The smell of Coffee Before It’s Coffee

It all starts with a flower. Before the cherries, before the beans are dried, roasted, ground, and cupped- all coffee begins with a flower. A delicate bloom that lasts only a few days, but is the start of what you will be tasting about a year from now.

This year, we experienced a full bloom across our microlots. And although at first glance one might assume that all coffee flowers look and smell the same, the truth is that they don’t. Not here, where every varietal has its size, rhythm, scent, and its hue.

Walking through the plantation in bloom is like walking through a living perfume, where the scent is only sometimes overshadowed by the buzzing of bees around the flowers. Some flowers release an aroma reminiscent of orange peel -bright and sweet. Others carry a sharper edge, closer to lime zest, refreshing and citrusy. It’s very subtle, sometimes easily missed, but if you pay attention, you can tell them apart. It’s as if the flower already hints at the cup it’s meant to become.

The visual differences are just as beautiful. Most blossoms are white, of course, but not all in the same hue.  Some are creamy white with a slight yellow undertone. Others appear crisp and pure, almost glowing. And here and there, a rare variety which can have a pink blush. It’s easy to miss them; however, once you see them, they linger.

The flowers open up suddenly, often after a short period of rain. In just a day, the trees are blanketed in blossoms, transforming the green plantation into what looks like a snow-covered landscape. It’s breathtaking and brief.

Because the flowers are so fragile, we avoid touching the trees at all during bloom. Even brushing against them can damage the petals and affect pollination. For a few days, the plantation becomes a quiet, sacred space. We watch. We breathe it in. We let nature do its work.

And then, just as quickly, the petals fall apart, the flowers are gone, giving way to the first hints of the beans to come.

When talking about terroir and cupping quality, we always talk about the soil, elevation, and process. However, there are no coffee beans without flowers. Here is where it all begins. We like to think that the quality of our cup starts here.

So the next time you taste one of our coffees, know this: several months before the roast, before the drying beds, before the harvest, there was a flower. It might have smelled a little like lime, a little like orange peel, but both the first sign of something rare and excellent to come.