Posts Tagged ‘roasting’
30th 2012
Buena Esperanza (Gustavo Alfaro, Producer)
Assam tea, Strawberry, Cane Sugar, Rhubarb
Mundo Nuevo.
18th 2012
The Greatest Coffees of 2011
Colombia El Paraiso Cappuccino Roasted by Cafe Grumpy
“Being a coffee super-geek affords a lot of rare pleasures, not the least of which is getting to sample seldom available coffee creations during the barista competition season…The coffees baristas select are often among the more special, small lot, too-costly-to-make-financial-sense-as-a-regular-cafe-offering sort, but if you’re in the right place at the right time when a competitor is working out his drink, you might get to try something special. Like, in this case, a cappuccino made with the mapley-cacao El Paraiso, roundly sweetened by one of New York State’s lushest milks, from Battenkill Valley Creamery. The single origin espresso roast’s fresh, raspberry-tart acidity still sang in the cappuccino cup. This one was a winner with me.”
Read the full article by Liz Clayton in Serious Eats.
13th 2011
Holiday Gift Ideas (Part One) – Colombian Coffee Sampler
It is that time again! Over the next two weeks, we’ll be posting some holiday gift ideas for your coffee-loving friends.
We are proud to present these three unique coffee selections from Colombia. We have been working with the El Meridiano Co-op, Desarrollo Co-op & Jose Ider Zapata for a couple of years now. We feel that these selections showcase the hard work and dedication of these producers with their distinct and complex profiles.
-El Meridiano, Produced by El Meridiano Co-op, Herrera, Tolima
Mellow sweetness with notes of honey and red apple. Tangerine brightness. Waffle cone in the finish.
-Desarrollo, Produced by Desarrollo Co-op, Gigante, Huila
Red grapefruit, candied apricot, peaches & cream, brown sugar, tangerine.
-La Coqueta, Produced by Jose Ider Zapata, Herrera, Tolima
Delicate herbal rose aroma, maple sweetness, citrus zest.
The Colombian Coffee Sampler Set ($40) contains three ½ lb bags of coffee beans (sealed in bags with one-way degassing valves). The set comes in a kraft gift box with our logo stamped on it. For our out of town friends, you can order the sets online here.
28th 2011
Gethumbwini Estate
Pineapple, white tea, red grapefruit & molasses.
Gethumbwini Estate is located between the Kiama and Thika Rivers in Central Province, Kenya. SL-28 and SL-34 varieltals grown at 1800 masl in rich red volcanic soil. The coffee cherries are harvested and processed the same day on the farm’s depulper. Employing the washed process and slow fermentation to remove the cherry’s skin and mucilage, the coffee is then dried on raised beds.
Abundant wildlife is found on the Estate and the farm members are educated about the importance of preserving these species which include snakes, hares, owls, weaver birds, hawks and hippos. Employees and their families are provided with a number of benefits including full medical care and schooling.
“Blind Assessment: Deeply sweet and deeply pungent with round, complexly rich Kenya fruit: grapefruit, black currant, strawberry, supported by an undercurrent of fresh-cut fir. Ringing, resonant acidity, syrupy mouthfeel, flavor-saturated finish.
Who Should Drink It: Simply a superb coffee, as grand as it is balanced and inviting, as fine with milk as it is black.”
-Kenneth Davids, Coffee Review, June 2011
16th 2011
Trip Report: Honduras & El Salvador
This latest trip brought Cheryl and me to Honduras and El Salvador. It was a fully loaded trip so it was really nice to have her around to help remember all the farms we visited and people we met especially after the long days of hiking.
In Honduras we spent a few days visiting Beneficio San Vicente in Peña Blanca. My goal this year is to form relationships with producers in Central America and this trip was a great first step in making that goal a reality. As with any statement of purpose it is somewhat loaded and much deeper then just the surface implies. The factors that influence the achievement and motivations at the center of this statement are the real reasons it is complex. We have been roasting and buying coffee since September of 2009 which sounds like longer then it actually is. Especially when it comes to forming relationships with producers. Think about relationships in your own life they did not magically appear it took work and many different stages. Needless to say we are in the very early stages.
We spent the first three days of our trip in Honduras and on the fourth day we drove to San Salvador and spent the rest of our time visiting El Salvador. On our first day in Honduras we toured The Honduras Coffee Institute. It is a great facility that provides support to farmers and does lots of research on coffee. That afternoon we visited the farms of David Mancia and Benjamin Miranda both at very high elevation, which made for lots of hiking!
Saturday morning was our first chance to taste early samples from this year’s harvest. It was exciting! The coffees tasted great and the word on the street is that their production level is high. Then we and visited the farmers who produced the coffees! Our first stop was to visit the Moreno family. They have a long tradition of coffee growing in their family. Started by their father Daniel the seven brothers continue producing along side their uncle and cousin. They often place very well in the Cup of Excellence competition held in Honduras.
