EST. 2019 · PICKERING, ON · MONDAY JUN 01 2026 · VOL. VII · NO. 152


Mornings.



La Esperanza,
Huila.

Process
natural
Roast
medium-light
Producer
La Esperanza, Quindio
250 g
$20.00

La Esperanza is what people mean when they say comfort coffee. Natural process, slow dried, deep red sweetness without going jammy. The kind of cup that makes a cortado at 7am feel inevitable.

Huila is the loud answer to the question of what Colombian coffee tastes like. La Esperanza is one of the quieter ones; a single farmer named Esperanza Bermudez at altitude near Pitalito who has been growing on the same hillside for thirty-one years.

Pilot Coffee has been buying this lot since 2021. The process is honest: ripe cherries picked once, dried on raised beds for the better part of three weeks, depulped at the very end. It tastes like cherry compote because it more or less was, for eighteen days.

This one pulls as espresso. We serve it in the cortado most weekday mornings. The chocolate body holds up to milk without losing the fruit. A solid choice for the morning you forgot to sleep.

Milk chocolate, fresh strawberry, brown sugar.

Plum, dark cocoa, a touch of cherry. Round, comfortable body.

Cocoa nibs, a long sweet tail.

La Esperanza, Huila, Colombia

A note from the bar.

If you ordered a latte and you trust us: try this one as a cortado instead. Same milk, more coffee. Worth the smaller cup.


Butter croissant.


Two methods we recommend.

  1. Espresso (cortado)


    18g in, 38g out, 28-32 seconds. Steamed whole milk to 60C. Serve in a 4oz glass.

  2. AeroPress (inverted)


    15g coffee, 220g water at 92C. Steep 90 seconds, plunge 30 seconds. Add 30g hot water to taste.