This week, we're releasing 2 coffees that couldn't be more different from each other. This dichotomy of flavor really represents the transition into fall/winter that we're experiencing here in Chicago. Summer is officially over, the days are getting shorter, yet we are still clinging desperately to brightness and warmth. The summer brought so many cups with extremely juicy tropicality, blooms of floral bouquets and so much citric freshness.** The winter often has us reaching for more comforting cups of coffee with roundness, warmth, and a depth of complexity that evolves as it's sipped a bit more slowly. So in that stead, here is Ethiopia Nguisse Nare Murago Natural with an acid ripper ultralight roast, and a slightly softer, more delicate "boring washed" field blend of caturra, catuai, and bourbon from Leonides Castro Garcia of the Good Coffee Program in Oaxaca, Mexico. 
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Mexico Leonides Castro Garcia
Starting in 2023, Crop to Cup began working with the Good Coffee Program direct export channel to help deliver a higher direct payment to smallholder farmers in Mexico, while maintaining great traceability in the process. In the 2024 growing season, they cupped coffees from 241 different smallholders across various growing regions in Mexico. These were then divided into community and micro lot separations before being exported with 81.81% of the "free on board" or FOB price(what the importer paid to the exporter) being delivered directly to the producer. This specific microlot from Leonides Castro Garcia was selected during the 2025 harvest season for its exceptional cup score, boasting a cup profile with delicate dandelion and marigold yellow florals, grapefruit citrus, and a lovely stonefruit note of apricot that helps deliver a lovely complex sweetness to the cup.

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Ethiopia Nguisse Nare Murago Outgrowers

Nguisse Nare purchased his farm "Setame" in 2021 to focus on growing high end specialty coffee with a focus on intentional processing methods. The reputation his coffees carry truly needs no introduction, and this lot produced by outgrowers surrounding his drying station In Murago, a village within Bensa, Sidama Ethiopia, is no exception. The local Murago outgrowers deliver cherry to this drying station where it's then floated and dried on raised beds for 20 days, while being meticulously monitored. In the cup, we find an intense blackberry jam acidity and sweetness, followed by a very syrupy apricot note, all wrapped up in pink and purple florals like hibiscus and rose. 

(**Do not worry, acid ripper bangers ain't going anywhere just cuz it's cold folks)