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blind tasting

Posted by Greenway Barista on February 17, 2009 at 3:11am

Honestly, I have never had any real palate refining classes or intense cupping knowledge. I have been to literally hundreds of specialty coffee retailers all over the country, and even some outside of the country, and this is where my palate has been exposed to different forms of coffee. Having said that, if sometimes I seem unhappy with a product or if asked what I think and I respond honestly, it really should be taken with a grain of salt. I am no expert, and I have only fell in love with 3 espresso blends so far. I am not saying these are the best, or that others are inferior, I am really just expressing what I look for in an espresso. Grumpy, Vivace, Intelly, these are the espressos that blew me out of the water. Leaps and bounds out of the water. So much so that I am on this conquest of providing the same effect I got from these espresso to my customers here in Houston. I don't mean to shun local roasters, it's just I was so blown away by these awesome blends and profiles and I haven't experienced that here yet. Maybe it isn't the blend, maybe its the equipment. Maybe its me not addressing procedures properly. I honestly am not educated enough in the dozens of variables that are regarded in producing such a noteworthy shot. Water, Grind, Pressure, Temperature, Tamping, Milk, Extraction times, etc. I am no expert, and likewise it may be any of these things besides the blend, or roast profile. But what I do understand is to replicate such quality, I have to learn to address every single variable and determine where I am succeeding and where my shortcomings are. Luckily there are like-minded coffee geeks here in Houston as well to help me on my venture. So yeah, if I say its ok, or I don't like it, it by no means says the product or quality is inferior, its just my personal, uneducated opinion.

Barismo's Jaime Van Schyndel Spotting

Posted by Jason Haeger on February 16, 2009 at 10:07pm

Just searching for "coffee" on viddler.com resulted in finding this hidden number.

Coffee Kids Program Trip: Peru

Posted by Coffee Kids on February 13, 2009 at 12:30pm

In February, Coffee Kids Program Department staff went to Peru to meet with Coffee Kids counterpart COCLA and visit with other cooperatives and organizations working to improve the lives of coffee-farming families.Although some sectors of the Peruvian economy have not been affected by the world economic crisis in a visible way due to government subsidies, the reality of the global financial crunch is evident in rural areas. Tabaconas Community Members

During our stay, we met with various cooperatives in the provinces of San Igancio and Jaen, in the northern department of Cajamarca. According to national and UN statistics poverty in these areas affects 75% of the population.In the communities of Tamborapa Pueblo, Tabaconas and Rodeopampa, we met with coffee producers and their families. Most of the families depend largely on coffee as their main source of income. One of the families we met told us that a family of five needs at least 50 dollars a week for food, which doesn’t seem like much to many of the people reading this. But to families living below the poverty line, this is up to 60% of their weekly income. title=

On our visit, we saw how people are confronting these problems. In Tamborapa Pueblo, Carmen Rivera, a mother of four, has created a small organic garden to produce vegetables for her family. She guided us through her small parcel with great excitement and showed us the radishes, lettuce, peppers, beans, peaches and other vegetables that she uses to feed her family and make extra income selling the surplus. Several women in the community have followed her example creating their own gardens.People in these communities understand that sometimes the earnings from the coffee harvest are not enough and they occasionally have to rely on other sources of income such as raising chickens or guinea pigs. Many people also work on other coffee parcels to earn money for their families.The coffee cooperatives know that coffee is not enough. Though coffee exports are growing in Peru, international markets are uncertain and higher prices for quality coffee still don’t cover all of their needs.The cooperatives in this region are working to implement grassroots programs that provide health, education, and commercial opportunities to their members. Our visit gave us an intimate understanding of the reality of coffee in Peru and reinforced the belief that families in these communities have the tools to confront their challenges on their own, all they need is support and resources.

Adventures in Creativity

Posted by Anthony Clark on February 12, 2009 at 5:43am

A customer of ours recently challenged us to doing something really special for the guest-use computers that we were selling her for their shop: they wanted to make sure that their computer had a different look and feel than any other, but had no input as to what they wanted other than that they had a lot of customers stop by on their way to a nearby Aquarium. So we made her a special icon pointing to the website of the Aquarium and put a nice water themed graphic on the computer for her. She was very happy and I have been promised a free drink of my choice next time I am in the area!-Anthony Clark / Thinix

I must be nuts!

