“this selection from Edwin Martinez, owner of Finca Vista Hermosa in Huehuetenango region is a Multi layered sweet and round cup. Aromas of browned butter and cocoa, followed by flavors of spiced chocolate, toasted nuts with a clean caramel finish.”. I am a big fan of acurate, meaningful, compelling, yet simple descriptors. This description was slightly different than what I was expecting, but lined up perfectly with what I tasted. Delicious!

The Burke Museum in Seattle is kicking off this weekend an exhibit titled “Coffee: The World In Your Cup”.  To my knowledge, this is the first of it’s kind in North America!  I had the privilege of making an introduction to the press (about 20-30 people) and speaking about the relevance and value of this exhibit to the coffee industry on Wednesday.  I will also be lecturing on Saturday the 24th along with David Griswold founder of Sustainable Harvest in Portland and Max Savishinsky the director of UW Exploration Seminar Study Abroad Programs.  In the afternoon I’ll do a brief tasting.  I’m thinking I’ll sample roast a few micro lots, maybe some vacuum packed maragogype and peaberry.  I’ll brew them each in both chemex and eva solo, so attendees can taste a clean cup as well as one with some artificial body for those who may be disappointed in such a light roast hoping for a less flavorful and bolder taste.

photography by Gabriel Rodriguez

This has been a collaborative effort on behalf of many of the staff at the Burke as well as many from the coffee industry.  You’ll find burlap sacks hung up on the wall over 25 feet wide and close to 20 feet high.  There is a pretty good spread of marks that are mostly mill and export marks, but some import and even roaster marks from atlas, intelli, stumptown, tonys and many more.  While I was there a few hours I didn’t get more than a glance at it, but did notice someone submitted our bag!!!  And it was stuffed separately next to a big poster with Ted Lingles tasters wheel and some other text with a title – “The Perfect Cup”.

While Starbucks was not on board at first they eventually came around and were more than supportive and collaborative.  They just couldn’t not be a part of it as it is in their back yard and they have paved the way for the early development of specialty coffee.

Before leaving I got to talking and met a journalist who is also a Q grader.  Not knowing who he was I asked, so what do you do in coffee or where do you work aside from being a jounalist?  (As curiosity is getting the best of me.)  His response was “Nothing – outside of journalism, I’m not a professional in the coffee industry.”  It turns out the Miles Small is an information sponge and is editor/owner of COFFEE TALK,which has been around for 22 years!!!

While the Burke is not a place where coffee professionals will go to learn a lot of content, it is fun to soak up the details as they’ve done a fantastic job of creating a social space among coffee displays that give some idea what coffee looks like from seed to cup.  So for anyone who has not been to origin this beats watching any video and hopefully will compel you to finally make that first, or 41st trip to origin.  There is a small depulper, patio with coffee drying and even a display of what the corner of a fermentation tank or washing tank may look like with fresh wet pergamino.

And for anyone who has any interest at all in coffee, it’s history or culture it is a great place to just watch the screen as pictures cycle through.  Many of the photos used on the home page’s flash as well as in other places on the website, in the exhibit on the walls and in posters were taken by Gabe Rodriguez at FVH.  His photography continues to amaze me even as I go back and take another look at pictures I’ve already seen many times.  Here is a link to some of these pictures… if you look around you’ll find many more.

We are putting together a 2009 calendar as we did 3-4 years ago and it will be composed 100% of Gabe’s photos.  While it does not tell the complete seed to cup story and include a great picture of my wife driving one of our old Land Cruiser pick ups, the images speak for them self and are very engaging.  It’s kind of ridiculous actually how much raw detail is each of these pictures.

I also did an interview on KUOW Public Radio with Jeremy Richards that may be aired Jan 23 in the afternoon.  I will post a link if I find one later as well as posting about Saturday.  The interview was a Q&A as well as a walk around and talk in the museum as we soaked it all in ending with a tasting.  Major Cohen was serving pressed Bella Vista – Tres Rios and Nathan Warner the head roaster at Fidalgo Bay was pouring fresh pressed Selvanica into ceramic, which had great acidity and sweetness.

