The Prairie Coffee Project is a movement, a hope, and a passion to create a better understanding and appreciation of truly fine coffee. It is a group of specialty coffee roasters and cafés across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba who put aside differences and competition in order to promote the art and craft of roasting and serving exceptional coffee. It is an ongoing discussion and collaboration of the techniques, tools and processes for making remarkable coffee. It is a place for coffee enthusiasts to learn more about all aspects of coffee, and to be inspired by and connect with the professional coffee community.  It is one more step on the journey toward better coffee.

One of the main activities of the Prairie Coffee Project is hosting an annual barista competition and coffee symposium. The Prairies Regional Barista Competition is an event where professional baristas have 15 minutes to prepare 12 coffee beverages and give a presentation to a panel of sensory and technical judges. The performances are evaluated on taste, technical merit and creativity. The top scoring baristas advance to the Canadian National Barista Competition.  To see photo’s from last years competition click HERE.Coffee enthusiasts of any kind, both professional and “home baristas” are welcome to attend this event held on August 6th at Fratello Coffee Roasters.  Admission is FREE and you will have the opportunity through out the day to sample coffees made from baristas/cafes from around Calgary along with complimentary food/snacks.  To top it off, Alley Burger (of Charcut) will be cooking their famous hamburgers to purchase from 11:30-3:00.   So make sure you come and cheer on your favourite baristas from your favourite cafes!

The Coffee Symposium, a new event for 2011, is presented along with the Prairie Regional Barista Competition. It is a series of hands-on workshops and  classes to teach coffee drinkers how to brew better coffee at home, how to taste and evaluate coffee, and how to better understand and experience the joys of complex, nuanced coffee.

Other events such as barista jams, coffee tastings, brewing courses and other gatherings will be planned throughout the year.   And the discussion and conversation around great coffee will continue online.

We want you to get involved.  We are going to need volunteers at these events.  Please sign up HERE if you wish to volunteer or HERE if you want to compete in these events.

This is a quick post to say congratulations to Joel May, one of our barista trainers at Fratello Coffee, for finishing 3rd place over all in the National Canadian Barista Competition.  This is a HUGE accomplishment for Joel & Fratello.  The competition was very steep this year and to even move on to the Canadian finals was great, let alone the top 3!!

This is Joel’s 3rd year in a row finishing in the top 6 in Canada.  We hope he is proud, because we sure are!

Get involved behind the scenes or just come out to cheer on your favoriet baristas.

This is open to all of the public and is being held at:

Fratello Coffee Roasters

4021 – 9th Street SE

Calgary, Alberta

Tickets are available for $5.00 at the door.   Entrance also gives you the ability to win the 50/50 draw at the end of the evening.

This stretched on for almost 7 hours!  Fratello chose to puchase Lot # 6 which was also given a Presidental Award.  A Presidental Award is given to any coffee which scores over a 90.00 in the Cup of Excellence compitition.

Lot#: 6 Luis Huayhua Chiji – Café Central – Jury Score 90.71

Below is information on the coffee that we will be sharing with all of our friends/clients in the new year.

Luis Huayhua is father of three children. He is married to Zenobia Charca, a coffee producer for over 20 years and winner of the Cup of Excellence 2008. He arrived in Alto Beni from Achacachi in the Bolivian high plains (the altiplano) with her parents when he was 10 years old. Luis learned about coffee production as a child, while working alongside his parents, but he had never processed coffee. For this reason, de-pulping, fermenting, washing and drying there coffee to participate in the competition presented a challenge for him.

Nevertheless, he met this challenge working with her children and with the advice his wife gave him when he arrived from La Paz to the plantation on the weekends. To participate in the 2008 Cup of Excellence, he worked from 3 in morning and didn’t get to sleep until 11 at night. His children helped him after school, taking on their homework after night fall. Faced with so much work, there were moments when he wanted to stop.  He told us, “it was really hard.  I was tired and I thought that everything I did wasn’t worth the trouble, that I couldn’t win because the other men producers were working on their coffee. I only did what my husband told me, but I’m really happy now, and really proud. My children will also be happy when they hear that we won.”

The winner doesn’t yet know how much his coffee will sell for in the international market, but he is already dreaming about what he will do with the money. The first thing he will do is renew his plantation and improve his production.

