Rio Jorco Mill

We started today at an absolutely beautiful mill called Rio Jorco (after our obligatory breakfast at Denny’s, of course). The mill itself is located in Tarrazu, a region traditionally known for its high quality coffee. The mill is located at 1270 meters, and is dedicated to microlot coffees. In fact, Rio Jorco is anticipating producing 100 microlot coffees this year!

A mill worker receiving and measuring cherry...

The mill was started nearly 100 years ago by Jorge Zeledon Castro, the grandfather of the current owners. He started off as worker at a coffee mill, and eventually worked his way up to buy Rio Jorco.

Today, the mill is managed by Ruddy Monge, an exceptionally generous individual who ended up treating us to lunch and dinner. He said more than once to think of Costa Rica and Rio Jorco as a second home…

Emilia Quiros Segura of Finca El Roble

Rio Jorco works with about 25 farms located in the area, as well as running their own farm called Los Lobos. Over the past few years, they’ve seen several of the coffees they’ve milled place high at the Costa Rica Cup of Excellence competitions. In fact, while we were there, we watched a coffee cherry delivery from Emilia Quiros Sugura, the owner of Finca El Roble, which placed 3rd last year!

A microlot drying...

I think the one thing that stood out to me about Rio Jorco would have to the be the cleanliness and organization of the mill. Everything was pristine and well-labeled, truly a model for other specialty mills. Just absolutely gorgeous.

During our time there, we had the opportunity to cup through 24 coffees that were sitting in reposo (essentially resting, waiting to be shipped out), and found some great coffees. Unfortunately, there were a lot of roast issues on the table. The equipment they were using to sample roast was holding them back a bit, and we definitely had some problems objectively evaluating some of the coffees. That being said, we did find some exceptional coffees, and I have a feeling that many more will show significantly better in a more standardized lab. My favorites came from La Chavela, El Salitre, El Bosque, El Comun, and Saga. Definitely keep an eye out for one of these coffees on our offering list in the future.

Rio Jorco drying tables and patios

After watching some coffee being pulped, and checking out the drying patios and dry mill, we decided to go grab some lunch. Rio Jorco was kind enough to treat us to lunch at a local place called La Casa de Mama. We had a set menu of some nice, simple soup, chicken with salsa and cheese, some veggies, and this amazing mashed yuca, made with butter, milk, and cream cheese. Just the way I make my mashed potatoes! Amazing…

Jose Luis Navarro explaining shade management.

We then headed out to one of the farms that processes at Rio Jorco by the name of Finca La Guaria. The farm is one of 3 owned by an 86 year old man named Eduardo Navarro Jimenez and his daughter Ana Maria Navarro Ceciliano. The farms are primarily managed by Jose Luis Navarro, and his brother Juan Carlos.

The farms themselves are pretty cool. They do a good job managing shade and fertilizer additions to maintain both the plant health, as well as the environmental health. One thing to note is that they are finding themselves affected this year by coffee leaf rust. Unfortunately, they will have to use a fungicide spray, but he spray is applied right after harvest, and will have plenty of time (nearly a year) to dissipate before cherries are harvested again.

Eduardo and his Scotch. Pretty spry for 86!

The Navarros (like most growers) used to think the fungus wouldn’t attack plants over 1200 meters, but climate change has destroyed that line of thinking. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming years.

One particularly awesome thing about the farm was their treatment of seasonal pickers. The farm actually houses the pickers on site, providing beds, electricity, cable television, water, and even internet for free. The only the pickers have to pay for is food. This is great since most of the picking workforce (about 100 people) are migratory workers from other countries. In addition, the farms actually pay significantly over minimum wage to attract good pickers. The farms do currently employ 16 people year round.

A picker's pay stub.

After traveling around the farms with Jose Luis, we went up to Eduardo’s house to meet the grandfather. Both Eduardo and his entire family is exceptionally generous! Not only did they invite us into their home, but Eduardo broke out a bottle of Scotch to make us feel at home! In addition, his family whipped up some tortillas from scratch and served them with some rice, beans, and pork for a snack. Best tortillas I’ve ever had. Delicious!

After getting to know the family for a bit, we headed back to La Casa de Mama for a big meet ‘n greet dinner with about 25 producers who all sell their coffee to Rio Jorco. Definitely a cool experience. Seeing all these people bringing their families to an event like this really shows you how focused on family these farmers are. Coffee farming is truly a family enterprise, with multiple generations of farmers sitting around each table. I think this event is the final kick in the pants I needed to take my Spanish learning seriously. I definitely need to be better able to communicate!

By the time dinner ended, it was already 10:00 pm. Once more, a day that promised to be short ended up being long. But once again, I wouldn’t have traded it for the world!

