BOO BEANS IS BACK FROM THE DEAD!
Spooky season has crept up on us again, and you know what that means. Boo Beans has clawed its way out of the grave for another year. It's scarily good, it's here for October only, and then it vanishes back into the mist until next Halloween.
This year we've done something a bit different. The last 2 years, Boo Beans was a blend. This time it's a single origin, and it's a proper strange one. A lactic fermented coffee from Western Uganda that tastes of black tea and rhubarb, with a tangy little hit of yoghurt, all wrapped up in a silky, velvety body. Think a haunted afternoon tea where the rhubarb crumble has come back to life. Weird? Yes. Delicious? Absolutely.
If you've already had a peek at the box, you'll have spotted our official tasting notes: Jelly Babies, Beetle Juice and Spiders. Don't panic. No spiders were harmed in the making of this coffee. Keep reading for the slightly more sensible version.
Boo Beans: The Details
On the box: Jelly Babies, Beetle Juice and Spiders
Tasting notes: Black tea, rhubarb, yoghurt acidity, velvety body
Origin: Bunyangabu District, Western Uganda
Producers: Around 3,500 smallholder farmers
Washing station: Bunyangabu
Varieties: SL28 and SL34
Altitude: 1,300 to 1,600 metres above sea level
Process: Lactic fermentation, fully washed
Boo Beans: Process & Harvest
Bunyangabu sits in the far west of Uganda, close to the Congolese border and in the shadow of the Rwenzori Mountains. Around 3,500 smallholder farmers grow SL28 and SL34 on the surrounding hills, and loads of them also grow bananas, vanilla and beans alongside their coffee to spread their income.
This part of Uganda is traditionally known for Drugar (dry processed Ugandan Arabica), where cherries of all different ripeness levels often get delivered and dried together. This lot is the total opposite. Every cherry gets floated in water first to remove the lighter, lower quality fruit, then trained staff at the station sort through the rest by hand to pick out any defects.
Now for the spooky bit. After pulping, the coffee goes into fermentation tanks with water and a salty brine made with salt from Lake Katwe in the Kasese district, at 2% of the weight of the wet parchment. It's then left to bubble away for 40 to 42 hours. The salt helps steer the ferment towards lactic acid bacteria, the same friendly little critters that turn milk into yoghurt and cabbage into sauerkraut. That's exactly where the tangy yoghurt acidity and the creamy, velvety texture come from.
Once the ferment is done, the coffee is washed to strip off any remaining fruit, then laid out on raised beds to dry in the sun for 18 to 24 days. The team rakes it regularly so it dries evenly and hand sorts it again as it dries.
The whole lot is part of a specialty project with local exporter Ugacof, set up to push the quality of Ugandan Arabica and open the door for these farmers to reach premium markets. The processing was designed step by step so every batch tastes the same, and on the cupping table it absolutely shows.
Wait, What Is Washed Lactic Fermentation? (Explained Like You're 5)
A coffee bean is actually a seed, and it lives inside a little red cherry. Wrapped around that seed is a layer of sticky, sugary fruit goo. Before the coffee can be dried, for a washed coffee, that goo has to come off before it gets dried.
(read more about coffee processing here)
The easy way to get it off is to let tiny microbes eat it. You pop the coffee in a tank, the microbes munch through the sugary goo, and it all washes away. That munching is called fermentation, and pretty much every washed coffee goes through it.
Normally it's a free for all. Loads of different microbes turn up to the party and all do their own thing. Lactic fermentation is like putting a bouncer on the door. The salty water keeps most of the microbes out and lets one type in: lactic acid bacteria. These are the same friendly bacteria that make yoghurt, sourdough and sauerkraut.
Those bacteria eat the sugars and make lactic acid. Lactic acid is soft, round and creamy, where the acids in lemons and green apples are sharp and zingy. So instead of a bright citrus snap, you get a gentle tangy acidity, like a spoonful of yoghurt, and a thicker, silkier body in the cup.
The washed bit simply means that once the bacteria have done their job, the coffee gets rinsed in clean water. That keeps the cup clean and clear, rather than big and boozy like a natural process coffee.
The short version: a salty bath plus friendly bacteria equals a smooth, creamy, tangy cup. Spooky science at its finest.
Chipp Coffee Co. Roastery Update
September has been a big one behind the scenes. We've moved up to bigger roast batches and our new weigh filler has joined the packing line, so your coffee gets roasted, packed and out of the door quicker than ever. You won't notice much from your side, apart from your beans landing even more consistently. For us, it's a massive step up.
What We're Listening To
Of course it's spooky season, so we're listening to Haunted House Sound Effects by Spooky Sally...
Get Your Boo Beans Before It Disappears
Boo Beans is only here for October. Once it's gone, it's back in the crypt until next Halloween. Get it on the Roasters Choice subscription, from £15 a bag, and skip, pause or cancel anytime.
