Natural Process Coffee – Ever had a Horny Goat or Pink Elephant?

Our selection of natural process coffees are truly something special. They are our top grade coffees with tons of personality both in the drink and in the design of their packaging. Wondering what`s the difference between a Natural or Washed coffee? Read our article here!

To truly appreciate coffee, it’s interesting to know where the coffee beans came from.

Our “Horny Goat” specialty coffee tells the story of how Kaldi, the goat herder. His goats discovered the uplifting effects of eating the red berries from the coffea arabica tree, in what is now southern Ethiopia over 1000 years ago (Click here to discover Kaldi’s story!).

Have a look at Richard Jones trip to Ehiopia! Where he had the chance to discover this wonderful country, home of coffee, and to be part of the entire process (from picking coffee cherries to sourcing coffee beans) of our Horny Goat Ethiopia specialty coffee!

The playful goat icon on our packaging is also an indication of the coffee experience that lies beneath. Our beans our sourced directly from the Guji region in southern Ethiopia, a micro-region of Sidamo. For many years, Ethiopian coffees were spoken about in hushed and reverent tones. A secret that not too many people wanted to share. Now, Ethiopia is often the gateway for a lot of people into this Specialty coffee world.

Our Grade 1 Horny Goat coffee from Guji scores 87 points on the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) scale and displays all the best aspects of this region: a potent floral aroma is the first indication of greatness; the honey-thick textured body of the drink with its medium acidic brightness and citrus and red berry sweetness delivers a full taste explosion on your palate. The higher altitudes and perfect growing conditions in southern Ethiopia allow the coffee cherries to mature on the tree for longer and that allows the greater intensity to transfer to the cup.

Our Pink Elephant coffee has the same levels of intensity and acidity, but perhaps a slightly lighter body. Scoring 88 points, it is grown in the northern mountains of Thailand above Chang Mai, and so its flavours are very different. It retains elements of the citric limey-ness of a ‘natural’ which is balanced by a more lush tropical fruit sensation before you are hit square in the face with a vanilla infused spiced rum flavour. This spicy tone becomes the lasting memory as the aftertaste to your drink, and we love it. We feel it is a more unique flavor experience and something we have committed to buying throughout 2019-2020. Specialty coffee from Thailand is still quite rare, especially compared to Ethiopia. There is a very vibrant specialty scene happening in Thailand and we’re just lucky enough that they have allowed us to get in on the act. This Pink Elephant will be around for a while we think!

But why Pink Elephant as a name? It’s pretty unusual we agree. But, like all of our coffees, we also look for a way to communicate a story or an idea behind the coffee. Because we believe Thailand and especially its coffee is something quite majestic and still quite rare, we linked it to the white Elephant, an auspicious animal given great reverence by Thai people. And when this pale skinned elephant is wet, it creates a faint hue of pink. That subtle change in appearance of an animal so bold and strong is something we found very appealing. We have tried to display that in our packaging design too!

These flavor assumptions, sound really impossible right? Well, it is of course a matter of interpretation, but if you concentrate your mind and really try to taste the coffee (without the interference of milk or sugar of course!), you will start to experience these different flavor notes. Try our natural process coffees and discover all our specialty coffee beans range to begin your coffee journey with us!

Happy Drinking!

The Bean Team