In the Grinder

Cafe Imports is Hiring!

2012-05-14T14:09:48Z

Customer Service Rep

Café Imports, an importer, developer and seller of the highest quality green coffees worldwide, is seeking a highly motivated individual to be its Customer Service Rep. This position will require attention to detail, an ability to accept and complete work as a team member and exceptional customer service. Coffee industry experience is a plus. A high level of interest in quality food, coffee is a must.

Job Requirements

The Customer Service Rep responsibilities will include; triaging phone calls, assisting clients with information on previous orders and shipments, processing orders for Sales Reps, learning the basics of coffee and quality control. They will be the first point of contact for our valued clients on a day to day basis.

Experience & Skills

This is an entry level position at Café Imports. Relevant work experience in customer service and managing information and details would be excellent. Ability to work well with others is vital in our small family like culture.

Candidates must have a college degree and minimum 3.0 GPA. Successful candidates will possess strong written and verbal communication skills as well as strong overall presentation skills. This position will require the ability to learn quickly and take direction and correction professionally and constructively.

Café Imports is a small and exciting entrepreneurial organization. Our culture is perfectly suited for the individual who takes pride in providing excellent and accurate service to clients and colleagues. Our compensation, benefits and incentive plan are complete and competitive.

EMAIL: timc@cafeimports.com for resume submission, no phone calls please.

Resumes will be accepted until May 31, 2012.

Visit our website to learn more at cafeimports.com

Will you be our next karate kid?

Roast Logic: Mokka Pequeno ID3896

2012-05-03T13:45:38Z

When the Mokka Pequeño ID3896 arrived from Granja La Esperanza (you know the place… where the COTY, Brewers Cup, Roaster’s Choice Award Geishas all came from) I could not wait to get my hands on it. On the cupping table, even at the incredibly light sample roast we put it through, rich tones of spice, cedar and loads of sugar were apparent. This little bean was packing a punch.

Finally, last week I was able to put this coffee into our Probat L5. I thought I would share a few things about the roast and what it highlighted. I was excited to roast this coffee not only because of its rarity, but also its size! These beans are tiny! They are around a 12-13 screen size. Sizing them up and putting together the logical approach I would take was quite fun.

Usually, on a dense coffee I don’t use quite as much gas, and I lower the batch size. My reasoning is that few beans can more economically take on the heat, more airflow can help that process, and less heat (power) will give the beans time to absorb that heat to their little dense cores.

I knew the Mokka was dense, but, it is also so small!! My thought was that it would take less time to get the heat to go from the outside of the bean to its core. I decided to go with a bigger batch, and just give it all I had. I wanted to punch the heat to the core of the bean hard and fast. I wanted to treat it like a less dense larger bean, just for fun. Even so, the density of this coffee was more than I bargained for. Here is the breakdown: Gold @ 6:00 310F, 1^st Crack @ 9:15 390F, Drop at 12:30 430, Agtron 58.6 whole bean/62.4 whole bean. I went a bit longer in the period after 1^st than I would usually want to. The coffee simply would not color up!! I kept the gas much higher than typically through this period as well.

Taste Info:

Body: Huge! Deep and lush. It seems like this coffee is trying to compensate for its small diameter with its lush body.

Acidity: Orange, very balanced

Sweetness: Very rich molasses, brown sugar and loads of chocolate.

Flavor: Spice-like characteristics; specifically clove, turmeric, nutmeg. We also found a lot of the tobacco characteristics you would expect from a lower grown Yemeni or Hawaiian Mokka, only this was very clean and refined.

As espresso we discovered a lot more nutty (specifically almond) characteristics were predominate and paired perfectly with the sugar and spice. The body was of course incredible. I was surprised by how balanced this coffee was as an espresso. I was expecting the body to be much more syrupy, dominating the delicate acidity. However, the body was much more soft and velvety, allowing the delicate tones to not only remain, but come through beautifully.

We also brewed the coffee over ice. Lovely. I think this is my favorite way to drink this coffee, and right on time for temps to begin rising! The chocolate and orange came together with sweet, vibrant intensity.