The exhibit will be around for about 6 months and if you are not in the pacific northwest, check back on the museum website later this year as this exhibit will hit the road for 3 years!!!

Don’t miss it!

Well there is so much to say, and if I wait until I have time to write more it will never happen, so I’ll give a quick raw summary from my point of view and then compile some links of whatever I can find.  First and foremost I must express thanks to those who poured a piece of their life into making this happen.  Andrew Barnett, Tony Konecny and Eileen Hassi.  Also to Brent Fortune who just as Aaron De Lazzar told me, has every barista in the world one button away on his iphone.  And finally on a more personal note Andy Newbom for bringing me to California and welcoming me in his home for the weekend.

First you should know this event over labor day weekend at Fort Mason – SF was marketed as the largest food celebration in American history. I didn’t really have time to visit all taste pavilions as an attendee, but I can say that the coffee pavilion was out of this world!

We had a few dozen of the finest coffees in the world from over a dozen of the finest roasters in the United States. CEO’s, roasters, baristas, trainers, green buyers, growers, freelance coffee people all working side by side packing 4 hall ways approximately 40 feet long.

The first is lined with GB5’s and really big grinders with some decent baristas behind them. It reminded me of the first year the DREAM TEAM composed of mostly NBA players went to the olympics.

It was ridiculous! In fact everyone washing dishes, bussing and making coffee runs was part of the Dream Team.The second and third rows had 4 stations each where 3-4 coffees were sampled out to groups of 2-10 people at a time. Each group had anywhere from 4-15 minutes with a taste captain who provided a phenomenal coffee experience that left attendees with raving feedback how eye opening the coffee pavilion was. Taste captains shared the name of the farmer, the farm, elevation, varietal, some taste descriptors and in some instances how terroir or processing impacts the cup.

Then in the back row was the back bone of the entire event. A wall lined with Clovers and Mythos grinders manned by a skilled crew of coffee people which of course included David Latourell of Clover/SBUX and Ben Kaminsky who once asked me to translate to a green exporter “I want to taste the coffee you liked so much it made you cry”.This was truly a gathering of some of coffees finest in retail in north america. Never before have I seen such intense passion for quality in coffee with such synergy crossing over geographic and company boundaries with out being on a farm.

My first shift as a taste captain I recall serving Santa Inez past #1 coe while being able to introduce Andrew Barnett who roasted it and happened to be walking right behind me, Aida Battles rum-y-PASA and have Chris Owens say “I know her”, delicious El Guayabo from Jaimes 3 hectar farm in Huila-probably sourced by Ryan down the hall, blue berry Beloya grown and milled by Mr. Bagersh on my left etc…

On a shift as a Pit Boss I was just following Peter, Doug and Eileen’s lead in welcoming attendees and escorting them to a station. On one occasion while our El Eden microlot was on rotation I had the privilege to tag team with Stephen who’s intimately familiar with many of our microlots and later was asked by Christian who roasted the very coffee that we grow to share to his guests about our terroir and how it and our processing impact cup. All the while Monica who teaches people how to make great coffee is washing thousands… yes thousands of nuova point espresso cups that had each given someone an espresso experience to remember.

I can’t explain the sense of overwhelming pride and humility that comes across when things come around full circle. When I heard that our Edlyna microlot was being pulled for a shift at the espresso barline, I went up to taste it and met Billy Wilson who executed as if he’d been dialing it in for years.

This happened for 10 hours a day, for 2 and a half days! If this was a coffee house and this happened every day, I’m sure we would go through almost a container a month.

I left the event early Sunday night as I didn’t want to be away from my wife for too long. Before heading out of Fort Mason I was notified of the following mention in the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (the last few paragraphs under GOURMET EMPORIUM) and this was a REPORT ON SLOW FOOD DAY 2 also with mention of FVH.