Posted by Mike McGinness on February 11, 2009 at 6:48pm

Or simply fanatical. Realized since installing my four station pour over bar last Turkey Day now offering 6 "House Coffee" choices all same "house" price plus currently 3 additional uplift price choices: Panama Esmeralda Gesha No. 5, Ethiopia Idido Misty Valley and Aloha Hills Kona Fancy. Many customers love it, taking their time deciding which coffee to try each day. Have descriptions of each coffee by the pour over station. Oh, I offer $1 off in house "re-fills", which can be any coffee of course. So often they'll try multiple coffees same day.Ditching the air pots was a good move in my opinion. More work and time to brew each and every "drip" cup to order to be sure, but why take the time and effort to meticulously roast each coffee then have it sit and degrade in an air pot? No thanks, I don't drink air pot coffee so certainly won't serve it!Tomorrow evening I'll be at a local art gallery doing an art show and coffee tasting. The coffee tasting past that is! Gonna give the pour over station an after hours work out for sure. And of course will have whole beans available for sale of all the coffee tasting samples:-) Not banking on whole bean sales to make the evening worthwhile, more about providing coffee taste variety range education to some upscale folks. Not everyone has lost their jobs yet in this lovely economic mess we've found ourselves in...

The Ghost of Rancilio Past

Posted by Greenway Barista on February 11, 2009 at 6:30am

has cursed me since '99. Maybe 2009 will be the year Marzocco breaks the curse of the Rancilios.

Nearly 100 Attend Open House

Posted by Coffee Kids on February 10, 2009 at 6:30am

Coffee Kids open house on Thursday, January 29, was a rousing success with nearly 100 people from the Santa Fe area in attendance. Coffee, chai and cider from Java Joe's of Santa Fe was much appreciated and we shared information about our work with a great group of people.Kimberly Kiel of of Horizons Sustainable Financial Services, won the drawing for a print from Photographer Dorie Hagler's series, "Behind Every Cup." To see the whole series, visit www.behindeverycup.com. Hagler donates 10% of every print sold to Coffee Kids.We also have a few more images from the event posted on our Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/coffeekids.

Calling all Coffee Enthusiasts to Navy Pier, February 20-22!

Posted by Coffee Masters, Inc. on February 10, 2009 at 5:22am

Did you know that Coffee Masters is hosting this year's Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition? Baristas from the surrounding states of Illinois - including Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio - will converge to take part in a competition designed to encourage and recognize the art of espresso preparation and service. This event takes place during Coffee Fest Chicago and is presented by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA). The SCAA coordinates 10 such regional events throughout the country, as well as a national competition every year.Here is how the competition works:Competitors will serve up to 12 drinks in a 15-minute period in front of a panel of seven judges. Four espressos, four cappuccinos and four beverages of their own creations will be critiqued. Judges will evaluate each Barista on their technical skill; the flavor and quality of their espresso; the taste, creativity and appearance of their drinks, and on their presentation/customer service skills. The winner will automatically advance to the Semi-Finals Round at the United States Barista Championship held in Portland, Ore., in March.You can't miss this event! Come one, come all - It's FREE!The Competition is a free event that will take place at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois on Friday, February 20 through Sunday, February 22 and is open to the public. For more information on the event and registration for those wishing to volunteer, please visit www.coffeemasters.com and click on the GLRBC logo.

competing

Posted by Jaimie Rae Weidner on February 9, 2009 at 1:00pm

I just want to say that competing in NERBC was one of the best things I've ever done. Everyone that I met was so awesome, and I really feel that I did something and it was a blast. I'm definitely stepping up my game and pushing myself further into the professional barista community. Also this experience has broken barriers within myself such as confidence, anxiety, and my ability to speak in front of crowds. I am proud to say that I've inspired employees at my coffee house just by getting up there and doing it, and that is something I don't have words for, the excitement of the barista's and customers at the shop has been most rewarding. This is my passion, and I can only hope that it grows and takes me to a wonderful place in the future, thank you barista community!!!!

Thanks to Caffe D'arte

Posted by Mike Spence on February 9, 2009 at 7:36am

I had a pleasant surprise this weekend regarding Caffe D'arte. My children attend a non-profit co-op preschool where the parents are required to help put in time and effort. For the last two years my wife took the position of executive fund raiser. Basically they have five or six people that call and send letters requesting donations for the annual auction that accounts for a HUGE chuck of their operating capital.Personally I hate being a mooch, so I stay out of that end of things and don't refer industry people to the team to call. I pester enough people on a day to day basis while selling our POS system :).So, it was kind of nice when my wife was reviewing the donations and told me that Caffe D'arte had made a donation!So - a big Thank You to them for their support.