The second is fulfilling the dream of his oldest daughter, Elizabeth, who wants to learn to speak English and study accounting when she graduates from high school. Organic compost from the discarded coffee pulp, the use of organic barriers, soil protection.

What we do know is that Joel May from Fratello Coffee has made it to the finals, and is ranked in the top 6 of Canada.

Tomorrow we will find out who will be the 2009 Canadian champion.  It is going to be a very tight competition!!!

Stay tuned, and join us on UStream.com to watch this event live.

This is a very challenging competition that takes a lot of work and constant practice.  Joel will be competing with barista’s from around Canada who have each earned the chance to compete for the chance to go to London England next year with hopes of becoming the World’s top barista.

Over the past few months barista’s have been competing across Canada in Regional Competitions and only the top 3 from each region are guaranteed a spot in the Nationals.   Shaw TV did a feature on the Prarie Regional’s held at Fratello Coffee early September.  Please watch this video which helps explain what the competition is about.

The second annual event, held this year at Fratello Coffee Roasters in Calgary, will feature 11 competitors from the prairies region. Each competitor has 15 minutes to prepare and serve 12 coffee beverages—four espresso, four cappuccino, and four signature drinks. Four sensory judges, two technical judges and one head judge evaluate each performance, including the taste of beverages served, cleanliness, creativity, technical skill and overall presentation of the competitors.

The top three scoring competitors earn the right to compete at the Canadian National Barista Championship, October 14 & 15 in Vancouver, as well as travel bursaries and a prize package. The public is invited to attend the event free of charge and enjoy beverages prepared by competitors at the complimentary espresso bar. The event will be broadcast live on Ustream. A link and further details can be found on the event website at http://2009prbc.com/

Also – this Friday September 11 is a Barista Jam – Open to all Professional Barista’s and coffee enthusiasts. We’ll be hanging out, pulling shots and warming up for the competition. There will also be a Latte Art Throwdown, $5 buy-in winner take all. P.S. beer will be served

See you guys this Friday & Saturday !

Here is a Schedule of Events for all compeditors

 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. 

The second cupping stage was left with 124 lots of coffee.  The same scoring methodology is used, only passing coffee’s scoring an 84 or higher.  During each stage of the cupping, every coffee will be tested by every cupper a minimum of 4 times.  If a taste defect is found at any time, the coffee is automatically disqualified.  To illustrate how stringent this process is, 2 out of the final 10 lots were disqualified on the last day!

The 3^rd and final stage involves 24-26 international cuppers who have been selected from around the world for their discriminating pallets.  This is the panel I have the honor of being a member of.  We were all brought to Colombia for a 4 day in-depth analysis of each coffee which was passed by the National Jury.  This event left us 56 coffees from around Colombia, most of them this year from the Huila district, and primarily in the Pitalito area.

On day 1 of the 3^rd stage, 28 coffees are cupped and graded over 3 different sessions.  Each coffee was cupped a minimum of 4 times and each sip requires thought on cup characteristics such as aroma (as dry grounds, the crust and at the break), clarity, sweetness, acidity, mouth feel, flavor, after taste, balance and overall impression.  The intensity and flavor description of each is also documented and discussed after each round.

Day 2 also featured 28 coffees over 3 sessions.  Day 3 we cupped 30 different coffees which were the coffees scoring 84 points or higher by International Jury on days 1 and 2.  

Day 4 the top 10 are finally re-cupped and unfortunately 2 of these had defects forcing them to be disqualified.  This was incredibly disappointing for us and the farmers, putting a damper on a typically rewarding day.  This left a total of 26 lots of coffee were awarded the coveted Cup of Excellence seal and will be auctioned in April.

I walk away with new friends and a much more refined pallet.  I have discovered a range of Colombian coffees that I did not know before and have clarity around potential direct trade partnerships moving forward.  More importantly I have a renewed appreciation for the work these farmers/families put into growing excellent coffee and realize again how delicate this product is.  