1.  www.theshot.coffeeratings.com

2.  tonx

3.  List of some but not all people and companies involved via ritual website.

4.  San Francisco Chronicle mobile.

5.  Brief mention of interaction at entrance of coffee pavilion.

6.  Word gets around the globe quickly.

7.  Liz who writes www.twitchy.org will probably post something soon.

8.  PART 1 on slow food at ManSeekingCoffee.wordpress.com and PART 2, Look for PART3.

9.  Ryan Flinn’s www.coffeelikewine.blogspot.com portrays coffee for what it is, FRUIT!

10.  Ryans post titled FVH

11.  Good summary of slow food with great pictures.  Scroll to bottom for coffee mention/pic.

12.  Here’s an article from slow food the presidio in Huehue.

13.  Foodie blogger I was fortunate enough to welcome who tasted one of our brewed microlots served by Andy Newbom another microlot espresso by Billy Wilson a.k.a. Bobby in this post.

Thanks to all who made this possible.  If you know of any other relevant links, let me know and I’ll add them above.

Gracias,

Edwin Martinez

Sorry… this post won’t get a picture.  Instead lots of words that could possibly be quite boring if you’re not familiar with slow food.

What is Slow Food?  Until recently I couldn’t answer that myself, but one way or another this has been ringing in my ears the last few years.

While some of you may be familiar with Slow Food, never before has there been such an event celebrating American food.  It will be in San Francisco over Labor day weekend.  This event has gotten VERY BIG, VERY QUICKLY.  Truly a powder keg.

Carlo Petrini is the president and founder of Slow Food International and has been touring the US this year.  He wrote a book called Slow Food Nation which has received much praise.

At the beginning of 2008 I had a long lay over in L.A. and I briefly met up with Tony Konecny in Silverlake, who runs his very own NON 501c3 non profit.  I met him about 5 years ago while he was chained to an IR-12 surrounded by a few thousand lbs of green coffee in a room not much bigger than a walk in closet up on capitol hill-SEA.  He shares that he and friends in Napa are working on a food event in the fall and I should check it out.  Also at some point Tony went down with Gabriel Boscana a.k.a. old man ritual to Huehue with an international group that was sponsored by slow foods in Italy.  Italians have really taken a liking to coffee from Huehue in particular.  It was the favorite coffee region in the world for the late Dr. Ernesto Illy, and many other companies in Italy that have promoted coffees from Huehue in a very prominent way for some reason.  Well, I’m sure the reason is that they’ve got a phenomenal pallet for the finest flavors.

Then I bump into Andrew Barnet from Ecco Caffe in Copenhagen in June who asks me to consider coming to San Francisco in a few months for an event that would be a perfect match for us.

Meanwhile I begin to connect the dots remembering that an old friend that used to manage the dry mill we’ve used in Huehue is opening a whole new mill with brand new equipment, funded by some Italians that don’t have much history or experience in coffee but supportive of our local flavor.  And I heard that last year one of the buyers was a roaster in a prison in Italy.  Hmm..  Read more in this link from a slow food news letter from 2006

Then Tony emails again and says “you really should come, Andrew and I will be there, Ritual is on board and it’s going to be great.”  Being a busy season in life and work, we’re tight on time and money these days so I had to pass, but I agreed to send some coffee to Barefoot to represent.  Not a month later… another email “you should really come…. everyone is going to be there.”  which doesn’t really mean everyone, it means we now have some bigger micro roasters on board to help us do our part of the event.

The next day Andy at Barefoot sent this email:

Edwin:

   great news on the coffee shipment.

So here is my pitch to you for Slow Food Nation:  It represents everything we are all trying to do in quality coffee.  It will be a huge opportunity to get your story heard by the press, thousands of appreciative fans and US

It will be a blasty-blast

We will work hard to get some press coverage for you to get your story out there

We will pay for you to fly down here and you can stay in our apartment for the weekend. So the only cost would be food and misc. You would fly down on the 30th and fly back on the 2nd. so basically three days of fun and amazing coffee people. We will have a meet the producer event on the 30^th and cup your coffees. we will be serving your coffee at Slow Food nation as well.

sound good?

