| I have just returned from a visit to Colombia and am still catching up to events here. The next installment of A Long Road to Quality will appear next week – as well as a slide show of my Colombian travels
Second update on new crop coffees: |
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KENYAS :
JUNE SALE: For the rest of this month both roast versions of our Kangocho, one of the very best lots to be produced in 2006, is ON SALE, from $15.95 to $13.95 per 12 oz. Click here for descriptions and/or to purchase.
 The photo to the right shows members of the Kangocho Cooperative selecting out unripe and over-ripe coffee cherry before delivering them for processing.
Mamuto next week? Some of our new Kenyas have just arrived in port; and should be here by the end of this coming week! The shipment contains new crop Mamuto that is better than ever! Two years ago it scored an historic 96 in Ken David’s Coffee Review; and received a 97 this year. The lot that is coming is even better – and it is arriving sooner and, for the first time, vacuum packaged to seal in the harvest-fresh flavor. Vacuum sealing coffees at origin has been a personal mission of mine since 2003 – and this is a great victory for cofee quality. Thank you C. Dorman Coffee Company! We also have a new Kenya from Ndiara Cooperative that is at least equally spectacular.
In the meanwhile, we have run out of Kahindu, our fine, less expensive Kenya coffee. It was very difficult this year to find top Kenya qualities, especially finding lots at “value” prices, but we finally succeeded. These coffees should arrive in July – stay tuned! |
Prices for many coffees have been going up this year. |
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This is due to several factors. One is the cost of energy and therefore fertilizers (this may have a far larger impact next year!). Every aspect of transit, delivery, storage (i.e., freezing, air conditioning) and roasting use energy in one form or an other, and those costs are having impacts. Another, and more important factor this year, is the falling U.S. dollar; many Latin American currencies are rising in value compared to our currency, yet producers continue to be paid in dollars. They have been feeling the difference! A third reason is increasing competition for rare top quality coffees around the world. We are especially seeing this in Kenya! Great coffee remains an incredible bargain: one would have to pay well over $100 per pound for coffee to match the cost, ounce for ounce, of a $10 bottle of wine. Yet fine coffee is every bit as difficult, complex and costly to produce!
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DeCaf La Magnolia is back…! |
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Chemical-free Swiss Water Processed, Tres Rios, Costa Rica is IN! Introductory SALE price for June: from $14.95 to $12.95 per 12 oz. Click here to order.
Full bodied and full flavored, with fine, richly blended nuts, sweet mellow peach and a trace of chocolate. The Swiss Water people have truly mastered the method to produce an outstanding decaf. It is hardly believable this coffee is decaffeinated!
La Magnolia is from the famed Tres Rios growing region of Costa Rica and was collected by the folks at La Minita. It is full bodied with integrated flavors of fine, richly blended nuts, sweet mellow peach and a trace of chocolate.
The water process is a far more expensive way of decaffeinating. The chemical process allows the caffeine to be freed up and sold to other large buyers such as the pharmaceutical companies (many aspirins contain caffeine) and the soft drink companies. Not so for the water process!
Swiss Water Decaffeinated (chemical-free)
Altitude : 3,500 - 4,000 feet
Soil : Volcanic
Rainfall : Moderate
Variety : Caturra
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We are expecting our La Minita in about two weeks. We will keep you posted! |
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Last of the Special Edition Bolivia Cup of Excellence 2007 Presidential Award winner |
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Last of the Special Edition Bolivia Cup of Excellence 2007 Presidential Award winner (over 90 score), San Ignacio Farm, to be roasted this Monday, June 9. Over 50% off: $15.00 for 8 Oz. Click here to order.
 Juana Mamami Huanca from the San Ignacio cooperative is a first generation coffee producer. She began producing coffee on her farm at the age of 16 and now at only 23 years of age she has earned second place in the Cup of Excellence in Bolivia. To the right is the only photo we have of her, sadly. Juana participated in the 2005 competition but did not manage to take home a Cup of Excellence award. For the past two years she has worked to improve quality always with an eye towards competing again. Her farm covers fifteen acres of lush hillsides in the Carrasco La Reserva region of the Caranavi province at an altitude of approximately 4,900 feet above sea-level. “I always planned to participate [in the competition]” she said, “and now I plan to increase my production and my quality of life.” She is now working to establish an additional acre of coffee. The farm has an abundance of shade trees. Production is carried out without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides but does not have organic certification. – text from Cup of Excellence . The lack of certification is typical for very small farmers: it has been beyond her means. The price we paid should go a long way towards correcting that. Certification takes at least three years to get.
The price is on special sale of $15.00, down from $34.95, per 8 ounces. Click here to order or call 866 GHH-JAVA.
Villa Flor, from Nariño, Colombia, will be roasted on Monday, June 16.
Marco Aurelio Ortega is a very small Colombian farmer deeply attached to the earth and its life-forces. He uses only natural inputs and applies no chemicals to his farm, growing medicinal and aromatic herbs, fruits and many different trees on his tiny 3 acre farm. He has even contoured his farm on the steep slopes, at 6,000 feet, something I am told again and again in Colombia that small farmers cannot afford - yet he has done it simply because he feels that erosion control is worth the effort. Marco Aurelia has applied for organic certification, which practices he has long applied out of his own convictions.
 Mr. Ortega produced 6 micro-lots last summer. They were all exemplary (we picked his coffee out blind again and again). It is 100% of the Caturra variety at its best. Ortega's craftsmanship brings out delicate complex flavor notes of great clarity reminiscent of Burgundy. Villa Flor is a coffee that combines great delicacy with real spine. The cup has refined acidity that is all sweetness and light around a Brazil nut core, with a touch of wintergreen, mixed with tropical fruit aromas from hot to cold. $15.95 per 8 ounces. Click here to order or call 866-GHH-JAVA.
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Continuing ON SALE: |
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Vicente Cuaran’s El Guaico, Nariño, Colombia is IN.
 Guaico is an Indian name meaning ‘lower part of the canyon.’ Mr. Cuaran started coffee farming just seven years ago. He has 9000 Caturra coffee trees on five acres at 6,000 feet in elevation. He has done an exceptional job with this lot: it exemplifies the special flavor characteristics of Nariño coffee: Almond and a Ceylon tea core enveloped in notes of light tropical fruit meringue and just a trace of wintergreen. We have about a two month supply of this coffee. $13.95 per 12 ounces (regularly $15.95). Click here to order.
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To see a recent brief interview of George Howell by Washington DC café owner Nick Cho while at the annual Specialty Coffee Association of America convention last month, click here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ruie6WCZMnA |
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