She's officially back, but different this time. Back To The Filter, our delicious and versatile filter blend, is back with a twist. As we say a lot - our blends are seasonal and will change to keep things fresh and delicious, which we think is really exciting. Our current blend is a total dream team, bringing together two incredible women-grown lots (duh) that hit all the right notes. We've paired the elegant cherry notes of La Morena's Guatemalan beans with the mellow chocolatey sweetness of Ana Luiza Pellicer's coffee from Mió in Brazil.

Let’s start with Mió: Mió is a female-led company run by Ana Luiza, COO for International Business and Renata Parisi (Ana’s Mum) Owner and general badass of Mió. Ana says “We want to be producers who are in charge of all decisions regarding the supply chain. We want to take control and expand our traceability to the roaster's door. What is the point of all the traceability work we do at farm level if we don't know exactly what happens to our coffee afterwards?”.

Sustainability is incredibly important to Mió, and they have many projects they are working on to support social, economic and environmental stability.

They pride ourselves on a 100% traceability guarantee for the entire crop every year. Each stage of the journey, from where the cherries were harvested, which trucks moved them, how and when they were processed, is tracked using satellite imagery. Being a technology-driven farm improves the farmworkers’ quality of life, ensures an abundant harvest and guarantees the highest processing standards for the crop. The world coffee supply chain consists of a large number of steps. Mió aims to oversee every part of the process. Buying coffee from Mió is as trustworthy and straightforward as buying vegetables at your farmers’ market.

Mio’s state-of-the-art processing facilities include: a wet-mill, concrete patios, raised beds, ambient-air drying rotating machines, wood silos, cross-beater hullers and a density separator. The beans are then sorted further according to size and colour using an oscillating screen and optical-electronic system.

“Mió is, first of all, a farm in Monte Santo de Minas, a tiny town where I was born 30 years ago, and so was everyone in my family for at least four generations. Last year we decided we did not want it to be just a farm anymore, we wanted to export our coffee, import into the UK ourselves, store it here and sell directly to roasteries. We dreamed of making the term direct trade actually mean something to our farm, and everyone involved in the process” says Ana.

Now for La Morena, the new addition to this blend. La Morena is a coffee project that showcases and supports the work of women farmers across Guatemala. It's a platform helping 1,796 women farmers build greater independence and visibility within the industry. This lot, sourced from Huehuetenango and Baja Verapaz, is heavy-bodied and sweet, with deep notes of chocolate, cherry and brown sugar, making it suitable for all brewing methods. 

If you'd like to learn more about La Morena - click here to visit our other blog.

Together, they strike a perfect harmony. La Morena brings the delicate high and fruity notes, while Ana Luiza's grounds the cup with a caramel, syrupy soul. It's a total delight, uncomplicated and seriously delicious.

One of the things we love most about Back To The Filter, heavily inspired by our general ethos, is how forgiving it truly is. We want to make ridiculously good coffee that's easy to make and grown by women. That's it. We feel we've achieved that with this blend.

So if you love making a delicious filter every time, whether that's in a battered Aeropress or a full V60 set up, try this.