Fratello has a brand new coffee in the works and you’re about to get the inside scoop. The Nicaraguan Java, sourced by Fratello’s head roaster David Schindel, is on its way to being in a coffee cup near you! I sat down with David to learn a bit more about his recent trip to Nicaragua and how this coffee travelled from farm to Fratello.
Kwin Dean: Hey David, sounds like your recent trip to Nicaragua was pretty productive! How many farms did you visit while you were there?
David Schindel: I visited 5 farms total on my trip to Nicaragua; the Mama Mina farm, the Los Placeres farm, two other smaller farms and finally the Limoncillo farm, where I found the Nicaraguan Java, or Nica Java for short. Finca Limoncillo was probably one of the most beautiful places that I visited on my entire trip, as you can probably tell from the pictures.
KD: What stood out to you about this particular farm?
DS: The huge waterfall right in the middle! And the large size of the farm…it’s 171 manzanas; or close to 300 acres. The Nica Java lot made up only a few acres of the entire farm.
KD: Tell me a little bit about the background of Finca Limoncillo and Fratello’s relationship with the farmers.
DS: This farm is owned by the Mierisch family, whom we’ve been working with for 6 or 7 years now. They also own the Mama Mina and Los Placeres farms that we’ve gotten some really nice coffees from in the past. The Mierisch family is pretty well established in the coffee community. They have 9 farms, with some in Honduras as well. Their website, fincasmierisch.com, is a really good source of information on each farm and can give people a broader idea the coffees that are grown there and the teams that work there.
KD: What are the working conditions like at Finca Limoncillo?
DS: In comparison to the quality of life that most Nicaraguans lead, I’d say the working conditions there are definitely above average. The farm workers live in the area and have access to school facilities and an on-site medical care office year round, even though the harvest is seasonal; usually December to February.
KD: How are the coffees picked and milled at Finca Limoncillo?
DS: The coffee cherries are hand-picked, then milled and dried about one hour from the farm. This is also where the cupping lab is.
The Mierisch family has adopted a new parabolic drying chamber which is in its first year of use at the mill. Essentially it consists of African raised beds that are stacked on top of each other in a green- house-like environment that controls humidity as the beans dry. The beans start at the top of the stack and are lowered down level by level as they dry. This allows for a slower drying time, which helps to close up the cell walls of the bean more consistently and leads to a harder bean that is better for roasting.
Once dried, the beans are sorted by density, then sorted again by hand to ensure that only the best beans make the cut.
KD: You ended up choosing two different coffees from this farm to import to Fratello. How did you go about choosing these coffees?
DS: I did an extensive cupping over the course of two days. I tasted about 40 coffees each day for a total of close to 80 different coffees. This farm is pretty large with around 3 full containers, or about 900 sacks, produced each year. This means that there is a wide variety of coffees to try in the cuppings.
In the end I chose two coffees: the Nica Java natural and the Nica Java pulp natural. This is the exact same coffee bean, just processed in two different ways. In this case, Java simply refers to the varietal of the bean. It is characterized by being a little bit more elongated and oblong-shaped than some other varietals.
KD: What is the difference between a coffee that is naturally processed and a coffee that is processed using the pulp natural method?
DS: A naturally processed coffee means that the coffee is dried with the coffee cherry still on the bean. This type of processing generally gives the coffee more fruity flavours.
A pulp natural is dried with the mucilage or pulp still on the bean, but NOT the full coffee cherry. So this type of processing supplies a bit less fruit flavour to the coffee than the natural processing does.
KD: What sort of tasting notes made you choose these coffees?
The natural had a fruity berry note. I could taste a bit of strawberry and blackberry. It was much heavier on the palette.
The pulp natural had notes of lemon and black tea, a citrus acidity and a nice natural sweetness.
In general, I was looking for a coffee that had a little something different, or a unique-ness about it. A lot of coffees have chocolate or nut flavours and they aren’t necessarily bad coffees; they’re just plain. At Fratello, we want a coffee with personality.
KD: What would be considered a bad tasting note, or something that would cause you to low-score a coffee?
DS: These could be things like: carbon flavours, which might indicate an issue with the roasting; metallic flavours, which might indicate a hard bean defect, or simply just a bland, uninteresting taste on the palate.
KD: Once you chose these two coffees and had the lots shipped to the Fratello roastery, how did you go about developing the profile of the coffees?
DS: The idea was to use roasting techniques to try to re-create those amazing flavours that I had tasted at the cuppings in Nicaragua. I’m working with the pulp natural right now. So far I’ve tried about ten different profile roasts and I think I need about one or two more just to refine the final profile.