American Barista & Coffee School Announces New Latte Art and Sensory Skills Workshops - USBC

Posted by Matt Milletto on February 9, 2009 at 6:31am

Portland, OR (February 9, 2009) – Two new half-day latte art and sensory skills training workshops will be held concurrent with this year’s United States Barista Championship in Portland at the American Barista & Coffee School on March 5th.

The Latte Art Workshop led by American Barista & Coffee School Director of Training Matt Milletto and Lead Instructor Jared Mockli, will teach students fundamental principles and advanced techniques necessary to pour consistently great latte art. This 3-hour intensive program will cover a wide range of pour types from the basic rosetta design to multi-art pours.

The Sensory Skills Workshop led by Andrew Hetzel, licensed Q-Grader and Director of Hawaii-based consultancy, Cafemakers, is a 3-hour course open to food and beverage professionals of all skill levels wishing to participate in exercises that improve taste and aroma identification proficiency. Workshop attendees will practice the SCAA sensory skills exam with guidance and training, as well as perform olfactory and coffee cupping triangulation exercises comparable to those required for Q-Grader licensing or barista competition judging certification. The fee to attend each class is $150 or $250 for both workshops. SCAA Barista Guild members in good standing receive an additional 10% discount. Advance registration is required and can be made online at coffeeschool.org or by calling (800) 655-3955. Class size is limited to the first 15 registered attendees for each session. March 5th, 2009 Latte Art Workshop 9:00 AM – 12:00 Noon, again 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM Sensory Skills Workshop 9:00 AM – 12:00 Noon, again 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM Location: American Barista & Coffee School 1028 S.E. Water St., Ste. 275 Portland, OR 97214 About the American Barista & Coffee School The American Barista & Coffee School (ABC) is the premier professional school in America devoted to specialty coffee business education and hands-on barista training. ABC Training Director Matt Milletto is a member of the SCAA Training Committee, featured coffee expert in numerous publications and frequent speaker at coffee industry conferences. In 2006, Mr. Milletto’s latte art techniques were featured in Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup’s award-winning Extreme Pours training video. More information is available at www.coffeeschool.org. About Andrew Hetzel Andrew Hetzel is the founder of Cafemakers, a coffee industry business consultancy based on the Big Island of Hawaii that provides management, brand and process consulting services for coffee retailers, roasters and producers worldwide. In 2007, Mr. Hetzel was named one of the top young business leaders in Hawaii by Pacific Business News and in 2008, became the state’s first licensed Q-grader for the Coffee Quality Institute. More information is available at www.cafemakers.com.

Indonique World Tea Party

Posted by George on February 8, 2009 at 4:30am

We have about 60 participants so far for the Indonique World Tea Party on Feb 27th at Narcissus Chocolate Cafe in Wethersfield, CT with another 50 at The Chimes Bed & Breakfast in New Orleans. That's at least $110 in donations, which will buy about 478 meals for children in India. This does not include the 10% from sales anticipated at each event and down the line.Host your own party wherever you are and give!Let's keep building!Money has always made the world go round. Through programT42, let's make money go round the world.

Round Five

Posted by Chad Smith on February 5, 2009 at 1:05pm

Well, I skipped a week of bloggin', so I'll just call this round five. I'm a little foggy on the details, as it was a crazy full roast day last Thursday and we jumped right into it, so I was not taking copious notes.Super solid today though; Its felt a lot more intuitive, and I was hitting our profile right on the money, for the most part. No serious errors. I'm trying to make my 'dosing' more consistent, that is, scooping green beans.Something kind of 'clicked' today. Good day. Oh, but I did topple 5 sacks of beans off of a pallet. Oops.

Mercy Corps offers new retail location!

Posted by Ginger Gerhart on February 5, 2009 at 6:07am

Mercy Corps is pleased to offer a lease opportunity for a unique café space in its new global headquarters building at SW Ankeny Street and First Avenue in Portland's historic Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.Be a part of Mercy Corps' new global headquarters project, currently undergoing construction and renovation in the historic Skidmore Fountain Building. As an icon in the Pacific Northwest and one of the world's leading international development agencies, Mercy Corps anticipates the new facility will be a hub of global action, attracting thousands of visitors and tourists each year. The site offers a convenient downtown location and easy access to public transportation.For more information, contact:Margaret HinshawCommunity Relations OfficerMercy Corps503.796.6800 x. 274mhinshaw@mercycorps.org

I just unloaded 40,000 lbs. of this seasons new crop.

