San Rafael

This is the day we've been waiting for since early December. Yesterday we got the shipment of coffee from Colombia. It's San Rafael- the coffee that Alfredo Correa produced. Every time we've cupped this coffee, it has blown away everything on the table. I roasted it for the first time last night. And I just drank a press of it. It's really good. I think you're really going to like it.

I'm hoping to dial this in on the roaster and I think it will be one of the best coffees we get this year.

It's for sale today, so if you want a pound come get it. It's selling for (a very reasonable) $16 per pound. That's $14 on $2 Tuesday.
This is really exciting for me because it's the culmination of the first time we've been able to travel to origin, cup coffee, meet the farmer of the best, and buy that coffee. Alfredo is awesome, and I was lucky to stumble upon him. You're lucky too.

Roasting and Cupping

Dang there's a lot going on around these parts.

The new sample roaster (1925 Jabez Burns) is up and running.  Jason and I have been practicing and learning and it's not easy.  The roaster works like our big roaster (1953 Vittoria) with a perforated drum tumbling the beans as a gas flame roasts the coffee.  On the Vittoria the flame is constant.  The variables we change are the amount of coffee in the drum and a vent and damper.  With the Jabez Burns, we can change the amount of coffee in the drums and the amount of flame.  It's a different way of roasting so we're having to learn to control these different variables to achieve the desired roast.  And it's easy to mess it up.

We've been getting more samples than usual, because we're working with different brokers.  With the new sample roasting setup it's easier to get samples roasted and ready for cupping.  So we're refining our cupping protocol.  We've found it's easiest to cup 4-6 samples at a time.  And we usually try the coffees in a presspot the following day.  We have a sample of La Magnolia from Costa Rica- I know that was a favorite of some of you, so if it cups out good maybe we'll offer it again.  We're waiting on a sample of the Rio Negro coffee- from the farm I visited on my last trip to Costa Rica.  We have several samples from a broker called Cafe Imports.  Specifically we're going to try a couple different Yemens, some coffees from Burundi, more Ethiopians, and a couple other origins.  An importer called Zephyr sent us a few Ethiopians, a Brazil and a Panama.  We also have the coffee from San Rafael- Alfredo Correa's farm in Concordia, Colombia.  Lots to look forward to if things pan out.  

Ethiopia

Ethiopia has become even more of a strange and mysterious place from which to get coffee.  A lot has occurred in the past couple years.  As you probably know, I think the Ethiopian government is taking missteps if they think they're going to improve their coffee economy.  The regional trademarking of Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Harrar... how will this affect us?  Will it limit the coffees we can get?

Here is some more news out of Ethiopia:

Ethiopia Update - Aricha and Beloya to Take Final Flights to Roasters around the World
Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by Joseph Brodsky
The last chance to buy Aricha and Beloya is upon us. Due to an unexpected development in Ethiopia in recent days, all coffee will be sold within a week.
On Monday, The Ethiopian government issued a mandate for all coffee exporters to liquidate all coffee stocks. Within a week…
The country is starved for foreign currency. The exchange rate for the Ethiopian Birr against the dollar was bumped up to 12 Birr/$ in recent weeks from around 9 this time last year to encourage an influx of cash. The dollar goes a long way in Ethiopia these days. In a worsening global credit environment, borrowing foreign currency becomes increasingly difficult for nations dependent on it to run their operations. An excess of coffee inventory is much more valuable as cash in the bank from a national perspective.
So all 2008 coffees must go, quickly.
It is amazing how this has jump-started shippers into action. Some are obviously longer on positions than others, and this creates quite a problem for them.
What this means for Ninety Plus Coffee is that coffees it handles from 2008 - including all remaining Aricha and Beloya Macro and Micro Selections will ship next week.
The current situation with a lack of much specially prepared coffees this year due to the new ECX regulations, remaining Aricha and Beloya coffees are in high demand.
Please contact Steven Holt: +1.303.884.2380 or steven@ninetypluscoffee.com to find out how you can receive these coffees for shipment by air and sea next week.
We have around 60 bags of Micro Selection coffee remaining at the time of this entry. The coffees have been cupped in Addis several times this week and will be cupped again by Ninety Plus guests Tim Wendelboe and Paul Geshos.
There will be no time to sample Micro Selection coffees prior to purchase. Buyers will have to go on the cupping reports.
Say goodbye to Aricha and Beloya with us in style.

