Sri Lanka - Kotmale S9

SUGGESTED BREW METHODS: Pour Over | AeroPress | Chemex | French Press

ORIGIN HISTORY:

Sri Lanka, historically known as Ceylon, was once one of the world's largest coffee producers before coffee leaf rust devastated the industry in the late 1800s, leading many farms to transition to tea cultivation. In recent decades, however, a new generation of producers has revived coffee production, focusing on quality over quantity and bringing Sri Lankan specialty coffee back onto the global stage.

This lot comes from the Kotmale region in Sri Lanka's Central Province, an area known for its cool mountain climate, fertile soils, and lush landscapes. Coffee is grown by village-based smallholder farmers alongside select estate partners, where careful cultivation and traditional processing methods produce coffees that are distinctive, approachable, and increasingly sought after by specialty coffee enthusiasts.

FARM PROCESS:

This coffee is sourced from smallholder farms and carefully selected plantation partners throughout the Kotmale region. After harvest, fully ripe coffee cherries are carefully depulped while leaving a portion of the fruit’s sweet mucilage on the coffee before drying under the Sri Lankan sun. This honey process allows the remaining fruit sugars to influence the coffee as it dries over several weeks, contributing greater sweetness, body, and complexity to the finished cup.

Once drying is complete, the coffee is carefully screened, graded, and sorted to ensure consistency before export. This lot is composed of the S9 variety, offering a distinctive balance of sweetness, vibrant fruit character, rich body, and refined structure that reflects Sri Lanka's enduring coffee-growing heritage.

CUP PROFILE:

Delicate and lightly structured, this coffee opens with notes of ripe blackberry and soft honey sweetness. The honey process helps accentuate its gentle sweetness while preserving a clean, almost tea-like body and an elegant finish. Bright, nuanced, and easy-drinking, it offers a lighter expression of Sri Lankan coffee with subtle fruit and floral-like complexity.

Notes: Blackberry, Honey

Producer: Village Smallholder Farmers & Plantation Partners

Process: Honey

Variety: S9

Region: Kotmale, Central Province

Altitude: 1100–1250 MASL

Roast: Medium