Forest Coffee | El Vergel | Colombia
I was fortunate enough to meet Shady & Elias (proprietors of Forest Green and El Vergel) a few years ago at the Conduit in London, while in preparation for a national competition. Getting to sit down with them and chat through all things coffee felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity. The two had unrivalled passion and expertise, which made me hungry to work with them in a commercial capacity once Harmony began.
About Forest Coffee
Forest Coffee was born out of a desire to unite the coffee producing community in Colombia. They offer a series of Green coffee categories, each of which offer the customer different degrees of quality and social impact:
1. Community. These coffees highlight the Condor projects in Colima and Huila, with the aim of maximising social impact, enhancing the coffee quality produced and uplifting the communities involved in the production. This is where we source our Really Good Decaf Coffee from El Vergel.
2. Microlots. This is focussing on small batch production. This category of production highlights unique profiles from individuals or groups. The aim of this particular category is to produce exceptional cup quality and highlight the unique story of each cup.
3. Reserve. This is a showcase of one-of-a-kind coffees with exceptional profiles. This category places luxury, high end flavour above all - where absolute quality is paramount.
4. Innovation. This category is dedicated to the development of green coffee, experimenting with new harvesting methods and new ways to process. Forest Green is famed for their innovation series success and their trailblazing efforts to popularise Koji inoculations, thanks to the help of Christopher Feran (you can read his blog here) and Kaapo Paavol. We have also featured Koji inoculated coffees from El Vergel a few times in our Coffee lineup.
5. Competition. A rigorously curated lineup of seriously world-class coffees intended to stand out on the global stage. I was fortunate enough myself to get hold of some of these coffees for my own national competition - read more that here - my experience with El Vergel's competition series made me seriously rethink the generally accepted industry position that Panama is the best origin for Gesha, and inspired my comments made during my interview with Perfect Daily Grind.
Working with El Vergel and Forest Coffee has made me realise the importance of community within coffee and the social benefits that can be passed along through the coffee supply chain. We hope to have a long and continued partnership, bringing exceptional coffees to York. With the help of our sourcing partner and UK Barista Champion 2024, Roosa Jalonen, we've committed to an awesome line up for the coming year, that will get you excited to learn more and taste some awesome coffees.
Learn more about our other Green Coffee Partners.
If you're interested in working with us on a wholesale basis, or to feature some of Forest's coffees - follow this link and drop us a message!
Omwani
Our wonderful sourcing partners specialising in East African coffee sourcing from Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Malawi and Kenya.
Omwani have been with us since the word go, and it's always a privilege to work with them. Most recently, we sourced the incredible Basha Bekele from them.
Coffee Cargo
Our wonderful Brazilian coffee partners, focusing on sourcing exceptional Brazilian Coffees.
Phil and the team at Cargo coffee have supplied us with incredible Brazilian coffee from some of the world's best farms, like our Sitio Portella, Sitio Lagoa and a number of other incredible coffees, such as our wonderful Sitio Baixao da Serra, which we supply to our friends over at Grind & Tamp.
Sitio Portella was also a well loved and gorgeous addition to York based Vinyl Cafe, Forty Five - who found it was received particularly well.
Karst Organics
Our wonderful sourcing partners based in East Timor.
Karst's phenomenal business integrity has earned them a permanent seasonal spot on our coffee offer list, featuring with us from February - June.
Our mates at Batch Coffee club wrote a lovely review about our coffee with Karst Organics that you can read on their website.
This coffee also features very heavily with our mates at York's best climbing wall, Redgoat.
You can find out more on Karst organics by following the link below.
Yundian
Since their inception, Yundian's coffee has become a staple of our coffee offerings.
Chinese coffee production has always been on our radar as having incredible potential due to its incredibly rich agricultural history and diverse terroir.
Yundian have more than earned their spot as our regular partner for Chinese coffees, providing us with some exceptional coffees such as Lu Sun and the Red Sparrow.
Caribbean Goods
Caribbean Goods are a Guatemalan specialty coffee importer. We work with Caribbean Goods to source some of the best coffees that Guatemala has to offer with a fair, fully traceable and just supply chain.
Javier's ethos aligns perfectly with our own, with an emphasis on Quality, Traceability, Customer and Farm level relationships, Empowerment and Environmental Conservation.
Caribbean Goods work with sustainable farms, using new techniques that use 90% less water than traditional coffee farming practices.
Micafe
Our wonderful sourcing partner for various Colombian coffee microlots.
Johnny has become a very good friend of ours since Harmony's inception in 2022.
Johnny's coffees have become a regular staple on our offer list, thanks to their incredibly high quality and extremely reliable consistency.
Forest Green Coffee
Our sourcing partner for El Vergel's microlots in Colombia.
Shady & Elias have also earned themselves a permanent spot on our Really Good Decaf Coffee rotation, with their exceptional Decaf from El Vergel.
We have been consistently blown away by the quality of their coffees, especially their Sugarcane Decaf, which has been a key feature at many of the best coffee shops in York and around the country - easily one of the best decaf coffees we've ever tried, which has since become a mainstay on our offer list.
For more information about El Vergel, follow this link here
Makicuna
Our wonderful sourcing partners based in Ecuador.
Makicuna now source from over 25 different coffee producers in Ecuador - primarily from Loja, Pichincha and Imbabura.
They source from some of the best coffee producers in the world - we are extremely excited whenever Ecuador is in season.
Cofinet
Our wonderful sourcing partners for various Colombian Microlots.
Bethany, Liam and the rest of the team at Cofinet have been excellent in sorting us out with some spectacular Colombian Microlots.
Currently available is our San Sebastián that you can find roasted for our mate Andy over at Bottle and Bean.
We also have a gorgeous release from Sebastian Gomez - some of Cofinet's finest!