How we choose our beans

Every spring we sit down with a map, a calendar and an honest look at last year's menu. Which origins did our guests come back for? Which lots surprised us at the cupping table and which ones merely looked good on paper?

We buy from a handful of farms and washing stations we have visited in person — in Ethiopia, Colombia and, more recently, a tiny experimental plot in northern Thailand. Direct relationships cost more per kilogram, but they buy something a spot-market invoice never can: the ability to ask for exactly the picking and processing we want, and to pay for it fairly.

Back in Sofia, every arriving lot is roasted three ways and cupped blind by the whole team. If a coffee needs a story to taste good, it doesn't make the menu. If it stops conversation at the table — it does.

The rule has never failed us. Some months the menu is shorter for it. We think that's a feature.