December 26, 2014
Farm Report- La Palma Y El Tucan/ La Mision
Flying into Bogota, I was expecting to find wonderful coffee in a storied growing region undergoing a renaissance. What I discovered was more of a story about the diligence of the human spirit.
I was going to Bogota after meeting Elisa and Felipe Mandrinan in Seattle at a cupping. I had been talking with Christian Ott, the head buyer for Stone Creek Coffee Co and he mentioned he was heading to a cupping with some Colombian growers who were doing some interesting work in Cundinamarca. I tagged along and was really blown away by the presentation and engagement these folks had around their coffees. Not only are Felipe and Elisa coffee farmers, but they own the mill which produces coffees for a growing number of their neighbors. Their dedication to these neighbors was evident throughout the cupping. The passion in their voices and intensity in their promotion of these coffees spoke to me.
Several conversations, and a few months later I was headed down to Colombia to visit their mill and cup some coffees. Throughout the trip Elisa described in great detail their desire to revive Cundinamarca. She talked about how this region, which lies in the mountains just to the north of Bogota, had once been one of the best growing regions in Colombia. Due in part to the conditions created through a quantity based purchasing program offered by the Colombian Coffee Federation, the region had gone into a steady downward spiral.
I saw this first hand visiting some of the farms they work with through their “Neighbors & Crops” program. Despite owning some of the best farm land in the world for growing coffee, these farms had fallen into disrepair and the coffee was barely being processed to a commercial quality. Not only did the farmers lack an incentive for producing specialty grade coffee, they had no outlet which would offer them additional compensation if they wanted to produce quality coffees. This meant farmers were trapped in a constant state of struggle. Children were leaving for better opportunities in the city, patios were falling into disrepair, pulping equipment and fermentation tanks were disintegrating into the ground.
Enter the “Neighbors & Crops” program by the La Palma Y El Tucan family mill. Felipe and Elisa have built a state of the art wet mill and series of raised drying beds to process coffee to the highest possible standards. Their farm manager Carlos manages agronomists which are available as resources to all their neighbors, and he trains picking crews to travel to their farms and employ quality picking techniques. These are resources which are luxuries to the farmers in the region, but because of La Palma’s willingness to share resources, these farmers are able to produce extremely high quality cherries. The La Palma team purchases the freshly harvested cherries and grades them upon arrival, offering incentives for quality and consistency. The coffee produced here is among the best in the world in my opinion, and the story behind its production is wonderful.
Sometimes you have an experience which changes a paradigm for you. This was one such experience. The La Palma project is not only important because of the quality of the coffee, but because the mindset curated through this project is the mindset essential the future of specialty coffee. Helping farmers create real livelihoods through the production of coffee, sharing resources to create a synergetic growing model, and communicating these things through engagement with roasters and consumers is where the future of the industry lies. On the retail and consumer side of the supply chain we need to place a high value on projects which are creating real sustainability for growers while producing excellent coffee. This coffee, from the La Mision farm, produced by La Palma Y El Tucan, is one such coffee. I hope you have the chance to try it, and I look forward to bringing more coffees with this sort of story to Denver in the future.
• Phil
February 25, 2014
We’ve all seen those “Gone For The Season” signs tacked up in windows of small mountain town shops sprinkled all over Colorado’s back country. Reminding passerby’s and locals of the several months of visitors and memories gone in a flash and never to be forgotten.
Here at Corvus, we experience similar seasonal changes as we go through coffees at the Roast Works. We have been moving through some coffees recently here at the shop so quickly that they may only be on the shelf for a month or two. And in order for you, our valued patron, to understand why we go through coffees so rapidly, I’d like to let you in on couple of our secrets about how we select our coffees and why some are here and gone in what seems to be the blink of an eye.
First, I will share a question one of our employees posed to me the other day. He asked, “Is it just me, are we getting better coffees in, am I starting to appreciate coffee more, or are you doing something different in Roast Works which is improving the quality and taste?”
