I wanted to let you all know that the Brazil Sete Cachoeiras Estate - Rainforest Alliance coffee was given an award at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) this year to recognize their quality among all the Rainforest Alliance Coffee produced.

When I went out for dinner with Renato Farhat Brito and his father Marcel Renato Brito, the owners of this estate, they had mentioned that when they entered this contest, they entered the exact same Lot of coffee we chose to import.

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This coming May 24th - 25th, Fratello will be hosting the first ever Prairie Regional Barista Competition. This is an event sanctioned by the Canadian Barista Academy and the 3 winners of the PRBC will go on to compete in the Canadian National Barista Championship with that winner representing all of us at the WBCDATES:

• Barista Jam: May 17th
• Judges Certification Workshop: May 23rd
• Competition Qualifying Rounds (16 competitors): May 24th 10:00am to 4:00pm
• Finals & Award Presentation (8 competitors): May 25th 10:00am to 2:00pm

Baristas must compete in one of the 2008 Canadian Regional Championships in order qualify for entry into the Canadian National Championship. Baristas working in cafes, restaurants and foodservice establishments in each region are encouraged to sign up. One registrant per company (see rules and regulations). For rules, information and registration visit www.canadianbaristachampionship.com or www.canadianbaristaacademy.com or call: 416-784-5210

We highly recommend that if you are interested in competing - that you sign up quickly as there is a maximum of 16 competitors.

Also - they are in need to volunteers to be a competition Judge !!  This is a great way to get involved - please contact Les Kuan at ibex1989@yahoo.com to sign up.

Cheers

Jason

Fratello just returned from another origin trip to continue our expansion and work with developing our Direct Trade coffee program. As we have mentioned before, our goal is to source our coffee this way when ever possible. It is a work in progress which will also include increased selections of Rainforest Alliance, Organic and Fair-trade Organic coffees. Direct Trade allows Fratello to source the best and most unique coffee lots before they are sold and blended with other lots at Cooperative which most farmers use. Through this practice Fratello pays our farmers 25%-35% more than what Fair-trade premiums would have paid them.

This time it was Russ, Jason and Angela Prefontaine who traveled to Nicaragua to visit Erwin Mierisch and his family. What an amazing journey this was. It was not only educational visiting 5 different farms in Matagalpa and Jinotega, but it was terrific getting to know Erwin better. We had the pleasure of touring around with Erwin, his cousin Ricardo Oliu and Erwin’s father, Erwin Mierisch Senior who was a gracious host and a pleasure to be around. We also had the pleasure of meeting Erwin’s sister Maria and Erwin and Ricardo’s wives. The Mierisch family has been cultivating these farms for 3 generations (Since mid 30’s).

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Green coffee is packaged at origin in 132-152 lb jute (burlap) sacks.  The smell and taste of this jute can be transfered to the green coffee, resulting in a cup referred to as “baggy” with an unpleasant musty or straw-like flavor.   As coffee sits in warehouses it becomes old and stale within as little as 6 months.  These conditions are worsened in humid conditions.

We invest in quality green coffee and protect it in the following ways:

1. We’re lucky that Calgary is as dry as a desert (literally).

2. We receive shipments from origin constantly and our goal is to not have green coffee in our warehouse longer than 3 months.

3. Within weeks of receiving the green coffee, we remove it from the jute sacks and transfer the coffee into independent silos.

4. With our finest and most exotic coffees, we immediately vacuum package all of the green coffee in 15-20 lb bags with the objective of preserving the original sweetness and fruit-like flavors

5. Our Cup of Excellence coffee will never touch jute bags again!  We pay the farmers and additional premium to have the coffee packaged at origin in 10 lb vacuum packaged foil bags.

Although it is rare for coffee to become baggy when you are not “warehousing” coffee, Fratello is taking these extra steps to ensure our clients only receive the best.

Fratello Coffee has wanted to support a greater cause when purchasing our coffees.  We are choosing to work directly with farmers, and when possible purchase Rainforest Alliance (RFA) products.  This does not mean we are not going to continue to source Organic and Fairtrade Organic products, it just means we would rather choose the RFA Certification on our coffees.   

I have had some issues in the past bringing in Organic certified coffees, not because I don’t agree with organic certification, but simply because I know most coffee farms are indeed organic.  A lot of farmers don’t use pesticides, chemicals and un-natural fertilizers because they can’t afford them.  These same farmers can’t afford the to undergo certification to become “Organic”.

(Healthy envoirnment in Bolivia)

While I agree that farmers should be paid more for QUALITY products, and agree with the philosphy’s surrounding Fairtrade.  I’ve always wondered at the track-ability of the funds so that I can ensure they are reaching the actual farmers and workers on the farm. 

