So the last one is a natural ethiopian from Sidamo, enjoy ……

Recent developments in Ethiopia have seen a centralisation of all coffee exports through the recently established Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). It is now virtually impossible to provide accurate information of the precise traceability of coffees as lots are anonymised upon arrival at the Exchange. This makes it harder, but also easier. It means the cupping for quality is what counts, not names or any baggage.

Many thousands of bags marked ‘Sidamo’ are sold every year but there may be significant differences between them in in terms of cup quality. Selecting by cupping cuts the wheat from the chaff, and this one on the cupping table jumped off at us.

This coffee is hand picked, fully washed and is grown at around 1800-2000 metres altitude (on average). With some detective work we found out this coffee is from either Borena and/or Benssa region. It’s a Grade 3 which is the normal grading for the best of the Sidamo Naturals.

In the cup expect liqurice, and a little bit on aniseed, with a big big body and huge aftertaste, this is a great example of ethiopian natural processing

You can buy it here

Its a special cup and I hope you get a chance to try it.

Another of our direct trade coffees, this time located in the North Yungas region of Bolivia in the colony of Bolinda. David Vilca (who owns the farm and named it after himself) migrated from La Paz to the farm 15 years ago.

He bought this 7 hectares farm as security for his family to make sure they could support himself and them. When he took over he only had 1 acres which was planted with coffee. But after 2 years he became comfortable with the farm and a new interest, he became passionate about coffee and decided to cultivate more. Now he has 5 acres of coffee (of which we have bought it all). He has very little outside help with the farm apart from direct family where his wife helps him greatly.

The varietals on the farm are Caturra , Catuai and Criolla. the farm is under constant improvement, David is now removing much of Criolla and focusing on Typica and Catuai for cup quality reasons.

This is a wonderfully sweet cup as you have come to expect from Bolivia, milk chocolate, with walnut hints to it, thats is so very familiar. Where this coffee opens up is in its acidity, think Pear and juniper berry mashed up in a pestle and mortar (with a little of that walnut and chocolate too) and you have the most delicious and complex coffee. Theres hints of spice and citrus in this taste mash up that makes every cup different, making it evolves and change through its temperature range.

Farm: Finca David Vilca
Founded: 2001
Province: Caranavi
Region:North Yungas
Altitude: 1,570-1,600 m.
Hectares total Farm: 7 hectares.
Hectares Coffee plantation: 5 hectares
Quantity Coffee plants : 20.000
Shade: Natural shade by Inga sp. (Sinquili) and others.
Coffee Varieties: Caturra, Criolla and Typical
Rainfall Period: Nov– February
Average Temperature: 8°C ≤ 19°≥ 30°C
Soil Type: Clay and shaly
Other Crops Grown: Citrus Fruits( orange, tangerine) advocate
Average Age Of Coffee Plants: 8 to 12 years old, Now renovating planta- tions with Caturra and Typical
Certification: Organic

You can buy it here

Great to see the brazils rolling in again

This micro lot came as a really nice surprise and out of the blue. I got sent the sample blind and got really excited about it. You will see Lagoa at other roasters, but not this tiny micro lot.

Owned by the Vieira family this farm can be found in Sul de Minas the heart of Minas Gerais, the well known coffee growing region, with its rolling mountains, lakes and rich farmland.

In the slopes of Serra do Pau D’Alho, coffee is produced at altitudes ranging from 950 to 1200 meters. Fazenda Lagoa has 220 hectares in coffee, producing approximately 7000 bags a year, (which is huge in farm standards) and 600 hectares of preserved forest attracting conservationists from all over the world to study its hundreds of different bird species.

As I mentioned, lots of roasters have Lagoa (because of the size of the farm), so what makes this special? Well first it’s a pulped natural process and the varietal is yellow icatu. Icatu is an unusual varietal. With DNA in Iapar 59 and others, this relatively young varietal came to the forefront in 1985 in Brazil, but was officially released in 1993.

There are lots of sub varietals around icatu, most of them just sub variations. These hybrids are the result of repeated backcrossing of arabica with robusta hybrids to arabica cultivars with Mundo Novo and Caturra, and is by far the most complicated of the varietals I’ve looked at so far.

It has a strong resistance to leaf rust, and rootknot neratodes. A relatively young varietal its true potential as a specialty coffee has yet to be accessed but its pest resistance and it success in brazil’s COE competition show positive signs. In the cup too

So in the cup expect a super clean cup, buttery mouthfeel with nutmeg spice that lingures. But the big thing is its sweetness, like popcorn caramel thats delicious.

To buy click here

Todays is offered for you to digest and again the boo will follow over the weekend

Bolivia Copacabana

This coffee was produced by various smallholders farmers from the small town of Copacabana, which lies about 180km from La Paz in the heart of the Caranavi coffee-producing region. This is lush, fertile region whose steep slopes and valleys provide excellent conditions for growing specialty coffee, as well as supporting a diverse range of native flora and fauna.