Think of this coffee as a clean, amped up version of the Yemeni and Hawaiian Mokkas you’ve known before. It still pays homage to that rugged earthy heritage, while embodying the clean, sweet, and bright virtues of a high grown Colombian coffee.

Cheers!

The Cafe Imports Team

Delays in Balboa, Panama

2012-05-02T17:02:44Z

We got word recently from one of our major shipping partners that there was a labor strike in Balboa Panama, a pivotal hub for coffees. To give you some perspective, Balboa does 3 million containers per year (compared to the Port of New York which does 5 million). Even if a specific container wouldn't have directly gone through Balboa, the shipment may still be affected. It would be like a major airline hub being shut down for weeks. You can imagine the ripple effects that would have, and the same is true for ocean freight.

The labor strike is now over, but as you can imagine, residual effects are still being felt in low productivity and large shipment ques. Please plan on some delays for Central American coffees as the city rebounds from this strike and gets back on track.

Hang tight! More amazing coffees are right around the corner.

-The Cafe Imports Team

AERIAL SHOT OF THE PORT OF BALBOA from Casablanca Media Inc. on Vimeo.

Portland SCAA 2012: A Photo Wrap Up

2012-04-25T19:44:59Z

Most of our crew was in Portland for SCAA this year. We were very busy at various events during the week, and here are some of our favorite shots from our time in Portland. Thank you to all of the wonderful Portland natives who welcomed us with open arms, and thank you to the incredible SCAA staff who made the expo and USBC finals an amazing experience!

Joe and Noah headed down to help out with Symposium Brew Bar and administered BGA Testing during expo, Sally and Matt volunteered helping with COTY and some Costa Rican Cuppings we arranged, and we all helped out at the booth over the weekend. It was an incredible time.

Symposium Brew Bar 2012

Heart Coffee Roasters

Colin Whitcomb of MadCap on Brew Bar at Symposium

Devin Chapman of Coava practicing before USBC 2012

Chemex at Symposium Brew Bar

Devin Chapman at Coava

Joe Marrocco of Cafe Imports

Heart Coffee Roasters

Noah of Cafe Imports, Sarah Dooley of La Marzocco, and Jen Macias of Cartel Coffee Roasters

Heart Coffee Roasters

Piero from Cafe Imports and Oliver from Olympia

Los Mexicanos estan Llegando

2012-04-12T18:46:16Z

By Andrew Miller

Mexico will produce nearly four Million bags of Arabica coffee this year with about 650,000 Hectares in production and 450,000 producers, so an average of 1.5 Hectares per producer. Most are small landholders, lots of indigenous producers in Oaxaca and San Cristobal and some large estates in Chiapas. The varieties are mostly traditional strains like Bourbon, Catura with some Mundo Nuovo and a Mexican creation called Garnica. The quality this year at least from the early indications of High Grown coffees seem to be excellent with good citric acidity, sweetness and excellent body.

It is too soon to see the SHG’s but very soon we should have notes. I recently visited the states of Veracruz and Chiapas to learn more about Mexican production and search for the best coffees in the country. Fortunately there will be the first ever Mexican COE competition in May of this year which should make that search easier for all of us.

Arriving in the port of Veracruz where Cortez, the killer himself, came “dancing across the water with his galleons and guns” in the year 1519, we followed the route of the Conquistadors up the coast and inland to Coatapec. This beautiful Colonial town is nestled in a fertile valley full of productive farming operations of all types. The coffee from Coatapec is traditionally rich and full of chocolate with bright. acidity and sweetness.

Small producers in this part of the country are delivering red cherries to the mills which is a relatively new system but one providing more consistency in the cup. One of the mills we visited had a green cherry sorter up front to separate the ripe from under and over ripe cherries. This machine is a great asset after a year where we saw a lot of astringency in coffee which can come from under ripe beans that are not often sorted out in the milling process without a machine like this.

I think that this year, we have selected some fine Coatapec coffees from this region of traditional varietals grown by small producers from 1,200 to 1,500 meters.

Next stop was South to Chiapas to visit some small producers that are delivering dried pergamino to a receiving station in the hamlet of Nuevo Paraiso. Coffee here comes down from the mountains and is received a few bags at a time and segregated by its receipt date and eventually by cup profile.