–

Andy Newbom

Catador

Barefoot Coffee Roasters

76 Sunol st San Jose, CA 95126

408-293-7200

And the rest is……. going to be history.  I’m sure this will be an event to remember.  Hopefully an event to spark something new in the development of the coffee consumer market.

Whenever fine or quality foods are the center of attention, coffee is always an after thought at best.  Next week it will be a part of the conversation.  For those of you who are passionate about quality in coffee…  For those of you who are purists…  For those of you who can taste and appreciate terroir…. get you’re butt out there!   Click here to see a list of some of the roasters present…  If you’re interested in more details, I’m sure some of them will report on their website, or via press release.

After it was all installed my father (not pictured above) shared with a goofy grin “I imagine there might be some people who work in coffee in the United States that would love to have their own sample roaster and dry mill in their apartment.”

Yes, after years of setting aside some funds with hopes to pick up a sample roaster, I came across a gorgeous antique 3 barrel probat.  Antonio who works at the lab at Exportcafe along with Mario have been restoring this for almost a year.

Now this baby is installed in my bedroom along with a sample dry mill!  I’m just not sure how long my wife will allow this set up IN our bedroom.  I’m sure it will move back out soon.  Pictured above is Aurelio Villatoro a long time friend and neighbor who is an award winning producer, Mario our in house probat expert and my grandfather eating fresh roasted FVH as an afternoon snack. Click here for some before pictures.  Or click on above picture to see more pictures taken during the first dozen roasts.

Usually when one is busy time passes quickly. The last 2 months have seemed an eternity. Carlos and Edwin Garcia Martin continue to be missed tremendously. In their absence many relationships have grown stronger.

I have learned much about how we all process differently. And different is not wrong. Grieving takes many forms. With out means to preserve a body, funerals take place with in 24 hrs. There were a few hundred at the funeral that mourned loudly for a few days. Sometimes it is most difficult to deal with the present reality, and anything outside of denial seems impossible.

At such a time everything else seems so unimportant, yet distractions seem to be so comforting. Two months ago we were right in the middle of harvest with full patios and Diego, Carlos’ oldest stepped forward and chose to take his fathers responsibilities. Juana and most of her kids have since been in San Juan their home town to be close to their extended families despite not having lived there for 20 years. Diego spends half his time at FVH and chooses to sleep in the bodega alone with the coffee rather than in his home, the managers home. Life is different for many of us.

Early March on a layover in LA I went to visit John Gozbekian at LAMILL where the food is unreal and their culinary approach is mind blowing. Then before leaving I had to pay a visit to TONX as well. Soon after arrival I met up with Ryan Brown from Ritual along with Ben and Jaime from Barismo to embark on a new venture. We cupped at 7 of the largest exporters in Guatemala along side many CoE judges. I will post more on this later… possibly on a different blog. Since then Jaime has written a piece that is thought provoking and hopefully inspiring any reader to get back to the basics. The post is dated March 31, 2008.

And we picked up a few more friends along the way…

Klaus, Aaron, Mark and Ben have also posted pics on flickr.

To read more detail on the latter part of this trip please check out:

Klaus Thomsen (TCC) PART1, PART2 AND PART3

Victrola PART1, PART2 and PART

We were auditioning for the new Spiderman Movie.
Actually a barista training seminar we put on at Anacafe in Guatemala in 2007 for 40 baristas.While our coffee does REALLY well roasted dark and it can stand up to just about anything a roaster wants to dish out, I have always missed the taste of this same coffee the way we traditionally roast it back home. We have a handful of friends that do roasting both in Huehue and in Guatemala city and most of them roast in makeshift equipment that is quite worn. Nonetheless they put out a gorgeous cinnamon colored roast that is always spot on and explosive with ripe fruits.Then when we are in the U.S. it seems everything on the west coast is dark and bitter sweet. Most of the sweets I taste are strictly from caramelization with a muted resemblance of what many of these same roasters once tasted on their own cupping tables. Its not about a roast that is good or bad, right or wrong. It’s a matter of taste really. And bottom line the west coast likes their roasts dark. I’ve actually grown to appreciate a fresh roast that has the balance of spiciness and acidity with bitter roast notes. It seems people like high elevation Guats because no matter how you roast you don’t have to worry about loosing acidity. This is part of why Starbucks acquires more coffee from Guatemala than from any other single source. And the darker you roast the more you rely on good acidity to counter the growing bitters that develop. And of course these are roast note bitters, not natural bean bitters.So. Why is barefoot nonconforming? Well you really have to buy a bag of their coffee to see what I mean. Bottom line – IT’S LIGHT, REALLY LIGHT! Many quality roasters on the west coast won’t dare go this light because they can’t imagine many people liking it or paying for it. And the truth is that they’re probably right. A common reaction from another roaster looking at Barefoots roasts might be to say “that looks great for a cupping roast – lets cup it” and Andy Newbom of Barefoot is bagging it and selling it both retail AND WHOLESALE!A common thread I’ve tasted in all their FVH microlots is GOOD bitters and savory notes balanced in a light roast that typically accentuate only the citrus and the sweets in a dominant way. Attempting to wholesale this requires a great amount of training if used at all in an espresso as an SO because it is so intense. It is more difficult to extract the oils at lighter roasts. This means you need finer grind and probably a higher temp for starters. If you’re not used to lighter roasts you’ll know somethings wrong when you’re pulling a couple oz in 5 sec. However if your too fine or too hot your sweet citrus nectar becomes lemon juice. With lighter roasts the margin of error in the roast profile as well as the brewing method are very small.So if you’re trying this at home, be patient and persistent until you find that sweet spot. Andy has a total of 5 of our Microlots. 4 of them are literal geographic microlots and one is a sort out of the drymill of 100% peaberry.

Yes we love it when friends connect. Noe Castro (on the left) will be working up with the folks at Barefoot all of February and I understand possibly at Ritual or LaMill in March. Some day I’d like to open a coffee bar run exclusively by foreign visiting baristas. I hope in a few years that this idea won’t sound so foreign.

Also a big congratulations to the 07-08 Guatemalan Barista Champion – Raúl Rodas, the sponsoring companies

and all of the 30 others who competed

If you’re a barista wondering… “How can I get hooked up like that?” A resource that I think could be useful in such a venture is BARISTAEXCHANGE. You may very well be one of the first to have joined this myspacey type forum. But have you considered that with enough passion, creativity and effort you can probably travel the world or host a barista from any one of dozens of countries.

If you’re excited about the idea but are at a loss for where to start.. if you have any interest in Guatemala you might give Mike in Panajachel a call.

Or if you’re fluent in spanish contact me and I may be able to help you find a good match.

I got an email on Friday from Alison at Sound Horticulture who is a freelance consultant in the agriculture industry. She gave me a link to a website doing a live radio show on coffee titled “WHAT’S IN YOUR CUP”.

I then sent an email to METROFARM commenting how I feel Fair Trade is not Fair and of course they quickly replied asking me to call in- which I did from GUATEMALA.

With out going into lengthy monologue about why I think Fair Trade is often good, sometimes bad, but rarely ideal or great I’ll spare you listening through an hour of coffee talk and share that the subject was never broached there either. I thought it prudent to be careful with my words NOT because the featured guest owns and operates a 100% Fair Trade coffee company, but because I’m not good at live interviews =)

However I did learn much from Dean Cycon who is both a wealth of information and owner of Dean’s Beans which is also 100% Organic. As a proprietor of a business that operates exclusively on Fair Trade coffees he has done much homework and gone the extra mile in connecting and learning about the people that produce his coffees rather than just purchasing certifications for the marketing power that they do in fact have. If everyone purchasing Fair Trade coffee made half the effort Dean does to connect with origin, Fair Trade would in my opinion be much more in line with the spirit of Fair Trade. I think that agencies that certify Fair Trade products do a fantastic job at meeting their goals and mission statement. However I question how sustainable is Fair Trade?

