As coffee educators, we are constantly keeping ourselves up to date with the latest coffee trends and discoveries so we can be equipped to share them back to you. Our newfound black label focus this year has helped us get a front row seat into this pocket of specialty coffee known as auction coffees. Auction coffee refers to coffees that have won competitions and are then sent to auction to be bid on by roasters and distributors. Coffee competitions are a critical tool used to progress the overall quality of coffee in a country, and we’ve been lucky to participate in a few of them this year in Guatemala (Cup of Excellence, One of a Kind) and Colombia (Best Cup). Given how fascinating this piece of the industry is, we came to the decision that we must showcase them in a different light. Thus the “Diamond Reserve” was born.
Diamond Reserve is the title to a new project we’ve developed here at sagebrush. It refers to a class of coffees that stands as an offshoot of our black label collection. There are a few upcoming diamond reserve coffees that are the most dynamic and interesting coffees we’ve cupped this year, but the sheer quality of the bean is not what sets a “Diamond Reserve” coffee apart. Instead, a Diamond Reserve coffee portrays what a literal diamond represents: a beautifully interesting, unique, and uncommon representation of what a coffee could be.
The common refrain and focus of Sagebrush is “putting on display the hard work of coffee farms,” so with each project, with each task, with each idea we have, we seek to tie it back to “how does this help represent the world of coffee well?” We feel this new subcategory of our coffee offerings adds a new dimension of what we can do to continue that goal. We’re super excited to finally be able to share with you these coffees. Stay tuned this holiday season as we begin to roll them out!