The other things happening in Chiapas are large estates. In the beginning of the 20^th century there was a significant number of German immigrants moving in to this part of Mexico, buying land and growing coffee that they hauled out of the mountains on mule trains. Those farms are still alive with the same style of processing and drying. They have updated but fully functional wet mills, drying facilities, nurseries and facilities to house and feed the 200 or so workers and their family members that come up from Guatemala to pick coffee and return when school starts.

Santa Theresa is one of those farms. Third generation farmer Erwin Pohlenz farms 300 hectares that serve as a buffer for the Triunfo biosphere reserve. His farm is 50% Pacas(yes, the Salvadorian varietal) and 50% Mundo Novo. It sits between 1,200 and 1,600 meters. They pick only ripe cherries. They are fully washed, patio dried and store in a cool and stable environment on the farm until shipping. . They are working towards RFA certification and have most of the environmental and social practices in place. Viva Mexico!

Colombia Geisha Gets 2nd Highest Coffee of the Year Score!

2012-03-28T16:42:09Z

We are so proud to announce that the Colombia Geisha we have in stock, ID3734, Granja La Esperanza Trujillo, just got the 2nd highest COTY score of the year; 2nd only to an Ethiopia Oromia that beat it by .16 of a point.

Congrats Granja La Esperanza and Banexport!

Now, go get some of this coffee before it is gone. As I write this, we have only 17 35kg boxes available.

YUM!

-Noah

Sample Roasting from the Cafe Imports QC Department

2012-03-12T14:25:05Z

A Short Schpeel on Schample Roasting, by Ian Fretheim ...

I Sample Roast a lot of coffees. This is very important for us here at Café Imports because cupping scores come from Sample Roasted coffee. As green coffee importers, we screen incoming samples and maintain tabs on our own inventory by means of these cupping scores. Without going too far into the topic, I would like for it to be abundantly clear that a cupping score is quite different from a score given to a production roasted coffee. This difference finds parallels in the ways in which a Sample Roast is different from a production roast.

The idea behind cupping (and its roast) is twofold. In the first case, we want to locate any possible defects that a coffee might have. For this, a lighter and less developed roast is preferable. The simple reason has to do with chemical development of coffee in roasting. The first things to really get going in a coffee bean under heat are the acids. Next come the sugars, but with a caveat. As the sugar arc picks up and caramelization progresses, the acids begin to be transformed and ultimately broken down. (Let it be said that it goes without saying that the carbonization phase is not to be entered into here.) If production roasting is an attempt to render the most delicious cup by finding the peak meeting point of a bean’s intrinsic sugar content and acidity structure, sample roasting aims to see the coffee before it’s all made up, just out of bed, as it were.

This brings us to the second goal of sample roasting, and the part that makes it a very delicate matter. We also want to get a good idea of what a coffee’s (positive) potential is, of what that peak meeting point will be. If a coffee is left too light, or too underdeveloped, we will easily be able to identify any defects, but it will taste so bad (defects or no) that we won’t have much else to say about it. A little more development can still retain enough transparency for defect identification, while also opening up the positive intrinsic qualities of a coffee. The cupping score then, like the roast, is a specialized method for looking at coffee, analytically built around a bean’s intrinsic characteristics. A good score requires a clear standard, and a cupping panel trained to hold coffees to that standard.

And now for the roast:

In the very general, I’m looking at the temperature gauges on our Probat Sample Roaster only as a relative third string measure. My primary practical gauge is visually monitoring bean color in relation to time, with some accounting for smell. This is because variations in bean density and moisture content, among other things, cause all beans to roast differently, such that just reaching some temperature by three minutes, and some other by six, will give a person wildly different results. With the temp gauges, I have general ranges that I want to be within, but not much more. I keep an eye on the consistency of the heat gain over time and in relation to development, making sure that there are no weird spikes or lulls.

I roast on four barrels at a time, generally staggering the first two with the second by about thirty seconds.

Once I pour the beans into the roaster, my first real look see is at

2minutes. I just want to see that the beans are taking on heat. There is not a real color change at this point, but more the beginnings of a sheen in the green.

