Matt answers your coffee roasting questions: roast recipes

This week Matt Hassell, Global Buyer, QC & Sample Management for Collaborative Coffee Source, and former roaster for George Howell Coffee, will answer your roast questions. Here's a question from Tom D, @ohthecommotion:

How much of the roasting process is "feel" and how much do you think can be taught? Can I follow a recipe and make a great roast or do I need to just do it for a while? #ccsQandA

— Tom D (@ohthecommotion) December 5, 2017

Matt's response:

This question is so excellent because the answer, for me, has changed dramatically in the last few years.

I think it goes without saying that any task or skill you learn requires a certain level of understanding to not only do it well, but to repeat those results. Lord knows roasting is all about repeating results.

When I first started, people were very nervous to share roasting tips and profiles. There was no Cropster to log, overlay and send roast profiles, or Ikawa sample roaster capable of transferring profiles through text message. There was no ‘Coffee Roaster’s Companion’. Information sharing was scarce. So, I had to rely on being ‘in tune’ with my machine.

The last few years have also brought a lot of scientifically backed research that allows us to understand how to manipulate a multitude of complex chemical reactions and achieve a sweeter, cleaner cup. There are a lot of tools and resources being introduced that help aide in this process. There seems to be a lot more of a science-feel towards roasting than what there used to be.

But, that isn’t to say we’ve progressed to the point where we can just build a recipe for roasting. There are too many variables that are different. Perception of what is “good”, roasting environments (roasting in New England with the weather changes, not fun), and roasting machines themselves (Loring vs. Probat, different location of thermocouple, thickness of thermocouple, etc, etc…) Roasters must be in tune with their machine and have the ‘feel’, that will come with (a lot) of time. But, a good foundation is built on knowledge and understanding.

Matt will be answering your Twitter roast questions until Dec 12, 2017. Post your questions on Twitter to @collaborativeCS and use the hashtag #ccsQandA.

Purchase Planning

At the core of CCS' way of sourcing coffee is the principle of establishing long-term relationships between producers and roasters. We believe that everyone benefits when true partnerships are at work amongst the actors in a coffee's life cycle. And sourcing partnerships are based upon commitments. For the producer: to deliver coffee at a certain quality, within a certain time frame, at a mutually determined price; for the buyer: committing to a certain volume of a specified quality and agreed upon price. Practically, what does this mean and how does this benefit everyone?

For producers, forward purchasing means security and a means to better plan for future harvests. When you're not wondering who your buyer(s) will be and how much coffee you'll sell at what price, you can focus on actual coffee producing activities.

Forward contracting means more than economic security, however, it also represents trust and service. For Lauren at Long Miles Coffee in Burundi, that trust and service is afforded to Melanie who has managed the purchasing of Long Miles Coffee for CCS for many years. Lauren had this to say:

"Our whole team takes extra care when preparing and exporting 'Melanie's coffee.' For the team, your advance commitments [mean that] CCS isn't just an exporter. There is a real person called Melanie, who represents a company called CCS, to whom we are committed to in real relational terms to produce a final product. We expect to produce 'Melanie's coffee' each year and look forward to hosting Melanie when she comes to check in on her coffee."

Customer Planning Spreadsheet

Forward purchasing also means security for roasters: knowing in advance what will be on your menus so you can work in ahead of time on marketing and other preparations for new arrivals. It also means access to more interesting and higher quality coffees, as you become the first-in-line to access the top lots of the harvest. Pricing too becomes more flexible with forward purchasing, once certain volumes are reached.

Emily from Tandem Coffee in ME had this to say about their experience forward contracting with us:

"It forces us to think very hard about realistic projections which can be quite helpful. I also think that it is more efficient: For example, we spend a few days out of the year focusing on prepping our run of Guats and then we don't have to spend more of our time  (and importers' time!) requesting samples, sample roasting, cupping, etc."

She also points out one potential downside:

Obviously you could be limited in your selection if you haven't left yourself any flexibility...

While forward planning does need to be considered carefully against the unpredictability of business needs, we believe that what one sacrifices in flexibility is made up for in exclusivity and a tailored purchasing experience. One of the things CCS is best known for is providing in-depth personalized buying. For example, Belleville in Paris buy most of Neptaly Bautista's  production year-after-year and have therefore been able to create great anticipation within their market for "fresh crop Neptaly." So not only does Belleville exclusively offer Neptaly's coffee in their market, their market is also given an opportunity to receive invaluable education about the coffee life cycle, an otherwise nebulous concept if one sells different coffees menu after menu.

How it Works

Bjørnar, Nicolas, Sal or Colleen will meet with you, either in person or over the phone. The ideal time is January, but anytime is a good start time, it just needs to be in advance of the origin visit.

Step 1: Together you'll work out the following:

• Total annual projection from each origin. Preferably right down to the cup profile:
  • e.g. 20 Bags of pulped natural Brazilian coffee with milk chocolate profile, 84-85 points at, $4.25/lb, target delivery month: May

Step 2: Contracts signed. We suggest "SAS Replace" terms, meaning if you don't approve the initial sample, you receive another at a similar market level.

Step 3: Samples are sent to you for approval.

Step 4:  Coffee arrives to your warehouse for delivery or pick up.

Interested in forward contracting? Get in touch!

North America East: sal@collaborativecoffeesource.com

North America West: colleen@collaborativecoffeesource.com

Europe: nicolas@collaborativecoffeesource.com

-Bjørnar

We're changing warehouses

We’re moving warehouses! Amazing coffees for clearance prices. See the Clearance Price List, and contact Nico for samples.

Our priority is to deliver your coffee as quickly as possible and in its best possible condition, and we know there have been some problems in this area for customers receiving coffees from our warehousing and shipping provider in Antwerp. We take your feedback very seriously, which is why we are switching our main European warehouse to Vollers in Hamburg, a warehousing company focused on specialty coffee.

