. At harvest time Juan and his family collect the ripe coffee cherries before manually depulping and fermenting under water for 25 hours. After scrubbing and washing off the broken-down mucilage they are put to dry for between 9 and 15 days on raised beds in polytunnels, which were built courtesy of funds donated by the Valle Inca Association.