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Coffee exports plummet below target
SATURDAY, 14 MARCH 2009
By Hayal Alemayehu

Coffee exports are sharply falling below the target set for the year with falling world prices exacerbating the situation, it was learnt.
The government set a target of over 101,000 tonnes of coffee to be exported during the first seven months of the current fiscal year while the actual export stood at 66,000 tonnes, thereby decreasing the forecast in coffee export earnings by over 46 percent.

The world coffee price per pound has plunged by some 67 cents over the last several months following the global financial turmoil-one of the major culprit for the country’s sharply falling coffee exports-operators in the sector noted.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had last week warned coffee exporters against hoarding which it believed has a major contribution to the sharp drop in coffee exports, according to observers.

Major operators in the sector, however, say that the drop in coffee exports is directly linked to the global economic crises, bringing down world coffee prices to one of their lowest level in decades.

“Major coffee buyers such as Star Bucks, which had to layoff tens of thousands of employees months ago, are finding it hard to access loans from banks to buy coffee in bulks,” a mojor coffee operator told The Reporter on condition of anonymity. “This has led [coffee] prices to tumble down which, in turn, makes us unable to export as much as we could.”

Despite government urging for more coffee exports, the situation has yet to improve, government export figures indicate.

Only 7.4 thousand tonnes of coffee were exported in January 2009 against a 22,000 tonnes export forecast for the month, according to the latest export figure. Likewise, earnings from coffee dropped by a sheer 400 percent against the target for the same month.

However, earnings from coffee exports during the first seven months are slightly higher than that of the same period of last year.

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Starbucks Delays Ethiopian Coffee Research Center, Capital Says
By Jason McLure

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp. put on hold plans to build a coffee research center in Ethiopia because of the slowing global economy, Capital said, citing Vivek Varma, a spokesman for the company, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Starbucks’ then chairman and current Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said during a visit to Ethiopia in November 2007 that the company would open a research center to improve the quality of Ethiopian coffee, the Addis Ababa-based newspaper said. A similar facility in Rwanda has also been put on ice, Capital said.

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Ethiopian Government Urges Japan to Lift Ban on Coffee Imports
By Jason McLure and Ichiro Suzuki

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia urged Japan to lift a ban on imports of its coffee, saying the Horn of Africa country has taken measures to prevent pesticide contamination that led Japan to halt purchases last year.

“It’s time to put the Japanese market back and this has already been communicated to them,” Ethiopian Trade Minister Girma Birru said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Feb. 17. “I think this is a problem we can leave behind us.”

Japan halted deliveries of coffee from Ethiopia in May after finding “abnormally high” pesticide residues in a shipment of the beans. Japanese officials demanded that Ethiopia find the source of the chemical and prevent future contamination.

Ethiopia is Africa’s biggest coffee producer. Japan had previously purchased about 20 percent of the country’s exports, said Girma, making it the nation’s third-largest market after Germany and Saudi Arabia. Ethiopia exported $525.2 million of coffee in the fiscal year ending July 7, according to the Trade Ministry.

Girma said the coffee shipment that led Japan to halt imports probably was contaminated by growers using sacks that previously contained insecticides or other chemicals. Most Ethiopian coffee is produced by smallholders who grow the beans without chemical sprays, he said.

Mocha beans from Ethiopia are highly regarded in Japan for their distinctive flavor and last year’s ban forced coffee shop owners to seek new blends.

No Beans

“We haven’t been able to offer Mocha coffee since last November because the supplier said they have no supplies of Ethiopian coffee beans,” said Takayasu Ito, a coffee shop manager in Tokyo’s Jimbocho neighborhood.

Japan will lift the ban once it receives assurances from Ethiopia’s government that there are no “reappearance risks,” Hiroyuki Uchimi, chief of the inspection planning section at Japan’s Health Ministry, said in a phone interview on Feb. 18.

Measures taken by Ethiopia to prevent a recurrence of contamination include establishing a laboratory to check for impurities in export coffee.