To me, it is much more important to get funds directly to a farmer, the workers and their families, than it is to pay a premium which goes to the Fairtrade certified Co-op that purchases coffees from the farmers.  I do know that Fairtrade has made huge living and working improvements to many area’s in the world, but I’m unable to trace our funds directly to the source.  Accountability is very important to us.

Fratello wants to support our partners in the coffee growing comunities, and we want to ensure that the farmers and workers are not only paid well, but are well looked after.  We also want to ensure that the total environment is looked at, not simply that they are organic.  

Rainforest Alliance auditors measure farms against ten key principles of sustainable agriculture.  These 10 key factors were designed by Rainforest Alliance and other members of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) - a coalition of nonprofit conservation organizations that work together to promote socially responsible and environmentally sustainable agriculture. 

(healthy coffee farm and enviornment in Brazil)

For more information on the 10 key factors, please read below. (Read the rest of this post)

I pulled this on our 3gp Slayer with a PID setting of 200 F.  This shot took about 20 seconds to pull on a double basket in our naked portafilter.  After working with John (and of course the inevitable good natured competition that occurs at Fratello) for the last few months on the variations of Latte art, I had a local Barista in who showed me how he was working on a swan.  I decided to learn this new technique to raise the anti on our internal competition.  

I finally gave this a try on Friday afternoon and succeeded to beat John, making me the new Barrista Champ at Fratello.  This was my first attempt of the day, and it came through pretty good. 

Its exciting to be able to bring this kind of presentation to the cafe’s I work with, training their baristas in advanced beverage preparation techniques.  These kinds of images are in truth nothing more than evidence of the components of a drink being done correctly.  From having an espresso shot that has nice tight crema, to poperly textured milk creating very stable and sweet micro-bubbles.  

The best part is it takes no longer to prepare this drink than a tradition drink, and it also TASTES BETTER!

Below are more picture of our internal latte art competition. 

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Fratello Coffee is introducing a new Costa Rican to our clients this February.  We have done a lot of research to find this coffee and are very pleased with our results.  After narrowing down from 30 original varities submitted from Costa Rica, we had decided to put the top 12 into a final round of cupping.

We got to share this experience with Zane Kelsall from Bumpy’s Cafe (www.bumpyscafe.com), and got to share with him a Cup of Excellence approach to cupping and selecting coffee.  From the top 12 coffees, 6 were chosen and re-cupped to find our number 1 selection.  After many hours of cupping, Fratello has chose to work with the Coopedota cooperative.

We gave this coffee a Cupping Score of 88.6 and found that this fully washed, high altitude coffee gave an extremely clean taste, with a creamy and toffee like body.  What really stood out for me with the lingering bright and sparkling orange acidity.   Will can also pick up a slight spicey (nutmeg) note in the aromas.

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Check out some pictures from our “cafe crawl” at:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/15126591@N02/sets/72157603439934924/ 

 My brothers and I spent a day last week touring 14 of some of the best cafes in Seattle! We had a lot of great coffee and gained new insights as to where coffee culture is going.

Our hope is to influence the coffee scene in our home town of Calgary with some of what we are learning. We are committed to doing our part to raise the bar in Alberta.

What does it take to be a “3rd Wave” cafe?  Read this post and find out what some of the best in Seattle are doing. 

On December 6th, a group from Fratello Coffee and Slayer Espresso met in Seattle for 1 day.  In this 10 hour day we visited, reviewed and tasted a lot of amazing products.  When originally planning this trip to we had 2 goals.  The main purpose of this trip was to visit the Slayer Espresso’s studio to witness their break through in brewing technology and to experience their ability to develop new characteristics in its espresso brewing techniques.  It is too new for me to talk about this, so I won’t……    

Our second purpose was to educate ourselves with a few of the great Seattle “3^rd Wave café’s” and to bring this knowledge back to Calgary to help our café’s in elevating their skills in offering excellence to their customers.  With the knowledge of new competition coming to our back yard we felt that this was the best way to help prepare our clients for what the new standard of running a café will be, and what it will take to compete on these new levels.  We know that many people don’t have the time to fly to Seattle/Vancouver them selves, so we decided to bring Seattle to them.  My next plan is to do the same thing for Vancouver.  

14 cafes were chosen, all different and all excellent in what they are doing.  This tour consisted of Chris and Jason Prefontaine, Eric Perkunder, Trent Breitkreutzt and my self.  I decided to document this trip, but please keep in mind that I am not a journalist, I am a professional coffee cupper and roaster, who simply loves coffee.  The views below are my opinion only!! 

Below are some notes and observations I made while visiting these great cafes.  I hope that this will be helpful in setting a new direction for those cafes that are looking to improve with what they are currently doing everyday.  

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Here is a video of a village we @ Fratello have been sponsoring for the last 4 years. This was our first visit, and we hope to visit our friends in Belo again this August ‘08 after we attend the Rewanda Cup Of Excellence.  Check it out.