In the Grinder - Our Daily Coffee Weblog

Noah:  Hello everyone, Joe and I just got back from BGA Camp-Pull-A-Shot in California.  It was a week full of professional development, fellowship, and making new friends while "glamping" near Santa Barbara, CA.  We had an incredible experience, and it was also just a perfect amount of ridiculous to keep things exciting.  This was my second year at camp.  Joe, this was your first year at camp, tell me about some things that stick out in your mind from camp...

Joe: The first thing pops into my head is Louie Poore's face, shadowed by a bull horn.  No, but seriously, so many baristas had so many questions this year. I feel as though Camp really attracted professionals who were looking to grow, full of curiosity and ready to have a blast with the coffee community.

Noah:  I totally agree.  People were excited and hungry for information.

You are now Level 1 and Level 2 certified. Congrats my man.  Also you are IDP certified, and you were able to test people all week, tell me about some interactions with those baristas and those questions they asked.  What left an impression on you?

Joe: I was feeling really guilty and kind of bad after day one. I had a lot of great baristas who were passionate and I could tell could work a bar with the best of them, but who did not perform to the level they wanted to on their practical tests. It was difficult to see them buckling under the pressure and nerves.

However, I then saw them throughout the week in classes, learning, asking questions, growing... I was able to retest a few on the last day. Wow! What a difference a few days makes. The baristas were nailing their tests and we were able to hand almost all of them certifications on Wednesday night.  It was affirmation to me that the BGA and SCAA are not only devoted to education, but executing.

Some questions I was asked... hmm.... Lots of cleaning questions. I was asked about what my favorite coffees were, roasters, you know... The questions that I couldn't answer really easily. It led to a lot of discussion about our coffee community in the US right now.

How 'bout you?

Noah: I taught two sessions of our Seed to Cup class on Tuesday morning, and in all honesty, I had flashbacks of our trip to Brasil with all the other Baristas.  I find that giving this course at an event where everyone is really hungry to learn compared to a disengaged audience, provide totally different results and give a much different vibe to the course.  In Brasil, you guys were totally on it...asking the right questions, creating thought provoking discussions about complex issues at origin, and I had a similar experience at camp.  I left the presentation open to questions during the entire presentation, so each course took on a life of its own.  I know I got a lot out of it for sure. 

The other thing that I really enjoyed was I got to be a nerd about running a bit by organizing the first ever BGA 5K.  We all gathered Wednesday morning at 7AM and ran 3 miles along the coast as the sun rose.  Pretty awesome way to start the day.  Toddy had an iced coffee table at the half way point, and that just added to the hilarity of a bunch of baristas running down the road in Santa Barbara. 

We did a coffee crawl before heading to camp.  What are your thoughts about the LA Coffee Scene?

Joe: I feel as though it is a lot like the rest of the US coffee scene. Great coffee made by great people who care. There seems to be a lot more business pushing toward simple espresso based drinks, like caps, shots and maccs than in a lot of other areas of the country. This is encouraging, as trends usually start in places like LA. Baristas really want to strip the coffee down to the basics in order to really put the intrinsic nature of coffee on stage. Baristas in LA are able to do this a lot more. However, they still seemed to have a lot of excitement about coffee. The guys at Handsome showed us this at a high degree, I would say. They were so stoked we stopped in.

What were some highlights for you?

Noah: I liked that we were able to get together with really awesome friends and do the crawl as a group.  Jason from Batdorf and his wife April, Sarah from La Marzocco, Tony from Tonx, Jon from Coffee Tools and his wife, and Todd from Starbucks all got together to enjoy this day.  I thought all the BS was stripped away.  We were just able to enjoy the coffee and enjoy totally different perspectives on roasting, barista skills, and shop aesthetics in a 4 hour period. All totally unique, valid, and awesome in their own right. 

OK big question...the liklihood that there will be an East Coast Camp Pull-A-Shot this summer is very high, if we get to go and teach and take courses again, what would you do differently or what would you want to get out of it that you didn't get an opportunity to do at this camp?

Joe : This camp I worked the entire event. I didn't have any time to actually take courses and sit and think about things. I would like to take some courses next year. I was also a table lead at all of the courses I helped with. I would like to own a course next Camp. I want to develop some interesting courses in the future. I'm not sure how viable they would be before next Summer, but it would be cool to teach one then. You?

Noah: I really dig being able to proctor certification testing.  There is just something raw and real about seeing someone who has clearly worked hard and studied get an opportunity to showcase their skills and earn it.  I actually would be the guy who could sit and give certifications all day if it meant people got to leave with accomplishing what they set out to accomplish at camp.  So, I hope to do that, and also, I need to nail that level 2 certification, and that is a definite goal of mine for 2012.