The small farms that produced this lot average around 5 hectares each, and range over an altitude of 1,300 to 1,600 metres – benefiting from an average annual temperature of between 15 and 26°C. They are planted out with Caturra, as well as Red and Yellow Catuai varietals, grown in the shade of native trees. These traditional farms use no chemicals or pesticides and are certified organic.

The main harvest runs from May to September, peaking in June and July). The cherries are handpicked only when fully ripe, then fully washed either on the farms themselves or at the Buena Vista wet mill in Caranavi.

In the cup this is yellow. Now I know yellow is a strange descriptor but think yellow, think peaches and oranges (not stricly yellow) mangos and star fruit. Sunshine in a cup maybe one descriptor too far, but you get the idea. A delicious brewed coffee

Coffee: Copacabana ORGANIC
Farm: Various small producers
Varietal(s): Caturra, Red and Yellow Catuai
Processing: Full washed and sun dried on patios or in guardiola dryers
Altitude: 1,300 to 1,600 metres above sea level
Owner: Various small producers
Town: Copacabana
Region: Caranavi
Country: Bolivia

Buy me now, here

From the third Cup of Excellence from Africa, We are pleased to offer this tasty coffee.

Normally we can go into lots of detail at this point as cup of excellence provides lots of background information. But this time its a bit sketchy. Its from the Kayumbu central washing station, which is based in the Southern Province of Rwanda and is near to the town of Kamonyi.

It is a small lot put together by the following people

Nkurikiyinka Joel
Sindikubwabo Filemon
Mukambungo Faustine
Ndamari Emmanuel
Bicamupaka Barthazar
Munyeshuri Mathias
Twagirayezu Martin
Nambajimana Thadee
Gashagaza Ladislas
Byabagabo Anaclet

In the cup expect super bright, if you have ever had that concentrate jif lemon, then this is it. But it turns into an amazing sweetness so the tart and the sweet come together in a lemon drizzle cake.

Other Information

Farm: Kayumbu
City: Kamonyi
Region: Southern
Country: Rwanda
Farm Size: Not Available
Coffee growing area: Not Available
Altitude: 1720 masl
Certification: None
Variety: Arabica
Processing System: Wet processing

You can buy it here

OK well some one did but only now, the Phil Ter video wasnt on the launch post so its here.

Brazil Fazenda São Judas Tadeu is back for its fourth year, and is now a firm favourite with you as well as us. I wouldn’t say we found this coffee, but we spotted it before it came 5th in the 2008 Cup of Excellence competition. Since then I have been able to visit the farm, and have met the farmer, Antônio, twice now.

Fazenda São Judas Tadeu is located in Chapada Diamantina, in the city of Piatã in Bahia. The farm belongs to Mr. Antônio Rigno, who has been a coffee producer for more than 25 years. He tries to grow the coffee in a sustainable way, conducting the workers technically with the use of chemical pesticides and keeping the packages of these products for recycling, not to harm the environment. It’s an up and coming area for coffee with some stunning beans coming through. In addition to Antônio’s 5th place this year in the Cup of Excellence, his neighbour came 1st, the first time Bahia has won a CoE number 1 placing.

On the farm the coffee cherries are harvested selectively by hand twice a day during harvest season, and are transported by tractors to the pulping machine where the skin and pulp is removed from the beans. The beans are then spread on drying patios with the sticky mucilage still on them. The beans are then spread in layers of about 4cm and mixed several times a day to ensure even drying. The variety is Catuai and the pulped natural process is used.

This is another of our ‘exclusive coffee in the UK’ for us. We have also stood up and dug deep into our pockets with a substantial commitment on the coffee again, but I think it’s worth it.

This coffee was awarded 6th place in the Bahia Quality Competition 2011 – a state-sponsored competition that has been running since 2001 with the aim of finding the finest quality coffees from Bahia, in northern Brazil. The competition is run along similar lines to the Cup of Excellence, with repeated blind cupping of competition lots by an independent jury and use of COE score sheets. This year (2011) was the first year that international judges have been invited to the jury, and we are happy to support a farm we have supported for a while with this competiton lot.

Very similar (in a good way) to last year’s cup. In the cup expect molasses like acidity, with great chocolate and cocoa sweetness and a crunchy chocolate-type honeycomb aftertaste. Very well balanced espresso and lovely brewed coffee.

You can buy it here

Whilst this may sound easy, each time we add a coffee there is a whole heap of work in doing the write up, getting the cupping notes together, collating photos etc. I’m exhausted at one, so doing 7 in a row is silly, but lets do it any way.

So day 1 in an old favourite (well seems like an old favourite but only its second year) Bolivia Finca Loayza grown by Feliciano Ramos.

Another of our direct trade coffees, this is from Bolivia and organised from my trip to Bolivia in 2010. This is the second year of us seeing the world exclusive, as we buy every bean from this farm.

The owner of the farm is Feliciano Ramos, who is 43 years old and originally from the city of La Paz. His father was a potato and barley producer. Feliciano used to help him in the production and harvest. In 2002 Feliciano decided to move to Caranavi, which is located in the sub-Andes valley.