Coffee excellence starts with the farm.  Perfect growing conditions (climate, soil and elevation), followed by handing picking the ripest red cherries and flawless processing on the farm and dry mills are step one.  Fast and accurate shipping is required followed by a controlled warehouse environment in Calgary to ensure the green coffee conditions are stable.   Proper roasting techniques and strict quality control methods are used daily.  Roasting and delivering in small batches ensures freshness for our clients and is crucial to the quality of coffee you serve your customers.  Proper training for you and your barista’s is our final step in helping you strive to be the best and is the final stage for us, where we hand off the responsibility to you.  To not brew or extract these and all coffees with the same attention to detail and care, is nothing less than heart-breaking.

I need to begin by thanking the team that I had behind me, from the brothers working with me to create the blend, to Mike our Master Roaster I worked closely with to produce the roast we took, and to all the friends and family who supported me through the experience.  I literally could not have done it without you

I also need to acknowledge the competitors.  One and all they are a class act and I consider my self EXTRMELY fortunate to count myself among their number.  It’s very nice to be able to put faces to the names and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again and to keeping in touch.

I hate to admit that I did not watch any of the other competitors on the day of the finals, I was going last and it was all I could do to keep my wits about me listening to them.

I for one am ecstatic at finishing third over all at the National level.  Particularly in light of the fact that it was our first venture into the competitive Barista world, and only my second year in the coffee industry.  I just goes to show what a great team and a lot of passion can do.

I’m particularly proud of the fact that despite my long winded, “time eating” talking, and a few other bobbles, the Espresso blend we chose (Ethiopian Kembata, Sumatra Tabu Jamu and Brazil Sete Cachoeiras) came through and shone as the wonderful Espresso that it is.  For myself, I love the fact that this coffee, that I felt such a passion for, would lend itself so well to becoming a truly delightful cup.

We’ve (any Barista worth anything) all said it and we all believe, that we are the last in a long line of individuals who have planted, cultivated, picked, processed, sorted, chosen,  cupped, profiled, roasted and prepared the last great affordable personal luxury.  More importantly we are the ones in the spot light that can champion all the others in the line and give them a voice.  It’s our privilege to work with and for such people.

All told, this has been a phenomenal experience, with a ton of lessons learned that will be brought to those around us.  Lessons that include a dramatic elevation in the knowledge of the origins and the impact, care and attention during processing have, to all of us at Fratello improving our ability to profile and create new blends.  We’re looking forward to the upcoming year and can’t wait to see what the future holds.  If any of you thought that this year was a close year, wait till next year.  The 14 (then the 6 in the finals) are nothing more than the tip of the iceberg that is the coffee industry…

 The judging process is a 4 day cupping extravaganza that allows you to taste the best coffees that country has to offer.  It starts out with the national cupping jury to taste all the entries and separate all the coffees that score an 84 or higher. 

The next event bring the international jury into to rank all of these coffee to pick the final farms that qualify as a Cup of Excellence coffee (again anything over 84).  Every coffee gets tasted by each judge from 4 – 12 times and will be scored, and described each time.  Very tiring, but very rewarding.

When you walk away from the competition, you have experienced the best of this country as well as had the opprotunity to discover many different micro regions that had never been descovered until this time. 

Honduras boarders Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and many of the coffee from Honduras will resemble those regions giving you a very diverse range of coffee profiles.  From Strawberry’s, to Caramel to Lime.  We learned to expect anything!!

Yesterday Fratello chose to buy the Lot - Erzi Moises Herrera Urizar – Las Amazonas.   

The Jury Descriptions for this coffee included everything from:

creamy body, almond, marzipan, apricot, clean lime, red apple, coconut aroma, good structure (complex), vanilla aromas, black cherry, apricot, dried apricot. 

This coffee is 100% Catura and was grown at an elevation of 1500 meters in the La Paz region.  This is a fully washed coffee, that was sun dried.  The farmer Erzi Moises Herrera Urizar has owned his farm Las Amazonas since 1992 after working for a coffee exporter in Guatemala.   He now runs this farm with his two sons, and wife that has been in coffee for the past 50 years.  

Erzi only pics red cherries by hand and will then transport them by truck to the wet mill he uses, which is 10 minutes from his farm.  The de-pulping process is done by hand to save on water consumption from the near by stream.  Erzi’s goal is higher quality coffee every year that will result in better income for his family and also strives for higher standards for environmental protection. 

Fratello Coffee purchased the 13 bags Erzi had to sell; however, will only be offering a total of 5 bags (550 lbs) to our clients in Canada.  This will be available by Christmas.