I started by trying to highlight the acidity. To do this, I tried speeding up the first crack stage with higher temperatures at the beginning of the roast. I was still missing the lemony-ness, so I continued to play with the development times and bean colour. Eventually I made a happy mistake…I was trying for a 9 minute crack time; however the roaster was cold since it was the first roast of the day. I ended up with a crack time of just over 10 minutes, so I tried the same development time afterward and ended up finding the lemony notes I had been looking for! Now it’s just a matter of lightening up the roast a bit without losing those flavour characteristics.
KD: What flavours are you aiming for in the final cup?
DS: I’m looking to fine-tune the profile to a smooth lemon tea flavour with lots of brightness.
KD: What is the expected release date of the Nicaraguan Java?
DS: This coffee should be profiled and ready for distribution by the beginning of next week, so around September 22, 2014.
KD: How do you think this coffee ranks among our other Fratello coffees?
DS: Personally, I’d say it ranks among our top two coffees right now, along with the Costa Rican Gamboa Pastora. When I was cupping in Nicaragua, I scored these coffees around an 87 out of 100, which is pretty high.
KD: How long can we expect these coffees to be available?
DS: In terms of green beans, we brought back 2 sacks of the natural and 16 sacks of the pulp natural. This translates to just under 1200 2 pound bags of roasted coffee, so I’d say this will last us about 3 or 4 months. Hopefully less if everyone likes it as much as I think they will!
Well, there you have it! The Nicaraguan Java should be available for purchase any day now. Stop by our roastery location or either of our Analog cafes in the next couple of weeks to give this unique coffee a try…it may not last long! Happy drinking!
– Kwin Dean
Community Bakehouse announced for landmark Calgary location
Corbeaux Bakehouse to open this September under award-winning US chef Keith Luce
Calgary, AB, May 2, 2014… Ending at least part of the speculation about what will take over the landmark Melrose Cafe & Bar space, the Calgary brothers behind Fratello Coffee Roasters and Analog Cafes, Chris and Russ Prefontaine, announced today their newest venture will open this September in the former restaurant and patio space.
More than just a bakery, Corbeaux Bakehouse will offer exceptional breads, world-class pastries and a rotating menu inspired by only the finest ingredients, with everything crafted in-house. The culinary team will be led by award winning and seasoned chef Keith Luce who eagerly accepted the Prefontaine’s offer to move to Canada with his family to be part of Calgary’s culinary community.
Luce’s resume and career accolades are impressive to say the least. He’s been recognized by the prestigious James Beard Foundation as a Rising Star Chef Winner and Best New Restaurant Nominee, Food & Wine magazine has recognized him as Best Chef and he was even appointed to the United States Culinary Diplomatic Corps to name only but a few of his accomplishments. However, it was his approachable charm and excitement about doing something new and noteworthy in Calgary that made Russ and Chris realize instantly they’d found their man.
“Keith’s as seasoned as they come but what really excited us most was his excitement about Calgary and how aligned he was with our vision for this special place,” said Chris Prefontaine.
Leaders in Western Canada’s third wave coffee movement, the Prefontaines have long been supporters of direct trade, working closely with coffee farmers to know and understand where their product comes from.
Now they plan to take what they’ve learned and loved about coffee, and with Luce and his team’s help, apply that to bread and all the great things that go along with it. Small-production ancient grains. Local ingredients. A fierce emphasis on freshness. And knowing who makes your bread and food. Knowing their name, their story and why they believe in what they do.
“It’s an Old World approach, but with a fresh new energy,” said Luce. “The Corbeaux experience will begin with respect for ingredients and technique, but ultimately it’s about going back to the basics and creating a community bakehouse that brings people together in the heart of the City,” he said.
Additional details on the team and offering will be shared over the coming months.
About Corbeaux Bakehouse:
Opening in September 2014, the completely redesigned space will be a gathering spot for Calgary’s bread-loving community. A welcoming place to fuel up in the mornings. An opportunity to reconnect at lunch. And a warm place to linger with friends over a meal and a glass of wine on the way home. Stay connected at www.corbeaux.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/corbeauxbakehouse or on Twitter and Instagram @corbeauxbakehouse.
We recently returned from a trip to Nicaragua where I got to meet some new producers and taste some amazing coffee from them and some of the producers that we have been working with for years. This really seems like a great year for quality from Nicaragua. One of the major differences between this trip and previous trips to Nicaragua was the drying techniques that are now popping up around the country. We saw multiple producers using raised African beds and parabolic dryers to dry their product. The goal was to slow the drying process down to increase quality and consistency.