At 3 minutes, I’m looking for a brighter lime green color. At

4 minutes, I want something on the yellow spectrum, barely showing green, barely showing tan. At

5 minutes it’s tan deepening into caramel. Higher grown beans will tend to be slightly darker here. I aim to continue coloring the caramel through until about

6.5-6.75 minutes, at which time I want first crack color, though not yet first crack. On higher grown beans this is some sort of deep reddish or purplish caramel brown.

First crack is accepted after 7 minutes on the early end and is ideal between

7.25 and 8.25 minutes. Depending on the first crack time, bean density and apparent sugar content, coffee drops at agtron 59-64, usually after

8.75 minutes and up to about

10 or 10.25 minutes. Any shorter and my inside/outside roast spread will be too much, which basically means that the coffee is not roasted. Any longer and I’m looking at baking the coffee (and cupping baked coffee the next day).

For denser, higher sugar beans I shoot for the 59-62 agtron range, while it’s more like 61-64 for the softer ones. I don’t want to taste any explicitly roasty flavors, but I also don’t want to create a cupping roast that’s too far removed from what the bean has to offer.

If you would like a bumper sticker, blurb, tee-shirt, or other take away, it might be this:

Sample Roasting- taste the problems, reveal the potential.

-Ian Fretheim, Quality Control Manager, Cafe Imports

Brasil COE Cupping Monday the 12th at 11AM!

2012-03-10T03:19:12Z

Sorry about the last minute notice, but we at Cafe Imports will be cupping the top Brasil Cup of Excellence lots this Monday the 12th at 11AM. All are welcome to attend, but please email ian@cafeimports.com to RSVP The actual COE online auction is Wednesday the 14th See you there! -The Cafe Imports Team

El Salvador Origin Trip 2012 Recap

2012-02-23T12:03:02Z

2:30a.m. Sunday, February 5th:

Despite the painfully early wake-up call I found myself surprisingly awake and moving quickly about the house, scooping up all the items I had carefully packed just a few hours prior. I crossed paths with those roommates that were still winding down their Saturday night, maintaining a strict silence in respect for those wise enough to be asleep. After triple checking that everything was in order, I hopped in the car and was sped to the airport where Tim, Ian, Nicole (Ian’s significant other), and myself caught our 5:30a.m. flight out of MSP. Approximately six hours and 70 degrees later, we arrived in San Salvador and met up with the 16 other coffee professionals/enthusiasts who would complete our crew for the 2012 Origin Trip. The stage was set for a fantastic week.

Day 1:
We were fortunate enough to begin with a stop at Viva Espresso, home of Alejandro Mendez, the current World Barista Champion. He and Frederico Bolanos (the owner and founder of Viva Espresso) were outstanding hosts, taking time out of their busy lives to sit down and chat with us about the deep investments they had made in training over the last few years, along with the overall vision of the company. Frederico and his wife started out years ago with a driving passion for making the best coffee they could, and are now at the forefront of serving specialty coffee in El Salvador. The entire experience was made all the better by deftly crafted espressos, cappuccinos, and coffees, courtesy of Flora Ayala: 9th place winner at the 2009 WBC.

From there we took off into the mountains to visit our first farm, “Los Pinares,” owned by Senior Hector Velasquez. From the second we stepped out of the bus (that had done a heroic job of muscling itself up the steep, dusty inclines) it was obvious that all the pictures in the world hadn’t done a bit of justice to the sights, sounds and scents of an active farm working right in front of you. The neatly organized raised beds allowed us to see and feel perfect snapshots of each point in the early drying process, the rooftop patio served as a larger final drying location and fantastic viewpoint for the lush hillsides, the roaring wet micro-mill relieved countless beans of their skin and pulp with ease, and the thick trees tempted all of us with ripe cherries that were simply too delicious to abstain. Enduring the pains of a recent appendectomy, Hector was more than helpful answering questions about his farm, methodology, and common trials. He explained that cash flow is one of the major dilemmas that all smaller production farmers struggle with. Constantly faced with the decision of selling their coffee directly to a mill (get paid now) vs. processing it themselves and separating lots (don’t get paid for months), many farmers are caught balancing their ideals with what reality dictates. Ernesto, one of the farm’s managers, later stated,

“To do this, you have to truly love coffee because it’s a lot of work. It’s all in the little details.”

