This is an interesting question, and one that does not have a quick answer. I often compare coffee to wine as there are many comparables. All bottles of red wine from Italy do not taste the same. It is dependant on the vineyard, the grape (Merlot, etc..), the harvest, soil conditions, altitude, weather conditions of that particular harvest in that particular year, in that particular region. All of this is also true with coffee.
Nicaragua, for example typically has farms with lots of gain in elevation. You can have a single farm which grows coffee from 800 meters all the way up to 1800 meters. Elevation plays a significant part in the quality of coffee. Soil conditions & make up, the varietal of coffee cherry (Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, etc…), weather conditions, region with in the country (or the country itself) are some variables that make up the flavors found in a coffee. As important, is the way the coffee cherries are harvested. Selectively picking only the ripest red cherries develops a sweeter and more balanced acidity in the cup.
However, what I wanted to talk about was what happens AFTER the coffee cherries are picked. Once a coffee cherry has been picked, it must be processed, dried, rested and then exported. EVERY step along the life cycle of coffee affects the end result in your cup of coffee. Today, I wanted to explain a little bit about processing of coffee cherries at the Wet Mill.
At the moment, everyone at Fratello Coffee seems excited about brewing coffee on a Chemex. I’m loving the body and cleanliness that the Chemex produces. It seems to extract a syrupy mouth-feel that I always love in coffee.
As you will see, a Chemex is easy to use and is also inexpensive to buy.
Fratello has just begun selling two new coffee brewing devices which are now available on our on-line store. The Chemex & Aeropress aren’t new to the industry; however, are new to us.
Both of these devices brew coffee extremely well. At the moment I’m really enjoying the Chemex.
I find that the extraction of this method brings out a syrup body and sweetness in the cup that is hard to match with other brewing methods.
This Aeropress is also very interesting.
This will certainly be my brew method of choice for when I’m traveling & camping. It is fast, easy to use and requires very little clean up. I get a very clean cup with this method of brewing and find it great with coffee that has a pronounced acidity. (Read the rest of this post)
Good day all you coffee lovers. I’d like to invite you to come to Fratello Coffee this Thursday at 2:30 for another free public cupping. This week we will be sampling 16 different Sumatran & Indonesian coffee. Each of these are from different cooperatives, each processed differently and each to deliver a different profile in the cup.
Sumatrans are typically known for their Earthy flavor profiles and often described as woody, dirty and inconsistent in their roasting profile. Our goal is to bring you a coffee which still offers these classic cup characteristics, at the same time as bringing something much cleaner, sweeter and syrupy to the table.
What we’ll be tasting is:
Sumatra Permata – Organic Fair Trade
Sumatra Sidikalang Tabu Jamu – Natural, double pick
5 x Sumatra Mandheling Grade 1
Indonesian Flores Grade 1 Organic “Green Dragon”
Indonesian Flores Bajawa Ngura Organic
Indonesian Java Sagulins
Sumatra Sidikalang Estate – Fully Washed
Sumatra Aceh Tengah Organic
Sumatra Takengon, Aceh – Pulped Natural
Bali Kintimani Organic – Natural
Sulawesi Toraja Sapan Minanga
We hope that you can make it to this event. This will be a fun and casual atmosphere to taste some of the nicest coffees available from these regions.
Our first public cupping this week was a great success! We had a lot of fun and got to taste some amazing Ethiopian coffees with fellow coffee enthusiasts. It just wouldn’t be fair to share these coffees with others.
We will be doing an exploration of 6-10 different Indonesian and Sumatran selections first week of December. Stay tuned for the actual date/time which we will announce next week.
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.
The Canadian Barista & Coffee Academy will be offering two days of barista training at Fratello this May 26th and 27th – following the Barista Competition.
This special training academy for barista (espresso machine operators) and those interested in learning more about coffee and espresso presents its 2008 Educational Program. The hands-on training workshops are lead by Canadian and international expert trainers and professional baristas. They are for those new to the industry or those who want to perfect their coffee skills and include: Basic Training, Advanced Training and Expert Barisa workshops.
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.
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)
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.
The Canadian Barista & Coffee Academy will be offering two days of barista training at Fratello this May 26th and 27th – following the Barista Competition.
