We’re happy to report that two of the international jury members have graced us with their collaboration on CoE or other direct coffee buying, Mary Tellie from Electric City Roasting Company, and Colleen Anunu from Gimme! Coffee.

Royal Coffee NY will be coordinating a cupping and buying group for the Honduras auction this year–hope to see some friends from last year’s cupping, and repeat our success with the 2009 Costa Rica Auction.

Week 4 items brought in $1,553

Month-long items brought in $3,615

Our grand total for the month: $10.063!

We made it!  Thanks to all who bid, all of our donors, my fellow organizers, and of course, our hosts over at the Green Coffee Buying Club. Hopefully, we’ll be doing this again next year.

Here’s hoping our little effort makes a difference.

Our second and third weeks matched the success of the first week–each week pulled in more than the retail value of the items donated.  We raised $1487 during the second week, and $1599 for the third.  That brings our three-week total to $4895!  It appears our bidders continue to demonstrate the generous spirit shown by all of our donors.

Week Four lots are now open, including a coffee table book filled with the espresso photos of one of Green Coffee Buying Club’s members, Shaun Taylor.  Shaun has always graced us with his espresso and life journeys, most of which are marked by his keen photographic eye.  Check out his photo blog for some examples of his journey.   There are another eighteen items up for bid, and this is also the last week to bid on our month-long items, including a Hottop coffee roaster, a Behmor coffee roaster, and training sessions from Trish Rothgeb and Nick Cho of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters.    Please visit our hosts at the Green Coffee Buying Club to check out the lots.  Bid early, Bid often!

We were hoping for a good turnout for the first week, and we certainly got it!  Our first week lots resulted in bids totaling $1809, which was well over the retail value of the item.  It appears our bidders have latched on to the generous spirit shown by all of our donors.

Week Two lots are now open, including a BUNN STX Home Brewer, a Reg Barber Tamper, 10 lbs. of the 7th Place Guatemala 2009 Cup of Excellence green coffee, and another 16 items.  Please visit our hosts at the Green Coffee Buying Club to check out the lots.  Bid early, Bid often!  Full listing of Week Two lots is below.

Week Two – Open from May 8 to May 15

Full listing of the winning lots can be found here; I’ve also reproduced them below.

Many thanks to Nelson Valverde of Invalsa Coffee, who donated  ten-pound lots of two different Cup of Excellence coffees and three microlots from Bolivia.  All of the Bolivian lots just arrived, and the CoE lots are from the 2009 Coe in Costa Rica and Guatemala.  All lots were vacuum packed in the country of origin.  Thank you, Invalsa!

Many thanks to Craig Holt, Karen KasKaren Kazmierczak, and the rest of the folks at Atlas Coffee Importers, who donated two separate lots to the auction: 10 lbs. of El Salvador Los Pirineos Pacamara and 15 lbs. of Brazil Samambia Peaberry Yellow Bourbon Pulp Natural.  Thank you, Atlas!

Many thanks to Connie Blumhardt, Kelly Stewert, and the rest of the folks at Roast Magazine.  Connie has contributed two one-year subscriptions to Roast, as well as two full sets of back issues.  Thank you Roast Magazine!

Many thanks to Jeff Woods, Paul Balmer, and the rest of the folks at Dillanos Coffee Roasters, who have donated another graphic design project like last year.  Last year’s winner is more than happy with the result, which you can see at the top of the page.  Dillanos’ graphic designers are wonderful to work with, and can easily translate your vision and mission into a logo that pops.  Thank you Dillanos!

Stay tuned to more shout outs to all the wonderful folks who have contribute d to this year’s auction.  Bidding on the month-long lots will be open until May 29th, and bidding on Week One lots will continue until 6:00 pm Central (US) on Saturday May 8th.  Week Two lots will open at 6:01 pm Central (US), Saturday May 8th, over at our host the Green Coffee Buying Club (free registration required).

Many thanks to Andrew Miller, Anna Mrdutt, Tim O’Brien, and all the rest of the folks at Café Imports, who have donated a full 60kg bag of what I am told is one of, if not THE top Kenya AA Auction lot out of their latest container.  Kenya Their AA Auction Lot, with the following notes:

Structured, bright, key lime, chocolate, ruby red grapefruit, currant, juicy, balanced, citrus, grapefruit, stonefruit, clean, currant, raspberry, lemon.

Thank you, Café Imports!