“We are now going to make clean all the coffee from smallholders or from state farms,” Girma said. “We have everything ready.”

CR Learnin's

Just a few notes from my trip last week.

Hacienda Rio Negro is a farm that La Minita's parent company bought three years ago.  It's Rainforest Alliance Certified.  Normally that wouldn't mean jack to me, but it was cool to actually be in a rainforest where coffee is growing amongst big trees.  Shade-grown, for real.  

When I was in Guatemala last year an agronomist told me that the varietal Yellow Catuai has a lot more pulp in the cherry, so the farmers like it but the mills do not like it (because the farmers sell their coffee to the mill by weight).  In Costa Rica I learned that Yellow Catuai also don't taste very good.  Sergio (Master Cupper at La Minita) told me he was able to separate the different varieties of coffee at La Minita and cup each one separately.  He said the Yellow Catuai are flat and not good.  That's great info.  He also told me the variety Catimor is a high-yield coffee but tastes terrible.

The coffee from Rio Negro was good.  It had a really big body and huge dark chocolate taste.  It didn't have the sweetness that the La Minita brings.  I tasted more stuff like cinnamon and whatnot in the Rio Negro, but I guess the most interesting thing was that it lacked sweetness.  

When I was riding around with Sergio in his car, I asked him how coffee had changed over the course of his 15- or 20-year career as a cupper.  He said the cupping ritual has remained the same but coffee is changing.  He said consumer demand has caused the producers to make changes in their processing.  Apparently during the years of high production and low quality, a lot of mills took out their washing channels and put in aquapulpers.  The aquapulper spins rapidly and takes the mucilage off the beans.  The traditional way of getting the mucilage off in wet-processed coffee is to put the coffee in a fermentation tank overnight and then run it down a washing channel to get the mucilage off.  Sergio told me the result of using an aquapulper is that the coffee doesn't have the sweetness of a traditionally fermented coffee.

Then it hit me.  Rio Negro has aquapulpers.  It's partially cleaned in the aquapulper and then fermented in tanks for 8 hours to finish the cleaning process.  THAT's why it's not as sweet.

Much interesting information.

Just wanted to drop that in while it's fresh on my mind.

One other thing.  I noticed that the kids down there didn't really have much to play with or things to play on.  I was thinking maybe it would be nice if we (The DoubleShot) could ask the farm to put in swingsets if we would pay for them.  I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not- or how much it would cost.  But while I was talking to Paul and Janette McEntire today, they mentioned that they take soccer balls to give to the kids.  I think that's a great idea.  So I'm thinking about (selfishly) getting some soccer balls printed with the DoubleShot logo and taking several on my next origin trip to give to the kids.  I don't know if this is something any of you have interest in helping with or not.  But I thought I'd let you know what I'm thinking...

Pulped Natural

The new Panamanian coffee (Hartmann Honey - micro-lot #7) is unique.  In fact, in our five years of business we've never had a coffee like this.  Part of its uniqueness is due to the processing of the coffee at origin.  We've talked extensively about washed coffees (wet-processed) and naturals (dry-processed), but there are other methods that lie somewhere in between.  This coffee is processed using the "pulped natural" method.  

The processing of coffee that I'm referring to is necessary to get the coffee from cherry to seed.  Coffee beans are the seeds of coffee cherries.  These cherries grow on trees and for the most part, people pick them by hand when they are ripe.  The cherries consist of skin (which is a bit fibrous), a fairly thin layer of pulp (or mucilage), a shell around the seed (called parchment skin), silverskin (a very thin layer around the seed, like the skin on a peanut), and finally the seed (or bean) itself.  All these layers must be removed at some point in order to get to the coffee beans I buy and sell to you.

In the pulped natural method, the skins are removed from the cherries as soon as they get to the mill.  This is usually done with a machine called a pulper, which is the common method used in wet processing.  It squeezes the cherries between two metal, pebbled rollers, popping the slimy seeds out of the tough skins.  At this point, in wet processing, the seeds with mucilage on them would usually go into a fermentation tank or a desmucilaginadora (demucilager).  But in pulped natural, they are laid out to dry.  I suppose many places (e.g. Brazil) lay the slimy seeds out on patios, but at the Hartmann estate they put them on raised beds to dry.  This method requires a lot of attention and turning of the beans to avoid mold.  Drying them on raised beds allows for air-flow above and below the coffee, and produces a much higher-quality coffee.

