A blend of coffees from Sumatra & Ethiopia, with tasting notes of dried fruits, vanilla, and baking spices
It’s that wonderful time of year again! Festivus! For our 2020 Festivus Blend, we have once again selected two of the finest coffees Sumatra and Ethiopia have to offer. Wildly different and distinct, yet harmonious when combined, this coffee is our take on a traditional Mocha Java blend.
We commissioned the incredible local artist Jessie Pickren of Hew & Co to illustrate the Festivus packaging, while screen printing for these limited bags was done in Nashville, TN by the always-amazing Grand Palace.
This year’s Ethiopian component is a naturally processed coffee from the Konga cooperative, grown in the world-famous Yirgacheffe region. This complex coffee adds plenty of dark fruit attributes to the blend, like delicious cherry and blueberry notes
The Sumatran component comes from the famed Aceh region in northern Sumatra. Here the coffees are picked at peak ripeness and then processed in the “wet hull” method that has made Sumatra famous for their unique flavor profile. This adds deep, warming notes of vanilla, oak, and baking spices to our Festivus Blend.
More on Mocha Java
Together, these coffees create our version of one of the world’s original coffee blends, Mocha Java. This style of coffee blend dates all the way back to when traders were sailing from Europe to Indonesia. Ships would stop in the port of Java and pick up the typically bold and earthy coffees that Indonesia had to offer. Then, on their way back, they would stop in the busy port of Mocha in Yemen, picking up more coffee. Like the nearby coffees from Ethiopia, coffees from Mocha were lighter, fruitier, and brighter than their Java counterparts.
Coming back to Europe, coffees from these two parts of the world were mixed together resulting in one of the first known coffee blends. The bright, fruity notes of the African coffee paired beautifully with the deep, rich undertones of the Indonesian Java coffee and became known as the Mocha Java Blend
Today, you rarely find Mocha Java coffees that are blended with exactly these two components. Typically, roasters like us will get a similar mix by using coffees from Sumatra, and bright coffees from Ethiopia to make their Mocha Java blend. That’s what we’ve done with Festivus Blend. It’s a fantastic mix of bright, fruity Ethiopian coffees and deep, rich, full bodied Sumatra. And, if you’re like most people and hear “Mocha Java” and think “chocolate”, about the only thing a Mocha Java blend has to do with chocolate is some of the rich, chocolate flavors you get in the cup from our Sumatra Aceh coffee.