Bottom line accountability is expensive and I believe it is only quality that is sustainable in the long run. If the only value in a product is that it is guaranteeing a fair wage to people at origin with no quality criteria, there is no incentive for excellence, rather reward for mediocracy. It is concerning to me that so many in agriculture who produce what is the second largest commodity in the world are producing something that intrinsically is increasingly worth less BECAUSE of charity. Again, the issue of sustainability in FT is not really discussed, but Dean does a wonderful job educating listeners about many of the real social concerns related to coffee growers, as well as sharing about some excellent programs that help address these problems.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

IMG_2305, originally uploaded by edwinfvh.

There’s always magic in the air when the seed to cup circle is completed. Picture with the half head is Tony from Octane, then M’lissa who I have to imagine is a vital part of Octane, then Chris and David who represent Counter Culture Coffee in Atlanta and finally my father, also Edwin Martinez. Chris and David led a blind cupping of two coffees from Cauca and a washed Yirg with a memorable intense aroma. Others attended and collaboratively shared an ocean of VERY specific descriptors that made me want to go back and cup everything again. I still have so much to learn about cupping…  Click here to see the descriptors.

I try to spend little time blogging.  I find it worthwhile to both be consistent and put up good content.  Seems I rarely do both.  Last week Nina and I had a great time meeting some serious coffee people that don’t HAVE to talk about coffee.  One thing is for sure, for Chris and M’lissa, coffee is not just a fad.  And YES!  M’lissa did beat me to the punch in with her post.

What burden? Education. This is one of the things I’m most excited about in coffee. While everyone knows about coffee, you can’t really ever know enough about it right? If ever in Bellingham, WA make this a mandatory stop. 205 Grand Avenue. Just go there.

Having just opened Alexarc Mastema and Teri Bryant who own the Black Drop are now roasting as Maniac Roaster. Show up between 8 a.m. and noon M-F and you can purchase a hand poured gold filtered cup and some great alternative brewing devices that will be sure to please any eager coffee geek. Alex was kind enough to allow me to stop in during non business hours and hang out during his roasting time.

I walked in just as he was about to dump in his first batch of decaf that he’s roasted in 15 years. Yes coffee is not new to Alex. (The roast came out looking as nice as a sumatran decaf can look – I’ll have to go back just to try this). You may notice a few huge black drops tatooed on his arms and think he’s pretty serious about coffee. And he is, but the reason you need to stop by is because he wants to share this. I’ve been following them since they opened… and just dug up this old link where they get great reviews, 4 years ago! In Bellingham I’ve noticed that the way-over saturated coffee scene is full of coffee that meets the local demand that drowns it with cream and sugar, and it doesn’t take much to be the best in town. The Black Drop has continuously raised the bar time and time again. Stop by their place at 300 W champion and get a free dopio on Fridays. To start off great and improve non stop does not happen by accident. Nice job guys. Congradulations on the new space.

If you’re one of “them” – fanatic coffee geeks who spends 30 minutes preparing, roasting, blowing chaff away and cooling, this post is for you. Whether you are roasting in a popcorn popper, an RK drum in a BBQ or in your modified hair dryer you know the excitement that comes from turning your own green to brown. This “hobby” and passion has spread like wild flower and allowed really cool folks such as Gary and John at www.burmancoffee.com to buy green coffee and resell it with out even roasting it. At a profit. The value added is worth every penny. They do all the work of sourcing for you and break it down so you can order just a few lbs to try with out having to buy 1500lbs. We don’t sell direct to home roasters because it’s alot of work, it’s not our focus, and others do it much better than we ever could.