Day 2:
The second day took us far outside the busyness of city life, to the northwest reaches of El Salvador. It was here that we were able to visit two fantastic farms, “La Roxanita” hosted by Senior Don Nacho and “Los Planes” owned by Senior Sergio Ticas. Placing 1st and 6th in the Cup of Excellence competition last year respectively, each farm was equally impressive and unique. The landscape at La Roxanita was shaped by volcanic activity years ago, leaving incredibly rich soil and sharp inclines as the foundation for production. Senior Nacho had many different processing methods being utilized, including Honey and special preparation Natural spread across large raised beds. Los Planes came naturally equipped with a beautiful lagoon that coupled as the farm’s water supply for processing. Improving the farms efficiency further was an ingenious system of recycling nutrient rich water that had already been used for washing, reducing waste and allowing the active enzymes to speed along fermentation.

Our day also included a full cupping session (40 coffees!) generously coordinated by the ACPROA cooperative, based in the La Palma region. We were able to meet many of the co-op’s 40+ members and enjoy the results of all their hard work this season.

Day 3:
The next day took us to Seniorita Maria Isabel’s farm: “Ayutepeque.” Isabel is a true innovator in coffee farming, recently having released her personally developed fertilizer “Sopa de Bruhas” or “Witches Soup” that was specifically designed for coffee plants. There were countless testimonies to be heard about its effectiveness; while coffee production had fallen over the last season, those that utilized Isabel’s fertilizer saw increases in production and, in some cases, quality!
From Ayutepeque we traveled to one of El Salvador’s main coffee hubs, Cuzcachapa. It was our first stop at a large production mill and a complete lesson in dry processing. Much of the wet-milling was done for the season, but the vast patios were covered with drying pergamino. Hulling, weight-based sorting, and optical sorting were all in full operation within a veritable fortress of bagged coffee. The conveyors for hand sorting were mostly void until our arrival, when we were given opportunity to search for defects in an endless stream of green dots that rushed by our unskilled hands. Amidst the fantastic tour we paused to cup another collection of great coffees, some that we’re very excited about…

Day 4:
The last full day of the trip we ventured up the side of the Santa Ana volcano to visit two farms owned by Senior Fernando Lima, “Santa Elena” and “Campanula.” Reaching over 1800 meters above sea level, Campanula is one of the highest altitude farms in El Salvador. The farm overlooks the crater-lake Coatepeque, with a view that rivals any that I’ve seen before. Senior Lima’s farm was a gorgeous forest full of various coffee varieties, including Pacamara, Bourbon, and Yellow Caturra.

I can’t imagine a better introduction to Origin than what we experienced in El Salvador. Each farm had unique characteristics in size, processing, and coffee varieties; as well as a distinct overall personality. Each day presented new information, new experiences, and a deeper understanding of knowledge that already existed. It became very clear that to consider coffee farming a static, formulized venture would be a grossly inaccurate generalization. However, there was one truth existed in them all: producing fantastic coffee requires an intense amount of work and attention to detail. Beyond that, those farmers that dare to strive for the best quality take on huge financial risks with absolutely no guarantee of reward. It was amazing how many times the phrase “we didn’t make any money” came up, in respect to failure at attempting new processing methods, battling government mandates, and always being at the mercy of weather. One farmer, when asked how they survived against so many uncontrolled factors, simply shrugged and said, “We are in God’s hands.”

Our sincere gratitude goes out to all those that made El Salvador such a great success, we look forward to another amazing adventure in 2013!

-Matt Brown

Twitter Peeps You May Want to Follow

2012-02-19T21:36:48Z

The past few months have been pretty busy for us!

Piero and Jason just got back from East Africa and are prepping some great coverage of their experiences there, including some insight into the amazing lots we secured in Ethiopia and Kenya and Piero's time at EAFCA.

Matt, Tim, and Ian just got back from a trip to El Salvador where they visited our amazing microlot producers there with some fantastic guests. Their blog post will be coming this week.

