What I’m Brewing — Feb & Mar
Ramadan and everything that came with it meant two things. My coffee intake dropped and so did my café visits, with working from home becoming the norm for a while. If you missed my coffee drinking guide for Ramadan, you can read it here.
This is what I've been brewing at home through February and March.
Azura
Azura needs no introduction at this point. They were officially named one of The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shop earlier this year, and they deserve every bit of it. The team in Oman has been roasting some of the best coffees in the region for a while now.
This Ethiopian lot was selected for its structure and brightness, and you can taste exactly why. Despite being a natural, you could easily mistake it for a washed. It's that clean. But there's a playfulness underneath. White flower aromatics on the open, bright acidity, ripe stone fruits through the middle, and a molasses sweetness that rounds it all off. Layers that reveal themselves slowly. It didn't last long on my bar. Shout out to my brother, Andrew, for this beautiful coffee.
Apollon's Gold
Apollon's Gold is a small artisanal roaster out of Tokyo that I hadn't come across until Cafficianados introduced them to me. I started paying attention to this roaster entirely because of the coffee couple's buying habits. Thank you for this beautiful gift.
Washed Ethiopians are my everyday coffee and this one is exactly that in the best possible way. No frills, no theatrics. Just a coffee roasted to perfection. Delicate, floral, with a clean sweet finish. I had the recipe dialled in from the first brew and never needed to change it. That consistency says everything about the roast and the green.
The Chronicle
If you're from the UAE coffee community, you will know Sonam Sherpa. He was the 2024 UAE AeroPress Champion and he has since gone fully independent, launching a new venture called The Chronicle alongside his wife and partner Puja.
At World of Coffee Dubai 2026, Sonam made me taste one of the best coffees I had the entire event. Nothing but a blend and distilled milk, leaning entirely on well-roasted coffee and a perfectly extracted espresso. Really smooth, a lot of sweetness in the cup. One of those drinks you don't forget.
Having never tried coffee from Attikan Estate, part of Sangameshwar Coffee Estates, this was a great entry point. It holds its own against heavier hitting origins and yet there's something classic about it. Brewed right, you get orange peel acidity, dry fruit sweetness toward the finish, and a solid body throughout.
The Costa Rica arrived later as part of their Eid Al Fitr celebration. Not a common origin you'll find at smaller roasteries, but when it's done well, it really shows. High altitude, sustainable farming, clean processing. All the boxes ticked and a genuinely complex cup to show for it.
Subko Coffee
I picked up this coffee from Subko during my trip to India in Dec 2025 but only got around to brewing it now. Most of the coffees I buy end up resting or frozen for a month or more.
Subko has some of the best packaging in the business, full stop. A lot of thinking has clearly gone into each release. Every box feels like a collectible and I personally feel bad throwing it away once the coffee is done.
Ratnagiri Estate is one of those names that carries real weight in Indian specialty coffee. The Patre family has been running it since 1927, and when Ashok Patre took over in 1989, he slowly but deliberately turned it into a specialty operation. It sits in the Western Ghats near Bababudangiri, the very birthplace of Indian coffee cultivation, and today produces 60% specialty grade coffee through processing techniques that are rare even by global standards.
The name Ratnagiri translates to pearl mountain, and Subko's entire microlot program built around it is called Project Pearl. The lot I brewed was the Culture Naturals. The profile is floral up front, stone fruit through the middle, with just enough of a funky twist at the end to remind you that India is no longer just an afterthought in the specialty world.
That's what's been on my bar this month.
What are you brewing at home right now? And more importantly, what should I try next?
