2026.000a

Description

NB: While still lighter than a traditional espresso roast, our year-round offering, AVIARY#000, is roasted in a more developed style than any of our other releases, optimized to shine in espresso-based milk drinks at up to 1:6 ratios between coffee and milk. It also performs well in 'difficult' brewing conditions using suboptimal equipment or water. AVIARY#000 is roasted weekly, once per week. Our current continuous release—AVIARY#2026.000a—comes from the slopes of Volcán Atitlán where the Bressani family—fourth-generation coffee growers—operate a dairy and coffee farm, San Jerónimo Miramar, using a regenerative, agroforestry model. Roasted in a more-developed style, this coffee, brewed as espresso, presents with deep, fudgy notes of cacao nib, plum and red apple with under tones of hibiscus, strawberry and apricot. From Christopher: "The collection of cultivars growing at Finca San Jerónimo is the result of decades of work, of movement and migration between countries, of experimental field work, and of intentional adaptive genetics. Field trials from WCR and Anacafe grow among traditional varieties and exotics shared by agronomists, friends and employees. "The team there, led by fourth-generation coffee producer Giorgio Bressani, employs  their nursery—germinating seeds from trees whose attributes they want to target, as well as cloning trees to create additional seeds by grafting scions to Canephora or Liberica rootstock—the cupping lab, as well as a detailed record of yields, disease resistance and ripening. 'Catuai that stands like a tree' is how Giorgio Bressani describes the cultivar he's dubbed 'Arborai' at San Jerónimo Miramar, One of the distinct, locally-adapated varieties that has emerged as a result of this work. Catuaí, a cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra first created in Brazil in 1949 by the Instituto Agronômico in Brazil but released commercially in 1972, is prized by farmers in Latin  America for its compact, dwarf habit which makes it easier to harvest and maintain. However, the tree’s susceptibility to coffee leaf rust and cup quality limitations meant that, all over Central America, as roya ravaged production, Catuai—as Caturra and Bourbon with it—began to fall out of favor. "Arborai, with its resistance to rust, taller height that enables it to grow well under the forest canopy at San Jerónimo, and grafted rootstock mitigates these challenges, while offering a more complex, dynamic cup than its predecessors.  For Aviary’s 2026.000.01 release, our first continuously-offered coffee, we wanted to showcase this work—and roast a coffee that performs well with filter methods but that really shines in espresso applications mixed with milk. Like Catuaí, its undertones of chocolate lend well to espresso-based preparations and heavier roasting that accentuates these qualities. "Most of the buying I do for Aviary is from smallholders whose primary source of income is coffee production. Smallholders produce the majority of the world's coffee and are very often not only among the most disadvantaged members of the value stream not only in terms of income and market access but also risk. Meanwhile, estates are not only larger in scale but commonly have owners whose privilege and access is greater than those of smallholders. Estates typically employ and house dozens or hundreds of people—entire communities in and of themselves—so while their impact can be greater than those of a smallholder, the burden for acting responsibly and doing less harm is even greater, still. "But for that reason, I've long admired the work that the Bressani family—fourth generation coffee growers—are carrying out at Finca San Jerónimo Miramar. FSJM is a testament to what can be achieved when efforts, values and expertise are carried through generations over a century—and a showcase of how farm management can create resiliency for the future. "I first purchased coffee from FSJM for Aviary's first season and have since purchased for 2025 and 2026. What I see at FSJM gives me hope: it offers, I think, a tangible demonstration of how a different approach to coffee production—a fully-organic forest system with diversified revenue streams—could offer not only greater resiliency for producers in the face of climate change, but also stability in the face of market volatility.  "This coffee is processed using a traditional honey style that Giorgio refers to as 'slow jam'—pulped and dried slowly to enhance body and sweetness, presenting in the cup with rich, fudgy notes of cacao nib, plum and red apple with undertones of hibiscus, strawberry and apricot." Watch our mini-documentary from last season's visit to Finca San Jerónimo Miramar, with more deep history and context about the farm and its operations.