Hamburg’s long history with coffee

Hamburg is a substantial sized port, located 86km inland from the ocean on the Elbe River, with a very long history with coffee. The first coffee house in Hamburg opened in 1677, and the warehouses lining the Speicherstadt archipelago in the HafenCity quarter, built between 1883 and 1927, form the longest continuously running warehouse complex in the world. The area was awarded status as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2015.

Vollers' founder, Berthold Vollers, began warehousing coffee in 1932 when he set himself up as a self-employed port inspector and warehouse clerk in Bremen. His first client was his former employer, Roselius & Co (Coffee-HAG).

Photo courtesy of Vollers Group

Why Vollers?

Last week I spent the better part of an afternoon with Marco Franz, the Department Manager for Commodities, and Finn Börnsen, Group Development Manager, at Vollers. They took considerable time out of their day to show me their facilities and discuss the ways they can better store and ship your coffee in Europe.

We had a long discussion about the issues we hope to solve with storage and shipping, plus our plans for the future. Vollers regards the specialty side of coffee as the most interesting and fastest growing part of the business. Their attitude was refreshing: if we have a request or an idea for a new service, they will try and find a solution.

Marco Franz and Finn Börnsen of Vollers

The Vollers Facility

Marco took me on a tour of the facility; their system is impressive. Vollers have a machine that wraps their pallets in plastic, and another one that straps the pallets. For normal people, that might not seem so exciting, but for a logistics guy like me it means standardized quality when the pallets are wrapped and strapped -- more stable and better security.  They have an IT system that is cross-checked with a physical label on each lot. When bags are taken from the lot, name of the person, number of bags and work order number are written on the label. 

By the 3rd quarter of 2018 they plan to launch a system that will allow customers to log in and check their current stock, as well as track shipments sent with Vollers' own trucks. They are also working on developing a machine that will allow them transform a 60kg bag into 1-2kg vacuum blocks. This will be a great option for selling smaller volumes which could be sent by courier for quick delivery.

Freezing coffee

Additionally, Vollers can freeze coffee using services of a third party, and may in the future offer freezing within their facility. As Matt wrote, shipping times are getting slower and slower, so refrigerated transport combined with frozen storage may be the key to keeping coffees fresh and vibrant. 

European Transport Network

Vollers offers transport via their own food-certified trucks that service the UK and Germany. Additionally, they have a network of warehouses throughout Europe, linked by daily transport including Bremen, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bury St. Edmunds, Genoa, Trieste, Riga, Tallinn, Moscow, and by the end of next year they will add Gothenburg. This means we could potentially ship your coffee for collection at a warehouse near you.

 

Benefits at a glance:

• Unloading of container after arrival to port will take 1-3 days. This means coffee will be available for release maximum 3 days after arrival to port.
• We can organize transport to our European customers via a fleet food-certified trucks.  
• For our customers already be buying coffee stored with Vollers, we can reduce costs of mixing pallets and transportation. 
• Reduced transport cost for our German, Polish, and Nordic customers and potentially for our customers in larger cities.  
• Reduced transport time to German, Polish, and Nordic customers.  
• Possibility for freezing coffee
• Better IT systems for inventory management
• An open mind towards improving and adding services

We are really excited by the move to Vollers and the significant improvements it will bring for storing and shipping your coffees. The first shipment to Vollers will be early 2018. If there are any questions about our move to Vollers in Hamburg and how it might benefit you, please get in touch.  

Travis

Antwerp Warehouse Clearance

Moving to Hamburg means clearing out our Antwerp warehouse, which means we have some exceptional coffees for clearance prices! Check out the Clearance Price List, and contact Nico for samples.

Co-Roasting Spaces — Building Coffee Communities

Announcing the first in a quarterly series of cuppings at Bay Area CoRoasters, Berkeley, California: Tuesday Dec 5, 10am. See below for details and reserve your space on our Facebook page.

Co-roasting spaces such as Bay Area CoRoasters (or CoRo for short) are crucial businesses in the specialty coffee industry, providing an entry into the expensive business of roasting. Co-Ro offers memberships to coffee companies who then receive scheduled time on one of the four roasters on their production floor of their West Berkeley space.
 

An affordable beginning for new roasters

Co-roasting spaces give young companies time to practice, learn and build their business, before making the large investment of time and money in finding their own space, setting up machines, and acquiring the necessary permits. 

“Our goal is to provide all of the infrastructure and capital intensive equipment for you to start a coffee business,” said Floy Andrews, co-founder and CEO of CoRo. “All of that investment is shared by different brands.”

One of four roasters available on the CoRo production floor. Image courtesy of Bay Area CoRoasters.

CoRo is also in a position to keep their roasting space up to date. “We’re really focused on having the newest technology,” Floy said. For example, “we’re switching out the afterburner with a thing called a Vortex which is a water quench mechanism. It collects the dirt in the smoke, and its strained into a bucket. It’s not toxic - it’s actually good for your plants. Afterburners release a lot of CO2 and [the Vortex] aligns more with the values of Co-Ro.”

Building a Coffee Community

But CoRo is so much more than simply an affordable way to roast. In keeping with the spirit of the Bay Area where they are located, CoRo has a mission to create a community. In addition to the four roasters available, the CoRo space offers members a QC lab and a cupping room. Here they hold events and offer their members training and development on their journey as coffee professionals.

CoRo offer classes in roasting and production. Image courtesy of Bay Area CoRoasters.

Regular cuppings are held in the CoRo Cupping Room. Image courtesy of Bay Area CoRoasters.

Then there’s the “Green Wall”, a space for importers to leave greens samples of their coffee for roasting, cupping and comparison. “The way green coffee is distributed, traditionally, is sort of out of sync with the way these small roasters operate,” Floy explained. “Our Green Wall is our first endeavor in connecting small roasters to a range of importers. It plays into the community space function of Co-Ro.”

The Green Coffee Wall at CoRo. Image courtesy of Bay Area CoRoasters.