The simplest answer I could give to this question is we are finding better coffees into our shop. As we get samples in from around the world we find that the more we search, experiment and broaden our horizons, the more often we hone in on better coffees. The reality is, as long as you have exceptional coffees and you seek an understanding of a specific bean, you are going to get an amazing roast.
As a roaster, my goal is to constantly improve at what I do and to offer a better product than I did the day before. To do that, I keep my ear to the ground and broaden our supply chain to extend to find extraordinary coffees which exist out there somewhere. Phil and I are constantly talking about what is needed to find the best coffees and improve the quality of our stewardship of the bean. What we keep circling back to is the basics of bringing in new samples, roasting, and blind cupping as much as possible.
Last month alone we sampled over a hundred coffees before selecting only one. We didn’t look at the region, the price, the importer or a number of other factors in advance; beyond asking for cleanly processed coffees which are fresh crops. We weed through our coffees based on traceability and quality of the cup.
It is comforting to know that there are importers which are seeking, as we are, continual improvement, and it is proved in the samples we are receiving. As we look back at the past few months, we’re pretty amazed to see that without purposely doing so, we’ve ended up purchasing coffees from only a select few importers and farmers.
And the reason these coffees are flying off the shelves? Well, quality and taste is the biggest factor here, but the second reason is some of these coffees we select are from such small farms that only five bags may be available. So, I may only have seven hundred pounds of a particular coffee which, inherently, results in it only lasting about a month or two.
Many roasters are (to some extent rightfully so) wary of such limited supplies. People are sometimes upset or sad that a coffee will be “Gone For The Season,” within a few short weeks of it becoming a new favorite for them. However, this is what gets me up every morning. The most exciting part of the job isn’t extending the duration of different coffees, but the arrival of new ones. With each coffee comes a story and with each story comes an experience.
We are going to be going through many seasons here at Corvus and we are excited to enjoy each moment of every season.
Now… I have a pallet of two new coffees arriving any moment… So I must bid farewell.
December 30, 2012
Quality coffee is grown, not roasted. I think this is the underlying principle which guides roasters in the newest generation of specialty coffee. We don’t try to market our roasting skills; rather, we seek out sustainably grown lots of coffee, and constantly hone our ability to fully develop the existing flavor. We focus on the farm, and understand that improving growing & processing methods is the best way to improve quality.
Being someone who subscribes to this principle, it’s amazing the variation of green coffee quality I find through importers who sell primarily to specialty coffee roasters. We have several importers which will reliably send us more samples of improperly dried, past crop coffee which is full of defects than samples of a quality level I expect for specialty coffee. What is disturbing is somewhere, “specialty” coffee roasters are selling this as artisan coffee and people are buying the snake oil. I’m not necessarily accusing any roaster of being misleading, but there are multiple examples of small roasters which simply don’t know the difference between good and poor coffee quality.
This raises the following question in my mind. What is the difference between Nescafe` buying well-processed robusta, roasting it consistently, marketing it as “shared value” coffee, and a small roaster buying past crop, unevenly dried, over-ripe, high-grown arabica and marketing it as “small-batch” specialty coffee? Nothing.
All this being said, what I think needs to happen in the specialty coffee industry is a greater assumption of responsibility within the emerging roasting community. We can rely on marketing, or “anti-marketing” and the title of small-batch roasters, or we can be seeking out knowledge and rely on a consistent cycle of improvement within our craft. Don’t use the phrase small-batch without explaining how this impacts quality; and if you don’t know what it means, don’t use it (Hint: It’s not the same thing as having a “small” roaster). Admit that we are all constantly improving our abilities, instead of presenting yourself as an authority on coffee. Learn about green evaluation and how, on a practical level, proper drying and sorting affects the cup. The best way to know when you’ve found a very knowledgeable coffee authority is they are eager to learn. The opposite is also true.
If we assume the mantle of “specialty coffee roaster” let’s ensure it means something. I know that as more roasters understand that being in specialty coffee carries a responsibility to every person; from the farmer, to the consumer, and visibility to coffee at each level, this industry will make exponential gains. Sepia toned pictures of a tiny roaster and vintage coffee packaging do not a specialty roaster make; constantly seeking out ways to improve your understanding & skill does.
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