Posted by Derek Dyson on February 5, 2009 at 4:30am

Yesterday I unloaded the first 40,000 pounds of this season’s crop. A little bit of everything from each of our two plantations…some semi wash, some full wash and my personal favorite (as well as a Topeca first)….3,000 lbs of high grown yellow bourbon naturals. Yes, you heard right….naturally processed coffee from the mountains of El Salvador. We haven’t cupped it in the states yet (we’ve had it for less than a day) but we cupped it on the plantation in December and found some very prominent berry notes (strawberry to be specific) similar to what you would expect from any number of African naturals, which is rather exciting for us, being a direct trade, single origin roaster and café. Needless to say, I am totally stoked to have something drastically different and new to play with.

Volunteer at SCAA Event and Save

Posted by Mike Ferguson on February 4, 2009 at 8:30am

The SCAA is now filling volunteer positions for the upcoming Exposition in Atlanta, April 17-19th. During the Annual Exposition the SCAA requires the help of over 200 volunteers to help make The Event a success. There are a variety of different positions available with different skill sets needed. And the best part is if you work 5 volunteer hours, you will earn a $95.00 credit towards the "Lectures + 3-day Trade Show Badge." Volunteers who work at the USBC in Portland, Oregon in March can also earn hours towards the Exposition credit. For full details and to sign-up as a volunteer today, visit the volunteer page of The Event website.Positions Available

Ive shrunken my roaster!

Posted by lucky on February 4, 2009 at 6:15am

So i have figured out how to magically shrink ones roaster size... ready here it is:first, wake up before the sun and go to the roasting facility.second, warm up the roaster. stare at it like its your fiance at your wedding.third, start roasting; don't stop roasting until after the sun sets (12-16 hours).-trust me. if you do this, your roaster will seem extraordinarily small the next time you look at it.p.s. this is not a recommended scenario.

Indonique World Tea Party

Posted by George on February 3, 2009 at 3:00pm

OK guys we've set a date for the next Indonique World Tea party: February 27 at Narcissus Chocolate Cafe in Wethersfield, CT, 5-7 pm Happy Hour with Free samples and live music afterwards. We hope our friends around the world will join us in their own parties and send us some photos or video. We have a theme for this one: Gave up coffee for Lent? Try TEA!Remember, if you're having Indonique tea, a donation has already been made by Indonique to Mercy Corps to fund programs in the communities where our teas are picked. If not, use any tea and send a dollar per person participatinhg to Mercy Corps. You can make out a check to Mercy Corps with programT42 in the memo section and send to Indonique. we'll forward all the checks to them.Go to www.indonique.com/wtp for detailsWho we are: www.indonique.comHow we do it: www.indonique.com/t42 Facebook PageTwitter with us at www.twitter.com/indoniquesnail mail at PO Box 1298, Glastonbury, CT 06033Thanks, George

Australian Barista Championships

Posted by Zoe Delany on February 2, 2009 at 5:00pm

Hi everyone!Congatulations to Tim Adams from Queensland Australia, who will be represesnting us in Atlanta in April!Tim managed to defeat me by just 10 points. He really was very good, how could I not be proud of such a lovely and humble guy who is completely self taught. Well done Tim!Now back to me... I'd like to thank a few people. First of all my amazing BF David Makin who has been not just an incredibly dedicated coach, but a genuine, caring friend even when I am grumpy and tired.Thank you to Craig, Rocky and Peter for giving me a job where I can extend my learning about coffee and roasting. Also, a big thank you to all my beautiful work mates at 'Coffee Hit' who sometimes probebly wonder if I do anything else in life except coffee!!!Special thanks to Cafetto, Pura, Da Vinci, Detpak, Nouva Simonelli, Bean Scene and Veneziano Coffee for sponsorship and invaluable support throughout the competition period.Also, a very big thank you to the people who have made all my dreams come true. Justin Metcalf, Sean Edwards, Chris Short, Peter Tyler, Jeff Dutton, Emily Oak, Carl Sara and the lovely NZ crew, Steve & Stewart from Beans and Bagels, Instaurator, Maria Paoli, Mark Ryan, Greg Davis, Bruno @ C4, Andy Freeman from Coffee Snobs, Mark Dunden, Tony D'Angelo, ALl the competitors, my Mum and Dad and Siblings and absolutely anyone else I may have forgotten.Love to you all and thanks for the best Australian Final ever! really was a great event.Cheers,Zoe

