Introducing the Reserve: our rarest finds, one drop at a time

The coffees that surprise us

Every coffee Folk sends is scored 86 or higher by a licensed Q Grader, and we're proud of every one of them. But every so often, one surprises us. A variety we rarely get to taste. A process a producer is still perfecting. A cup that scores 88 or higher.

For a long time, those coffees didn't have a home with us. There was never enough of them to fill a month of Volumes, and they were too good to pass up.

Now they have one. This is the Reserve: our rarest finds, one drop at a time.

What goes in the Reserve

The Reserve is for the coffees that don't fit anywhere else.

• Among the rarest coffees in the world. Every one scores 88 or higher with a licensed Q Grader. For context, most specialty coffee lands in the low-to-mid 80s.
• Rare varieties. Gesha, Sidra, and other plants that are fussy to grow and hard to find.
• Experimental processes. Anaerobic, thermal shock, carbonic maceration, and whatever producers dream up next.

If some of those words are new to you, that's part of the fun. Each bag comes with a card on where it's from and how it tastes, and we'll tell the full story of every drop right here in the journal. You don't need to know the jargon to enjoy the cup.

If you already get a monthly Volume, here's the simplest way to think about it: the Volume is the coffee you build your mornings around. The Reserve is the one you clear your morning for. It's an add-on, so a Reserve bag can sit right next to your monthly subscription.

Why it comes in drops

There's never much of a lot like this. So instead of a subscription, we release each one in a drop.

1. We announce the lot. Where it's from, who grew it, and what it tastes like.
2. We tell you how many bags there are. No guessing, just the real number.
3. You reserve a bag. When they're gone, they're gone, and we start looking for the next one.

And every bag is a full pound. Rare coffees usually come in small bags, sometimes just enough for a handful of cups. We'd rather give you more mornings with it, or enough to share with someone who'll ask what's in the cup.

The first drop: a Gesha from Costa Rica

Our first Reserve coffee is a white honey Gesha from Luis Carlos Torres Zúñiga, who grows it at 1,900 meters in southern Costa Rica. Here's how Sean tells it.

Gesha has a reputation for tasting delicate and floral, a little like jasmine tea. It's also one of the fussiest coffees to grow. It does best way up high, where cold nights are hard on the harvest and wonderful for the flavor.

Plenty of Geshas taste like a bouquet. This one tastes like a lime chocolate tart: bright and tart up front, then creamy and sweet, with a soft note of lemongrass.

Sometimes the best thing a coffee can do is ignore its reputation.

Sean Stewart, Folk Founder & Q Grader

How to be 1 of 100 to get a Reserve drop

There are 100 bags of this first drop.

• Join the list. The text list hears about every drop before anyone else. Then we share it with our email list, then the public.
• Reserve your bag when the drop opens. It's $50 a bag, with free shipping in the continental US.

No chasing harvests. We do the finding, and all you do is claim a bag.

We can't wait for you to taste this one.

Join the list