Noah is off to Australia this week to spend some time in Melbourne and Sydney. Those Aussies love their awesome coffees, and Noah will be reporting during his whole trip. Noah started a tumblr for you guys to keep up: http://noahcafeimports.tumblr.com/

Finally, the Cafe Imports crew will be at all the BGA regional events, Coffee Fests, and Expo. Find us!

In light of all these trips:

Follow these people to stay totally up to date on what we are doing, and get first look at new exciting lots:

@cafeimports (Best look at everything we do)

@noahcafeimports (Noah Namowicz - Sales and Marketing)

@pcristiani (Piero Cristiani - Origin Traveler and Sourcing for Cafe Imports)

@roasterjoe (Joe Marrocco - Sales)

@mgbimports (Matt Brown - Sales)

@tchapdelaine (Tim Chapdelaine - Sales)

@gabemakescoffee (Gabe Dunn - Customer Service)

NWRBC Wrap Up and Some Thoughts on Coffee

2012-01-31T17:25:21Z

This past weekend I traveled to Tacoma Washington to help judge the 2012 NW Regional Barista Competition.

This regional competition usually entices some extremely talented baristas from the Northwest, including the top baristas from Portland and Seattle. 2012 was definitely no exception.

Upon arriving in Tacoma, I flew right into judges calibration. This year's judges calibration was a beefed up version of its former self. I have to give a huge shoutout to Scott Conary and the rest of the head judges for creating a much more intensive and effective calibration and testing. I was really impressed, and ultimately I felt like we as a judging group were really well prepared to judge some of the top baristas in the nation.

It was really nice to catch up with old friends and make some new ones in Tacoma. Our pals at Sprudge.com did an incredible job covering the entire weekend, and created some really visually striking videos capturing the essence of the weekend. I would highly recommend going to their site and seeing some of them. The days in Tacoma were lightened up by the arrival of the "Portland Bad Boys", Sean and Mikey, some friends of our Portland Baristas, who made outrageous signs, ridiculous t-shirts, and brought a coffee outsider's innocence that really put things into perspective. What a blast.

There were a total of 20 competitors spanned over 2 days, and on the second day, that field was narrowed down to 6 finalists. After the final round, the winners looked like this (no particular order after 3rd place)

1st Place Devin Chapman - Coava Coffee Roasters

2nd Place Laila Ghambari -Stumptown

3rd Place Tyler Stevens -Barista

Sam Purvis - Coava Coffee

Marty Lopes - Barista

Collin Schneider - Sterling Coffee

I found that this year it seemed like people were more focused on flavors and sensory experiences instead of a routine based around their experience at their particular coffee farm. Some people haven't been to origin, and that is ok, it is not a prerequisite to being a champion barista.

I have some theories, but this could possibly be a result of Pete Licata, the 2011 USBC champ, taking the "barista at a coffee farm" approach to new heights in 2011 by literally picking his own coffee. How can someone top that? Aside from a barista planting their own coffee and competing 5 years later with that little seedling matured into a big bad coffee plant, they can't, so, why not talk about something every pro barista should know a hell of a lot about, flavors and sensory experiences. I like it.

Elaborating on this topic a bit more, I had some really interesting conversations with Devin Chapman of Coava about this very thing. In his routine, Devin didn't even mention which coffee he was actually using. He gave the judges three cards with different coffees Coava has on bar right now, and had them guess which one he used throughout the competition. Devin spoke to me about introducing people to unbelievable flavor experiences first, then support that with origin information, only if they want to learn more. I got the feeling that he feels like extremely specific origin information doesn't always need to be beaten over customer's heads, instead, lets let them come to us to find out more if and when they choose to.

On the airplane home I thought a lot about this. I thought a lot about what we as an industry are doing well, and what we aren't doing so well specifically regarding dissemenating this information. I like this analogy: A person who is selling the most comfortable bed in the world is not going to lead his pitch with how many microcells the bed has, the chemical makeup of the fibers, or the specific pressure of the bed, he is simply going to say, "Why dont you just lay down on this bed and try it out?"

It has to be the same thing with coffee for most people. Lets lead with our outstanding coffee flavors, let the coffee do the talking, and be dedicated to having supporting information easily available about our producers to give to our cafe customers who really want to take their coffee education to the next level on their terms, not ours. I am not saying lets throw out beanologies and extended producer profiles at all, but people that truly understand and appreciate a high quality coffee experience will ultimately want to know more, and its our job to be knowledgable and available when they do.

