Unblended - Young Producers Project

As a concept, Unblended exists to make coffee farming an exciting and meaningful industry for young producers in Colombia (and hopefully, all over the coffee-growing world). As green buyers, they partner with existing coffee producers at home (see: Sebastian Ramirez, the Trujillo family, Jaime Lopez, and others) and connect them to movers and shakers in the roasting industry in the US, helping to forge more meaningful relationships between producers and patrons. 

To further this initiative, Unblended has spearheaded the Young Producer Program in Colombia, a cooperative program that pairs seasoned producers with young mentees who are pursuing their passion for specialty coffee. This initiative allows young producers to learn from and experiment with successful coffee farmers, blending their small, experimental batches with larger lots from the mentors' farmers - which ensures those experimental lots have a home.

The winning roaster team was comprised of:

Kevin Seehousz

Blake Basham

Hayley Black

This blend is composed of several smaller and larger lots from both young producer enthusiasts and storied coffee farmers alike, each of which underwent various iterations of natural and/or co-fermentation processing methods. 

By using several lots at a very specific percentage, our roasters hoped to balance fermentation impact and complexity with sweetness and approachability. The result is a cup that's both fruity and sweet, like strawberry jam, as well as round and smooth, like milk chocolate. Dried stone fruits, like mango, hint at some of the higher-impact coffees in the blend. Complex and crowd-pleasing, this blend is a celebration of the excellence that already exists in specialty coffee production in Colombia, and also an enthusiastic high five to the next generation of producers in that region - and around the world.