Another round of thanks goes to Jaime Schoenhut, Richard Borg, Andrew Blyth, Camilo Yubank, and the rest of the folks at Royal Coffee New York.  These fine folks donated a full 69kg bag of El Salvador Cerro Las Ranas Pulp Natural.  Cupping notes for this coffee:

Sweet start followed by creamy, milk chocolate and cherry flavors, a fully-developed body and a lemony-orange finish

Thank you, Royal Coffee NY!

The last round of thanks goes to Leah Warren and the fine folks at the Mercanta USA office in Lynnwood, Washington.  These kind folks donated a full 69kg bag of Peru Organic El Guabo.  Cupping notes:

Intense notes of molasses, a very rounded syrupy mouthfeel and sugar cane sweetness, combined with a tartaric acidity.

Thank you, Mercanta!

Stay tuned to more shout outs to all the wonderful folks who have contribute d to this year’s auction.  Bidding begins tomorrow at 6:01 pm Central (US) time, over at our host the Green Coffee Buying Club (free registration required).

Last last night, I got a message from Nick Cho, offering to donate one or more 3-hour coffee brewing/espresso training sessions or coffee cupping/green coffee grading sessions to the auction.  After a few back and forth messages, Nick settle up on the following two donations on behalf of Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters, which have been added to our Month Long items:

Item M-7: 3-hour customized cupping and/or green coffee grading training with Trish Rothgeb

Item M-8: 3-hour customized training on espresso and brewing with Nick Cho

Thank you both for such a generous offer.  It’s wonderful to have you in DC!

There are over 60 items to choose from (month-long and 1st two weeks posted below) and they will be available at different times throughout May 2010.  Unless otherwise noted, all coffee listed is green.

Shipping for all items is paid by the donor or Auction committee sponsor, only within the continental U.S.  Should the winning bidder reside elsewhere, the Auction week host will ask the vendor if they are willing to ship internationally, with the winning bidder paying the difference between US shipping and international shipping.

The auction opens at 6:01 pm Central (US) time, Saturday, May 1.  Each week’s items close on Saturday following, at 6:00 pm Central (US) time, with the final week closing May 29.

If you’re not bidding and would like to make a donation directly to Coffee Kids, click here.

To find additional information, or to participate in the auction, please visit the Bids for Coffee Kids threads over at the Green Coffee Buying Club.   Please note that you will need to register at GCBC to view or to participate in the auction.

All Month Listing, six items open from May 1 to May 29

Week One, twelve items open from May 1 to May 8

Week Two, fourteen items open from May 8 to May 15

Our first foray into the program has given us a wonderful microlot–only about 380 lbs.–from Planadas in the Tolima region.  Luis Merchan is the farmer that produced this coffee from his farm, Los Naranjos.  Here is Luis one of his 13,000 trees on the 3 hectacre farm.

The average elevation of Los Naranjos is approximately 5,900 feet above sea level, and Luis estimates his annual production at fifty bags (70 kg net).  Some shade is provided by Guamos trees.  Coffee is washed, and naturally fermented in washing tank, then sun-dried in “heldas”, a traditional drying system built on the roofs of houses–black plastic on top of the wood, which is covered at night and during rain.

Now for the cup–this coffee cupped well above the other two samples, which were both excellent coffees.   The cup starts with complex fragrance and aroma, with sweet graham and floral notes and toasted grain and malt hints.  Flavors notes of graham, malt, and florals held together by caramel, honey and toffee sweetness.  Excellent interplay of the aromatic, sweet, and deeper caramel notes, held together by a Meyer lemon citric acidity (almost effervescent).  Medium weight, but rich, round and chewy body, outstanding balance (acidity–body, hot to cold), just a wonderful cup.

After I finished cupping the coffee, I sat down with the remaining liquid drained it down to the grounds.  An excellent cup from start to finish.   Soon this coffee will be enroute to home roasters across the country, and others can share this little bit of joy from Luis Merchan, in Planadas, Tolima, Colombia.

Many thanks to Luis Merchan and his family, and to Alejandro and Giancarlo at Virmax for making this possible.

One program that had us hooked from the start is the Las Mingas program from Virmax.  Las Mingas, loosely translated means “for the good of all”.  The program focuses on quality, and provides a transparent pricing process from farmer, exporter, importer and buyer.  Virmax works with selected farms and cups individual lot samples–samples that score above an 84 approved as individual lots and then sent off to potential buyers for evaluation.  Buyers cup the samples, and then set the price based on the buyer’s cupping score.  It’s a means for the coffee buyer to directly reward the farmer based on quality.

