SHADY LANE

A LIGHT DARK ROAST:
People have been drinking dark roasts for over two-centuries and it seems both short-sighted and careless to ignore history. And yet if you roast too dark, all of the unique flavours of origin are lost and you simply taste the bitter burn and one-dimensional char of the roast process itself.

Shady Lane is a new way of roasting that uses a gentle approach and precise technique to strike a compromise: it engages in our coffee past with an approachable low-acidity  but also showcases the deeply sweet and delicious chocolaty notes possible with particular origins. It is new and old because as the Pavement song concludes, "the worlds collide, but all that we want is a shady lane". 

ORIGIN:
Riunggunung Estate was founded by Wildan Mustofa, his wife Atieq Mustikaningtyas Wildan and their son Fikri in Bandung, south of Jakarta, on the island of Java. We have sourced from Wildan's family previously with their low oxygen lots from the Frinsa Collective, but for Shady Lane, I wanted to bring in a classic washed Java lot. The farm has 9 acres dedicated to coffee with this lot coming from the higher reaches. The rise fosters cold evenings, and while the cool temperatures are precarious for the coffee trees, it greatly contributes to the depth and complexity in the cup. 

Given Shady Lane’s relationship to coffee history, this is a fun take on the 'moka java blend'. Often considered the world's oldest blend, the moka java is traditionally one part Java balanced against one part Yemeni (and later Ethiopian) coffee. With fruity notes built over body, it brought a lot of balance despite its origins often revolving around coffee shortages and scarcity. For our take on the blend, we are going single origin because that is what we do at Quietly and, moreover, this wonderful lot innately has so much fruit flavours over those hallmark Java flavours! 

FLAVOUR:
While our typical crops from Wildan Mustofa are heavy with tropical flavours, this washed lot brings so much cocoa. The cup starts with a fruity spice, think molasses meets persimmon, that builds into a juicy bite of papaya. From fruit, it goes to more earthy heavy caramels with a rich milk chocolate note, think of the sponge toffee inside a crunchie bar. It is complex with intricate hints of pomegranate and cranberry but maintains a deep and rich chocolate base.