CCS and CoRo Community Events

At CCS we believe strongly that community is essential to the growth and sustainability of the specialty coffee industry, so we're excited to announce two initiatives:

CCS Quarterly Cuppings at CoRo

Colleen will be running quarterly cuppings in the cupping room at CoRo! The first will be next Tuesday December 5 at 10am. Join us for a cupping of Late Harvest Hondurans from Santa Barbara, plus Colombian coffees from Huila and Tolima. Contact Colleen to learn more, or sign up on our Facebook page.

Roasting Q&A with Matt Hassell

Matt Hassell, Buyer, Sample Manager and QC Director at Collaborative Coffee Source, and former roaster for George Howell Coffee, will be answering your roast questions starting immediately after the cupping at CoRo next week. The Q&A will begin at midday Tuesday Dec 5 and run until midday Tuesday Dec 12. Whatever your roast quandary, Matt is here to help. Post your question on Twitter to @collaborativeCS and use the hashtag #ccsQandA.

Farmer Profile: Jesus Antonio Saavedra, Finca El Placer

Tolima, Colombia

Twenty years ago Antonio Saavedra sold his farm at 1200 masl in Tolima, Colombia, and bought another further up the hill at 1715 masl. Yep, twenty years ago. Before anyone was talking about global warming and its impact on coffee, Antonio realized that temperatures were rising and it would soon be impossible to grow great coffee on his lower altitude farm.

To reach his current farm called El Placer, located in the San Antonio municipality of Tolima, you have to travel one and a half hours by horseback from the nearest road. It’s the kind of trip Antonio is accustomed to making. He once travelled eight hours by horseback to reach the town of Planadas in Tolima, in order to deliver a sample of his coffee to Alejandro Renjifo from Fairfield Trading, our partners in the region. Things are spread out in that part of Colombia and roads don't always take you where you need to go.

This is why Antonio created a school on his property. Seven children from neighboring families attend the school, which covers both primary and secondary curriculum. Of course, "neighbor" is a relative term. Their farms are quite far from Antonio’s, too far for the kids to travel back and forth on a daily basis. So they arrive Monday morning and stay until Friday afternoon.

Children tending to their vegetable garden beside the school on Antonio Saavedra's farm in Tolima, Colombia

Their teacher is also the head cook and chief caretaker. She walks one and a half hours up the hill to Antonio’s property on a Monday morning, then teaches, cooks and cares for the kids until they all go home on Friday. Next to the school building is a vegetable patch and part of the kids’ daily activity is to maintain the garden and prepare meals using the vegetables they have grown. The kids could attend a government school, but it is further from their homes than Antonio's farm, and it doesn't provide housing during the week. If it wasn’t for the school Antonio built on his property for his neighbor's children, it is unlikely they would get a continuous education.

New plantings on Antonio Saavedra's farm, Finca El Placer

The dedication of the teacher and the children is a reflection of Antonio’s own serious approach to life and work. The quality of his coffee is a result of daily persistence and willingness to learn. Antonio renovates his farm regularly to keep the trees young. His pickers are trained to collect only the ripe cherries which he depulps immediately and ferments for 36 hours in lidded containers filled with just enough water to cover the cherries. He washes the coffee up to four times to remove all trace of mucilage, and dries it slowly in a solar drier for around 15 days. He personally inspects every truck that will transport his coffee and accepts only impeccable cleanliness, his last chance to ensure his precious product isn’t contaminated by a smelly truck on its way to a buyer.

Antonio Saavedra at the Expoespeciales specialty coffee event in Bogotá, Colombia, October 2017

“I have coffee in my blood,” Antonio explains, when asked for his secret to producing quality. “I have been a coffee grower for 40 years. Coffee brings me food, life, love. I’m so proud when people buy my coffee and enjoy it.”

Through his connection to Fairfield Trading, Antonio is now working with several buyers he describes as “very serious people who understand coffee,” in other words, people like Antonio. Through these buyers he hopes to learn how he can improve his coffee even more. “I have a lot of discipline,” he said. “I tend to my coffee every day, I will work every day to make it better.” 

Coffees from Tolima and Huila are arriving very soon in the US. Contact Sal on the East Coast and Colleen on the West Coast to get your samples.

Welcome, Charlotte!

The Collaborative Coffee Source continues to grow with Charlotte Dourneau joining our business development team! Welcome Charlotte.

After studying business and law in HEC Paris and La Sorbonne, Charlotte worked in an impact investment fund in Paris. She met dozens of inspiring entrepreneurs who really motivated her to develop her own project. Passionate about coffee, she set off on a new  adventure.

In 2016, she went to Peru and worked on coffee farms in pursuit of her dream to to bring together social entrepreneurship and coffee. She is co-founder of the blog Los Tostados which features great initiatives in coffee, sustainable agriculture and social impact. After returning from South America she joined Esperanza Café, a French company that sources and roasts organic coffee from small producers and she launched a roasting workshop and a coffee school in Barcelona with them.

Charlotte joins us as Business Development and Financial Officer at Collaborative Coffee Source and is based at CCS’ Oslo HQ.

Refrigerated Containers for Ethiopian Coffee

Innovation in Shipping

Our visit to Ethiopia a few weeks back was only my second time at origin. I expected to be inundated with information pertaining to all aspects of coffee production. After all, everything you are experiencing at that time and place is the precursor to the longevity and quality of the coffee, more so than during any other time in a coffee’s life cycle. If things are out of sorts at origin, the coffee is unlikely to express what it is capable of. It’s heavy stuff.

On top of this, I had just started a new position in Buying, QC & Sample Management at the Collaborative Coffee Source. That makes me the link between the producer’s hard work and the coffee community yearning for long lasting quality beans. My focus on this trip was to understand what is being done and what could be done better next time around. Altering fermentation times? Thinner layers on the drying bed? More selective picking? All seemed to be common suggestions that are given to producers and are absolutely key to improving quality and longevity! But perhaps the most interesting thing I learned during the trip was an innovation I’d never heard of: refrigerated containers.