After reading a bit on the program from our friends at gimme! coffee, including a question and answer session with the Las Mingas program founders Alejandro Cadena and Giancarlo Ghiretti, we contacted Alejandro and through our name in the hat.  Alejandro let us know that he could find small lots that would fit our buying profile.  Last fall, Alejandro sent us three samples from the Tolima region.  All three coffees were excellent, but one stood out above the others.   We approved the sample, agreed on a price based on our cupping score-one well above the fair trade price.

Here are a few details about the farm; I’ll post more on the farm and the coffee tomorrow, along with pictures.  Here’s to what I hope is a continuing relationship, and one of first steps of our part to improve the world of coffee.

Farmer Name: Luis Merchan
Farm Name: Los Naranjos

Farm Location
Department: Tolima
Municipality: Planadas
Elevation: 1,800 m.a.s.l. (5,900 ft)

Farm Size: 3.0 hectares
Total Number of trees: 13,000
Varietals: Coffea Arabica: Caturra (60%) / Colombia (40%)
Estimated Annual Production: 50 bags (70-kg net, each)
Harvest time: April – July / November-January
Processing: Natural fermented and fully washed in tanks
Drying: Sun-dried in “heldas” (traditional drying system built on top of the roofs of houses – with a black plastic on top of the wood, which is covered at night and when raining)
Shade Type: Semi shaded with Guamos
Fertilization: Chemical

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A few months ago, I decided to take the plunge and host a pre-auction cupping of El Salvador 2009 Cup of Excellence samples. I was hoping to become part of a buying group for the auction that followed.  The auction came and went, and maddeningly, many of us were not able to pull a group together, despite the relatively low prices for this auction (many lots priced in the $3-$4/lb. range).

Prior to the auction, I had contacted the Colleen Anunu, Director of Coffee at  gimme! coffee, a small artisan roastery serving retail, wholesale, and web customers out of NY state. We discussed possible collaboration on Cup of Excellence buying, and agreed to compare notes on the El Salvador lots.

The auction opened, and, like the Colombia auction, I could not get together a group.   Here’s a quote from one of the many emails I sent after the auction:

There I was cobbling together folks, working on getting importing support, and BAM–auction closed. I should have done what I wanted to do and just bid on a lot and let the chips fall.

Pricing for the lot I most wanted, the #19 Altamira I, ended at $3.10.

Crushed.  It mattered not that I didn’t have the cash on had for the whole lot, or that I’d only bought my first bag of coffee little more than a year ago, or that my entire customer base is a small group of home coffee roaster spread thinly around the country.  Failure does not cup well.

Fortunately, I’ve been cursed blessed with modicum of stubbornness, so I started checking the listings for the winning bidders on each lot. Lot #19 Winning bidder….T.A.N. Coffee!  I had contacted Lay Yong Tan from TAN Coffee back in April, during the Colombia auction.  I got him on the third ring, offered my congratulations on his winning bids (he won the #21 and #25 lots as well), and asked the question du joir:  Would he be willing to sell any of the Altamira?

The answer?

(photo credit: gimme! Coffee)

Nearly five months after the auction, I purchased almost half the lot of Altamira I from TAN Coffee, and immediately sent ten 34.5 kg boxes to gimme! coffee.  Less than a week later, five boxes arrived here at No Quarter Coffee, accompanied by boxes of the #21 El Salvador, La Trinidad,  and the #27 Colombia lot, La Esperanza.  The first glimpse of the coffee housed at the freight terminal brought a smile to my face that remained for days.

The winning farm listing can also be found on the Cup of Excellence site.

In the world of home roasting coffee, the slippery slope lurks just down the road.  I write often of falling down the rabbit hole, where each new discovery merely opens the aperture up for that which has not yet been discovered.  The spark of interest is the lighter side of the desire (obsession) with coffee.  It’s the wonder of the child, looking at the world with fresh and curious eyes.

There’s a darker side–a shadow–of the wide-eyed child, looking to learn more.  There’s the desire for more, the envy of that which we do not have.  Whether it is a particularly exceptional lot of coffee, or a new roaster, a new grinder, a new espresso machine, this endless desire for that which we do not have can blind us to the joy sitting in our roaster right now.  The experience in the cup we have just made.

It’s impossible to not admire the next best thing–a new toy, the shiny new roaster, the skills to coax the perfect combination of flavors out of the bean.  But that admiration must be tempered. Tempered with the gratitude for what we do have, the appreciation for what we have.  A good friend of mine used to ask me this question frequently:

“Where are your hands?”

A simple concept to keep us in the now–a reminder that life happens right here, right now, right in our hands. So, Where are your hands?

Cupping, meeting, buying, roasting, enjoying.   Repeat ad nauseum.

