Stable Blend

A juicy natural-process blend from Ethiopia and Costa Rica, combining fruit-forward sweetness with a creamy profile reminiscent of melted Neapolitan ice cream.

A comforting, classic blend with chocolate, caramel, and nut notes, built for an easy everyday cup without the bitterness of a traditional diner-style coffee.

Meaning ‘sleep’ in the indigenous Wayuunaiki language, Colombian 'Atunkaa' decaf lots are some of our favourite for sweet dreams and calm days. We loved the crisp Atunkaa Washed decaf we had earlier this year, and now we get to offer this juicy naturally-processed iteration, replete with sugary notes of Cherry Coke and vanilla. We think it's just the thing for winter's dark evenings. This decaf coffee is from Siruma, one of our key long-term partners in Colombia via our importer Falcon. Siruma was founded six years ago with the mission of partnering with underserved farming communities in Cauca, Caldas, and Tolima. The company's name comes from the Wayuunaiki language and means ‘Heaven and Skies’. Victoria and her Siruma team constantly inspire us by how hard they work to improve both their farmers' coffee and livelihoods, and Falcon are exemplary in how they work with Siruma to promote the stories of everyone involved. It's a win-win relationship that we love being a part of. Atunkaa Decaf showcases Siruma's commitment to transparency and fair prices for farmers. It is sourced from the Central Cauca Association for Peace (ACC) in Piendamó, Cauca. ACC was created by a local farmer who wanted to add value to Castillo coffee and provide stable incomes to help neighbours avoid illicit crops. Central to the cooperative's model is its wet-milling plant, which gives smallholders without their own processing infrastructure a place to deliver cherry and receive a fair price. Because the plant's natural processing capability adds significant value, the cooperative is able to pay growers well for their cherry. On arrival, cherries are classified to determine whether they are directed toward natural or fully washed processing, with the higher-quality cherries reserved for naturals. They then pass through a cleaning stage to remove solid particles, followed by optical sorting that separates under-ripe cherries — routed to the washed process — from the ripest fruit selected for naturals. The natural-process cherries undergo an aerobic stage of 24 to 36 hours before mechanical drying at 35 to 40 degrees Celsius until moisture reaches 10 to 11 percent. Each batch is kept separate and packed in GrainPro to preserve quality. The coffee is decaffeinated by Descafecol using a sustainable sugarcane-based process. By working directly with the mill and decaffeinator, Siruma ensures fair pricing and complete traceability back to the contributing farmers. Elevation: 1700-1900 Meters Above Sea Level Varietal: Castillo, Colombia, Caturra Cup score: 86 Price paid per kg: £11.60 Process: Natural, then Ethyl Acetate/sugarcane decaffeinated

