Every month, our Coffee World Tour subscribers get to experience a new part of the globe. We share coffee that highlights the unique qualities of coffee in the county we feature. This month, we’ve imported coffee from the Ramirez Estate, one of the most prominent and respected coffee estates in the Dominican Republic.
Ramirez Estate
The Ramirez family is a treasure trove of finely grown and processed specialty coffee in the Dominican Republic but they’re also fantastic neighbors. Their farm, in the Jarabacoa region, has been using fermented coffee cherries to create natural gas which they use for power on the farm, thus lowering their carbon footprint. They’re also very involved supporting local education. They’ve donated books, computers, and even sponsored a school in a remote community that previously lacked one.
Mastering the Roast
80% of Dominican Coffee is consumed within the DR and within those communities, it’s typically dark roasted. While we love the coffee from the Ramirez Estate, given that specialty coffee isn’t as common in the DR, it felt disingenuous to say that a medium or even light roast of their coffee would be typical. After all, Dominican coffee is rarely consumed outside the DR and they drink it dark. The problem we had was that dark roasts of DR coffee didn’t go well. The Ramirez estate is at 1400 meters above sea level. We’ve typically had better luck dark roasting higher altitude coffees as they are denser and roast slower. Our sample dark roasts did not turn out nicely. But it was important to us to bring people an experience that felt like the best version of Dominican coffee, so we got creative. This month’s coffee utilizes what we’re calling a layered dark roast. We did six different roasts of the coffee from medium dark (420 degrees F) to Italian Roast (455 degrees F) and blended them. We strategically found points throughout that spectrum that highlighted the bean’s best qualities. The result is a well rounded coffee with subtle notes that tastes like a high quality dark roast. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
If you want to be the first to experience this incredible coffee, and to try a new coffee from a differently place around the world every month, be sure to subscribe to Coffee World Tour.
