The Circling Sun - Spirits
It’s always tough to decide what record to kick off each year with. So much pressure! We don’t usually have a large inventory to choose from but we currently have several pallets full of record boxes for future Good Things so this time I got to pick from a rather vast assortment of genres (sure 2024 is looking like a real doozy but you can at least look forward to this year’s TGT line up). After a fair amount of hemming and hawing I went with a fresh jazz release from New Zealand. Did you know that I am well versed in the burgeoning New Zealand jazz scene? Well, you learn something new everyday! Don’t get me started on jazz from down under. You will be sorry! Ok, well that’s actually not true. An early copy of The Circling Sun’s debut record, Spirits, was mailed to our shop last spring by the nice folks at Soundway. We placed it on the turntable and it won the immediate approval of the baristas. Despite the fact that this is their first record, The Circling Sun originally formed over 20 years ago gaining a fan base over the years from their mythic live shows. This is one patient group of individuals. If you ask me, the wait was worth it. I hope you’ll agree. Happy New Year!
Daniela Gutierrez - San Marcos, Costa Rica
Daniela Guitierez is the first Costa Rican coffee producer we've had the pleasure to work with. You might say hers was our Costa Rica gateway coffee that blew the doors open to us getting to partner with many other cool farmers in her area. We took our first trip down to Costa Rica in early 2023 and the day spent with Daniela was one of the highlights of the trip. We met at her meticulous, state of the art mill where they process all of her coffee. Daniela hosted us for an exquisite homemade multi-course lunch before we headed out for a hair-raising off-road excursion for a tour of one of her breathtaking mountainside farms. Most of the coffee that we buy from Costa Rica is honey processed - meaning that though the skin is removed from the cherry, the fruit, or mucilage, is left on the coffee seed while it is dried. This tends to make these coffees slightly funky and more fruit forward in the cup. This year we sourced 2 fully washed coffee from Daniela. The coffee is very clean tasting with nice complexity and a delightfully plesant brown sugar sweetness.