Then we visited the Fernandez family. This was especially exciting for us because it also meant meeting the producer of the lot of coffee that we purchased from the Cup of Excellence competition. Cesar is one of five brothers four of whom also grow coffee. They all farm land that was given to them by their father and work together to grow beautiful coffees. Just up the road from the Fernandez’s farms we visited the Benitez family. This was pretty awesome for me because La Pinona a farm owned by Sebastian Benitez was a coffee that I fell in love with about three years ago. Seeing the farm and meeting the producers of La Pinona is not something I will quickly forget.
We drove all day Sunday and made two stops to investigate Beneficio Santa Rosa and a Co-op called Cocafelol. Both were very nice facilities and definitely operated by forward thinking people. Cocafelol is working on producing hand sanitizer from the byproducts of coffee processing.
Monday morning in San Salvador we met the Pacas family. They run a few very well organized farms. Their amazingly friendly and knowledgeable staff was ready to answer any question I could think to ask. At dinner we had one the most interesting conversations about soil composition I have ever had. Alfredo and Maria were remarkably patient teachers. It is not a coincidence that their name is also a variety of coffee. Their family discovered the Pacas variety.
Our next visit was with Luis Rodriguez he is one of the people who helped us buy coffee from El Aguila last year. Unfortunately we were not able to visit El Aguila because it is in a secluded area and Luis did not think it would be safe to travel there. We did however get to see San Agustin the mill were our coffee was prepared. We also got to cup some early samples with Luis. We are really excited to what El Aguila produces this year!
Our last visit was with Emilio Lopez at his mill El Manzano. His operation is very well organized and amazingly clean. He is doing some great things processing coffee using the natural method, which made for some really interesting cupping. Emilio was an incredibly gracious host.
All around this was a very productive trip and it was so nice to have Cheryl with me. Her quick humor and passion for learning brought a really awesome positive energy. It’s going to be hard to travel without her.
-Colleen
22nd 2011
Colleen’s Colombia Trip Report – Bogota, Gigante, Pilalito, Manizales, Armenia
Five Days in Colombia doesn’t sound like a long time and then when you look at a topographic map it sounds like even less time. Thankfully I was traveling with some highly organized people. Though highly organized people also wake up much earlier then my natural alarm clock.
In the beginning of December I flew down to Bogotá to visit with our exporter, Virmax. We have been working with Virmax since the first days our roasting adventure! I met Alejandro and Giancarlo almost two years ago at an event Gimme hosted. I realized then that they were running their business in a very responsible, organized way with a lot of the same goals in common. I was impressed with their long term thinking as well as their knowledge of the Colombian coffee market. They seemed to be truly dedicated to making connections between farmers and small roasters. They have been great teachers for me ever since our first meeting.
It was a pretty natural decision for me to want to visit with them and they were kind enough to give us so much of their time. On the first day of my visit we cupped coffees in their Bogotá lab and talked about the structure and organization of Virmax’s operations. They were impressively open and excited to share with us exactly how things are run. Cupping coffees with them was a great way to create a common language and talk about our aspirations for our coffees.
The second day we got on a plane early in the morning and flew to Neiva where we took in a van to Gigante. This was a really exciting town for me to visit. One of the coffees that has been major part of our espresso comes from the growers surrounding this town. After a meeting of the co-op members we toured Jose Lisardo Rojas’ farm. The care and quality he shows to his farm and coffees struck a cord with me. His family takes incredible care of their land and a lot of pride in showcasing their coffees. I feel very lucky to be buying selected lots from his farm.
That evening we drove to Pitalito. In the morning we cupped coffees with their buyers in Pitalito and saw the actual machine, we had spend Monday talking about, in action. We left that evening and flew back to Bogotá for the night and flew out the next morning to Manizales. It was in the plans to visit the decaffeination plant there but unfortunately the plant closed early and gave their workers extra time off for the holiday. So we continued to Armenia, the town where Virmax’s dry mill is located. Spending the day there and seeing the mill run was like playing connect the dots in my head. Seeing the sorting standards and processing happening really put in perspective for me the final stages of coffee before I even get to see it.
Friday we left early in the morning to visit Cerro Azul a farm going into their first production year of geisha. I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful farm to grow such a beautiful coffee. We had the chance to cup a sample of the coffee the first morning we were together in Bogotá it was amazing. It was complex, subtle and unlike any other Colombian coffee I have ever tasted. We arrived just as some of the pickers were bringing coffees in. The selection and quality was remarkable. The farm is set up to pay their pickers throughout the year and not just during harvest insuring great veteran pickers for each harvest.
I went to Colombia with the goals of understanding our coffees better and getting to know each person who makes Virmax work so well. I achieved and surpassed these goals, which I never would have been able to without the support of our amazing hosts at Virmax. I could never match the hard work they do everyday in running their company.
