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I'll leave you with something Alejandro told the farmers of Los Rosales: "Los cafes especiales no existen. Lo que existe es productores especiales." This roughly translates to "Special coffees don't exist. What exists is special producers."
For coffees that have everything going for them in terms of environmental potential, like these in Nariño, I couldn't agree more with this sentiment. Having met many of these special producers, I'm thrilled for what's to come.
Fred had just spent a view weeks in Durham + Chapel Hill spending time with Virmax East Coast US, Badi Bradley and the Grant Tenille.
Prepping for another Cupping Session at the office!
Testing our new Harvest Blend which will be available on our online store starting this week through November.
Harvest Blend is just what we need to fully enjoy and appreciate Autumn!
Get EXCITED!
Various cupping projects in the works today as were working through some roasting lines.
There were a couple of batches of 808 this morning that were on point which is good because that coffee's been moving around a bunch.
Now we're about to run through some coffees from other roasters just to see what's up.
Ben's working on a theory of airation as a beneficial componant to brewing should prove some interesting results. I'm still nursing this cup of Fazenda Furnas from Kaffa that Pele brewed up this morning. Don't know if it was the press or what but it's not hitting the spot.
Learned about property tax exemptions this morning. exciting!
Here Luciano, the head cupper at the farm, wanted to prove the point that:
1. Coffees from the same micro-region of the farm could taste different, depending on whether they were grown closer to the top of the slope or the bottom (100-200ft away), and that people could taste the difference when properly guided.
2. The "same" coffee dried on different mechanical dryers or on different batches on the same dryer could taste different and people could also pick up those differences. We cupped 7 different batches from one hillside.
And he was right on both instances.
It is impressive how the workers at the farm track where exactly each coffee is coming from, how that information goes to the cupping table at each stage, how the farm managers and agronomists grab that feedback and actually use it to improve how coffee is grown, fertilized and harvested in each slope on the farm. And it is even more impressive how all of that is coordinated with the "tratoristas" (the tractor drivers, each of whom manage a specific section of the farm) and a huge team (including hundreds of seasonal workers) to implement the improvements.
Dallis Bros. Coffee staff trip to the Fazenda Nossa Senhora Aparecida in Alta Mogiana, a coffee farm in the countryside of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, between May/June of 2010.
Check out more at: www.dallisbroscoffee.com
Cupping refers to an ancient Chinese practice in which a cup is applied to the skin and the pressure in the cup is reduced, usually by a flame, so that the skin and superficial muscle layer is drawn into and held in the cup.
Cupping is believed to stimulate flow of blood, lymph and Qi to the affected area. Its uses include relieving pain in the muscles, especially back pain from stiffness or injury, and clearing congestion in the chest, which can occur with colds and flu. It can even benefit menstrual problems and digestive problems, too.
A certain amount of bruising is expected both from fixed position cupping (especially at the site of the cup rim) and with movement of the cups.
a couple of pics I took for a coffee cupping article I'm writing for CC cusine & nightlife publication
1st Tea (Shou Mei) – Shou Mei is a white tea and as a white tea is very different from other types of tea such as green or black tea. White tea leaves are plucked from a special varietal tea bush called Narcissus or chaicha bushes. Secondly the leaves are not steamed or pan-fired (the process used in green teas) or fermented and fired (the process used in black tea). The leaves are naturally withered and dried in the sun.
One of the flights we cupped were of all the experimental processing lots from Finca Mauritania. There were 9 different samples all together.