We as the Cafe Imports team are pumped to be taking Devin along to Costa Rica with us as part of our origin trip sponsorship in January 2013. We cannot wait to see what other champion baristas will be joining us over the next few months.

Congrats to Devin and the Coava team! And well done everyone who got out and competed.

-Noah

Cafe Imports Current Lineup of Outstanding "Competition Coffees"

2012-01-23T23:39:27Z

As barista competition season gears up in the US, and new competitions like the Brewers Cup and World Roasting Challenge gain momentum, we felt like it would be useful for us to point out some of our current standout "competition coffees".

What do we consider a competition coffee?

We believe that in order for a coffee to even be considered for any competition, it must be an exemplarary coffee in its own category. Competition coffee must be a shining example of what a coffee of that variety or from that region/country can and should be. We have selected some incredible coffees from several different origins that we believe to be just that.

This was not an easy task, but we have went through our existing inventory of high end specialty coffee, and selected several standout coffees that would surely impress any jury across the globe:

Brasil Microlot ID3802: Fazenda Recreio

Burundi Gacokwe ID3612

Colombian Geisha ID3734: Finca Esperanza

Colombia Cup of Excellence #1 Lot: Arnulfo Leguizamo

El Salvador Cup of Excellence #6 Lot: Sergio Edmundo Ticas Reyes

El Salvador Cup of Excellence #23 Lot: Juan Jose Ernesto Menendez Arguello

Kenya Microlot: Ruthagati ID3228

Kenya Microlot: Kaiguri ID3242

We are really digging all of the above coffees right now, and we hope you get an opportunity to play around with any of them. They will surely impress in your shops.

-The Cafe Imports Team

COE Brasil Cupping Tuesday the 17th

2012-01-13T22:14:16Z

We will be hosting a COE Brasil cupping Tuesday the 17th at 9:30 and 11:00 AM.

We will cup the top 16 coffees, including Fazenda Rainha, the #1 COE winner, which is a coffee we have bought for the last 5+ years. We are so happy for them!

Come join us!

Please email ian@cafeimports.com to come and reserve your spot.

Thanks

Mombasa be Kidding Me: East Africa Logistics Nightmare

2012-01-10T16:55:22Z

We got some unfortunate news out of East Africa Today concerning new containers shipping out of Mombasa.

Port Situation

Currently there are 12 vessels at anchorage outside Mombasa port, waiting for a berth place. The longest waiting period being for Mv Santa Rosa having arrived on 24 December 2011. Average waiting time for berths is currently approx 8 to 10 days. The port is generally congested and operations slowed down substantially.

Trucking situation

In the past few weeks big quantities of sugar for the whole region have reached the port of Mombasa. Since the Kenya Government has given particular conditions on the movement of sugar, the focus was and currently still is on removal and transport of this commodity with subsequent shortage of trucking capacity and a general increase in rates. This situation was furtherer worsened by the problems with the URA system at the change of year from 2011 to 2012. Hundreds of trucks were stranded at the various border points adding to the shortage of trucking capacity in Mombasa.

Rail situation

RVR have some 800 containers pending railage to Kampala and approx 450 to Nairobi. With the bottle neck on road movement, many clients had swopped cargo from road to rail thus overwhelming the rail system as well. RVR have stopped acceptance of new rail shipments in an attempt to move the back log.

So, all of that being said, please anticipate East African delays this year!

-The Cafe Imports Team

Cafe Imports Supplying the World Coffee Roasting Challenge!

2012-01-05T13:57:08Z

Cafe Imports is proud to announce that we will be supplying the green coffee for the 1st ever World Coffee Roasting Challenge, taking place at the World of Coffee Event in Vienna this summer. Roasters will be able to choose 1 of 3 incredible lots we are going to set aside specifically for this competition. Competitors then are taken through a three day gauntlet evaluating the green coffee, roasting, and cupping the final product. This is sure to be a groundbreaking event in the coffee world, and something we are extremely proud to be a part of.

For more information, please visit: www.worldcoffeeroasting.org