Heleanna Georgalis of Moplaco Trading has been using these "reefer containers" for one customer for a few years now, and her customer speaks very highly of the results. Coming from George Howell Coffee, famous for pioneering the freezing of green coffee, I’m well aware of the positive and lasting effects that climate control provides. As you can imagine, I was excited and astonished to learn that refrigerated containers exist.

Moplaco Trading, Addis Ababa

Reefer Containers - How Do They Work?

Coffee harvested and processed in Ethiopia will make its way to the Port of Djibouti, located about 400km away on the shores of the Red Sea. There the coffees are transferred into a reefer container and stored at 18°C (64°F) and 60% humidity for the remainder of its (often) month-long journey across the ocean. Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide levels are also regularly checked to ensure proper storage.

The pallets are loaded in and arranged with air space between the coffee and the wall, while air is circulated throughout the container to prevent pockets. Refer to the graphic below (courtesy of www.cma-cgm.com):

How Much Does It Cost?

For the time being, only 40 foot containers are available to be refrigerated (the standard size is 20 foot). Why is this? Well, since 2000, the number of companies moving reefer container ships has dropped by 60%, so availability is very low. Companies who purchase reefer ships need twenty years to recover the initial cost, versus two years for a normal container ship.

But, there is hope. One company, Seatrade Reefer Containers, continues to purchase and use reefer containers in their fleet. Due to the slower  delivery times of container ships over the last few years, shipments (from all goods industries) are getting to their destination well after their intended arrival dates. Late shipments have translated into more food spoilage. Seatrade hopes these delays in container delivery will cause an increased need for reefer containers, and a resulting increase in their availability. But for now, they are still a cost to consider carefully.

This means there are two options:

1. Find a way to fill a 40 foot container. This either means purchasing large volumes, or sharing containers with other buyers.
2. Move a container below maximum capacity. Of course, this is a more expensive option as the cost is spread out over a smaller volume.

Costs fluctuate, but the breakdown at the time of writing is this: if a normal 20 foot container costs around $900 to move from Ethiopia to your nearest port, the cost is 2.1 cents per pound. A max capacity 40 foot reefer container, over the same distance, would cost around $2,900, or 3.4 cents per pound. A 40 foot reefer container, filled to half capacity, then would then cost 6.8 cents per pound.

Does refrigerated shipping provide enough value to justify this additional expense? Could you make the money back by having your 88-point Ethiopian coffee hold up for two extra months? Being cost conscious is entirely necessary for a business to be sustainable so your budget may not lend itself to this kind of transit. However, for around ten dollars more per 60 kilo bag, it may be a wise investment not having to discard bad roasts of tired coffee.

Logistical Considerations

To arrange reefer containers for your coffee we'll need some advanced notice. As mentioned, containers are currently limited in quantity and require a bit extra planning. However we think it's worth the extra effort. For now we are offering reefer containers from Ethiopia and we hope to add more origins in the near future.

Please contact me if you have questions! I am excited by the potential of this shipping innovation and keen to discuss how reefer containers might work for you.

Matt

Burundi 2017 Harvest Shipping Soon

It's been so great to see the continuous build of up anticipation for our Burundi coffees year-after-year. When we first started working with this origin in 2012, finding roasters willing to take a chance on this new origin was challenging. And with good reason: it was relatively unknown as a place, let alone as an origin of exciting and quality coffees. On top of this, what little has been known about Burundian coffee has been impacted by the reality of the potato defect, which over time, has been intensively fought with every kind of control measure team Long Miles could think to throw at it. They perform meticulous black light scans of every lot pre-export, and Epaphras Ndikumana, ingenious planner and leader of Long Miles' farmer extension programs, even organized antestia bug hunts.

As our first containers of the recent Burundi harvest make their way to Mombasa port en route to New Jersey and Antwerp, we wanted to provide some context as to why the timeline for this year's arrivals is seemingly "later" than last year. The first thing to note is that the shipments are not actually departing late: everyone involved in the making of this year's lots have been working as diligently as possible; there have simply been forces at play that have been working against earlier shipment dates.

A Longer Harvest Period

Harvest typically begins in March and ends in late-May to the early-June. This year harvest started in April and went all the way to mid-July. This wasn't true across the board -- there were other washing stations and areas that had more of a "regular" harvest period. The difference? Politics.

While Burundi's coffee sector has officially allowed for private enterprise since the late-80s to early-90s, in practice it has been bureaucratically difficult to conduct business as a coffee entrepreneur. Corruption is rife and policy changes are often unforeseeable.
 

Disruptive Coffee Policy

There were two policy changes in particular that had devastating consequences for farmers growing in communities not supported by government interests:

1. The government's halting of fertilizer imports to select areas, including the communities delivering cherries to Long Miles' washing stations. The main consequence of this was that the soil became too acidic for the plants to properly develop their cherries and the sub-consequence of that was uneven cherry development, leading to a longer harvest period.
2. The removal of collection points.
   • Collection points are key for Burundi farmers because very few have motorized means of transport and deliver cherries by foot to washing stations.
   • As a result of the banning of collection points, many farmers (most of them women, like the woman in the photo above) walked up to 15km (30km round trip) [corrected from an earlier version describing a 30km one-way trip] to a Long Miles station in order to continue working with their team. Imagine walking 15km one-way with a bag of between 40-50kg bag of cherries on your head, once every week (not to mention the long walk back).

Usually when I come to make selections in June, I'm presented with pretty well all the top lots that will be available for that given season. Given that my visit this year took place in the midst ofharvest, many of the coffees that the team had planned to be ready simply weren't, meaning many of the selections took place via Long Miles' Picasso Nduwayo (Quality Control Manager) and his team sending batches of samples as quickly as they could be taken off their drying beds, to our Oslo lab for approval. By far a much more tedious and drawn out way of purchasing coffee.

Nonetheless, both Long Miles and CCS are pleased and excited about this year's selections. The Long Miles Team have once again outdone themselves and it is starkly evident that the communities in which they work are hugely supportive and believe in this project. How else do you explain a farmer choosing to walk 15km, past other washing stations, to sell her cherries?