After the mucilage is fully dry, it is run through a huller, which takes off the dried mucilage and parchment.  Then the coffee is bagged and shipped to us for roasting.

The Hartmann Honey has a darker, uneven color to the beans.  This is caused by the processing.  The pulped natural method generally exudes a sweeter, slightly fruitier taste to the coffee, and this is the case with the Hartmann.  They tend to have some characteristics of a natural coffee, but cleaner.  The coloration of the beans tells me that the coffee has been "over-fermented."  It must have more of the sugars from the fruit on the bean.  And when I roast it, the beans turn a much darker color early in the roast, even though they're not fully roasted on the inside.  I wonder if this is from sugar browning on the outside of the beans.  Another interesting characteristic of the coffee is that it has a lot of honeyed flavors; and if I light-roast it, even though it doesn't taste green, the grounds sink straight to the bottom of a cup.  From what I understand, these are characteristics of a coffee that is "under-fermented."  Hmm.  What a contradiction.  Could this coffee be over- and under-fermented at the same time?  I'm sure, according to the specialty coffee industry, it could.  

I've roasted the coffee twice now, and I think I could still tweak the roast next time.  But the coffee is great this week.  It's a pulped natural.

Coffee Tasting Event

NEXT Thursday 1/29 (not this Thursday), we're having a coffee tasting at the DoubleShot.  This won't be a formal cupping, though at some point in the future we will do that with you guys.  This will simply be an event in which you can come and taste several of our coffees side-by-side.  Sip one, sip the next, sip another...  It's a good way to taste the subtle flavor variations, differences in body and acidity.  I'll describe each of the coffees you'll be tasting to the best of my ability and you can form your own opinions.  Figure out why you like (or don't like) Ethiopians so much.  Finally distinguish the Costa Rica from the Guatemala.  Ask questions.  And I'll try to answer.

The coffee tasting event will be from 7-8p NEXT Thursday.

I'm roasting the first batch (of 3) of the Finca La Estrella tonight- Rafael Herrera's coffee from La Concordia Colombia.  Remember I only have 54 pounds green.  That's only about 46 pounds roasted.  So you'll want to try it soon.  It will be for sale by the pound for $25 ($23 on Tuesday).  And I'm sure we'll brew it sometime this week.  Or get a jump-start by ordering a presspot.

February is going to be a busy month for us.  I've been invited to go to Costa Rica, and I've accepted.  So I'll be flying down there on Saturday, Feb 7 and will return on the 14th.  Not only will I be visiting Hacienda La Minita, but I'm also very much looking forward to seeing a recent acquisition of La Minita, called Finca Rio Negro.  Rio Negro is in the south part of Costa Rica, near the Panama border.  The coffee they produce is called La Sonrisa (which means "The Smile"), and I'm really excited to try it.  I'll bring some back for you to try.

Upon my return on the 14th, I'll only be home for a couple days - long enough to roast.  And then I'll be taking a trip I've been wanting to take for a long time.  I'm planning to drive to Kansas City and catch the train to my hometown, Galesburg Illinois.  I haven't been there in years.  Since before the DoubleShot opened, so at least 5 years.  I'll spend a couple days there, hopefully running into a bunch of people I grew up with.  Then I'll hop back on the train to Chicago.  Feb 20-22 is CoffeeFest Chicago.  Remember CoffeeFest Seattle?  It's just like that, except cooler.  Isaiah will once again compete in the latte art competition.  And I'm sure we'll come home with some ridiculous stories (and hopefully a first place trophy).  

Tulsa Opera has an art show up on the walls of the DoubleShot right now.  We are having a party for them here on Friday, Feb 6 from 6-730p.  The opera singers will perform and we'll have coffee, wine, and snacks for your enjoyment.  Make sure you come for this.  It's a short period of time on a Friday night and I really want to show support for the Tulsa Opera.  If you haven't been to an opera here, you should go.  It's amazing.  I love it.  Sitting in the audience, I am amazed at the talent these people have and the amount of practice and dedication that has gone into the production- from the sets to the costumes to the orchestra to the performance itself (not to mention the amount of money it takes to put on one three-day performance).  The next Tulsa Opera production is "Hansel & Gretel" February 21, 27, and March 1.  You should go.

