In the Grinder - Our Daily Coffee Weblog

We’ve been busy in Africa this past year visiting, Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya twice, Uganda and Ethiopia once, and we have a lot to show for it finally. Here’s a brief summary, and there’ll be more coming very soon in blogs, photos, and other stuff.

Rwanda, we have a container of a very wonderful Rwandan Bourbon from Bucafe that in addition to being a wonderful sweet cup, might be a perfect single origin espresso, as the burnt sugar flavors are complimented by enough acidity that it might be all that you need, and if not, a great component to your blend. We have set up a vacuum pack machine in Kigali for this summer’s crop to keep what’s special in Rwandan coffee special along the long trip from inland Great Lakes Africa to the United States and the rest of the world.

Uganda, look for this origin in upcoming blogs. We are found Mecca in a cup, and are going to be cupping each farmers 30-40 bags chop to see what’s out there. 1800 meters + and bourbon varietals. Look for this container in July hopefully. Also, we found a varietal, which we’ve not heard of before. We’ll be cupping that on in isolation to see how it cups out.

Burundi, the first container came in and was very nice in the cup. The second and third container just arrived. We did it here, we found a good cup, and we paid more back to the farmer. Photos will be on the web later this week, and the story how we got the money back to the farmers. Our work is only just starting here. I’ll likely be heading back in May for my fourth visit in two years. Expect great things here, and we invested and put in a vacuum pack machine in Bujumbura.

Kenya, French Mission varietal will be back. We worked with the farm to keep all the coffee in parchment this year, instead of milling it early and sending it to the auction. We have about 160 bags of this very unique coffee that will be shipping in March. Wamugumo cooperative. We’ve bought this coffee for the last two years via the auction, fell in love with the cup, and went to the coop. We donated a moisture meter to the cooperative to help improve the cup. This slightly over dried cup still got a 97 on one of those on line coffee reviews when a great roaster client of ours did their magic. We’ve not cupped the new crop yet, but expect and hope for great things. Lastly, and not leastly (not real word), we have a mixed micro lot box purchased directly from the auctions that’s to go afloat in March too.

Asante,

Jason

I’ll admit it. I have always found Costa Rican coffee bright, clean, fine acidity, and rather boring. It sounds like a strange combination, but when you look at the history of coffee in Costa Rica, they had always done it “right.” During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Costa Rica had raised the bar for world coffee production by making a very consistent high quality, relatively massed produced, homogeneous product.

My very first origin trip was to Costa Rica in March of 2002, and I’ve been there many times since, but returning this year, on the 200th anniversary of the introduction of coffee into Costa Rica was a great time for a homecoming of sorts. I knew something different was going on down there, that the status quo was changing, as last year, we’d finally cupped some coffees that, in my terms, had “personality.” What’s personality in a coffee? It’s that uniqueness of a cup that can take it from a very respectable 85 to 87 to over the 90 level on the cupping table.

So what was going on? One word (maybe one compound word), Micromills. Traditionally in Costa Rica, and most of the world, coffee is raised by farmers who sell it in some various state of production to someone else, who process it some more, and sell it to someone else, who collects coffee from many many people, who do something else to it, and then, finally, put it in bags to ship abroad to us. As you can tell, the farmer gets lots along the way. Brand names trump farmers, exporters trump farmers, even collectors (often referred to as coyotes in Central America) trump the farmer. The farmer does not often know the real value of the coffee and where ultimately the coffee goes. It’s just loaded up on a truck and heads off down the hill and around the corner. This type of coffee production is commodity production. Whatever special care the farmer does with his coffee, it recedes into the mass production of hundreds to even thousands of such farmers. His hard work and passion has become a standardized product.

The Micromill revolution changes all of this. The farmer tenderly grows his coffee. He carefully picks it now, picking only the ripest cherry, as his coffee will represent him now. He mills it at his own micromill. He lays it out to dry carefully, and when it’s at the right level of moisture and perfect in the cup, sells it under his name to importers and roasters who seek out the nuanced cup that can now exist.

Micromills allow micro production that allow us, the coffee drinker, to taste the region, the micro region, the farm, the varietal, and even the altitude. Costa Rican coffee used to be only Costa SHB EP (Strictly Hard Bean European Preparation) or Maybe Costa Rican Tarrazu SHB EP. Now, Costa Rican Tarrazu San Martin de Leon Cortes, Finca Cafetin, 1800 meters and over, Villasarchi varietal, is possible. Wow, too much information, eh? Absolutely not!! It matters, it all matters. Last Friday, the 13th of March, we cupped 65 samples of coffee starting at 9 am and cupping, only with some saltine crackers and fruit to starve off hunger, until 6 pm that evening. I’ll admit that was the limit of what physically we could take, but every coffee had a face to it. In the cup, and often in the other room, waiting eagerly for us.