Demand for these coffees have been very high. 90% of the first container coming to Antwerp has been pre-sold and so with that, we've decided to bring in a second container to the EU.

The first two containers, bound for Antwerp and New Jersey, are at Mombasa port and are scheduled for departure on December 9th, meaning a mid-January arrival.

Get in touch with Nicolas (EU & Asia) and Sal (North America) for availability and samples.

Melanie

The Longevity of Ethiopian Coffees

Hana Kassahun Bililign, Store Manager, Moplaco, Ethiopia

Hana Kassahun Bililign is one of the most important people we work with in Ethiopia. Her job is not the most romantic, and her view is not the most scenic, but as Store Manager for Moplaco, one of our long-term partners in Ethiopia, her task is crucial. She cares for the coffee while it rests.  

In addition to dealing with logistics and exporting, Hana is responsible for selecting and preserving the highest quality possible. She spends most of her day in a warehouse in Addis Abeba, where Moplaco’s parchment coffee is rested. After the coffee is hulled, it is stored in GrainPro bags until Hana’s team of expert women assesses each coffee bean and discards all but the perfect specimens.

Women pickers in the Moplaco warehouse removing any defective beans from the hulled coffee.

This resting period in Moplaco’s warehouse, which is insulated to keep temperatures between 19 and 24 degrees celsius, is a crucial step in developing the complex fruit and floral notes so carefully cultivated by Ethiopian coffee growers. Hana cups daily to track the coffee through this important process, and decides the exact moment when it has reached its full potential. Uniquely, Ethiopian coffees often achieve their fullest flavour after three to four months of resting, and keep their freshness for over a year. Some are even better after a year.

We have several Ethiopian lots in stock and ready to ship from the November 2016-January 2017 harvest which our team cupped last week. The quality was impressive! All our Ethiopian coffees, including the Kaffa, Kochere, Guji, Wonago and Matahara from Moplaco, are clean and bright and displaying the organoleptic richness that Ethiopian farmers, and coffee professionals like Hana, take great pride in delivering.
 

Special offer!

We have some spectacular Ethiopian coffees we need to clear from our Antwerp warehouse. See the full Antwerp Clearance Price List for details and contact Nico to order samples. 

Welcome, Suzie!

With the recent additions to the sales side of our team,  we're balancing things out in our communications team by announcing the addition of Suzie Hoban, who will be joining us at our HQ in Oslo. Welcome, Suzie!

Originally from Australia, Suzie has lived, worked and studied in Asia, Europe and South America.

After several years working in broadcasting, marketing and advertising, Suzie travelled to Italy to study a Masters in Food Culture and Communications at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, complementing her communications background with sensorial analysis training and an understanding of food systems and production.

Upon graduating Suzie pursued a newfound fascination for coffee and cacao, interning with coffee roasters and chocolate makers in Europe, before moving to Bogotá in 2011. There she continued exploring cacao and coffee as a lecturer in Gastronomy at the Universidad de La Sabana, a chocolatier, and an ardent promotor of Colombia’s burgeoning fine chocolate industry. Living in Colombia, Suzie has seen first-hand the benefits the specialty market brings to farmers and local companies in the supply chain.

You can reach Suzie at suzie@collaborativecoffeesource.com.

Welcome, Matt!

Matt

We have (another) new addition to the team. Welcome, Matt!

Matt Hassell resides just outside of Boston, MA, USA. From there he will be taking a leading role in CCS’ department of Sample Management & Quality Control worldwide, and is joining  our growing Sourcing & Buying team. Known for his organizational skills and sharp attention to details, both essential traits for the roles he'll be fulfilling within our team, Matt is a warmly welcomed addition to our team.

Matt began his career in specialty coffee in 2010 thanks to an exceptional coffee from Mamuto Estate in Kenya. Drinking it was a revelation and became the catalyst for a continued deep interest in all things coffee.

Things started out at George Howell Coffee, where Matt helped open their first cafe as the first acting manager. From there, he transitioned to the roastery where he eventually became Head of Roasting and Quality Control. During his tenure at George Howell, Matt played an active role in the educational activities of the company, which included hosting roasting classes and public cuppings.

In coffee there is always more to be learned. This fact perfectly fits Matt’s curious personality and desire to work more directly with producers, which is one of his biggest ambitions as a coffee professional. It is perfect, then, that his next stop and first one as part of team CCS is a trip to visit Kenyan coops and estates before the upcoming harvest season.

Welcome to the CCS team!

Welcome, Nicolas!

Photo Nicolas Pourailly

We’d like to introduce you to the newest member to CCS, Nicolas Pourailly. Welcome, Nico!

With all the positive feedback and growth we’ve been experiencing across Europe, it’s time for us to expand our team’s presence and reach to better serve the unique needs of our many regional markets. After hearing from and meeting with many wonderful candidates from all over the world (thank you!), we’re excited and proud to be bringing Nicolas on board. He has re-located from Barcelona to Oslo to work out of our HQ and has started and has definitely hit the ground running.

Nicolas started working in the specialty coffee industry at the end of 2015 when he discovered the Parisian specialty coffee scene and through this interest, learned about specialty coffee’s approach to agroforestry, which was a topic he developed an interest in through his engineering studies.

After stints first working as an engineer and project manager in the luxury goods industry and then within the field of sustainable construction, he eventually co-founded the website Los

Tostados in 2016 to support to an initiation trip to coffee origin. During this trip, he worked with cooperatives and producers in Peru to understand the living conditions of coffee producers, along with agronomic techniques used in the field and how each step in coffee processing affects the final quality.

More recently, he worked as a roaster and quality grader in Barcelona with Esperanza Cafe. In September 2017, Nicolas joined CCS to manage the European Sales and help in CCS’ quality control process.

You can contact Nico at nicolas@collaborativecoffeesource.com.

Welcome, Colleen!

We'd like to introduce you to the newest member to CCS, Colleen King. Welcome, Colleen!