Thanks Joe, thanks to all the shops that had us on the crawl (Intelligentsia, Paper or Plastik, Handsome, and Proof, and thank you BGA volunteers and SCAA staff, especially Marcus Boni, Carrie Gibson, Amber Sather, Ildi Revi, Lily Kubota, Adra Aragon, and Maria Hill for putting together an amazing camp. 

Here's to BGA Camp (s) in 2012!

This was my second coffee-origin trip to Colombia.  Colombia is a really big coffee-country and very diverse.  Distances from coffee region to the next are vast.  This means you are on the road for a good part of the trip either by plane or car.  I think this is what makes Colombia so exciting: the different distinct regions, cup profiles and micro-climates.   

One of our most important relationships at the moment is with Los Naranjos.  This is the association that is part of CADEFIHUILA Coop.  The Los Naranjos Association is located in the town of San Agustin in the department of Huila.  The farms of Los Naranjos are in different hamlets or veredas (these are rural neighborhoods) surrounding the town of San Agustin.  Farmers become members of associations to receive assistance from it.  Associations are members of coops for the same reason. 
 

Farmers deliver their parchment coffee at a warehouse, in San Agustin, owned by CADEFIHUILA.  Since farmers sell their coffee in parchment they need to be skilled in fermenting and drying of their coffee.  This is not an exact science but results based and empirical.  Fermentation and drying varies between farm and farm for many reasons such as climate, altitude, micro-organisms, etc.  The price paid for parchment floats with the C market.  Every week the FNC (National Federation of Coffee Growers) sets a price per carga (125 kg of parchment) and farmers sell their coffee at this base price plus a premium based on certifications, coop loyalty and most importantly quality.  As an incentive for farmers to produce the best coffees we pay a quality premium well-above the FNC price.  We measure quality based on green physical analyses, moisture content, conversion factor from parchment to green and cup quality.  This is how coffee is bought and sold in Colombia on a very basic level.  Paying premiums is important but it is not all for the cafeteros (farmers).  I learned first hand from the cafeteros that recognition is important for them.  Knowing that their single-farm lot will arrive to roasters in a microlot is extremely important for them.  The upcoming microlots will come in custom-made jute bags with the full name, farm name, and altitude.  This is something the cafeteros of Los Naranjos are looking forward to and it is what makes them proud.

The typical profile of this region is a very clean cup with medium to high acidity, very balanced; the cup and aroma have tropical fruit and citric notes and hints of chocolate.  This is why we love Huila so much!

We stayed at a farm house close to San Agustin surrounded by coffee.  Inael Quinayas, owner of Campo Bello and Vice President of Los Naranjos, greeted us early in the morning.  He produced a stellar microlot on their first semester harvest this year.  You might remember his microlot P3109 (see complete beanology for more information).  We then met up at the plaza of San Agustin with Miguel Augusto Ortega (microlot P3108 from last harvest), president of the association, and his brother Marino Ortega, former president of the association.  Both of the previous cafeteros are quality focused as well.  All are proud of their achievements and mentioned that others are wanting to join the association.

Inael took us to see Marino’s and Daniel’s farm.  Both of these are very healthy farms at 1700-1900 meters and produce mainly Caturra and other varieties.  Even though the farms are extremely healthy you can see some effects of roya (rust).  Roya is a fungus that attacks dense plantations and lower altitudes the hardest.  It is relatively simple to prevent with fumigation, but given the high price of fungicides (as a function of high oil prices) many farmers could not afford to purchase enough to spray multiple times a year.  (More on roya on another blog post).

As we traveled back from our last Los Naranjos farm, Villa del Pilar, we made an unexpected stop.  We drove past Arnulfo Leguizamo’s (Cup of Excellence #1 2011 Winner) farm and our host jumped out of the car screaming Arnulfo’s name and Arnulfo came out.  I was pleased to meet the rockstar-cafetero himself and was amazed at his humility.  Arnulfo had told us that he was going to take his family to see the ocean with his price money from the Cup of Excellence competition and he did!  He was excited to show us the pictures of their travels and told us all about it.

This trip was full of cuppings (about 8 total) between Los Naranjos and other unexplored areas in the regions.  We cupped many lots from Los Naranjos and this crop looks promising.  The crop in the area is down across the board between 20-30% due to weather conditions and rust but we think there are some gems in terms of nice cups.  We will keep you in the loop if we bring these coffees in!

To have this exquisite coffee call our office and order our P3699.  It’s delicious!

Cafe Imports is organizing its first ever coffee sendback event to microlot producers in El Salvador.

What does that mean?

You send us a pound of roasted coffee from one of our partner microlot producers in El Salvador, and we will compile your coffee with other roaster's coffee and send one huge care package to the producers in El Salvador just in time for the Holidays.