Are these micromills the solution to all of coffee’s problems around the world? Yes and no. Yes, when the altitude, soil, and varietals, along with the farmers care, can produce a superior cup. ICAFE, the Costa Rican Coffee Institute estimated the cost of production was $1.20 per pound green for the average farmer in Costa Rica. A rough estimate from many of the Micromill farmers that we spoke with was $1.60 per pound. Quite obviously a micromill located at 800 meters with Catimor would not make much sense, but for a farmer high up on the mountain at Chirripo who’s at 1600 meters and above who unfortunately in the past had to sell his coffee down the mountains into an area know for lowland cheap HB (hard bean – under 1200 meters) production, it could be a wise investment for a hard working farmer.

And these Micromills are big investments. From the farmers that we meet who had gone out and built one from scratch, we are talking $120,000 to $150,000 investment. This is in a country with a GDP of $6,500 per person. These farmers are small, independent farmers who are investing their money and their life to make their coffee better. Many farmers did not build at once, but built up over a few years, as cash allowed. We met two brothers who went to the U.S. to work and raise money, returned home and started La Lia micromill, which is named after their mother.

The Micromill revolution started back five to seven years ago when the commodity price for coffee was so low that the farmers thought they’d save a few dollars processing, and do it themselves. This probably was not a good idea, as the economies of scale were against them, yet it allowed the farmers, who had great coffee to start with, to sell their coffee as it came from the earth, not combined with everyone else’s. These farmers are from farms such as Herbazu, Cafétin, Helsar, Don Mayo, and many other now famous names.

The sustainability of these farms is without par. Some farms are certified organic, as a few within the Helsar family, but all are family ran, using traditionally farming, that use and re-use all they can. The Micromills use mechanical pulpers that run from 20% to 5% of traditional wet processed coffees. These farmers live on the land, sell their own coffee, and run them for the long term. Profitability is a necessity, but over the long run, they are not just maximizing it for short-term overseas shareholders of the large multinationals. True sustainability is social, environmental, and economic. These farms have all of these intertwined into a degree that transcend simple certifications. Are the farms paying fairly? Yes. Are they environmental? Yes. Are they economically sustainable? Yes. It all comes down to the cup. True sustainability is only possible where social, environmental, and economics come together. Come cup the revolution!

I’ll admit it. I have always found Costa Rican coffee bright, clean, fine acidity, and rather boring. It sounds like a strange combination, but when you look at the history of coffee in Costa Rica, they had always done it “right.” During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Costa Rica had raised the bar for world coffee production by making a very consistent high quality, relatively massed produced, homogeneous product.

My very first origin trip was to Costa Rica in March of 2002, and I’ve been there many times since, but returning this year, on the 200th anniversary of the introduction of coffee into Costa Rica was a great time for a homecoming of sorts. I knew something different was going on down there, that the status quo was changing, as last year, we’d finally cupped some coffees that, in my terms, had “personality.” What’s personality in a coffee? It’s that uniqueness of a cup that can take it from a very respectable 85 to 87 to over the 90 level on the cupping table.

So what was going on? One word (maybe one compound word), Micromills. Traditionally in Costa Rica, and most of the world, coffee is raised by farmers who sell it in some various state of production to someone else, who process it some more, and sell it to someone else, who collects coffee from many many people, who do something else to it, and then, finally, put it in bags to ship abroad to us. As you can tell, the farmer gets lots along the way. Brand names trump farmers, exporters trump farmers, even collectors (often referred to as coyotes in Central America) trump the farmer. The farmer does not often know the real value of the coffee and where ultimately the coffee goes. It’s just loaded up on a truck and heads off down the hill and around the corner. This type of coffee production is commodity production. Whatever special care the farmer does with his coffee, it recedes into the mass production of hundreds to even thousands of such farmers. His hard work and passion has become a standardized product.

The Micromill revolution changes all of this. The farmer tenderly grows his coffee. He carefully picks it now, picking only the ripest cherry, as his coffee will represent him now. He mills it at his own micromill. He lays it out to dry carefully, and when it’s at the right level of moisture and perfect in the cup, sells it under his name to importers and roasters who seek out the nuanced cup that can now exist.

Micromills allow micro production that allow us, the coffee drinker, to taste the region, the micro region, the farm, the varietal, and even the altitude. Costa Rican coffee used to be only Costa SHB EP (Strictly Hard Bean European Preparation) or Maybe Costa Rican Tarrazu SHB EP. Now, Costa Rican Tarrazu San Martin de Leon Cortes, Finca Cafetin, 1800 meters and over, Villasarchi varietal, is possible. Wow, too much information, eh? Absolutely not!! It matters, it all matters. Last Friday, the 13th of March, we cupped 65 samples of coffee starting at 9 am and cupping, only with some saltine crackers and fruit to starve off hunger, until 6 pm that evening. I’ll admit that was the limit of what physically we could take, but every coffee had a face to it. In the cup, and often in the other room, waiting eagerly for us.