With all the positive feedback and growth we've been experiencing across North America, it's time for us to expand our team's presence and reach to better serve the unique needs of the various regional markets. With Sal joining us from Boston at the beginning of this year, it made sense for us to expand our team into the western regions. After hearing from and meeting with many wonderful candidates (thank you!), we're excited and proud to be bringing Colleen on board.

Colleen has been working in specialty coffee since 2008, when she was hired at Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea at their flagship store in Chicago. Since then, she has worked in specialty coffee in Los Angeles, Portland and San Francisco, where she currently resides. Her career experience includes wholesale strategy, build out design, quality control, and green coffee trading. She received her BA in Critical Theory and Analysis with a concentration in Post Colonial Economics. Her work has been published and featured in Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Daily Coffee News, and Life & Thyme Magazine.

Given our team's personalized style of working with roasters, if you're located on the west coast, you can expect to hear from Colleen about meeting and cupping with her in person. You can get in touch at colleen@collaborativecoffeesource.com.

Santa Barbara, Honduras 2017

Neptaly Bautista: an early CCS partner in Santa Barbara

Field Reports from early and late harvest visits

This is an intro and a comment to what CCS is doing in Santa Barbara. As we are celebrating our 12th+ year of working in this region we are assessing some experiences and looking ahead; at how we want work here going forward.

CCS is making such a direct impact in this community like nowhere else I can think of. Our position is strong, which comes with great responsibility. One that I do not take lightly. It is really humbling. Our deeds are seen and our words are heard. Any temptation to give suggestions to a farmer-friend must be well thought through before it is said, or else, before you know it, what you said will be done.

These partnerships have fortunately been mutually beneficial. Yields have never been higher and the quality has never been better. That is of course not to our credit and is thanks to hard work from the people that live and breathe in Santa Barbara.

There is no mistake: Buying is Power. It has always been like that in this business and continues to be the case. CCS’ buying-power is evident in Santa Barbara, which is important for the things we want to achieve with San Vicente. This is a fact that we are well aware of and is something that needs to be protected, nourished, cherished and held on to.

In the years that have passed since the beginning of our focused sourcing and concrete buying from the region began, CCS is now committing to 20 times our original volume. When looking ahead we should prepare ourselves, collaborate with our farming partners (including our exporter San Vicente), and communicate with the marketplace that we will double the current volume within the next few years; a growth that is inevitable and has been almost organic.

The Moreno family: one of CCS' strongest partnerships anywhere

How This All Began

It started with buying just a few bags from Natividad Benitez, the first-place winner of Cup of Excellence in 2005. It sparked a relationship between Natividad and MOCCA in Oslo (later MOCCA’s roasting operation became a separate roasting company: KAFFA) yet instead we found ourselves growing into relationships with some of his neighbors over the course of the next couple of years. From these humble beginnings, today we find ourselves working with 40 families — and counting — through Collaborative Coffee Source.

Santa Barbara is one of those regions that was clearly discovered and defined by the CoE program. Arturo Angel Paz of San Vicente Coffee Exporters, is a dedicated and curious coffee cupper. He met Miguel Moreno of El Cedral, an ambitious and anxious producer (he was in huge debt at the time just before the competition) when Miguel dropped off one of his samples. From this moment, these two men have been instrumental in changing the Honduran coffee scene forever: Santa Barbara has clearly developed into an appellation. Ironically today, coffee cherries from Marcala (formerly recognized as the important coffee region in Honduras) are bought to be dried in Santa Barbara.

Like so many places we are visiting and buying from, the coffee supply chain and trade has clearly separated into two tracks: commercial or specialty, which not only defines level of ambition and empowerment, but livelihood and thus, level of poverty, to be clear. The dream of most farmers in the know is to find ‘a buyer’ — un comprador — one to grow with. Coffee farming is incredibly labor intensive and the only way to make a living when one has a small farm is to work the land yourself and engaging other family members. Only when the land is larger, just like in any economy, really, can one afford the overhead cost of management.

Having pickers/workers/employees, even in countries where the cost of labor is already unsustainably low (for the worker) when paid at its minimum level, is still the main cost for making coffee. It is also the cost that farmers really experience to be their main economic challenge.

The current price of coffee, even when at levels paid for specialty coffee these days, is dependent on keeping people in poverty, or at least paying them as little as possible for a job that is not only hard and uncomfortable — but totally necessary.

So when we speak about ‘equitable’ and ‘sustainable’ business for the people, we mean everyone involved.

Pedro Sagastume (L) and his son-in-law, Edwin Pineda (R). Gen II relationships in SB

Paying up

Having responsibility suggests that one act responsibly. Our sense of ‘duty’ in these Santa Barbara communities is firm. I strongly believe that the only way to talk about the issues of ‘livelihood’ and ‘poverty’ is to acknowledge the fact that money matters — for all parties involved — and now is the time to bring it up with our suppliers in a way that is also making them feel the responsibility that they have as employers of coffee workers, many times from their own community and sometimes their neighbors.

There can be a subtle nuance between suggesting and requiring something. As much as there may be a desire to change things for what we think is better, we walk a fine line in trying not to impose our mindset. Exposing ignorance is one thing. Worse is being seen as disrespecting cultural differences and inter-relational dynamics in the communities that we - after all - visit only for a few days each year. We have to acknowledge that we don’t live our farming partners’ lives.

Still, this is the new paradigm we are working toward: This harvest/buying season we are increasing the FOB price to $4.25/4.50 per pound (hence Farm Gate pricing is increasing proportionally) as the BASE price for an 86-points lot, we are at the same time ‘asking’ that the farmers also the pay their workers: farm-workers, pickers, etc., more. It is not a condition, but this increase of 50 cts/lb from last season is meant to give the farmer/land owner/owner of the facilities/business person/ employer an opportunity to distribute some of the gains they are making in relationship with us, to their workers.

