Acacia Blend is our celebration of the speciality coffee world, featuring a seasonal rotation of the cleanest and sweetest coffees from our favourite farms and producers. With its delicate, sweet, and fruity flavours, Acacia works well for both espresso and brewed coffee alike. Components rotate seasonally, bringing you the freshest beans from our producing partners around the world. This new version of Acacia Blend currently showcases two sparkling washed coffees from Africa, resulting in a mild and unique brew, particularly enjoyable for black coffee lovers. Tanzania, as most of you might know, is a diverse East African country, featuring mountainous regions, extensive plains, and large lakes. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, is located in the northeast, along with forested areas. The country also includes parts of the Great Lakes, including Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika. This washed coffee, called Iyenga, comes from the Iyenga Cooperative, based in the Songwe region, known for its rich agricultural production in the south of Tanzania bordering Zambia and Malawi. This is the location of the Mbozi District, populated with 175 villages and around 515,000 people. The cooperative was established in 2003, with a membership of 64 farmers, and has since grown to 193 members. Most members’ farms are between 0.5 and 1.5 hectares, and most are intercropped with bananas, beans, and groundnuts, though coffee production is the primary source of income. In the last decade, the cooperative has invested significantly in its machinery, including a new eco-depulper, which they were able to finance through governmental funds, and the construction of a new wet mill. Members deliver their coffee cherries to a central processing unit, where the coffee is washed, fermented in tanks for 12 to 24 hours, washed again with clean water, and then put on raised drying tables until dried to 11-12% moisture. The flavour notes of black cherry and red berry are dominant, with subtle tones of milk chocolate. To round out the blend, we added a vibrant coffee from Kenya, famous for its high-grown, beautifully processed beans with a perfect mix of clarity, acidity, and body. This lot comes from Murang’a and Nyeri, two top regions known for standout AB-grade coffees. In Kenya, AB means the beans are slightly smaller than AA, but often more balanced and sweet, great value with amazing flavour. We sourced this coffee through Volcafe, a group that supports sustainable farming, reduces pesticide use, and works with local artisans like Ngiri-Giri, who make colourful kanga bags for packaging, creating jobs and celebrating Kenyan culture. The coffee comes from small farms at 1,600-2,000 metres and includes classic varieties like SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11, and Batian. Grown in rich volcanic soil and cool mountain air, the cherries ripen slowly, then are fully washed with fresh spring water and dried on raised beds, bringing out their clean, complex profile. You can expect crisp acidity with notes of blackcurrant and blackberry, juicy grapefruit, a tea-like finish, and a red-wine texture. Simply said: this new Acacia Blend is a complex and balanced coffee. Enjoy the subtle floral aroma of bergamot, then notes of redcurrant, tangerine, and white grape, all wrapped in juicy mandarin with a very sweet aftertaste of vanilla.