Colombia & Honduras, January 2009

Posted by Rik Kleinfeldt on February 2, 2009 at 3:30pm

Day 1 Wednesday Jan 14Newark to Mesa de los SantosIt’s a long row to hoe. Providence to Newark to Miami to Bogata to Bucaramanga to Los Santos. Troy and Jaime join me in Newark. We’re greeted by a dose of fresh, thin air in Bogata. Troy immediately sets out on a quest for aguardiente, the legendarily potent anise liqueur, while I frustrate the woman behind the glass at the money exchange with my long-degraded Spanish. It’s really bad. After I finally acquire some pesos, I find a couple blocking my way up the stairs to the food court. Spanish for “excuse me”, anyone? I make some weird grunting noise as the rusty gears turn in my head, and they get the idea: give way for the strange mute man.Pardone me? Con permiso? I’m still not really sure. In any case, I survive the Bogata airport terminal, and finally meet Oswaldo Acevedo, the owner of Mesa de los Santos. Oswaldo lives in Bogata, and will be accompanying us on our final leg to Bucaramanga and the farm itself. We’re also joined by Max and Jennifer from Royal Coffee CA.After we land in Bucaramanga, we pile into a couple of SUVs for the long ascent up the Mesa. Troy and I ride with Oswaldo, with Javier at the wheel. After an hour or so of steep switchbacks, we arrive at Mesa—known locally as Hacienda El Roble. We are staying at the main house, a 150+ year-old white stucco beauty with a lush courtyard garden. After a late dinner of a light egg soup festooned with fresh savory herbs, we end a long, long day with a fair amount of anticipation for what sights sunrise will bring.Day 2 Thursday Jan 15Hacienda El RobleDaylight does not disappoint, as we wake to a landscape that is simultaneously wild and supremely ordered. The weather at Mesa de los Santos is perfect for human life. Warm, sunny mornings raise the temperature into the mid 70s, and right at lunchtime the wind starts whipping across the Mesa, maintaining optimal conditions. In fact, Oswaldo credits the wind for stressing his coffee trees a bit and concentrating sugars in the cherries, producing a sweeter cup.After breakfast, Oswaldo and his farm manager Fermin begin the tour in the nursery. There we find the expected—shiny green leaves of thousands of perfect coffee seedlings—and something else. Interspersed with the Bourbon and Caturra coffee plants are thick beds of aromatic herbs: oregano, basil, lavender, lemongrass, anise, mint and many others I can’t quite identify. Oswaldo stops at each bed and invites us to crumble a leaf under our noses. I’ve tried to grow a few herb gardens in my time, but nothing I’ve grown produces the kind of culinary perfume these plants do.And the irony: these redolent herbs are natural pesticides, carefully arranged to dissuade insects from finding a meal in the tender young leaves of the coffee seedlings. Luckily, a few of them will also find their way into the Mesa kitchen during our stay. Herbs, that is, not insects.After soaking up the nursery, we head into the “fields”. That’s a misnomer, of course, because great coffee does not grow in fields. What we see is a dense rainforest, with a riot of birdsong echoing off cedar, oak and galapo trees (and many others I can’t begin to name). Well below the leafy canopy, the forest floor is dotted with 4’ to 8’ tall coffee trees, with their distinctive british-racing-green leaves, and green, red and yellow coffee cherries.The constellation of fruit colors, even on the same branch, is our first glimpse of the immense labor that makes great coffee possible. Unlike virtually every other food crop of note, coffee must be picked by hand, and carefully at that. At Mesa, only the ripe red cherries (and the occasional yellow Bourbon) are picked. Each cherry holds two coffee beans, and it takes about 4,000 beans to make a pound of roasted coffee. Each coffee tree produces about one pound of coffee per season. Good to know. Regardless of the price we pay as roasters, retailers or consumers, we can all agree to one thing: coffee is a precious thing.Then we head down to the coffee garden. Here Oswaldo is growing 75 different varieties of coffee (a variety is a subspecies of coffea arabica; the Colombian Don Telmo coffee we roast at New Harvest is the Bourbon variety), with an eye on planting “microlots” of really special beans. It’s a fascinating experiment. The garden includes every imaginable variety from around the world, all grown under identical conditions.Even better, we are going to have the opportunity to taste 45 of them. More on this later.After another delicious meal prepared by Miriam and Juliana, we set out for the Los Santos school, just outside the gate to the farm. The school holds about 600 students, from kindergarten to 11th grade (the Colombian equivalent of our 12th grade). We are all impressed by the passion of the staff, and gratified to see the fruits of our importer’s longstanding support of the Mesa de los Santos region. The generosity of Royal Coffee is self-evident, from the basketball court to the computers and microscopes.Our next stop