Another fantastic lot from our friends at Aquiares, Centroamericano Red Honey combines fruity sweetness with a slightly more traditional profile. Costa Rican coffees (and Central American coffees in general) can represent a lot of problematic things about the coffee supply chain: For example, many farms in Central America are owned by wealthy Westerners who have access to capital and marketing that allows them to sell their coffees at prices that indigenous people could never achieve. This coffee is different, and it represents the sort of de-colonisation of the coffee supply chain that we want to support. Aquiares is a Costa Rican legacy farm, and they've set an absolute gold standard in how they treat people and the planet. The way they increase biodiversity, capture carbon, and care for both Costa Rican and migrant workers is a testament to how coffee CAN change people's lives. In fact, Diego Robelo is more like a town mayor than a coffee farmer, and our colleague Will recently visited to write about this expansive community. Aquiares also produces delicious, consistent coffees like this one with sweetly comforting notes of toffee apple, mandarin, and honey. It's the fruitiest of our 'brown' coffees whilst still having a classic, grounded profile ... perfect for sipping as you contemplate cosier days ahead. We've bought coffee from Aquiares since our first year at Skylark, but we are delighted to partner with them more fully for the first time in 2025 as well as for the foreseeable future. We plan to have their coffee on offer year-round as a staple to support the amazing work they do. Check out more of their story by reading below: Aquiares, one of Costa Rica’s largest and most historic coffee farms, sits high on the fertile slopes of Turrialba volcano. Producing coffee continuously for over a century, the farm has developed an enduring model for growing high-quality Arabica coffee, protecting a stunning natural setting, and supporting a thriving local community of 1,800 people. Established by British farmers in 1890, Aquiares was one of the first estates to produce and export Costa Rican coffee. In 1971, the farm was purchased by its current owners, three families who have worked together with the farm's staff and community to implement a modern model of sustainable agriculture. Don Alfonso took over farm management in 1992, and at the time he was new(ish) to coffee. However, one thread throughout his life has been a commitment to social justice. From the beginning, Don Alfonso made the social welfare of farm workers and the wider community one of his main priorities. His dedication has transformed the farm and the region. The community of Aquiares, originally created to house workers on the estate, sits in the midst of the farm. When it was built, the farm owned the houses where employees lived, creating home insecurity amongst working families. In 1992, under Don Alfonso’s management, the farm started a project to enable people to own their own houses. Each worker received a bonus for his or her years of service, housing plots were priced at a fraction of the local rate, and workers received assistance to apply for the government house fund. In the beginning, this seemed too good to be true, but as the first families obtained their own homes everyone else followed suit. In a matter of three years, the town was brought to life, enriched by security and achievement. Today, only around 15% of Aquiares residents work on the farm (many have gone on to become schoolteachers, doctors, etc.) and 96% of these own their own home, giving them options for the future that they themselves can choose. All Aquiares coffee is picked by hand to ensure consistent high quality. Microlots such as this one are picked by a special team of expert harvesters who are paid well above the daily rate for their exceptional skills. Each tree is visited up to seven times during the harvest to ensure that only fully red ripe cherries are picked. The pickers represent the farm’s most valuable asset. They hail from the community of Aquiares, nearby towns, and even from the neighbouring country of Nicaragua. The farm ensures that all workers have a safe work environment and a comfortable place to live. Workers coming from further away can live in on-site housing and use a children’s daycare. The farm sponsors doctors’ visits for pickers and their families twice a week where nutritional health advice is also given. To take better care of its field workers, Aquiares has established first-of-its-kind physical therapy sessions and also a daily warm-up routine of exercise before work. Many pickers return each year, confirming the success of the model. Aquiares is strongly committed to and has become an international leader in environmental sustainability. The farm has long seen the connection between agricultural, environmental, and social health. By planting more than 50,000 shade trees, creating natural buffers around streams and water springs, preserving the river valleys as forests, planting along the contour lines, implementing integrated pest management systems, and many other steps, Aquiares has demonstrated how to make ecological ideals a reality. For example, since soil health is the most important factor for a successful farm, Aquiares takes many steps to naturally improve the farm’s volcanic soil. The organic matter from pruning and the leaf litter from the coffee and shade trees are left to feed soil microbes and provide organic nutrients. The diversified shade trees (over 40 species) also cool the ground, slowing the ripening of the coffee, which allows for sugars from the mucilage to be fully absorbed by the bean, thus improving cup quality. The farm’s agricultural objective is to find synergies like these, where environmental health translates into coffee plant health, which ultimately contributes to long-term stability in the production of high-quality coffee. The farm’s terrain varies from gently sloping to steep hills. Valleys between hills create microclimates that are ideal for growing mainly Caturra and grafted Arabica-Nemaya varieties. Although Aquiares is considered large by Central American standards, the farm aims to tend to every individual coffee plant’s needs. Therefore, Aquiares utilizes a system of pruning each plant on its own, instead of pruning by row or by lot. Through an intensive rehabilitation program, Aquiares has re-planted more than 400,000 coffee trees in small patches of existing fields. This rejuvenated the crop of trees and increased the land’s utilization. It also played a crucial role in the 2012 rust attack, as young plants resisted the disease better, slowing its spread. Stringent environmental stewardship enabled the farm to achieve Rainforest Alliance Certification in 2003. In 2012, Aquiares became the first farm in Costa Rica to fulfill the requirements of the Rainforest Alliance Climate Module. This requires adhering to careful standards of greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, which are meticulously tracked through each harvest season. This certification demonstrates that the farm’s low emissions do not meaningfully contribute to climate change. You can read more about life at Aquiares right here.Elevation: 1200 Meters Above Sea Level Varietal: Centroamericano Cup score: 86 Price paid per kg: £10.73 Process: Honey