Fratello Coffee was on TV last week as Channel 10 News Shaw Magazine wanted to have a short interview to discuss coffee cupping. More and more people in Calgary (and other cities obviously) are starting to hear about what us roasters do on a daily basis.
It is hard to describe coffee cupping in a 3-4 min video, but I think that Lisa from Shaw Magazine did a great job putting this video together.
If you would like to talk more about coffee cupping, and if you and your friends would like to potentially do a coffee cupping evening please contact Russ by putting a response on this post.
Fratello Coffee just won the # 3 Lot of Costa Rican Celle de Copey - Cup of Excellencetoday. This was a HUGE achievement and the highest ranking coffee Fratello has every won. Jason was part of the jury down in Costa Rica this year and helped approving this coffee as being one of the top 5 that Costa Rica has to offer this year.
Look for this coffee to be available late this summer/early Spring. Some incredible coffees are available now and coming soon to Fratello…..a few of these are:
These coffees are all limited quantities, so enjoy them while you can. There are a few other origins we are working on, each as exciting as the ones above. Looks like its going to be a tasty summer.
Ok, here we go again…..We keep finding new coffees that keep blowing me away.Fratello has a new Brazilian coffee, exclusive to us in Canada that you need to try.Daterra is an extraordinary producer who’s plantations are located in the Cerrado region (State of Minas Gerais) and in the Mogiana region (State of São Paulo). They were also the first to introduce Rainforest Alliance in Brazil.
Daterra’s Sweet Blue gave us sweet chocolate and syrupy orange aromas which followed through into the cup.A thick mouth feel with dark chocolate almond flavors.This is a very balanced coffee which had an acidity and sweetness that reminded me of a Kenyan coffee.Cupping Score: 90.
Daterra is a coffee grower and exporter best known for its innovative research, its respect for the environment, social responsibility and its high quality coffee.Daterra is by no means a small coffee producer; however, they are very well known for the quality of coffee they produce.This is evident when looking at a few of their awards:
Cup of Excellence finalist in 2001;
Best coffee from Brazil on the cupping for Quality by Rainforest Alliance in 2005 and 2008;
Espresso Blend used by World Barista Champion Troels Poulsen in 2005;
Espresso Blend used by World Barista Champion Klaus Thomsen in 2006;
Sustainable farm model by Illy Cafè in 2008
Four out of the six WBC finalists used Daterra coffee in their blends in 2008.
Daterra has a “Penta Pack®” packaging system (vacuum packaging) patented internationally.This was used to ship Brazil’s Cup of Excellence winner lots in 2006 and 2008.
The Sweet Blue is a Micro Lot from Daterra which produces only 5300 – 7950 lbs of coffee per year.Sweet Blue is the Mundo Novo varietal.Their processing methods on this coffee is a pulped natural at the wet mill, 100% sun dried and followed with their Penta System for both packaging and quality control (See bottom of this post for more information on that).
Daterra’s plantations are located at an average altitude of 3,800 ft (1,150 m) under a stable temperature of around 25ºC, which constitutes the perfect environment for Arabica Coffee production.The plantations are divided into 215 mini- farms and further subdivided into 2.816 blocks called “quadras”, each of which is planted with a specific coffee variety.
Fratello Coffee is introducing an exciting new coffee to our portfolio at the end of May. We have found an Organic fresh crop Ethiopian that we just had to buy which is replacing the Kembata currently available.
Flavor description:Intense tropical fruits, blueberry and strawberry in both the aromas and long lingering flavors. Thick syrupy body and full of character, yet notably clean and bright through out.
Grade:1
Region:Idido, Gedeo Zone Yirgacheffe
Processing:Natural / Dry-Processed
Crop:February 2009
Varietal: Heirloom and Longberry
Cupping Score: 91
Ethiopia, the birth place of coffee has 5 growing regions, each producing very distinct characteristics from the other. In the south of Ethiopia is a district called Yirgacheffe which is just north of the Kenyan border. Yirgacheffe is currently producing the most exotic flavor profiles in this country and possible the world.
I have just returned from Pereira Colombia after judging the 2009 Cup of Excellence competition. Although tired, I’m thrilled about this experience. It is so exciting going through the cupping process and seeing the award ceremony’s on the final day.