is the Big Show: the beneficio, or wet mill. Once coffee has been picked, speed is essential. It must be depulped, fermented, washed and dried quickly, to ensure the highest quality.Here’s how it works: At the end of the day, pickers bring in between 400 and 800 lbs. of cherry, per person (depending on the season). Fermin or one of the other supervisors weigh each sack of cherry, and the pickers are paid by the kilo. The ripe cherry is loaded into the wet mill. First any green fruit and “floaters” (low-density, less favorable beans that float on the water) are removed. The remaining cherries are then depulped, with the fruit sloughed off into a dump truck to be taken to the composting sheds and the beans and water are pumped into fermentation tanks.After the coffee has been depulped, it still has a sticky “mucilage” that needs to be removed. This is where fermentation comes in. The coffee will remain in the tanks for about 12 hours, which is enough time for the mucilage to break down but not so long that the fermentation process effects the flavor of the coffee itself.After fermentation, the coffee is washed and dried.. At Mesa, some coffee is dried in the sun on wood-framed screens, but the majority of the beans are dried using mechanical dryers. At the end of the drying cycle, what we know as coffee beans are still surrounded by a husk, or “pergamino”. This pergamino goes in burlap bags and is stored temporarily in the bodega, or resting room. The coffee sits here for a couple of weeks, until it reaches a relative humidity of about 10 or 11%. Once it reaches the desired humidity, the coffee is sent to a dry mill in Bucaramanga, where the husk is removed (the husks are returned to Mesa where it is used to fuel the mechanical dryers). A final sorting is done at this point to remove defective beans. Then the final product—green coffee—is loaded into 69 kilo bags, placed into a container and shipped—to a roaster near you.Mesa Cupping CompetitionThere are two main species, arabica and robusta. Arabica is typically high-grown (above 1,000 meters), and is noted for its mild, sweet flavor. Robusta grows at lower altitudes, is a hardier plant and is notoriously bitter and unpleasant. Pretty much every specialty coffee roaster only deals with arabica coffee.It doesn’t stop there, however. Coffea Arabica is a dynamic plant, with many more varieties than wine grapes. Some common examples are Caturra, Typica and Bourbon. Each variety has its own distinct characteristics, as we experience personally on our first day at Mesa. The coffee garden I mentioned earlier is home to 75 different varieties, all grown under identical conditions. Over our two day stay at Mesa, we will be cupping and grading 45 of them, and Oswaldo plans to put the top two or three finishers into production.It’s an intense exercise, with high stakes. We cup three flights of 15 coffees, and choose 10 finalists for a championship cupping at the end of the second night. The coffees are all over the place during the three preliminary rounds. We are scoring on a scale of 1 to 100 (100 being the unattainable best), and the scores dip as low as 40 and as high as 96. The lower scoring coffees are fairly uniform in their attributes: woody, vegetal, salty, walnut, potato, fermented.The top scorers, however, each enjoy unique profiles and flavors. This is what makes great coffee so phenomenal. Here are some flavor notes on some of these coffees:3rd Round PrelimWinner: peach cobbler, strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, clove, chocolate, cinnamon.3rd Round, 2nd Place: papaya and orange peel aroma, vanilla, caramel, banana, tropical fruit flavors.Final Round, 2nd Place: peach and floral aroma, light red wine, raspberry and strawberry flavors, rich acidity.Final Round, Overall Winner: strawberry and toffee aroma, floral in the cup, syrupy body, dark chocolate, nutty, orange zest, balanced.And no, I can’t reveal their identities. But some of these will be planted shortly, and once the trees start producing cherries in about four years, we will be roasting these coffees.Day 3 Friday Jan 16Ring of Fire, and We Have a WinnerWe start the day at sunrise, with a birdwatching tour. Mesa is home to 126 species of birds, giving new meaning to the term “bird-friendly”. Much of the region has actually been deforested. Outside of Oswaldo’s farm, the landscape is dominated by poultry and cattle farms, and housing developments. The coffee farm is an oasis, a sanctuary for all manner of flora and fauna.After the birds, we return to the lab for the third preliminary round of the cupping competition. Now thoroughly caffeinated, it is of course time to ride horses. Now, I have only ridden a horse once before in my life, which was five minutes of terror at summer camp when I was 9. So I’m a little nervous, especially when I draw the biggest mount. She’s dark brown and feisty. Let’s call her Ring of Fire.I get on Ring of Fire, and things seem fine. I’m sitting on a horse, no big deal. Then we head out. It turns out I have the Alpha horse—she absolutely needs to be at the front of