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the blog of Stephen Leighton

Watch out Bolivia here I Come

Well this year keeps on getting better and better. I’ve just booked my flights this week for the Bolivia cup of excellence competition in October. I have to keep pinching myself to check I’m not dreaming, its been such a great year for me starting in Guatamala on my trip around some of the farms we buy from. Then getting voted onto the board of directors of the Alliance of coffee excellence, and going to Long Beach for the first meeting, some great coffees and some great auctions so far this year, getting to play at the Stadium of Light was incredibly special and now I get to go back to the Country that most affected me on my trips.

My last trip in 2005 to Bolivia I was excited, I mean really excited, but before that I hadn’t really found a Stella Bolivian coffee. Sure some good examples but no show stoppers. But when I was there, it really opened my eyes, You see I got to meet the people I got to see lots of the country and I loved it all around, much to my surprise. But the cupping table (the most important part) was amazing, some great coffees, and one that we were able to secure the Santa fe’ was a great all round coffee that had this real thick syrupy mouth feel going on that was very popular.

Last year the competition encountered some problems with funding, and with organization of the competition, and had to be cancelled. But with a lot of work in the back ground  this years competition is going on around 90km outside of La Paz in Corocico. You lucky (or Unlucky perhaps) will get lots of updates while I am out there, lots of photos and the story’s as they unfold, live blogging from Bolivia (or as live as I can get if I find a web connection).

I’ve uploaded my photos of the last trip to Santa Cruise in 2005 at this link here just as a reminder of what a wonderful trip it was and how much I enjoyed it. You will notice Thursday is blank, I spent that day very ill in bed, but even that couldn’t make the trip any less special. Below is one of the best moments of my life, sitting in a tree house on a coffee plantation drinking and espresso with some great friends.
Bolivia Tree House

Old Trafford day out

I’m trying not to do this too often and have a non coffee related post, but I’m going to share this one with you all.

My other passion in life is football, and so far this season I’ve not missed an away game. But the last one at Wigan I thought would be my last for a few months. But I had a chance to go to Old Trafford home of Manchester United. I’ve never been there and I do like to visit new grounds so jumped at the chance.

We lost but I took a couple of pictures, at this link here. One of them was whilst queuing for a beer and it was Paul Colingwood England one day cricket captain. Also there was Monty Panasar and some of the other guys, but I wasn’t quick enough with he camera.

But it was fun, and I felt the need to share.

Paul Collingwood

Old Traford

In the Guardian

I get a few requests every now and again to comment on coffee from members of the local and national press. We took a phone call a few weeks ago from the Guardian (a national newspaper) asking if I’d give a quick telephone interview. Always willing to say a few words and promote quality coffee I did, but its amazing how some things get taken out of context and are reported not the way you say them. Its an OK piece but if I was writing it I think I’d word it a little different, certainly the part where it say around the 95% of the time we pay above fair trade, I cant think of a time we paid below that kind of threshold as far as I know so I’ve no idea where that figure comes from. And they said seven countries support the cup of excellence then missed off Costa Rica.

Its also funny when they focus on little things you say like boiling water and miss the bigger picture ideas of quality ingredients

But take a look at this link here, its an OK throw away piece of Saturday filler for a newspaper.

Im back now !

Sorry for being quite for a week or so. I’ve been busy, busy with work and busy formulating ideas. I’ve never been much of a academic, I’ve been much more of a doo’er than a writer, not out of choice just playing to my skills. So you wouldn’t believe my surprise when Barista Magazine asked me to write a piece for them. It started as an excitement, to blind panic looking at a blank computer screen thinking what do I write, what if people don’t like what I write, what if I make a fool of myself, what if……….

But my first draft has gone off and now I wait to see if it fits the bill. I guess I should have gotten a brief, I guess I should have formulated some ideas in a focus group or something like that. Instead I sat and I wrote, and I had huge help from a friend who did the proof reading and polishing for me and now we will see. But I’m really excited about it all, more updates as I have them.

More Arrivals

I get so easily excited and this time of year is the worst (or the best) for me. This week another delivery this week and some great coffees and sometime I want to pop with delight.

This week we have had out two (that’s right read it two) Costa Ricans Cup of Excellence coffees arrive, our Nicaraguan COE(which in itself would be exciting) and the long awaited Kenya Peaberry.

I hardly noticed the interesting Australian Mountain Top coming back in, and the other Costa Rican Naranjo peaberry we got very worked up about when we found it on the cupping table. Normally these two would be a howl of happiness on their own.

We hope to get them nailed early next week and on the site by September, but it will be a busy time for new coffees, enjoy September. On saying that Octobers also looking pretty good at the moment. Its a good time to be a coffee roaster.

COE

El Salvador Pictures

I’ve just received some photos from Ernesto of the El Salvador Alaska cup of excellence let we won, being loaded up into the container. I think its fantastic that Ernesto has kept us posted and sent photos an emails all the way along.

As I said before it’s the little things. Heres a link to the pictures its very cool to see them being loaded up, something I’ve not seen before.