Recap:

Coffee Tasting 1/29 @ 7p

Colombia La Estrella available TOMORROW

Tulsa Opera party at DoubleShot 2/6 @ 630p

Hansel & Gretel 2/21, 27 and 3/1

Me in Costa Rica (presentation to follow)

Isaiah competing in Chicago (he'll be the best, but will they declare him the winner?)

Three New Coffees

I just bought three new coffees.  I bought two of them through Ninety Plus, which is the company that brought us the Aricha and Beloya coffees.  

One of them is a Colombian from Finca La Aurora.  La Aurora is one of the Garces' farms in La Concordia.  Cristina (Garces) is taking the coffee from this farm and milling it in her new specialty mill.  We visited this mill while we were in Concordia.  It is immaculately clean and they boast the only mechanical drier in the country, which creates a cleaner, more consistent coffee (than the other drying methods being used in Colombia).  La Aurora is planted with Caturra, Catuai, and Colombian Variety.  It's obviously a wet-processed coffee, like virtually all coffee from Colombia, and the fruit flavors are very subdued.  Also, like all coffees from the Concordia region of Colombia, this coffee is very high-grown.  At 6,400 feet elevation, the coffee beans develop more slowly, creating a better-tasting coffee and very dense beans.  The coffee is stored in parchment for a few months before it is dry-milled and exported.  I'm not positive of the effects this rest has on the coffee, but I've been told storing coffee in parchment preserves the coffee better than storing it green, and the acidity of the coffee will lessen some over that resting period.  That rest and resulting drop in acidity can be good with a coffee that is so acidic that it tastes sharp, which is entirely possible with a coffee that is grown at such high elevations and wet processed.  I thought the La Aurora had a nice nutty, chocolaty flavor with some soft, melon fruitiness lingering in the background.  Cristina describes the coffee as such:  "The cup is very balanced and rich of flavor. The chocolate, the spices, the tropical fruits and vanilla notes are present from hot to cold. The citric acidity and the lemon finish is very atractive."  I think you're really going to like this coffee.

Another coffee I just bought is from the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala.  The farm is called Finca Villaure.  It is in a neighboring area to Finca Vista Hermosa, which you might remember from almost a year ago when their manager and his son were shot and killed.  After that incident, I began corresponding with Edwin Martinez, whose father owns Vista Hermosa.  He has been sending me coffee samples and we have been discussing details.  He is representing Finca Villaure in the United States, and that is how I came to buy this outstanding coffee.  Here you can read an article from Roast Magazine about Edwin's experiences with bringing coffee to the U.S.  

Finca Villaure was started in 1986 by the Villatoro family.  They are entering their 3rd generation as premium coffee producers in the Hoja Blanca region of Cuilco in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. The growing operation is headed by Aurelio Villatoro, one of eight brothers, who together with their parents, spouses and children (more than 70 in all) cultivate approximately 40 acres of rugged, shade covered mountain slopes. 

The Hoja Blanca region is one of the last to harvest each year in Guatemala due its high elevation and heavily shaded slopes. These two factors combine to slow the development of the coffee cherries resulting in an extremely dense and more chemically complex bean.  In 2002 Finca Villaure was selected in the Cup of Excellence competition as one of the top 33 coffees in Guatemala.  The farm was also selected by Illycafe as the best producer of coffee in Guatemala in 2003.  

Edwin describes the Villaure as having "Candied grapefruit taste with jasmine fragrance and a sweet, crisp finish."  In my cupping of the coffee, I definitely found it to be pleasantly acidic, with very clean, sweet, grapefruit-type flavors and a super-clean, delicious finish.  I bought two different lots of this coffee.  One has spent a few months resting in parchment form, like the La Aurora.  The other lot is the more recent harvest, and will have more cinnamon in the aroma and a bigger acidity.  It will be interesting to compare these two lots of the "same" coffee.  It is supposed to be delivered TODAY, so needless to say I'm pretty damned excited.