This year we are excited to announce that we have had the opportunity to work with some new people in Bolivia. The company we are working with is Agritrade, they work with around 500 different farmers to collect coffee from all over Bolivia and bring it to their wet mill in Caranavi in cherry form. The coffee makes the trek from up to 4 hours away down the mountains to Caranavi every evening by taxi. Agritrade pays top dollar for only the finest coffee coming from the farms and also pays for the transport by taxi so that there are no additional expenses incurred by the farmers. Once at the Wet Mill it is then sorted by hand to insure only the best cherries get through, this is on top of the meticulous sorting that the farmers have done before it is ever put in the taxi.
One of the most interesting things about this wet mill is how many options they have to process the coffee, they have 6 fermentation tanks, 3 mechanical driers, a concrete patio, African raised beds and Covered African raised beds. This helps ensure that each coffee is processed exactly the best way to bring out the flavours that their customers request.
After it is processed and dried it is stored in Caranavi in a temperature controlled room for 2 month before being shipped to the dry mill at El Alto. The dry mill is a mostly typical dry mill, they remove the parchment then run the coffee through density shakers and finally it is hand sorted to make sure no damaged beans get through, the only real difference between this dry mill and most other specialty dry mills is the black light sorting it goes through. As it is being hand sorted it passes through these black light tents where imperfections that are previously invisible to the eye are shown as little white dots, though not a defect in the coffee this coffee is removed, what this does in increase the clarity of the cup, making the flavours of each particular coffee pop out more and become more exciting.
At every step of the process the coffee is cupped to insure that the product is still what was agreed upon at time of purchase.
One of the biggest challenges in finding good Bolivian coffee is the small size of the farms, with most farms being 3 to 8 hectares, it becomes difficult to find quality coffee in the quantity we need by just dealing with individual farms. This is where Agritrade comes in, with the ability to work with over 500 farms and find the best coffee from all of those and then pass on this quality to us it makes it significantly easier.
For instance this year we will be buying from 5 different farms that Agritrade works with and has a good standing relationship with already, so instead of hunting down these farms from all over Bolivia we now have it much easier because of Agritrade. We are looking forward to working with Agritrade in the coming years; it is my hope that next trip down to Bolivia the farms that we are buying from this year will continue to be as good or better so that we can develop more of a relationship with the farmer. If we can find this kind of consistency we can then start playing with processing types to create the best and most interesting coffee for our customers. We believe they have already found the best Bolivia has to offer and through their continuous improvements in milling and experimenting we expect it to get even better!
Written by David Schindel, Lead Coffee Roaster, Fratello Coffee.
Continual improvement is something every farmer we work with strives for but few have the level of commitment that Eleane Mierisch does. This is Fratello Coffee’s 5th year working with the Miersch family and have written about them a lot. We wanted to focus on Eleane in this post as she is a big reason for the consistent quality coffee coming from their farms.
Eleane is the second oldest child of Erwin Mierisch Sr. who was one of the early leaders in specialty coffee in Nicaragua. Eleane gave up a nursing career to take care of her ailing mother, that was over 6 years ago and though her mother passed she has stayed to help with the family business.
Eleane oversees the family farms in Nicaragua but her real passion is the dry mill in Matagalpa. She told us that “We are still quite a small dry mill so the focus has to be on quality.” And that focus on quality really shines through in the cup.
Her favorite job in the dry mill is the quality control, and to maintain that she repeatedly cups the lots that are processed there. The other highlights of her job include experimenting with the multiple different drying techniques and most importantly maintaining and building the team of people that work at the dry mill. Her goal is that everyone enjoys working there and finds it rewarding, because if the workers are enjoying their jobs it is much easier to keep the high qualities of products coming out that her customers have come to expect.
One of the ways she is improving is by putting up African Raised beds as an alternative way to dry the coffee, before this the coffee was dried on a concrete patio. The Raised bed is a drying style that many believe increase the pleasant acidities in coffee. Making them stand out even more from the majority of coffee coming from Nicaragua.
The biggest way that she is improving is by communicating with her clients and finding out what types of coffees and processing methods they prefer what drying method they are most interested in. In this way she is learning what other methods her clients have seen from other countries on how to process so she can not only tailor the best coffee to each of her clients, but it also gives her more ideas on how to experiment and make the coffee better for everyone.