FIELD NOTES: Issue 03 – June 2026
THE TRUTH BEHIND HOW WE BUY COFFEE
Every coffee has a story, and sometimes that story begins with a good problem: a coffee selling out sooner than expected.
We plan our coffee buying carefully throughout the year, but forecasting demand with complete accuracy is never easy. Occasionally, a coffee reaches the end of its stock before the next harvest is ready to arrive, and this is where spot buying plays an important role.
The majority of our coffee is sourced through planned forward purchasing. This means agreeing coffees directly with producers well in advance, often long before the coffee has even left its country of origin. These are producers with whom we have built meaningful, long-term relationships, allowing us to secure quality coffee, manage costs, and maintain a consistent supply throughout the year.
Today, more than 90% of the coffee we roast is purchased in this way.
The remaining portion of our coffee buying is reserved for spot purchases. In these cases, we source coffee through trusted import partners who share our values around sustainability, transparency and quality. Most often, spot buying allows us to bridge small gaps in supply with coffees that closely match the flavour profiles you already enjoy.
Occasionally, however, it also presents an opportunity to bring something a little different into the roastery.
That is exactly how we arrived at our latest Limited Release: a carbonic maceration coffee from Colombia, produced by our long-standing partner Esnayder.
Borrowed from winemaking, carbonic maceration involves sealing whole coffee cherries in tanks filled with carbon dioxide, creating an oxygen-free environment for fermentation. In this case, the cherries undergo a 180-hour fermentation before being carefully dried at low temperatures to preserve sweetness, clarity and complexity.
The result is a vibrant and expressive cup with balanced sweet and spicy notes, sparkling acidity and a silky mouthfeel, finishing with a subtle wine-like character.
If you enjoy discovering something a little different in your cup, visit our website to learn more about this limited release and experience this unique coffee for yourself.
(Field Notes is a short printed update we include with subscriber deliveries, sharing what we're seeing across the farms and coffee regions we work with.)