Check out his pictures HERE – this is certainly the best looking results I’ve ever seen from a home roaster. You’ll note he has a good eye for evaluating green as he found some defects in our coffee. Mario has been kind enough to offer sending a sample of his finished product for us to taste. I can’t wait.

Happy Roasting!

I’ve recently taken great interest in Zambia, in part because some close friends left this weekend to live there for a few years. During the WBC this year I made it a point to watch the Zambian Barista Champion Francis Njobvu perform. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT FOR YOURSELF. As it was a full house, I was lucky to find an empty seat near the front. The woman next to me was waving a flag, and yes it was the Zambian flag. Turns out it was Teija Lubinkhof of MUNALI COFFEE. He used Teija’s beans as well as the mucilage removed with a Penagos to make a jam. The fruit was cooked into a reduction with sugar and lime juice, then skin was sifted out. The 07 crop is being harvested as I write this.

Francis may very well have been the most calm performer in the entire WBC this year. Too bad more people couldn’t try his signature drink. It was quite unique. Teija gave me some green in Tokyo which I will be sample roasting for fun next week. Based on a green evaluation only it looks very promising.

On my way to Tokyo I had a direct flight from Seattle, but my return had a 9hr layover in Hawaii (where I went surfing and got burned) before arriving in San Francisco. Here I boarded an Alaskan Airlines flight and soon after boarding I’m reading Alaska Airlines Magazine and I’m see an article titled “True Brew” – Small roasters take coffee to a new level. And then a close up cupping pic with that beautiful new cupping table at Victrola, their roaster, pics of stumptown and vivacce. A clip from the article:

“The growing emphasis on single-origin coffees demonstrates that coffee’s flavor is deeply influenced by it;s place of origin – its terroir, to borrow a winemaking term. In searching for flavorful coffees, roasters develop a rich understanding of coffee-growing regions and become very speific in their choices. Victrola and Barefoot, for example, have both determined that they’ll be purchasing coffee from small parcels of Finca Vista Hermosa in northern Guatemala.

Newbom visited the farm in February and spent several days working with the growers to identify the four microlots he wished to purhase. “Some of these microlots can be as small as one hectare [roughly 2.4 acres], and we’re selling the coffee with the name of that farm and microlot. They’ll all be separately labeled and sold, and this is the first year they’ve had a reason to separate them from each other.”

Well we have separated them since the begining, but this is the first year we’ve had a realized a demand for this and are pleased that people are taking interest and actually working with us in differentiating our micro lots. As many roasters like to share what coffee they’re drinking… I sometims sample roast our own and enjoy different microlots each morning. This won’t have the same meaning for everyone, but when you KNOW the work that has gone into each bean, including details of soil types and amounts of sun each plant receives, the varietal and age of the plant… the steepness of the mountain side, the honey jasmin smell of the flowering and the feel of the inside of the washing channels and wooden pannels etc… tasting microlots really is taking coffee to a whole new level.

Keep you’re eyes open for the new crop now at Victrola and Barefoot. Barefoot actually has purchase 4 different microlots and a almost all of our peaberry.

We’ve been selling to Press Alternative for a few years and this year we decided to work with another exporter who would facilitate some of the logistics as it is a small amount that we ship out.

Notice the picture above has a date on it. Jose Padilla was diligent in snapping a photo when the marked bags came into the warehouse. The above pic is just a bag full of empty bags for export.

Below you see what the front marks look like. Second picture shows the same 11 mark for Guatemala and the center number has been edited or re-stenciled with the new license number (also a mill mark in this case) and finally the lot number on the right which means they have exported 114 lots this year preceding this particular lot. Lots are most often Containers (37,500lbs), however they can be as small as you wish, even a 1 bag lot if you wanted. The third pic shows them all bagged, restencilled and ready to go out this weekend across the pacific pond.

