Notes from the Cupping Room: Anniversary Blend

“In partnership together for Anniversary Blend, two origins harmonize to yield a sweet, dynamic, beautiful cup.”

Anniversary Blend is always a celebration. Of Peet’s, of spring, of great coffee, and importantly, of coffee farmers. It blends coffees from opposite ends of the world, but with the same goal: to elevate women coffee producers. Our Burundi component supports JNP's Coffee Academy, an initiative that provides coffee education and skills to women and young people in Burundi and is processed at Burundi’s first women owned coffee mill in Ngozi. The Colombian is from Mujeres Cafeteras, a women’s group in Huila that we’ve had a long-time partnership with, through which we've been able to see firsthand how women’s empowerment impacts a community.

Burundi and Colombia are two of my most favorite coffee origins, and these lots in particular are some of the finest that we source. On the cupping table at a light roast they deliver bright, fruity, vibrant complexity, and in partnership together at Anniversary Blend’s dark roast, they harmonize to yield a sweet, dynamic, beautiful cup.

The dry coffee grounds have a fresh baked sourdough bread fragrance layered with delicate fruit notes. When the grounds are saturated, it starts to smell of caramel and black tea with a hint of red wine. The first sips show off sugared blackberry, sweet jasmine florals, and a plush, velvety body. As it cools, dark chocolate takes the stage with a juicy top note of malted cranberry. All in all, the flavors compel me to enjoy blackberry jam on sourdough toast with a dark chocolate bar while sitting in a spring garden.

I hope you'll join me in raising a mug to toast the incredible producers of Ngozi and Huila and savor the passion they've instilled into every bean. This is a blend worth celebrating.

- Alysse Wishart, Peet’s Coffee Quality Specialist