New Coffees

I ordered a few new coffees.  Here are the notes about some of them from Cafe Imports.

Kenya Chania French Mission Varietal, new crop Tanzania Songea Peaberry, and Ethiopia Harrar East Haraghe Highlands.  I also ordered a Brazil Ipanema Yellow Icatu from Beccor, which will be a good coffee.

Kenya

I got up early this morning and sample roasted four Kenyans from Cafe Imports.  The guys from Hanson are coming in this afternoon to taste them and potentially sell one of them on their website.  I hope.

I'm doing a little research, so I don't sound so ignorant if they ask questions.  Thought I'd share with you.

As far as I can tell, there are 8 grades of coffee coming out of Kenya.  

AA is the highest grade, but all it really means is th

at it is a 18 or 17 screen (18/64 or 17/64 inch).  

AB is a 16 screen.  

PB - Peaberries are sorted out and make up about 10% of the crop.  

C grade is smaller than AB.

TT is the size of AA and AB, but are less dense, and separated via air pressure.

T grade are very light and broken pieces.

It appears there are two other grades of coffee, but I'm not certain what they are.  I'm sure at least one of them is a designation of domestic consumption coffee.

Most coffee produced in Kenya is Arabica.  But there are many, many different varietals grown there.  The French Mission Varietal is one of the oldest types of coffee in Kenya.  It is a Bourbon strand brought over from Reunion Island by French missionaries in the late 1800s.  Bourbon coffee developed (sort-of) naturally.  The British East India Company sold seeds from Aden, Yemen to the French, who planted them on the island of Bourbon (which is now called Reunion).  After a few generations on the island it took on unique characteristics.  It is generally more "robust" than Typica and tends to have a higher production.  The trees and cherries have a distinctive look, as well.

Some hybrid varietals are grown in Kenya.  SL-28 was created by Scott Labs from Bourbon and Ethiopian Mokka varietals.  (From Sweet Maria's site:) "It supposedly is selected from Tanganyika DR cultivar, found by A.D Trench on a trip through Tanzania, and has similar drought resistant properties.  DR is of French Mission Bourbon origin.  Many prefer SL-28 to the other successful... cultivar SL-34."  I don't know who A.D. Trench is and I can't seem to find anything on the internet about him.

SL-34 is another hybrid produced by Scott Labs.  (Again from Sweet Maria's:) "It supposedly is selected from French Mission Bourbon trees at Loresho Estate in Kabete Kenya.  SL types are responsible for 90% of Kenya coffees.  SL-34 has better yields than SL-28, and is grown at lower altitudes than SL-28."  Generally, a higher-yielding varietal that produces well at lower elevations doesn't taste as good, so that's my assumption.

RUIRU 11:  "is named for the station at Ruiru, Kenya where it was developed in the '70s and released in 1986.  The initial tests were with Hibrido de Timor (a cross between Arabica and Robusta, resistant to Coffee Leaf Rust) and Rume Sudan, an original coffee strain resistant to Coffee Berry Disease.  Later they added SL-28 and SL-34 inputs due to poor cup character of the early tests.  The Robusta content of Ruiru 11 is still an issue, and the cup does not match the quality of the SL types."

Here is a map of Kenya with the growing regions highlighted.

Follow-up to The Perfect Cappuccino

Good afternoon! Thanks to everyone who came to watch The Perfect Cappuccino! If you were unable to make it, I think you can still purchase it at Doubleshot, or online at www.cappuccinomovie.com. It's wonderful!
Watching it reminded me of a book I read awhile ago (actually, long enough ago that I no longer remember it vividly, so this is going to be a 'book review' in a very superficial sense...): Starbucked by Taylor Clark. It's at the Central Library. If you watched the movie and are curious to learn more about this omnipresent company for whatever reason (I read it to fuel an anti-Starbucks bias, although it is a fairly balanced book), you should check it out! Since I don't remember anything, here is a trivia quote from the back of the book: "Americans now drink so much coffee that scientists have detected caffeine in many of the nation's rivers, lakes, and bays--and even in treated drinking water." Interesting--
Secondly, if you watched the movie you'll remember when Amy showed clips from old coffee commercials. Here are some Blues lyrics written by Mississippi John Hurt, copyrighted in 1963...back in the days where prepackaged coffee was the only option. *Shudder* They're in the same vein as those old commercials: "This is the 'Coffee Blues,' I likes a certain brand--Maxwell's House--it's good till the last drop, just like it says on the can. I used to have a girl cookin' a good Maxwell House. She moved away. Some said to Memphis and some said to Leland, but I found her. I wanted her to cook me some good Maxwell's House. You understand, if I can get me just a spoonful of Maxwell's House, do me much good as two or three cups this other coffee..."
Don't know if that was originally written as a commerical for Maxwell's House, or if the songwriter really did love Maxwell's enough to include it in a song, but...there you have it. :)

Finally, an interaction-question: A personal "goal" is to learn how to say "I like Coffee" in as many languages as possible. If you are able to say/write "I like coffee" in a foreign tongue, please share! I think in German it's "Der Kaffee schmeckt mir gut"--literally, the coffee tastes good to me.
Thanks, and I hope you all have a great day!

The Perfect Cappuccino

I hope you all will do your best to make it to the screening of The Perfect Cappuccino here tomorrow night at 7p.  I got the projector and a big screen.  We're going to have a live video web chat with Amy Ferraris afterward.  Should be a fun time.  Please come and bring people.  We'll open the doors at 6p, so come early to socialize and drink coffee.

Colombian Coffee Children

This is something that has slid onto the back burner over the past few weeks.  It's on my mind again now though.  

I'm referring to the community center they are proposing to build in Concordia for the poorer coffee workers' children.  We talked about finding a way to raise money to help.  

Obviously we could do anything.  We could have a bake sale and send them $200 and feel good about ourselves that we did something to help.  But that's not much help.  Nothing we do will be A LOT of help, but I feel that we can do something.  

One thing that we already do is put on the DoubleShot races.  This is the fourth year for it.  And this year, we decided to do three duathlons and one six hour mountain bike race.  The second duathlon is this weekend at Osage Hills State Park.  We've always donated proceeds from the races to a charity (Coffee Kids).  This year we decided to set up our own 501(3)c not-for-profit organization so we could do more than just give to an overall cause.  This way we can donate directly to the project in Concordia.  Or do other things I've thought about doing, such as building swing sets or taking soccer balls for the kids.  If we don't do it this way, our all-consuming government will tax the hell out of me.  It's not easy to give to charitable causes.  

You can see the website for the DoubleShot Duathlon series here:  www.DoubleshotDuathlon.com

If you'd like to come volunteer (hang out, help a little, drink coffee and beer, and eat hotdogs), please send an email to Kari:  Kari@DoubleShotDuathlon.com

Anyway, let's try to get back on track and thinking about what we could do to raise money for this project.  I think we should help.  If you have ideas, post them in the comments of this blog or email me.