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Beans found 0/6
A steady bearing to six farms. Roasted by the harbour.
Chart your coffeeClick anything on the desk to open it.
Prologue · Day 1
Every season the roaster leaves Merrowick with a wooden sample chest and six empty slots. Green coffee can be ordered from a list, but a list cannot tell you how a farm smells after rain. So we go, holding one bearing at a time, and come home when every slot is full. Pull up a stool.
Orders: six slots, six farms, one season. Cup everything. Bring home only what we would drink ourselves.
Ocean chart
Pick a port to read the log.
Bearing 114° Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia 5,795 nmi
Leg 1 of 6
Day 8 · 22 March
15°41′N 88°37′W
Wind NE 12 kn · Sea slight · Haze
Made fast at Santo Tomás at dusk. Two days by road, west and up into the Cuchumatanes. At Finca Viento Seco the last cherries were coming off the top rows. The owner wet a finger and held it up: the warm wind from Mexico, she said, is why frost never reaches them.
Leg 2 of 6
Day 20 · 3 April
10°24′N 75°32′W
Wind NE 18 kn · Sea moderate
Anchored off Cartagena in a fresh trade wind. Three days south by road, the last hour in a painted chiva with sacks on the roof. Huila was starting its mitaca, the smaller second picking. El Rumbo means “the course”. We took it as a sign and cupped until dark.
Leg 3 of 6
Day 48 · 1 May
23°59′S 46°18′W
Wind SE 8 kn · Sea slight · Low cloud
Alongside at Santos. The red hills of Mogiana take their name from the old railway that once carried their coffee on its way to this quay. Picking began the morning we reached Fazenda Pedra Clara. By noon the patio was striped with cherries, raked into rows to dry.
19 May · Off the Cape. Wind NW 45 kn, seas 7 m. Chest lashed to the table. Half cups only.
Leg 4 of 6
Day 76 · 29 May
4°03′S 39°39′E
Wind SSE 17 kn · Sea moderate · Rain
Mombasa in the long rains. Up-country by train and road to Nyeri, where Mount Kenya showed its peak for an hour at dawn. The early crop was coming in to Gakiriko Factory. At dusk the growers queued with their sacks, and each weight went into a small book.
Leg 5 of 6
Day 90 · 12 June
11°36′N 43°08′E
Wind W 26 kn · Khamsin · Dust haze
Djibouti in a hot wind. Train to Dire Dawa, on to Addis, then a day south through false banana gardens. Picking ended in January, but Bokkicho had kept one lot back in parchment. They roasted a handful in a pan over charcoal and passed it round. Jasmine.
Indian Ocean, 02:00. Monsoon swell astern, stars between squalls, five slots full.
Leg 6 of 6
Day 112 · 4 July
3°47′N 98°41′E
Wind SW 9 kn · Squall at dawn
A squall at first light, then Belawan steaming in the sun. A day up the mountain road to Takengon and Lake Laut Tawar, where the fly crop was in. Wet-hulled beans lay on tarpaulins along the lake road, darkening to jade. Kabut Tinggi means “high mist”; by four it came down.
Homeward by Suez. Six slots full, and the cabin smells of six countries at once.
The season’s six so far
Beans found 0/6
Landfall · Day 153
The sun was going down behind Ropewalk Quay as the lines went ashore. The chest came up the gangway first, before anyone’s kit. Tomorrow we light the roaster, and six farms become six coffees.
Day 154 · Cupping
Six coffees on the cupping table. Eight flavour families, laid out like a compass. Turn the wheel until one points north.
Drag to turn, or use the arrow keys.
Floral
Jasmine · Orange blossom · Black tea
Perfumed and delicate. It shows up in high-grown washed coffees and fades fast in a dark roast.
Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia
Jasmine · Orange blossom · Black tea
Perfumed and delicate. It shows up in high-grown washed coffees and fades fast in a dark roast.
Blackcurrant · Red cherry · Peach
Juicy and ripe, from bright berries to soft stone fruit. Naturals push it towards jam.
Bergamot · Grapefruit · Mandarin
Crisp acidity that wakes the cup up. It sharpens as the coffee cools.
Caramel · Cane sugar · Molasses
The backbone of a good roast. Sugars brown in the drum and round off the edges.
Milk chocolate · Dark chocolate
Comforting and familiar. It deepens as the roast goes darker and gets along well with milk.
Hazelnut · Toasted almond · Pecan
Toasty and mellow, the kind of cup you can drink every day. Common in Brazilian naturals.
Clove · Cinnamon · Black pepper
Warm and a little woody. Wet-hulled Sumatran coffees carry it, often with a hint of cedar.
Pipe tobacco · Malt · Toast
Deep, toasty and a little smoky. It comes from the drum as much as the farm, so darker roasts show more.
The crew list
Four questions about how you brew and what you like. We’ll find your berth: a plan, an origin and the right grind.
Three ways to sign on. Every bag ships within a day of roasting.
Harbour
1 bag · 250 g · every 2 weeks
$16
Home waters for one drinker and a daily cup. Pause any time.
Passage
2 bags · 250 g each · every 2 weeks
$29
For a household that brews every morning. Two bags, so the galley never runs dry.
Expedition
3 origins · 250 g each · every month
$44
Three origins a month from this season’s chest, cupped side by side. For the curious.
14 August, 21:10 · Lines doubled, lamp out. End of the season’s log.
A short letter when a new origin lands, with the month’s tides for Merrowick. Once a month at most.
Merrowick
44°48′N 62°37′W
Shed 4, Ropewalk Quay, off Chandlery Lane
Galley · Today’s cup
The pot on the galley stove is never empty for long. Here is what’s in it today, and how to make the same cup at home.
Gayo, Sumatra, ground medium-fine for the moka pot on the galley stove.
18 g · 36 g out, water at 93 °C · Fine · 25–30 s
Judge the shot by weight in the cup. Sour and fast: grind finer. Bitter and slow: grind coarser.
15 g · 250 g water at 93–96 °C · Medium · about 3 min
Rinse the paper with hot water, then bloom with 30 g of water for 30–45 s before the main pour.
30 g · 500 g water at 93–96 °C · Coarse · 4 min
At four minutes, stir the crust and skim the foam. Press gently and pour it all off at once.
Basket level, not tamped · Hot water below the valve · Medium-fine · 3–5 min, medium heat
Lid up. Take it off the heat as the stream turns pale, then cool the base under a cold tap.
Treat every number here as a first bearing. Taste, change one thing at a time, and log what you did.