We have really taken to heart how much farmers get from even just seeing how roasters use their farm info on their packaging, so we wanted to take it a step further and allow these producers to fully experience your final roasted product.

What do I need to do?

First off, contact us to make sure your coffee's producer will be represented during this first sendback event. 

Secondly, if your producer will be represented, send us 1 lb of roasted coffee by the cutoff of DECEMBER 12th, 2011.

We will then send a big care package to our partner on the ground in El Salvador, who will distribute the roasted coffee and document the handing out of the coffee for us to enjoy.

Please send your coffee to:

Cafe Imports

2617 East Hennepin Avenue

Minneapolis, MN, 55413

Contact sales@cafeimports.com or your rep for any further information!

In the last 2-3 years we have seen a shortage of Colombian coffee that has contributed to the high Colombian differentials (prices) and also has contributed to the worldwide coffee shortage, being the world’s largest washed coffee producer.  All of the above has also had an impact in the prices of the coffee worldwide (Coffee “C” Market).

Healthy coffee shrub

Roya (rust) targets the physiological development of the coffee shrub and its production.  Its propagation is correlated with high rain levels, temperature/humidity relation and lower altitudes among other factors.  The shrub will loose most of its leaves and the maturation of the coffee fruit will halt and being unable to ripen.  Finally the stems will dry out and rust will be evident.  Roya has devastated plantations and this is why it is such a problem.  In recent studies it has destroyed about 30% of the production in certain areas.

Traditionally Colombia has grown varieties such as Typica, Borbon and Caturra.  These varieties are good in the cup but have some pitfalls.  They are prone to get infected by the rust fungus (Hemileia vastarix).  Roya hit hard for the first time in 1970 in Brazil.  As a reaction to roya the FNC (National Federation of Coffee Growers in Colombia) developed Variedad Colombia in 1982 and improved it until the year 2005. Variedad Colombia is derived from Hibrido de Timor, an Arabica x Robusta natural hybrid.  You might be familiar with Catimor, a hybrid of Hibrido de Timor x Caturra that is resistant to roya.  In 2005 CENICAFE started to develop Variedad Castillo.  Castillo is also derived from Hibrido de Timor and is resistant to roya, has a larger bean size and is more productive.  As of now about ¾ of coffee in Colombia is susceptible to rust hence this is one of the main problems for coffee cultivation in Colombia.  Variedad Colombia and Castillo are not 100% immune to rust but the incidence is so low it really is not worth treating since it happens at very low levels.

Coffee shrub (left) attacked by roya

Many farmers do not take precautions to prevent rust and try to address it when it has already attacked their plantation.  At this point it is too late to fix the problem and will most likely have a noticeable reduction on production.  Between 2008 and 2010 Colombia has suffered their most recent roya outbreak.

Some coffee plants might be more prone to disease than others.  Some of these factors are: limited development of root systems, excess water in soil and nutrition deficiencies due to lack of fertilization.  In order for rust to spread there has to be water (rain) splashing from leaf to leaf, ambient temperatures between 16°C and 28°C and low sunlight.  The FNC has recommended, historically, to plant coffee at 1,600+ masl (meters above sea level) in areas with an average temperature of 19°C.  In the past years we have seen erratic or unusual weather patterns causing coffee within these ranges to be affected when they weren’t in the past.  From 2008 to 2010 Colombia has seen an increase of about 40% in precipitation and has maintained a relative humidity level of at least 85% for many months.  The previous conditions are perfect for fungus propagation.  The following departments were affected by roya even at altitudes between 1600 and 2000 masl: Huila, Caldas and Quindio.  This is something I was able to experience first hand when visiting Huila and Caldas a couple of weeks ago.

Roya

There are certain man-made practices that contribute to the propagation of roya.  Weeding the areas where coffee is grown is key.  Too many weeds will compete with the coffee plant for nutrients, create humid conditions and even provide too much shade (plants 2 years and younger).  Not applying fertilizers or not enough will affect plants with a great deal of sunlight because they need more nutrients.  Excessive shade will create humid conditions due to tighter minimum and maximum temperatures.  High number of plants per hectare will create a good environment for roya growth.  In Colombia they plant about 6,000 shrubs/hectare which is extremely high compared to half or less at other origins in Central America for example.

As a preventive measure it is necessary to use fungicides on coffee shrubs.  There are different types of fungicides that can be used.  It is necessary for the farmer to determine which one is the best one.  It is very important to apply the fungicide at the right time.  The FNC provides a calendar to farmers with suggested time frames for fungicide application.  These have to be applied from 2 – 4 times a year.  Coffee growers can also apply fungicides based on flowering cycles.  Finally, growers could also apply fungicides depending on the severity of roya.  All of the above are different methods that can be used to counter act roya.