Bunny Slope Seasonal Espresso

It should go without saying (but we’re saying it anyway), water is essential. The human body is almost 60% water, a bunny 73%, a cup of coffee nearly 99%. Water rights and allocation are a big deal in drought-prone California, and the lack of clean water resources disproportionally affects communities of color and residents of developing nations.

Throughout 2022, Ritual is highlighting our multifaceted relationship to water through the lens of our seasonal espresso program, partnering with organizations that are making an impact on water conservation and equitable distribution.

For our winter blend (and the first of the series), we are proud to present Bunny Slope! Named for the gentle downhill ambling of a beginner’s ski run, Bunny Slope also evokes warmth and relaxation against the backdrop of a massive snowpack in the Sierra Nevada range. Over 30% of California’s water comes from this “frozen reservoir” of mountain snow. Join us as we follow the journey from the slopes to the Bay throughout the year.

Bunny Slope is a cozy cornucopia of an espresso made for lighthearted winter frolics – a buttery smooth blend that also celebrates California’s epic snowpack this season. Hop to it!

Components:

1/3 Nelson Ramirez, Honduras
1/3 El Alto, Costa Rica
1/3 Los Gigantes, Colombia

This espresso features a trio of coffees that highlight the natural sweetness found in quality coffee. While it is the “brightest” of the three, Grace Calderón’s El Alt is still incredibly balanced in sweetness. She starts with Caturra variety cherries – known for their sweet, complex fruitiness – and processes them in a Kenya-style “double fully washed” manner, which highlights the crisp acidity in those clean fruit flavors. As a filter roast, these notes can come through as lemon, grapefruit, and pomelo; developed a little longer for this espresso, those flavors deepen into sweet blood orange and complex pomegranate.

Bridging the gaps between these three components is the Los Gigantes, a cooperative lot from the town of Gigante in Huila, Colombia. Here, growers also favor the Caturra variety, but most farms also have some Colombia and Castillo coffees that are also used in this offering. When these coffees are grown at high Andean altitudes and processed in a traditional washed fashion, the result is a profile similar to that of El Alto, but a little rounder and more balanced. On its own, the acidity comes across as clean and crisp, with plenty of citrus. Rounding out this particular coffee are also abundant flavors of toasted nuts, sugarcane, and sweet baked goods.

Providing the depth to this blend is a Catuai variety lot from Nelson Ramirez in Honduras. This variety is very commonly found in the coffee farms of Brasil, and the flavor profile of this Honduran example is similar – round sweetness, chocolate, and toasted almonds. Combined with the other two components of this blend, it works to produce developed and decadent flavors of desserts like tiramisu and buttery toffee.