The Cup of Excellence competition is the most thorough and competitive screening process a coffee farm will put their coffee through. The goal of COE is to bring out the best coffee a current region has to offer in the current crop year. After the competition is over, the COE award is given to the top farmers who represent the best coffees that this region has to offer. These coffees are then put in front of the world on an on-line auction which rewards these farmers for their focused attention to improving quality coffee, and puts a spot light on this region show-casing their excellence.
Stage one Involves the submission from the farmers current crop of coffee. Of the 512,000 families growing coffee in Colombia, only 374 submissions were sent in this year, which was relatively low do to the fact that Colombia’s crop forecast is 30-40% lower than the year before.
All of these coffees are cupped and analyzed in Colombia by local cuppers. All coffee scoring an 84 or higher (out of 100) move on to the second National Cupping jury. The National Cupping Jury is chosen from the pool of local cuppers. They are chosen for their cupping skills in the first stage.
Last June I was lucky to be chosen to be a judge at the Honduras Cup of Excellence competition. This was a great event that really opened my eyes to the possibilities that Honduras has to offer with its coffee profiles. Honduras borders Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and often Honduran coffee will cross borders and will be sold as those varietals instead. Guatemala is currently the largest Central American exporter of coffee, however if Honduran coffee wasn’t smuggled into other countries - they would probably be the largest exporter.
Honduras has a long history with coffee and many of the estates/farms have been controlled by the same family for many generations. An interesting fact is that 91% of the farms in Honduras contribute to 50% of the coffee sold in Honduras. What this shows is how many small estates there are to work with in this country, the challenge is finding them. Of the 38,000,000 lbs of coffee sold in Honduras, 45% is sold as an Organic/Fair-trade/Organic Fair-trade and only about 10% is even offered as a single estate. Most of this is from huge farms and sold for commercial use.
Our goal when planning this trip was to establish a Direct Trade partnership with a family and farm who’s products stood out as exceptional on our cupping table when sampling late last year.
In the west of Honduras is a region called La Paz, and in this region is an area called Marcala. Marcala is known for the quality of coffee produced, and has a history & tradition that reaches back to the late 1800’s. Families have owned and worked there farms for 4 generations and practice harvesting techniques that produce clean, sweet and rich tasting coffee. One hour south of Marcala is the town Opatoro, and just out side Opatoro is a very small village called La Florida, and just a few miles out side La Florida is a small coffee estate called Arenal (Arenal Estate is situated 70 km from El Salvador). (Read the rest of this post)
On January 17th my brother’s Jason & Chris joined my self to travel to Guatemala to visit our friend Johann Nottebohm and his wife Holly at their farm Nueva Granada.Our journey began in Guatemala City when we traveled 7.5 hours by car to the far North West corner of Guatemala which is known as the San Marcos region.
The drive was long, but beautiful as the landscape of Guatemala is very mountainous and boasts 38 volcano’s which is the most in all of Central America.When we reached the town of El Rosario and turned off the highway El Rodeo thinking we reached our destination, however, we had 167 more curves & turns in bumpy rock road before reaching the elevation of 4300 feet, the base of Nueva Granada.This farm has views Volcano Tajumulco the tallest Central American volcano at 14,440 feet, and Volcano Tacana which is half in Mexico.
Johann’s is now the 3rd generation coffee farmer in the Nottebohm family.His great grandfather, originally from Germany, moved to Guatemala in 1894.Nueva Granda was the 3rd farm in Guatemala to become Rainforest Alliance certified, and their family tradition continues today of striving for better quality, consistency, improving environmental techniques and educating the families that live on their farm.
The pride in this farm is shown on every level.It starts by watching their team pick only the ripest red cherries.Every 2 weeks, each tree will have hands sort through their branches choosing the best coffee, for a total of 15 passes per harvest!Most farms will only have 4 or 5 passes per harvest forcing them to choose over & under ripen cherries each time.
Once picked, cherries are brought immediately to the wet mill located on the farm.
In 1997, owners and brothers Jason, Chris and Russ Prefontaine - fratello means brother in Italian - took over their parents’ coffee roasting business, which had been operating since 1974, and renamed the company
They recently downsized what was becoming a wide-reaching coffee business to concentrate on importing and roasting more specialized, quality coffee beans for the Calgary market.
This move marks a shift away from working with big powerhouse coffee chains toward supporting independent, artisan cafés. According to Russ, these smaller cafés, “are essentially raising the bar on quality by offering specialty beans, and investing in proper equipment and barista training.” (Read the rest of this post)