the line. I have a hard enough time keeping my hiking boots in the stirrups, holding the reins and keeping the unraveling tether from getting tangled up in the horse’s legs, and all she wants to do is run.We eventually achieve equipoise, and I even let her get up a gallop a few times during the two hour ride up and down the rutted trails of Mesa. I certainly would have won the “race” back to the stable if Troy hadn’t gotten a headstart when Jennifer and I turned back to find the wayward Max and Jaime.After a ridiculous dismount (my horse-muscles are plainly in disrepair), Oswaldo takes us for a more solicitous ride (in cars) to see Chichamocha Canyon. Chichamocha is a 4,000 foot deep canyon that marks the edge of Mesa de los Santos, and it is a striking site. When we return, we cup the final round of coffees, and select a winner. Champagne is poured and another delicious dinner is served, followed by the medicinal application of gin on the rocks. It has been a good day.Day 4 Saturday Jan 17Mesa de los Santos to San Pedro Sula, Honduras.Today we jump from Bucaramanga to Bogata to San Jose, Costa Rica and finally arrive in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The sun does not follow us, however, and we are greeted with three days of rain.In SPS, we meet the folks from Lafayette College who have been working with the residents of the small village of Lagunitas, Honduras for several years in fostering economic and social development. They assisted Lagunitas in constructing a water filtration system and forming a cooperative of 13 families to work towards entrepreneurship and improving living standards in the village.Fluney Hutchinson, economics professor at Lafayette, leads the group, which is comprised of four undergraduates on this trip, Lori, Katie, Jackie and Nick. Lori will also be serving as our interpreter during our time in Honduras, and she will be working hard over the next few days. There is a lot to talk about.Also joining us in SPS are Sergio and Oskar, who work for IHCAFE, the Honduran national Coffee Board. They will fill a crucial role, in evaluating the prospects for coffee production at Lagunitas, as well as connecting us with other growers hoping to export their coffee to the United States. And—they will also being driving us all over the place.Day 5 Sunday Jan 18San Pedro Sula to YoroLagunitas is located in the province of Yoro, about 75 miles southeast of SPS, in the rural interior of Honduras. Once we pass through the town of El Progreso, about 15 miles outside of SPS, the concrete highway largely gives way to dirt roads. Even through the rain and the mist, Honduras reveals itself as a beautiful country, covered with steep mountain passes and undisturbed rain forest.We arrive in Lagunitas in the early afternoon, and are immediately introduced to the members of the cooperative (Manos Unidas). After Fluney and Lori catch up with the members on the news since their last visit, we head out to their coffee nursery. It’s about a half-hour walk up and down a muddy track, across a stream and up another hill. Jaime comments on the fecundity of the environment—“anything will grow here”. And it’s true; the forest floor is thick with growth, and the canopy is nearly oqaque.After we visit the nursery, we return to the village for a meeting. This is when Fluney and Lori set to work. The Lagunitas project is not one where grants or loans are made without consideration of internal or external conditions. Manos Unidas wants to produce coffee, even build their own beneficio, but Fluney wants to make sure that this is the right choice for them. He turns to Jaime, Troy and I for guidance about the coffee market in the United States, and Lori in turn communicates this to Manos Unidas.Jaime in particular is extremely helpful. He has traveled to origin many times, and knows what it takes to produce good specialty coffee. The altitude of Lagunitas (900 meters) is on the low side, and the variety of coffee they are growing is an unknown. With 13 families, their production is likely to be quite small. It becomes clear that building a beneficio may not be the best use of their resources.That said, they may still want to pursue coffee production, and use an established beneficio at another cooperative to wet mill their coffee. Jaime makes the point that Manos Unidas needs to know what price they can expect to get for their coffee before deciding to move forward.As the sun sets, we squeeze back into the IHCAFE trucks and head into Yoro City, where we will stay for the night. As it happens, we make back in time to see the Steelers eliminate the Ravens.Day 6 Monday Jan 19Yoro to Las Vegas to YoroWe are met in Yoro City by Francisco Castillo, the regional coordinator of Cortes and Yoro provinces for IHCAFE. We head south for La Victoria and ultimately Las Vegas, home to Cooperativa 25 de Julio.25 de Julio has 43 members and produces 400 bags (60,800 lbs) of certified organic coffee per year. Currently all of 25 de Julio’s coffee is aggregated with coffee from other cooperatives, and is sold for export under a generic label. Sometimes they have to deal with coyotes: middlemen who pay a low upfront price for their production. 