Pilgrims Coffee Roasters
Pilgrims coffee roasters are based on Holy Island, Northumberland.
Originally set up in a small yurt in the garden, Andrew began roasting coffee in Northumberland in 2014 and simply aimed to supply the cafe with delicious, high quality and sustainably sourced coffee.
In 2018 Pilgrims Coffee needed a larger space to keep up with their expanding business, so they re-purposed an old shipping container and created the current home of the Roastery.
Andrew still heads up operations at the roastery and ensures all of the beans are of the highest quality arabica.
Their state-of-the-art roaster ensures they bring out the distinctive characteristics of the beans and produce top quality coffee, every time.
As an entire business, they believe it is extremely important and take great pride in sourcing coffee beans from Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.
They always ensure that everyone that handles their coffee beans is well rewarded for their hard work - certification or not!
A fantastic roastery with fantastic morals that transcend all the way from the country the green coffee is sourced, through to the eco-friendly bags they sell the roasted coffee in.
The Coffee
The Segera Lot 1 coffee from Pilgrims originates from the Segera washing station which is owned by Daye Bensa Coffee Export, who own farms and washing stations around Southern Ethiopia.
This particular washing station is located in the Segera kebele within the Bensa woreda of the Sidama zone. The washing station sits 1980 MASL and the coffee cherries are purchased from out-growers with farms nearby.
These out-growers are typically small farmers with between 0.5 and 3 hectares of land which is managed organically with compost and is often grown within the native forest.
There is a mix of varieties in the area, some of which are local landrace selections, but more commonly it is the 374158 variety, which is a selection from the Jimma research centre.
This variety was selected from wild plants in the Metu-Bishari forest in the Illuababora zone in Western Ethiopia.
The coffee delivered to the Segera washing station is pulped, fermented underwater and then washed before being placed on raised beds to dry for around two weeks.
At this site the team are very selective about cherry quality ensuring only the ripest are bought and make sure the coffee is dried slowly with a skin-drying phase to start the process.
Sidama is one of Ethiopias three largest and trademarked coffee growing regions, the other two being Yirgacheffe and Harrar.
The coffee from Sidama is prized throughout the world because of its crisp acidy yet rich body. This is because most of the coffee grown in this area is so at altitudes over 1500 MASL so the coffee cherry grows slow with concentrated sweetness. The soil is fertile and there is enough annual rainfall to make much of the land perfect for growing speciality coffee.
As Ethiopia is regarded as the birthplace of coffee it grows some of the most diverse coffee plants in the world, many of which are uncategorised and listed as Heirloom varieties. This is another reason why some of the coffee from this region is regarded as the most unique in the world.
The Review
The coffee has a delicate fragrance to start and you can always tell you’re in for a treat when there are complexities in the unground coffee.
The first sips are super flavoursome, delicious juicy red apple notes layer together with a crisp acidity that tickles the corners of your palate.
The coffee cools and the acidity and complexities come to life, wonderful citric flavours double up with the undertone of sweetness to remind me of lemonade.
A delicate hint of florals breakthrough into the middle flavours that make way for more juicy red apple on the finish.
The coffee has a medium body with an aftertaste that keeps you wanting more.
A Sidama coffee that does the reputation of the region proud. The complex flavours and the subtleties of this coffee make it a coffee to be sipped and slurped over a number of days.