As for the farms themselves: the stories, challenges and qualities from this harvest, we’ll share these over the next few weeks as we receive the lots and distribute them to their homes all over the world. Due to the prolonged harvest season, which started in January and went all the way to June, we have visited the region more often this year and have thus selected lots from the mid-harvest point (March), which has now just landed. The lots selected from the later harvest point (June) will soon be afloat.

Follow here and our social media for more on the specific farm updates that we will present in the coming days and weeks.

Coming up in the next season, we will work closely with a team of people on the ground to improve quality even further and in all aspects of making great coffee: husbandry, picking, processing, drying and packaging.

See you soon at a cupping table near you!

- Robert W

CCS' New Design Profile

If you've experienced the process of growing your hair out from a short hairstyle to a longer one, you understand exactly what is meant by the "awkward growing out" period. This year CCS is creating a new design profile because we want to better and more simply communicate the work that we do. Design is a language that connects with the senses; it conveys meaning through images and style in a way that is intuitive. It does some of the work in communicating that words cannot.

CCS' new icon is the Right Whale, which got its name from whale hunters who appreciated it for having all the qualities that they needed. Just as the whale hunters viewed this specie as the 'right one' we believe our customers and suppliers are confident in us based on the quality of our work and products. We aim to find the right coffee supplier and coffee for the right roaster and vice versa.

Like CCS and its partners, the Right Whale species is divided into southern and northern groups that travel the ocean between the continents and always live within tight-knit communities. Whereas the Right Whale is distinctive and a bit odd it its looks and smile, we've been told that we're a bit odd and unique. We take this to mean that we're noticed for having a different approach to specialty coffee and are appreciated for it ;).

In the coming months, look out for the whale and its distinctive dark blue colour. The blue was chosen to both contrast and complement the playfulness of the whale while simultaneously conveying the complexity of our industry and the professionalism that our team strives for.

Our new typography - which you will initially see more in our price lists, print and posters - is inspired by the trade industry: it's a moderate and sober use of typography that used to be found on inventory lists from the 1930s until the 1980s, that we are repurposing for ourselves now.

We are now going to focus on unveiling a brand new website that will hopefully launch by the end of the year. The aims for it are to be easy to navigate, interactive, and containing all the information that you're wishing for in an accessible format.

A big thank you for your ongoing support!

- Melanie & the rest of the CCS team

CCS IS HIRING!

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The Collaborative Coffee Source (CCS) is looking for self-motivated individuals to join our team

If you have any of the following, get in touch!

- Industry Experience (must)
- Cupping skills
- A Lab & Quality control background
- Are Service & Sales oriented
- Are self-driven, organized, a people-person
- Have outstanding communication skills

We are a quality and education focused green coffee sourcing company founded in Oslo, Norway and are concurrently expanding from our New York headquarters to cover more of the North American market, as well as from Shanghai to better serve our rapidly growing Asian markets.

CCS currently sources coffee in nine countries from Central America, South America and East Africa. We serve roasters from all over North America, Europe and Asia.

Send your cover letter and CV to robert@collaborativecoffeesource.com.

Panama Harvest Visit, March 2017

The purpose of my recent visit to Boquete, Panama was to spend a couple of days cupping with long-time friends and partners. Over the course of this visit, I observed and learned about the latest developments concerning how coffee cultivation has changed in this famed micro-region. My hosts and the coffees we cupped included:

• Hacienda Esmeralda, Geishas, Washed and Naturals
• Elida Estate, Catuaí and Geisha, Washed and Naturals
• Panama Coffee Traders (PCT): the new sourcing and export company of Wilford and Wilford Lamastus Jr. of Finca Elida. Catuaí and Geisha, Washed and Naturals.

This visit proved to be a bit early ‘in the season’ for cupping, although mid-March isn’t typically early in Central America. One major reason for this comparatively “later” harvest period is that the farmers we are buying from, along with many more in the Boquete valley, are growing their best coffees at higher and higher altitudes, in part due to climate change.
 

Climate Change, Geisha & the Harvest Period

Ronaldo, who has been working with coffee farming in Boquete over three decades (most notably at La Hacienda Esmeralda) is unequivocal about the average temperature noticeably increasing upward over the years. Rain patterns have also been changing; there is later or irregular rain, leading to “irregular” flowering and harvest periods. The harvest period is now starting in December lasting in August, with the main harvest period going from February through April.

The farmers in Boquete are incredibly competitive and they have long been rivalling one another in growing Geisha trees at the climactically highest altitudes possible. Early on this meant exceeding 1900 meters above sea level, then 2000 and today, ‘high’ has increased to 2100 masl. What was once not even considered possible is now happening, due both to competition and climate change. What’s next?

Ripe geisha cherries at La Hacienda Esmeralda

Regardless of temperature or climate change, the Geisha plant is a sturdy one once it has settled. But it is also delicate and slow growing in terms of producing fruit worth calling a harvest. These factors, along with the high altitudes, the fact that Geisha cultivation requires seven to eight years or more of careful husbandry, the necessary wind protection, nourishment, and waiting, all culminate in the Geishaendeavour requiring great investments in time and all other imaginable resources.

The coffees themselves are becoming more elegant, whether wet processed or other. I think that when it is well done, Geisha might be one of the best varieties to make naturals from. I’m not saying that natural processing makes for a better cup than washed per se. But the best version of this variety and this method is showing its best and true attributes here. These Geisha naturals showcase the processing method in such a way that makes for both complexity and balance: they have all the floral notes and structured acidity, together with all the sweetness, body, and juiciness that a 94-points kind-of-coffee ought to have.
 

Hacienda Esmeralda

During the weekend of my visit, La Hacienda Esmeralda was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The farm started with dairy production during the late ‘60s, moved into coffee soon afterward and is today strong in both fields. In the coffee world, Esmeralda is The World's #1 most recognized farm for Geisha coffee. After all, it was the Peterson family that discovered it. Who even spoke about Geisha before the Best of Panama competition in 2004?

Happy 50th Anniversary, La Hacienda Esmeralda! Big congrats to the Peterson Family.