I have met too many people to mention (immediately) over the past four months, and have learned more than I thought possible (including the continuing realization of how much more I have to learn).  Here’s to more regular updates and insights as I continue to learn more about the bean and the people around it.

Now, I’m off to roast some more samples from one of my favorite suppliers, Royal Coffee NY.  Be sure to check them out on Twitter @RoyalCoffeeNY.

I’ve listed the winning lots below; the detailed listing should be available on the CoE site shortly.  Many thanks to Alistair Durie from Elysian Coffee in Vancouver for the regular blog updates and pictures from the event.  Thank you for taking the time to keep us onlookers informed.

The first benefit of the detour was the avoidance of the New Jersey turnpike.  Sure, I had to venture near Philadelphia, but the scenery on that leg easily surpassed that of the turnpike (at least if you could get past the endless billboards advertising the Ford Focus hybid–I counted at least fifteen in and around Philly).  As I crossed the Deleware into New Jersey, not far from Washington’s crossing, I was treated to a scenic journey down River Road into Lambertville. I hadn’t expected to be reminded of my Pennsylvania rural upbringing on this trip, but the twenty mile drive along the river was an unexpected joy.  Put me right in the mood for visiting a small-town, artisan roastery.

When I arrived in the Roastery–my eyes were immediately drawn to this red beauty in the corner.

David was positioned a little off to the right, testing out a shot pulled from an Quickmill Andreja Premium espresso machine he was working over.  After he finished pulling and tasting the shot, we sat down to chat.  David has an extensive coffee history, though he started off as a home roaster.  We talked about his pride and joy, the 1956 fully rebuilt Probat UG15  roaster.  He described the work he and Marty Curtis did to disassemble, refurbish, and reassmble the roaster.  David picked up the roaster from the original owner, and obtained all of the original sales documentation from Probat.  The full pictorial history of the refurbishment can be found here. 

We talked green coffee, including David describing his early involvement with Abdella Bagersh’s Idido Misty Valley coffee, and his friendships with some of the bigger East Coast coffee names–George Howell, Peter Guilano, Marty Curtis, and others.    We shared stories about many of the last year’s lots of coffee that we both enjoyed, lamented that much of the best coffee ends up on the West Coast, and bounced green bean storage ideas off each other.  David brewed a Yemen Hufashi on the Clover–he talked about his disappointment with the bean, but then he was comparing it to last spring’s Sana’ani lot from Royal NY (one of the best Yemeni coffees in recent memory).  I also sampled the house Fetco brew of Timor FTO Maubesse, and his head barista pulled a double shot of their espresso blend.  They just finished installed a new three-group Synesso, and she thought the shots were pulling too acidic–all high-end flavors with no bass note.  I didn’t think them too sour, but agreed with her assessment.  David had to cut short our time (I think we could have talked all evening) to make some deliveries.  He runs the roastery as a one-man band–roaster, bagger, buyer, cupper, deliverer, forklift driver–you name it.

Huge thanks to David and his staff for the coffee and mostly the time taken out of a busy schedule to sit back and talk.   Call this a regular stop everytime I head to The Big Apple.

Rojo’s Roastery
243 North Union Street
Suite 150
Lambertville, NJ 08530
(609) 397-0040

Google map & directions

Throughout the month of May 2009, Homeroasters.org conducted
auctions on a wide variety of items, many of which the specialty
coffee industry donated with jubilation. Items up for bid ranged from
assortments of top-quality green coffee, to magazine subscriptions,
grinders, brewers, roasters and much, much more; all proceeds are going
directly to Coffee Kids.

Here is the final tally for the auction:

Week 1 Subtotal $890.00
Week 2 Subtotal $775.00
Week 3 Subtotal $587.00
Week 4 Subtotal $1,026.00
Stone Soup items Subtotal $610.00
Month-long items Subtotal $1,720.00

Total Auction $5,608.00

The top lot was a Behmor 1600 home coffee roaster, donated by Joe Behm, combined with 15 pounds of Colombian Organic Don Telmo Reserva Bourbon donated by Royal Coffee NY, which fetched $600.  Close second was the refurbished Zassenhaus hand grinder donated by Orphan Espresso, which fetched a last minute, over-the-top bid of $547.  Additionally, Joe Behm donated a second roaster as a surprise last-minute lot for the second place bidder.

Thank you to all who participated as bidders, donors, well-wishers, public advocates via blog or Twitter, and organizers.  As one of the organizing team, all of you made our work possible, and made for a month and a result well beyond any of our expectations.  Thank you all for allowing us to funnel your incredible generousity to the kids!