Our Aylesbury Blend is a great all-rounder espresso blend. The current component mix presents a flavour profile like fruit salad, with soft malic stone fruit or pear-like acidity at the front, followed by sweet red apple, syrupy apricot and tangy orange flavours, supported by a heavy, buttery mouthfeel. There’s a caramel sweetness in the aftertaste, rounding it out deliciously. The current base of the blend comes from Fazenda Congonhas in Cerrado, Brazil. The farm is run by Prosolina dos Reis Prado, who was originally a livestock farmer but has been producing coffee since 1976. The farm is Fairtrade certified, and Prosolina is always looking to innovate and improve processes whilst maintaining good social and environmental practices. The middle component of the blend comes from Cajibío, Cauca, a region which has historically been subject to devastating conflict, criminal activity and coca-growing. The Asociación Sembradores de Vida (“Sowers of Life”) formed in 2014 as a group of 40 coffee producers who had been directly affected by violence, often being forced into coca production or to abandon their land (or worse). A number of them are ex-members of the AUC paramilitary group, who are being rehabilitated into civilian life through coffee production. Now numbering 137, the members work together to implement projects for social, economic and environmental development. You can visit our website to read a brief interview with Ruben, a representative from the group. The blend is topped off with a lot from the Gisheke washing station in Rwanda. Located in Nyamasheke District, the station overlooks Lake Kivu, over which all the cherries from the neighbouring islands are delivered by boat. This lot was sourced through Raw Material, an organisation which contributes 100% of its profits to the producers and communities from which they source, either through coffee payments or community-level investments.