Here is our list for you. Lots of great coffee, some popular and really neat by-the-cup brew methods and tools for the home or professional Barista are all great options! Any questions call or email us and we would love to help.

Chemex and Cup of Excellence Promotion:

From Dec 4th-Dec 31st Fratello has a fantastic coffee brewing package for the coffee lover on your list, or for you!

6 Cup Glass Chemex, package of 100 Chemex filters and an 8oz bag of our Cup of Excellence Brazilian Fazenda Santa Helena coffee for $70.00. Buy it here or call us if you are local to come pick up at Fratello. Separately this is worth $85.00!

Check out this Chemex video for a “how to” on this fantastic brew method!

Give the gift of great coffee:

Sure a bottle of wine is the customary host gift during the holiday season, but why not give a bag of coffee this season! Amazing Espresso blends,  top tier single origin coffee and Cup of Excellence selections are all in store for you! Come in and see us or place your order online with us.

Tools for the home or professional Barista: 10% off from Dec 4th-Dec 31st

Fratello has a great selection of espresso tampers, milk steaming pitchers, cleaning solutions and knock boxes for the home espresso enthusiest or the professional Barista alike! If you are looking for that particular product give us a call or come in to see us! We don’t have these items online, but would be happy to help you choose.

By-the-cup brewers: Coffee enthusisits are really turing to by-the-cup brewers to bring out the full flavor potential of amazing coffee. Fratello has a great selection of the home brewers your coffee enthusist is asking for! Don’t forget to pick up some coffee as well with the brewer. We would love to brew you a cup of coffee with the Aeropress, Chemex or Hario V60. If you are in Calgary come see us at Fratello and ask for a coffee!

Happy Holidays from Fratello! Enjoy your coffee and enjoy your time with family and friends this season. We look forward to helping find that perfect gift!

The auction for these coffees will be on January 19^th.   26 lots of coffee were awarded the prestigious Cup of Excellence award this year; however, Fratello Coffee will only be focusing on the top 10 coffees. 

What we’ll be cupping is:

Lot #1  Fazenda Ouro Verde

• Pupled Natural Catua
• Region: Chapada Diamantina
• Cupping Score: 91.08

Lot #2  Fazenda Sant’Ana

• Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon/Acaia
• Region: Sul de Minas
• Cupping Score: 90.83

Lot #3  Fazenda Recreio

• Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon
• Region: Mogiana – Vale da Grama
• Cupping Score: 89.42

Lot #4  Fazenda Monte Verde

• Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon
• Region: Sul de Minas
• Cupping Score: 89.15

Lot #5  Chacara Sao Judas Tadeu

• Pulped Natural Catuai
• Region: Chapada Diamantina
• Cupping Score: 88.88

Lot #6  Fazenda Rainha

• Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon
• Region: Mogiana – Vale da Grama
• Cupping Score: 87.90

Lot #7  Fazenda Passagem Funda

• Pulped Natural Catuai
• Region: Chapada Diamantina
• Cupping Score: 87.77

Lot #8  Fazenda Santa Ines

• Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon
• Region: Sul de Minas
• Cupping Score: 87.63

Lot #9  Fazenda Santa Helena II

• Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon
• Region: Sul de Minas
• Cupping Score: 87.38

Lot #10  Fazenda Corrego Seco

• Pulped Natural Catuai
• Region: Chapada Diamantina
• Cupping Score: 86.65

For more information on these and the other 16 winning estates, please visit:

http://www.cupofexcellence.org/CountryPrograms/Brazil/2009Program/WinningFarms/tabid/651/Default.aspx

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.

• Costa Rican Calle de Copy COE #3
• Colombian Villarrica COE #4 

Also available:

• Nicaraguan Finca Limoncillo, Direct Trade, Single Estate
• Panama Esmeralda Diamond Mountain, Rainforest Alliance, Single Estate
• Bolivian Caranavi, Organic Fairtrade
• Ethiopian Sidamo, Organic Fairtrade

**Order these on line now**

You can read more about this coffee here:

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:

• Brazilian Daterra Sweet Blue

Available now (and selling fast): READ more.

• Ethiopian Idido Misty Valley – Organic

Available now: READ more.

• Guatemalan Montecristol – Rainforest Alliance, Direct Trade, MicroLot

Available July: READ more.

• Colombian Villarrica – Cup of Excellence #4

Available July/August: READ more.

• Costa Rican Celle de Copey – Cup of Excellence #3

Available August/September: READ more.

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.  

Russ

 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.

 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.

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 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. 

For more information on this coffee and the farm it was produced on, please read

below:Lot#: 13 Telmo Cahuana – Jatum Kjari

Jatum Kjari History
Telmo Cahuana Mamani began growing coffee in 1986 on a hectare of land that had been given to him as payment for his work as a school teacher at Comunidad Universo. From that point on Telmo dedicated himself to coffee production. He participated in previous competitions, but this was the first year he had made it to the international jury. “For me, this is a great achievement. As a result I’m very motivated and excited to keep working…first to improve the quality of for my family and children, and also to keep producing coffee.”The farm is located in the Pilón Lajas Ecological Reserve, explained Telmo. “Coffee is a very noble product for the land, it is a friend of the environment. This is why I and my compañeros respect mother earth.” Telmo currently has 16 hectares planted with criollo and caturra coffee, and one day hopes to have as much as 100 hectares of coffee. “Thanks to God, today we have more demand than we can produce. Coffee is profitable and I want to tell all of my neighbors that quality of the coffee speaks for itself; if a coffee is good it will sell itself and Bolivian coffee is excellent.”

Quality Practices
Ripe cherries are hand harvested from June to September. Depulping is done daily immediately after harvest. Wet milling is done centrally at AIPAC’s plant. Depulped coffee is fermented for 15 hours and washed with clean water from mountain springs. The coffee is then sun-dried on drying patios and tables.Environmental Care Production is done without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers.

Other Statistics:
Type of Soil: Clay and sand
Average Annual Rainfall: 1,700 mm
Type of Shade: Siquili – Forestales
Weeding: Twice per year
Pruning: Sanitary pruning
Production practices: Organic pest control using Bauveria bassiana

Property Characteristics:
Farm: Jatum Kjari
Farmer: Telmo Cahuana
Rank: 13
City: Distrito Cascada
Country: Bolivia
Farm Size: 45.00 Hectares
Coffee growing area: 16.00 Hectares
Altitude: 1450 masl
Certification: Organic

Coffee Characteristics:
Variety: Criollo (80%), Caturra (20%)
Processing System: Processing at DESYI SRL plant
Lot Size: 14 bags
International Jury Score: 86.21
Cupping Number #: SUR-040
Jury Descriptions: dark chocolate (16), black cherry (6), sugar cane (6) dried fruit (5), syrupy mouth feel (5), notably clean (4), raisin (3), syrah wine (3), pecans (2), malt (1)
Please Note: If a number appears in brackets next to a description it indicates the number of jurors that agreed with that particular decription.