25 de Julio is exactly the sort of cooperative that I would love to source directly, paying a fair price and in the process establishing an ongoing relationship.So I’m excited by the prospects raised by our meeting with 25 de Julio. Jaime, Troy and I all make presentations about our respective positions in the American specialty coffee market. I talk about how important Fair Trade Certified coffee has been for us at New Harvest in the past, but also about how we urgently want to move beyond it. I say that Fair Trade is a label, but what we really want—and what our customers really want—is a good connection to growers. We want to pay a fair price and see its effect: on the quality of the coffee, and on the quality of life for the people who grow it.Our meeting is upbeat and productive. We head up the muddy hill to see the beneficio, and we are not disappointed. It’s a very clean operation, with separate processing facilities for organic and transitional coffees and well-tended solar dryers for drying the coffee after depulping and fermentation. From there, we hike down to see the coffee on the trees. 25 de Julio grows their coffee at between 1,200 and 1,300 meters, under the shady canopy of old-growth cedar and gingko trees. Most of their coffee is of the Bourbon and Typica varieties, and is certified organic by Biolatina, a leading international certifying agency.Jaime, Troy and I are all energized by what we have seen and heard at 25 de Julio. Sourcing coffee direct from Honduras does not feel all that remote.We return to the hotel in Yoro City well after dark. There we meet Maira Gerente, president of COMISUYL, a large cooperative also based in Yoro province. The production by COMISUYL is large scale –380,000 lbs per year—but their processing practices are decidedly small scale. They do not have a central beneficio for wet-milling their coffee. Instead, each member of the coop pulps the coffee they harvest using a small hand-cranked mill and ferments it using their own personal fermentation tanks. The coop delivers the coffee to the exporter with 45% humidity—quite high. The exporter completes the drying process.We will not have time to visit COMISUYL, but Maira is an enthusiastic proponent of her coffee. We will meet her again tomorrow at IHCAFE headquarters in San Pedro Sula, and have the opportunity to cup her coffee.Day 7 Tuesday Jan 20Yoro to San Pedro SulaWe see peeks of sun as we leave Yoro. We are headed to IHCAFE’s main facility in SPS, where we tour their lab facilities, try some coffees and have a final meeting to talk about the process of bringing Honduran coffee to our customers.IHCAFE HQ is impressive. Honduras has the environment to produce great coffee—the same as Guatemala and Costa Rica, which have enjoyed sterling reputations for years. The folks at IHCAFE know this, and they are making the investment to make it happen. Ella shows us around the soil and water testing labs, and to the scene of last year’s Honduras Barista Championship. Ana Lucia Lardizabal de Hawit, last year’s Honduran champion, went on to finish 15th at the World Barista Championship—the highest finisher from Latin America.We head into the cupping lab. IHCAFE has an impressive array of Probat sample roasters, and they put them in service roasting the coffees we will be cupping. Two of the three samples are from Cooperativa 25 de Julio and COMISUYL. The coffees are a little fresh, both in terms of how recently the coffee was harvested and in just being roasted. Green coffee matures and mellows during export and storage, and we prefer to give roasted coffee at least 24 hours of resting time before we cup it. Nevertheless, this experience is all about potential—and it is there, in the cup.Day 8 Wednesday Jan 21San Pedro SulaAt Jaime’s suggestion, we squeeze in one more meeting in the morning before we leave. This is with Munir Hawit, owner of Cafex, a leading dry mill and coffee exporter. It turns out Munir exports coffee produced by 25 de Julio and COMISUYL, in addition to coffee from his own farm in Yoro, Finca Santa Marta. Santa Marta also won first place in the 2006 Honduras Cup of Excellence competition, scoring 91.41 and fetching a price of $6.70 per pound.Munir is quite open about the challenges faced by Honduran coffee. There are frequently breakdowns somewhere along the chain—picking, depulping, washing, fermentation and drying—that reduce the quality of the final product. Drying in particular has been an issue, which accounts for IHCAFE efforts to build solar dryers at coops like 25 de Julio. Munir also cited the need for Hondurans in the coffee industry to improve their cupping skills, to better appreciate the flavor characteristics prized in the American specialty market.Again, like everything else we experienced in Honduras, there is a desire to improve quality and seek direct relationships—exactly what we wanted to hear.

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Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.