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.
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.
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 thebest 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 “3rd 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.
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.
Starting March 1, 2008 you will be able to purchase this incredible Direct Trade coffee from Fratello Coffee Co. We haven’t been this excited about offering our clients a coffee since the first lot of Cup of Excellence we won.
This coffee cupped out at a 89.5, but if you were to include the look of the beans when scoring, this coffee would have been well into the 90’s. These giant beans give this coffee a very unique look. We found that this coffee gave us a spicy orange and fresh pine aroma which was complimented by the thick & syrupy mouth feel. Flavor notes of black-bing cherry, candied cloves and apple pie are brightened with the delicate grapefruit acidity.
Finca El Limoncillo - General farm information
This farm got its name from the unusual growth of lemon trees that were originally found here. This is arguably their most beautiful farm (out of 5).
I have been doing some research and have found that there is not a lot of information available for coffee consumers who are interested in learning the skill of tasting coffee properly, or cupping as its called in the coffee industry. Cupping is a daily task which most roasters and green coffee buyers do on a regular basis. This is a SKILL, and a skill that you can learn how to do over time. You must teach your pallet how to do this properly, and through following some of these steps we have out lined, you can begin to learn.
Coffee lovers will agree that coffees by the same name are not all alike. Coffee “cupping”, or comparing coffees is not only a lot of fun for the consumer, but also imperative to coffee shop owners who are committed to offering their customers the best coffee.
Good coffee is worth discovering:
Ground rules for coffee cupping:
The real art of cupping comes with the descriptive terms used when explaining the different geographical regions being tasted. (Read the rest of this post)
Wow….I just came from another amazing supping table, and this time it was samples of Nicaraguan’s. 2008 is going to be an amazing year for coffee qualities available through Fratello. It has been a while since I’ve cupped consistently good coffees from all origins in Central and South America.
The most unique cup so far was what I tasted today. A Nicaraguan Pacamara Peaberry….A GIANT peaberry.?.?..I have never heard of this variety before today.
I gave this coffee an 89.5. The aroma on this gave hints of cinnamon, pine and a spiced orange. The cup was clean and sweet and had flavors of black bing cherry, candied cloves, licorice and molasses. Amazing. It reminded me of a really good Ethiopian or Kenyan. I’m going to do my best to get some of this for next year. Wish me luck.
Check out the size of these beans compared to the penny:
Look for this coffee in 2008. You will not regret trying this estate.
Fratello Coffee has found a new source for its Guatemalan coffee and is pleased to announce that it is certified by Rainforest Alliance. We have chose to work with the Nueva Granada estate and will have this amazing coffee starting in December of this year.
Guatemalan Nueva Granada – Single Estate - Rainforest Alliance Certified Cupping Score – 87.6 – Nutty & chocolate orange aromas prepare you for the dark chocolate and creamy/silky mouth feel with lingering and zesty orange acidity.
Nueva Granada Estate Coffee
During the harvest, Nueva Granada selects only the ripest cherries, and when the beans are in parchment form, again grades the coffees and stores them in burlap bags in a special, dry, wood-line storeroom. Once an order comes from Fratello Coffee Co., the parchment covering is removed and Nueva Granada’s blue-green beans are carefully selected and prepared for shipment.
Fratello Coffee won its 3rd auction with the Cup of Excellence program on November 15th. This was a fast paced auction with many different roasting and retail companies bidding on the 26 award winning lots. As far as we could see, this auction will result in the highest average prices over all. I congratulate the Cup of Excellence program for their marketing efforts, and for successfully organizing another amazing event.
Fratello Coffee was awarded the 13th placing winning coffee. I remember this product well and found the characteristics in this coffee to show tastes of a Smokey Earth, a sparkling citrus and lingering acidity, with a clean body showing hints of Raisin. I scored this with an 87.5, however the average score at the competition gave this a 86.21. Overall this coffee is very balanced.
In August - Chris and Russ were in Brazil visiting the Sete Cachoeiras coffee estate. While there, they took some great photos of their tours and Russ decided to describe everything that he saw and learned - and we turned it into a Coffee Knowledge slide show. Click the picture below to launch slide show or click the Link.