Earlier, I mentioned Ronaldo who has been working with the Peterson family since 2002. He arrived when they bought the now-famous plot on the Jaramillo hillside where the first Geisha trees were discovered. Back then, Geisha trees were being harvested from an altitude range of 1450 to 1650 masl. Much has changed since then.

Esmeralda continues to dry their lots on cement patios and in mechanical driers. There has been little innovation there. Their meticulousness, however, is unquestionable, along with their coffees’ cup results. As a matter of fact, I have yet to see the same consistency in results from other markets. I’m thinking particularly about colleagues from across the border in Costa Rica, who claim theirs are the best practices when it comes to drying naturals and ‘honey’ coffee on raised African beds. I’m wondering whether these methods truly make a difference.

What are the cup-profile correlations? And what are the long-term effects of a given method? How well does the processed green coffee keep its quality?

Robert (left) with Wilford Lamastus of Finca Elida

Finca Elida and Designing Flavour

Speaking of processing and cup quality, Wilford Lamastus of Finca Elida told me he is growing more and more skeptical of de-pulping machines (i.e. eco-pulpers). He thinks it is obvious that the pulper’s physical strain on the parchment, including the centrifuging of the mucilage, is damaging the coffee-in-parchment to an extent that is limiting the quality potential of the coffee both in the cup and over time.

While I understood his evidence as anecdotal, I think it is worth following up. Wilford now processes his best coffee without de-pulping. Rather, the skin is removed using good old-fashioned fermentation and washing techniques, which he calls hand washed coffee. I like that.

This classic process uses more water, so for this is a problematic trend (if it becomes one, again) in terms of environmental considerations. On the other hand, and this became clear to me later in the conversation with Wilford, the other motivation for taking the cherry-skin off carefully is to preserve the skin as well as possible so he can make the best possible cascara from it. Some good news for the same environmental analyses.

Drying at Finca Elida

Elida’s lots, both washed and natural, are generally cupping great, with scores ranging from 86 to 89 points (the family might have scored them higher). There were only a few scoring a disappointing 84 points and then the family knew something had gone wrong, whether in the drying or in the roasting. There were also cups that were (un)questionably winey, but then again, these are spot-on for other buyers’ preferences. So it goes.

Like those winey flavors in your naturals and want more? You’ve got it! The Elida approach to servicing a market, by designing flavor, is something we are seeing in other places in the coffee world too. Wilford is adamant about this approach being a pragmatic one. From his perspective as a craftsman, the ‘secret’ lies in the drying of naturals. For those that want a cleaner cup with less mature-fruit driven flavors, he will suggest a faster dried coffee cherry: one dried on a hotter surface; using thinner layers; with more sun exposure and more raking; over 5-7 days. Done! For a fruitier cup for other markets, he will deliberately do a slower drying by using raised African beds, thicker layers, less shade or less direct sunlight, turning just once a day, with a two-week drying time, or more.
 

Pricing

Beyond the yearly ritual of cupping with Rachel (at Esmeralda) and Wilford & Wilford Jr. (at Elida), I learned a few things about how Boquete producers strategize their production and sales, even designing profiles of their lots to meet various markets. It has been evident for years that Boquete is the home of Geisha in quite literal, as well as statistical senses. There is a tremendous amount of Geisha plants being grown, whether it’s the re-planting of existing farm land, or new plantings. The Lamastus' farms alone will plant 45,000+ trees this year, which is on par with their growth last year. Given the time it takes to see any noticeable harvest, production levels aren’t going to explode any time soon.

The Petersons, easily already the biggest Geisha farmers in this community, continue to buy land and grow trees at a formidable rate. They do so in no rush and with no cutting of corners. The family work with coffee based on solid investments and farm work. I often think that we owe a great deal of gratitude to the fact that it was this family, and this community, that discovered Geisha. Had it been somebody else, what would they have done? Would the field have advanced to where it is today?

The Petersons: (from left) Daniel, Rachel, Erik, Susan & Price)

Auctions continue to be a thermometer and a regulator for the price setting of Geisha coffee, although, going from astronomically high prices of $300+ per pound, to more down-to-earth levels of $30/lb and below speaks clearly, in dollar value terms, that not all Geisha lots are ‘worth' the same. At BoP and at Esmeralda’s very own auctions, the lots are very competitive in quality. For example, Esmeralda is not auctioning any lot under 88-points. This means that when they sell their Private Collection, it is a blend of 86-88 points, which is not a bad deal, considering that one does not need to bid for it.

Farmers delivering to and succeeding at Best of Panama know that they cannot expect to sell their non-auction 86-point Geishas at +$30 per pound. While I think these price-structures are interesting and well deserved, we must realize that there is a new economy in coffee that is separate from and totally different than the rest of the coffee market. Like in any other well-functioning economy, knowledge is power. In Boquete, cupping is key, and the best farmers in this town are also the best cuppers, competing with their customers in knowing the most about what’s on the table. When these coffees meet an educated market, offered by empowered farmers, it is a quite beautiful battle. One that is ‘fought’ on equal terms.

The Best of Panama Auction has been instrumental in empowering Panama coffee farmers in setting great benchmark prices for their lots

Elida sells its Catuaí cascara for $3.50/lb and its Geisha for $10/lb. Power!

This year, the Lamastuses introduced me to their Panama Coffee Traders' (PCT) program for sourcing and buying lots from neighbours. This company was started with the aim of finding buyers good and sold Boquete coffees that are at a lower price-point. While my visit proved to be a bit early in the season, I still cupped some lots and have asked about places, people and potential for future relationships. I scored one non-Geisha from PCT at 86 points and the highest scores were between 86.5 and 87-points but both were Geisha.

Well, the season isn’t over and symptomatically of climate change and coffee growing at higher altitudes, the BoP which used to take place in Early-April is now happening at the end of May. Hopefully you, the buyer, will accept these realities and not fill up your inventories with other Central American coffees, while Boquete coffee have not yet been harvested.

- Robert