Earlier this year I met Wilman Ortega from Guatemala who works in the medical industry in the U.S. and is getting ready to open up a new roastery that will focus exclusively on the finest that we’re able to hunt down for each region in Guatemala. I’ve yet to see a roaster do this… and I suppose the question is why would you. Well if Anacafe determines there’s enough distinction to market a new region/cup than why not carry this foward. I very much look foward to this new project as to my knowledge it is the first of this kind and expect he’ll find much success in taking on such a high level of focus that limits the product offerings this much. This will cater heavily to the purists out there. Keep your eyes peeled for Wilman’s new project.

In the fall we will host an advanced cupping course in Bellingham that among other things will include cupping for defect, blind ID of region and elevation for Guat because we have such great examples of each.

Picture courtesy of Jorg C.W. and Corinna Scott of Satori Coffee Roasters in Canada

I think giving coffee away is brilliant. Really. My wife and I had a retail shop and we did it all the time. You wouldn’t believe how it boosted sales. The model is it gets people in the door. The catch is you need to offer something worth RETURNING for.

I love starbucks. Yes it’s true. I don’t care for how dark the coffee is roasted, but to say they have contributed to the development of the specialty industry is a huge understatement. In my book they have pioneered in so many areas and have set the bar extremely high for a chain of their size. The beauty of something that is free is that you can’t complain if you don’t like it because you didn’t pay anything. I think this is a great way to test new products. Offer it to good existing loyal customers with out risk = FREE. And then be sure to request meaningfull feedback.

Identifying a problem is half the battle. Now what to do…

“SEATTLE – Starbucks has lost it’s soul and does not know where to find it.” is how this article in the Washington Post begins, printed Sunday March 4, 2007.

CLICK ON HOWARDS FACE FOR LINK TO ARTICLE (picture taken from Washington post article “Is Malaise Brewing at Starbucks”.

I’m curious if Howard has been inside of Victrola.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words. Unless of course you’re Aaron Blanco and words bring pictures back to life. CLICK HERE to read and see Mr. Blanco’s pics and commentary on the barista and roaster trips. Aaron is an exbarista and owner/roaster of brown coffee co.

These photos were taken at Finca Filadelphia in Antigua which is like the disneyland of coffee farms. Photos courtesy of Simon Thompson at Cravens Coffee

Chris Sharp was originally scheduled to join us on this roaster trip. But he had more important matters to tend to: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEW ADDITION TO VICTROLA. Congradulations Chris and Jen!

Yesterday Monday Feb 12th, I stopped in un-announced as usual (It’s fun to keep folks on their toes). Davida and Shawn gave me both a very warm welcome and the machiatto was… well PERFECT! It’s really nice to be back in the northwest for a few weeks.

Stewart and Kim owners of Bellatazza standing where they’ll build their new retail/roastery in Tumalo, OR. Upon first meeting Stewart your impression may be that aside from being fanatical about great coffee, he’s the kind of guy a young entrepreneur wants to be mentored by. Or at least that’s the way I felt after spending a week with him in our home in Guatemala and then a weekend in his home in Bend. Back in the day… Stewart parted from his band Nero’s Rome, started what must have been one of the first espresso carts in Portland, and married his wonderfull wife Kim and had three kids. When he visitited Guatemala I asked him what he likes to do for fun, or with his freetime back home….he said “I like to be with my wife and play with my kids.” They now have a roasting company, a retail location in Bend, OR and in SunRiver, OR. Stewart also does consulting in the retail industry and has currently volunteered his time to help me with a project working with growers in our area to survey and collect data, develope some standardized terms and market the coffees for what they are. A great model for furthering transparency and promoting what Stewart calls ECOSUSTAINABILITY. This term is a great match for farms like ours that are not certified organic that are organic, or that are using chemicals minimaly and responsibly. Although Stewart is a marketing genius commited to quality, I believe his success comes more from striving to improve the lives of those he comes across.

Stewart and his roasters Diedrich and Brendan