Please note: This coffee was sent to subscribers this week; we had a little extra from the roast and now we are offering a small batch as general release. If you are a subscriber, you will receive this coffee as your October coffee.

This coffee is something special! It's a Laurina from Las Pulgas Gap Ranch, a farm in De Luz, a community in inland San Diego County. FRINJ fans and coffee aficionados should recognize the name Laurina, a rare variety with a French pedigree that has been in demand for centuries. Its fans have included Louis XV, Winston Churchill, Honoré de Balzac, and, much later, French President Jacques Chirac, who helped reintroduce the variety in the 2000s. Known variously as Bourbon Pointu (pointed Bourbon), Le Roi, Leroy, and Laurina, this variety produces a delicate cup with, unusually, about 50% less caffeine than standard Arabica. It's the perfect after-dinner coffee.

The name Las Pulgas Gap Ranch will undoubtedly cause a double take among our Spanish-speaking readers, since "las pulgas" means "the fleas." It hints at the owner's sense of humor as well as the rugged conditions of the area. De Luz gets significant heat, which gives these cherries a ripeness not seen at many other California coffee farms. The result is an almost wine-like finish that is a delight.

The farm sits at 365 meters above sea level, which, though low by international standards, is relatively high for California. Still, it isn't the elevation but the farm's latitude, around 33°N, and its proximity to the coast that create the conditions for extended cherry maturation and altitude-defying aromatic complexity.

This coffee was yeast-washed. It was picked at full ripeness, milled, inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, fermented for 64 hours, and dried for 13 days to a stable moisture content of 11%.