The third coffee is the other one I bought from Ninety Plus.  It's a coffee from Panama.  The last Panama we had was from the Boquete region.  This one is from another region called Volcan.  The coffee is from Finca Hartmann, which was founded in 1940 by a man named Ratibor Hartmann Troetsch.  He and his family (5 children) work on the farm, producing some excellent coffees.  I looked back at the results from the "Best of Panama" competition from the last two years.  In 2006 Hartmann had two coffees in the top 16 and last year they had one.  

Some info from Ninety Plus:  "Some of the hardest-working and most environmentally committed coffee producers in the world, the three generations currently represented at Finca Hartmann all have a hand in daily operations. Much of the family’s land is primary forest and rests contiguous with the enormous Parque Nacional La Amistad, Central America’s largest national park. Despite uncountable offers to cut the forest for large monetary gain over decades, the Hartmanns remain committed to a future of coffee in balance with nature. The Hartmanns have a cupping lab on site and are leaders in coffee production for quality. Their expertise has been enjoyed beyond their own farm as they act as consultants for many Panamanian and other Latin American coffee producers."

In fact, our friend Cristina Garces (who produced the La Aurora) is friends with Ratibor Jr, who worked for the Garces family as a consultant for 6 years in Colombia.  It's a small world after all.  

Read more about the Hartmann family and their coffee farm on the website.

This is a really interesting coffee.  It's called Hartmann Honey - micro-lot #7.  I picked it out of a few different lots as the most interesting of their offerings.  The "honey" refers to the processing method used with the coffee.  Instead of depulping the coffee, fermenting, washing off the mucilage, and drying the parchment, the Hartmann family used a "pulp natural" method.  The coffee is run through a depulper to take the skins off the cherries, but instead of sitting in a fermentation tank to loosen up the mucilage so it can be washed, the coffee was laid out on raised drying beds where it was dried with the mucilage still intact.  The picture at the top of this blog is the Hartmann Honey drying on raised beds.  After drying, the coffee was cleaned and the parchment removed.  This unusual processing method creates an unusual coffee.  It seems that there are sugars on the outside of the coffee bean, so they roast a bit weird, deceiving.  The outside of the bean isn't necessarily indicative of what's happening on the inside of the bean during roasting.  The farm is located around 5,500 feet elevation, which is still pretty high for coffee, so the beans are dense and flavorful.  The Ninety Plus cupping notes say "This cup has intense grapefruit acidity, dried black-currant aroma, and gentle fresh coffee berry notes. Honey processing can also add fruit characteristics that remind of Ethiopia naturals but are usually more restrained. They are also commonly laden with a refined nuttiness in the aftertaste which grows stronger as the cup cools."  I thought the coffee was a lighter cup with some sour melon and yeasty smells in the aroma and maybe a bit of tea, then a lot going on in the flavor- fruits, malt, sweet honey, chocolate, and nuttiness.  It's striking really.  Not what you'd expect in a coffee.  

More from Ninety Plus:  "Finca Hartmann, our coffee development partners in Panama, have a history of strong relationships with the workers on their farm, largely seasonal employees of the indigenous Gnobe tribe of Panama. Workers are well-compensated and enjoy some of the most beautiful housing in Panama, some of which is nestled right in the heart of the cloud forests at Ojo de Agua. As coffee prices are improved for Finca Hartmann, additional monies will be available to further improve facilities and pay for seasonal workers.

With hundreds of species of birds, mammals, and reptiles co-existing with coffee at Finca Hartmann, this farm is truly one of the finest examples in the world of healthy integration of coffee and nature. The subject of studies by the Smithsonian Institute and other wildlife organizations, Finca Hartmann has been embracing and protecting biodiversity on its land for many decades."

Three new coffees.  Each one is unique and delicious.  I'm excited, and I think you're going to like all of them.

I feel like I've read volumes about these coffees and where they came from, and I still know very little and can express even less in this blog.  So I hope, when you drink them, there is enough info here for you to understand a little about and appreciate the coffees and to appreciate the people who have worked hard bringing these coffees to your cup.