Ghost Roast

FARM: El Aguacate

LOCATION: San Agustin Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico

ALTITUDE: 1400-1820 MASL

VARIETY: Pluma

PROCESS: Washed

Tasting Notes: Mixed Berries, Shortbread Cookie, Cocoa

It was a dark and stormy night, fortunately for Igor. The tinfoil spire had been clumsily attached to the roof of the Night Swim roastery, and Igor excitedly swooped up through the roaster’s exhaust stacks to view it once more, and to wait. It had taken a whole day’s work, for once objects left the walls of the building, the ghost could no longer lift them. The local mice had therefore helped with the spire’s installation after learning of Igor’s plan, under the condition that Igor made them little hard hats to wear–they claimed for their own safety, though Igor suspected they just wanted hats. 

A moment later, the whole city was illuminated as a bolt of lightning found the crooked spire, reaching up into the sky like a hand out of a grave. Had it worked? Igor had followed the ritual to the letter–two parts brewed coffee and one part chocolate, mixed counterclockwise with a silver cupping spoon, prepared one week before Halloween and left on the roof. The storm was the last step. Igor swirled around the building, waiting…

And there it was. For four years he’d haunted the roastery, heard the words spoken, but never had the vision been made manifest–until tonight. The smell in the air shifted from that of musty rain to one more inviting, and indeed, even the rain itself was now growing pleasantly warm. The mice in their hats, watching from a sheltered corner on the roof, bounded along to splash in the dark puddles. “It’s raining coffee! We’ve done it!”

Igor looked around at his success, a reddish gleam now coating the buildings and pavement. The mice began to swim. Igor smiled to himself. Everything had gone perfectly. “They wanted Night Swim Coffee,” he said quietly. “They’re getting Night Swim Coffee.”