KENYA
Top Massai – full body
Kenya is known for producing a very unique coffee that resembles red wine. Vee‘s Kenya 'Top Massai' is grown very closely to the Equator, at an altitude of up to 2,100 m at the offshoots of Mount Kenya. The volcanic soil is fertile and the climate is close to perfection. The very hard and slowly ripening beans are more than suitable for a deep roast. Vee’s full-bodied 'Top Massai' is extremely aromatic and well balanced with complex juicy flavours, red wine like acidity and long lasting dazzling aromas of cherries and dark berries like blackberries and black currants accompanied by brown-sugar sweetness.
Best for: Filter coffee, Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato
ETHIOPIA
Yirgacheffé – medium/light body
Ethiopia is the birthplace of the coffee beans, which still grow wild there in resplendent diversity. In fact, it's the region's botanical variety that makes Ethiopian coffee so special, giving the beans a distinctive appearance and aroma — long and slightly curved, with a beautiful floral scent that reminds of a bouquet of blossoms. Our coffee comes from the region of the town Yirgacheffé (Irgachefe) in the Sidamo state in Central Southern Ethiopia from altitudes of around 1,900 m. East of Lake Abaya, we find special lots that best exemplify these qualities. Ethiopia 'Yirgacheffé' is among the finest washed Arabica, prepared in a fashion that enhances its uniquely refined flavours. Perfectly ripe cherries are picked and pulped the same day. Careful fermentation loosens the gelatinous fruit, and the coffee is then washed in high mountain waters. Cleansed beans are gently dried on raised beds, where farmers rotate them frequently to prevent any sun-scorching. This method produces a bright, tangy brew with peerless clarity of flavour. Its enchanting floral aroma leaves almost an impression of flower perfume, giving way to distinct citrus and fruity notes.
Best for: Filter coffee
TANZANIA
Kilimandscharo - medium body
More than 90 % of Tanzania's coffee is produced by 400,000 smallholder farmers. The harvesting season in Tanzania usually lasts from July to December. Coffee is shipped to buyers out of the major ports of Dar es Salaam and Tanga. The most important cooperative of coffee farmers is the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) producing Tanzania’s best coffee at the southern offshoots of Mount Kilimanjaro at altitudes around 1,500 m. Vee’s 'Kilimanjaro' is a medium-bodied, medium to dark roast with well balanced fruity flavours of apricots and peaches and notes of cherries and caramel.
Best for: Filter coffee, Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato
ARABIAN MOCHA
Genuine Yemenite Arabian Mocha – full/medium body
Genuine Yemenite 'Arabian Mocha' is one of the world’s best coffees, named after the harbour in Yemen from where it was shipped out for centuries. 'Arabian Mocha' is distinctive in both flavour and appearance, and grows under harsh, primitive conditions in the arid mountains of Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula. The Mocha variety of coffee favours a terrain of low bushes on barely cultivated land, and these plants sprout miraculously from spring water oases and rock-hewn terraces where they have to struggle to produce every single coffee cherry. The centuries-old method for rendering the beans is equally arduous. When most of the cherries are ripe, the farmers pick them all at once and dry them on rooftops and hardened-earth patios. These dried coffee cherries are then hand-milled through traditional stone wheels to remove the hulls and release the two beans inside. This timeless, organic process is what accounts for the rare and naturally wild flavours characteristic for 'Arabian Mocha' coffee. Although the unusually small, rounded beans are irregular in form, size, and colour, they brew one of the finest cups of coffee on earth. The flavour is reminiscent of a spicy, fruity wine, cinnamon, wood, and blueberries with a full body and intense, exceedingly complex aroma – deep roast.
Best for: Filter coffee, Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte Macchiato