Are these micromills the solution to all of coffee’s problems around the world? Yes and no. Yes, when the altitude, soil, and varietals, along with the farmers care, can produce a superior cup. ICAFE, the Costa Rican Coffee Institute estimated the cost of production was $1.20 per pound green for the average farmer in Costa Rica. A rough estimate from many of the Micromill farmers that we spoke with was $1.60 per pound. Quite obviously a micromill located at 800 meters with Catimor would not make much sense, but for a farmer high up on the mountain at Chirripo who’s at 1600 meters and above who unfortunately in the past had to sell his coffee down the mountains into an area know for lowland cheap HB (hard bean – under 1200 meters) production, it could be a wise investment for a hard working farmer.

And these Micromills are big investments. From the farmers that we meet who had gone out and built one from scratch, we are talking $120,000 to $150,000 investment. This is in a country with a GDP of $6,500 per person. These farmers are small, independent farmers who are investing their money and their life to make their coffee better. Many farmers did not build at once, but built up over a few years, as cash allowed. We met two brothers who named their mill after their mother who had gone up to the U.S. to work and raise money, who then returned home and started La Lia.

The Micromill revolution started back five to seven years ago when the commodity price for coffee was so low that the farmers thought they’d save a few dollars processing, and do it themselves. This probably was not a good idea, as the economies of scale were against them, yet it allowed the farmers, who had great coffee to start with, to sell their coffee as it came from the earth, not combined with everyone else’s. These farmers are from farms such as Herbazu, Cafétin, Helsar, Don Mayo, and many other now famous names.

The sustainability of these farms is without par. Some farms are certified organic, as a few within the Helsar family, but all are family ran, using traditionally farming, that use and re-use all they can. The Micromills use mechanical pulpers that run from 20% to 5% of traditional wet processed coffees. These farmers live on the land, sell their own coffee, and run them for the long term. Profitability is a necessity, but over the long run, they are not just maximizing it for short-term overseas shareholders of the large multinationals. True sustainability is social, environmental, and economic. These farms have all of these intertwined into a degree that transcend simple certifications. Are the farms paying fairly? Yes. Are they environmental? Yes. Are they economically sustainable? Yes. It all comes down to the cup. True sustainability is only possible where social, environmental, and economics come together. Come cup the revolution!

Last week I traveled to Pereira, Colombia to participate as a sensory judge for the Cup of Excellence program. Pereira rests in a small valley that descends from the western Andes mountains, placing it in the heart of the major coffee growing regions. For those who are unfamiliar, the Cup of Excellence is a rigorous evaluation process that seeks to separate and reward exemplary lots of coffee and return fair premiums directly to the individual farmers responsible for producing them. Of the hundreds of lots submitted to the competition each year, only the finest are selected for evaluation by an international jury of skilled cuppers.

After a week of intensive cupping, the jury and the producers gathered together for the announcement of the final selections at the awards ceremony. For many farmers, this may be the only time that they will be recognized and appreciated publicly for their hard work and commitment to quality. As you can imagine, it is an emotional event for everyone. Winning top honors is a life-changing event for many farmers and their families. This year’s awards ceremony was held in conjunction with Salon Internacional del Cafe. During the ceremony, each finalist was brought on stage and introduced individually. For me, this is one of the best things that the Cup of Excellence program accomplishes—it connects a human face to the producers whose lives we depend upon for our own livelihoods.

This year, top honors were awarded to Alejandro Florez from finca El Porvenir. Mr. Florez has been growing coffee since age 14. His coffee from the Meta region scored 91.6 points. Runner’s up included Javier Sanjuan Gomez and Leonte Collazos Rojas. The auction for these coffees will be held April 23, 2009. More information about this program and the other finalist can be found at www.cupofexcellence.org.

Be sure to check out some photos of the event posted in our photos section.

You can view all of our current COE coffees here.

Last week I traveled to Pereira, Colombia to participate as a sensory judge for the Cup of Excellence program. Pereira rests in a small valley that descends from the western Andes mountains, placing it in the heart of the major coffee growing regions. For those who are unfamiliar, the Cup of Excellence is a rigorous evaluation process that seeks to separate and reward exemplary lots of coffee and return fair premiums directly to the individual farmers responsible for producing them. Of the hundreds of lots submitted to the competition each year, only the finest are selected for evaluation by an international jury of skilled cuppers.

After a week of intensive cupping, the jury and the producers gathered together for the announcement of the final selections at the awards ceremony. For many farmers, this may be the only time that they will be recognized and appreciated publicly for their hard work and commitment to quality. As you can imagine, it is an emotional event for everyone. Winning top honors is a life-changing event for many farmers and their families. This year’s awards ceremony was held in conjunction with Salon Internacional del Cafe. During the ceremony, each finalist was brought on stage and introduced individually. For me, this is one of the best things that the Cup of Excellence program accomplishes—it connects a human face to the producers whose lives we depend upon for our own livelihoods.

This year, top honors were awarded to Alejandro Florez from the Meta region, from finca El Porvenir. Mr. Florez has been growing coffee since age 14. His coffee scored 91.6 points. Runner’s up included Javier Sanjuan Gomez and Leonte Collazos Rojas. The auction for these coffees will be held April 23, 2009. More information about this program and the other finalist can be found at www.cupofexcellence.org.

Be sure to check out some photos of the event posted in our photos section.

You can view all of our current COE coffees here.