In the week where a UK Company (not us I hasten to add, mores the pity) pays the highest price a UK company ever has at an internet auction for micro lot coffee, the only story I could find is one of Amy Winehouse may like to drink coffee.
Is this the state of the UK coffee scene?
After the disappointment of missing out in Guatemala last week, Costa Rica was a chance for me to make up for some hurt pride.
So armed with a larger budget from my Guatemalan savings, I sat back and waited for things to happen. An exiting auction for sure. My initial thought was there was a little bit too much value in the auction, but then I did the maths.
The average price works out at £4.64 compared to the average market price of $1.10 ish and the fair-trade price of $1.26. The number one lot sold for $21.45 that’s 17 times the fair-trade price and 19 times the market price. The lowest priced lot $2.35 double the market price.
I think there have been so many success’s in the cup of excellence and so many record breaking auctions of late, that its easy to loose sight. And to look at an auction on its prices alone is very naive. Many of the coffees we sell on Has Bean have had there relationships started from the cup of excellence competitions (Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira, Brazil Fazenda Santa Terezinha, Guatemala Finca Entre Rios, El Salvador La Fany to name a few).
So we can hope that good prices (and they are good) and good relationships are built.
So what did we win, the number 4 Finca de Licho from the farmer Felipe Aguilera González for which we did have to push the boat out over six times the fair trade price which I think is a good premium. We also won a second, Coopeatenas that came 19th which we paid over double the fair-trade price for. I’m so exited to have two different coffees from this auction and two diverse examples of the finest coffee form Costa Rica.
So we are past the half way stage of auction season. So far I’m happy, ask me last week and I wouldn’t be so sure but Costa Rica has got me exited. El Salvador next week hold a great deal of happy memories for me. A couple of years ago we made a run for the Number one and won it. We paid $16.30 a lb that at the time was a record for El Salvador and considered a fantastic auction. Less us not forget how far we have come and far we have to go.
Its been a bad day for me
Today was the Guatemalan cup of excellence auction, and for the first time in a long time we were not involved. Well that’s not true we were involved but the buying group fell apart at a price (which happens a lot in these things) and normally I have a back up plan. But one thing that some one said to me stopped me in my tracks. They said to me, is this coffee four times better so worth four times more than the El Bosque you sell or the Entre Rios. Now please don’t get me wrong, you will not find a better and bigger supporter of the cup of excellence program, and both of these coffees are past winners and that’s where the relationship comes from. Without this competition lots of our fantastic coffees would not have been found and I love finding new coffees that we wouldn’t have found otherwise..
This auction was small and I think that’s because the auction was held very early for Guatemala. Lots of the samples were of course very good, excellent to coin a phrase but I wasn’t wowed enough to start paying huge prices. I wonder how many great coffees may have got missed because they were not quite ready. This year we will have five awesome Guatemalans, all would be in good company with any of the COE samples.
So when the buying group fell apart (for a coffee that was a WOW) should I have taken (IMHO) second choice for a coffee that was equal to what was available, just so I’m involved? Well I decided no, were in the middle of auction season there are three more auctions, with some exiting opportunities in there, and spending on something that’s ok just didn’t feel right. Would I have paid top price for the coffee I thought was worth it? You bet, but today fell away from us.
Auctions are tough and demanding, on money, time and physical energy and when the rewards are equal that’s fine, today was not my day, roll on next week.
Today was the auction for the Nicaraguan cup of excellence. It was a tough one to watch and carried on for a while. The best part for me was the whole auction got rewarded, some great prices paid, and an enormous headline for the winning coffee finishing at $47.06 a lb fob screen price. Was it worth it? You bet if I could have got someone to share the weight of cost in a buying group I’d have paid much more for it. Stumptown are very lucky people to have this great coffee. All the results can be seen here
Some times you have to look a little further down for the gems in there. Our pick was “El Limoncillo” Estate, in Matagalpa. This is going to be kick ass espresso can’t wait for it to arrive, of course we will let you know when it arrives. Happy days, now off to check the bank balance to make sure we can pay for them 🙂
I said that I would try and update descriptions and cupping notes each year a new crop came in. Well keeping to my word the new Guatemalan El Bosque has arrived, and it needs to have a new write up. So I’ve done that here
Regular readers will remember the sheer delight of my trip to El Bosque in January. The brothers told me at the time they were working to make quality differences in that crop and that this years was going to be better than ever.
Well they were right. The character that made me fall in love with it originally is still there. But it’s refined and the sweetness is greatly increased. We are blessed to have access to this coffee and long may it continue if the quality is this good.
With coffees like this available its tough to buy cup of excellence coffee that’s three times the price. Are they three times the coffee? This for me is one of the finest Guatemalan coffees I’ve ever cupped and is in its company with the top coffees from the area. Of course we will continue to be involved in the auctions, this is how we found this one originally, but it makes you think.
Speaking of cup of excellence coffee the Nicaraguan auction is tomorrow. We have some coffees we will be going for, and I’ll let you know how we get on. The auction can be seen here from 2 pm on the 6th of June (UK time)
Another trip to London on Friday to visit my friends at Mercanta for a cupping of the cup of excellence samples for Nicaragua and for Guatemalan. Every time I go there the sun shines and it’s a hot day, maybe its my mood. The tables were broken down into two sessions, so I’ll break them down to write-ups.
Guatemala
I was surprised to see this competition to happen when it did. It must have been a real problem for the national jury to sample the coffees so early in the growing season. Guatemala has become far more important to us since our visit and since finding some great coffees we will be working with this year. We have at least 4 for this year’s crop, which for me are all cup of excellence standard. Some of them were hidden on this table and consistently they scored the same or a little higher than the rest of the table. Still not sure what we will do from these samples although it was interesting to see some new coffees and new regions proving themselves as worthy award winners.
Nicaragua
I love Nicaragua, as it was the first growing region I ever visited. It also in the past has grown great brewed coffee, with its typical profile of high acidity and fruitiness. The very thing I love about it has held it back for us as a growing province as we always see espresso coffee sell better than brewed. But this year there was a big swing away from that. I tasted chocolate and body and richness with a much more balanced acidity. There were some real standouts on that table and we will be making a move for some of them, and I must admit I’m very exited about them too.
So the auctions are this week, we will of course let you know if we get what we want to get, fingers crossed.