Initially Feliciano rented a coffee farm for two years where he began his education in coffee, but also began saving to have his own farm. After two years, he bought a farm of around 10 hectares, Finca Loayza. The farm is located on top of a small mountain, looking out towards the high snowy peaks of the Andes. The farm only had 2 hectares of old coffee plantations, though Feliciano has continued to raise this number when he is able to with new plant stock, selecting different varietals according to the terrain.

Feliciano is married to Tomasa Condori and they have 5 children who are all of school age, but they help their parents after school with the farm. The coffee is the only source of money for the family, and it is very important that they continue to produce great coffee.

In the region of Caranavi and the Yungas valleys, there is a serious problem of coffee being ripped out and coca leaf planted (which is legal in Bolivia) but this has a big environmental impact on the soil, forests and the communities. But coffee is seen as a good alternative to this if good prices can achieved, and it is much kinder to the environment. With this in mind Feliciano is in his first year of being organic certified.

This coffee is sold as a Washed coffee, and I guess that it is. But I think the same thing is going on here that was happening with Machacamarca, and it was puzzling me until my visit this year. Washed coffee is normally placed in a fermentation tank to remove the sticky layer on the outside of the seed after removing the fruit. I don’t think this coffee has been fermented, though it has been through a pulping machine a second time using the scrubber part of the pulper, then left to dry like Pulped Natural, just without most of the mucilage. A hybrid process from which I really like the final result.

In the cup this was a tough one to nail. Very complex and lots going on. Think of it like two cups. When warm it’s all acidity, loads of cherry, keylime pie with biscuit sweetness, mixed in with a dark chocolate aftertaste. But as it cools think caramel, increased sweetness and delicious mouthfeel. I am so excited to have secured all the coffee from this farm, it’s a huge coffee, and I am sure will be a huge one for us this year

Farm: Finca Loayza
Farmer: Feliciano Ramos Aruquipa
City: Caranavi
Region: Franja se los Yungas
Country: Bolivia
Farm Size: 10.00 Hectares
Coffee growing area: 8.00 Hectares
Altitude: 1635 masl
Variety: Caturra (20%) Catuai (40%) Tipica (40%)
Type of Soil: Clay
Type of Shade: Orange,Mandarin and Inga (sinquili) Trees
Processing System: On-site wet processing, solar drying

You can buy it here

Why? Well, I think filter blends can be cool, and they can be fun, but they get a bad rep. This scared me off, and did so until we were at the end of our new blends. Even since then it’s caused me some sleepless nights.

So why use a filter blend? The same can be asked of “why make an espresso blend?” We have espresso blends in order to add a more rounded / complex experience to the espresso, and some people will have you believe that you HAVE to blend for great espresso. This is something I have disagreed with for years; single estate espresso can be amazing, but I’ve always said that blends also have their place.

These same people who don’t like single origin espresso are the same people who will argue that filter needs to be single estate, and that filter blends have no place.

Well, everything in coffee has its place and this is our attempt to make an amazing blend that will be complex and challenging in a brewed coffee, but retain integrity in the cup. For me a great filter blend should be sweet, fruity, smooth, and balanced.

So we took some of our favourite filter treats and put them together in this challenging blend. I think it really works and I hope you do too.

50% Colombian Oporapa
30% El Salvador La Ilusion Bourbon
20% Brazil Sau Judas

Like all our blend names there’s a great personal link in here too, this time for me and my wife, and if you watch this week’s In My Mug I’ll be sure to tell you.

You can buy it here

Some rather cool wallpapers here

As always on these things now we have a great video to launch it, I hope you enjoy.

A sun-dried yirgacheffee from the Konga coop in the Yirgacheffee area thats a peaberry and is amazing, heres the write up.

Ethiopia has seen a centralisation of all coffee exports through the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX). It is now virtually impossible to provide accurate information of the precise traceability of coffees as lots are anonymised upon arrival at the Exchange. There are very few ways around this but one way is buying through co-operative unions who can sell direct to buyers.

This is a very special cup. Whilst keen not to over play it, to find a great sun dried natural Yirgacheffee is a feat in its self. Add to that we can find some traceability to it, that makes it very exciting. But then add to that its a peaberry too this becomes super unique. In all my years cupping coffee I have never found all of these things together. But add to that the special cup profile well, I think you will love it.

Coming from the Yirgacheffee Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union that represents a total of 43,784 farmers throughout the Yirgacheffe area. It comes from the Konga coop (that belong to Yirgacheffee Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union) in region of Yirgacheffe. Konga has a total coffee growing area of 1622 hectares and is grown at around 1750-3200 metres altitude (not sure how much coffee is grown up that high but thats what they tell me).

In the cup expect something super special. Its like diving in to a pack of Opal fruits (cant get used to calling them starburst) but in particular the strawberry and the ones. Huge mouthfeel, and bucket loads of funk, boozy while remaining very very clean. A special and rare coffee I am pleased to share with you.

Farm: Cooperative based
Varietal: Heriloom Varietals
Processing: Sun Dried Natural process
Altitude: 1750-3200 mtrs
Owner: Cooperative
Region: Yirgacheffe
Exporter: Yirgacheffee Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union

you can buy it here