Dave

Oh, well. The day was still pretty awesome!

Coopro Naranjo Cooperative Mill

Today we were spending time in the West Valley, another area of Costa Rica known for exceptionally high quality coffee. We started off visiting a coopertive mill called Coopro Naranjo. Definitely an interesting cooperative and mill. The mill manager is Antonio Vega, a truly nice guy who walked us through the entire operation.

Coopro Naranjo is interesting in the sense that I felt they were sort of in between two worlds. On one hand, they were producing very good coop coffee, coffee that is blended from a variety of member farms from the area. On the other hand, they also were trying to process some very small, farm-specific lots that may have been really good.

Myself and Antonio Vega

I think the fact that the mill is really set up to handle large volumes of coffee hurt their ability to do small batches. Specifically, the mill is set up to dry all the coffee mechanically, which is inherently a faster process that leaves a coffee that’s not as uniformly dry, and can lead to issues as the coffee ages. They do have a small patio section where they can dry small lots, but it’s hard to see any focus being paid to that area. On a side note, it seemed that the mill was using an awful lot of wood in the drying of the coffee, which I just can’t see being sustainable. Who knows, I could totally be wrong on that end…

Lot Identification. Awaiting milling!

After touring the facility, Antonio had a cupping set up for us, and I have to say that a few coffees on the table did stand out. Specifically from a farm called Hortencia, grown by a farmer named Henry Mendez. Really interesting acidity with nice potential.

After spending a while at Coopro Naranjo, we grabbed some lunch at this awesome restaurant with an amazing view out over the West Valley. We were about 1600 meters up, and you could tell! Just beautiful. We all shared a bunch of local food (why don’t we eat more Chichirrones in the states?!?), stuffed ourselves, and headed out on the road.

Oscar Mendez and his receiving station...

Our next stop was a really awesome little mill and farm called Genesis. I definitely identified with this mill/farm on a personal basis. It’s owned by Oscar and Olga Marta Mendez, who care an awful lot about what they’re doing. The passion they had was all over their faces…

Some of the best, most uniform cherry I've ever seen... Go Genesis!

The name Genesis comes from their desire to go “back to the beginning” so to speak, and return to the old, original varietals that made Costa Rica famous for its coffee back in the day. They’re advocating replacing Caturra and Catuai with the original Bourbon and Typica varietals, as well as increasing the spacing between plants, and focusing on quality over quantity. Genesis actually has some Typica trees on there farm, which they’ll be using as the basis for new trees moving forward. They use only organic fertilizers and mineral additions (mostly by recycling the spent cherry pulp from processing!), and though they aren’t organically certified, probably do more for the soil than any farm I’ve been to. This is definitely huge for specialty roasters!

Depulper and Demucilagenator...

As of now, Oscar and Olga only work with 4 farms, and are very particular about adding new farms. They don’t want to compromise the integrity of the mill, and I have to respect them for that. The mill itself is very simple, with a small pulper, demucilagenator, and a bunch of raised African Beds for drying. Like Las Lajas, Genesis is also doing different types of honey processing, although their definitions are a bit different. At Las Lajas, the descriptors yellow, red, and black honey are applied based on how often the coffee is moved on the drying beds. All three coffees start off with 100% of the mucilage left on.

Raised drying beds at Genesis...

At Genesis, each coffee is moved a bit differently, but the most important thing is that yellow honey has about 50% of mucilage left on, red has about 75%, and black has 100%. Very interesting how certain terms can have different definitions at different mills.

While at Genesis, we were lucky enough to see some cherry from a farm called Finca Esnider get delivered. We watched the mill measure out the cherry (they do it by volume), and then process the cherry by removing the skin, and getting it ready for the drying racks. Pretty cool stuff.

Almost the whole Genesis Fam! Oscar, Olga, Santiage, and Sunalini

After spending several hours at Genesis, and meeting Oscar and Olga’s children (Pilar, Santiago, and Sunalini), we finally headed back towards San Jose, stopping at a pretty sweet restaurant which was originally a monastery. Good food (lamb rack!) and some wine, then off to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

A little yellow catuai at Genesis to whet your appetite...

Before I go, I did want to share something I learned on this trip. About 8 years ago, Costa Rica changed the way they governed water usage by coffee mills. Essentially, they kind of forced mills to abandon the traditional washed process that includes a fermentation step that removes mucilage, and switch to a mechanically washed process that uses physical scrubbers called demucilagenators to remove mucilage. This actually feeds into my overriding philosophy that mechanically washed coffees can sometimes by kind of boring. If you want to know more about this, stop into the shop and chat me up!

What will tomorrow bring? I’m guessing more coffee… Until then!

Dave

Today was our first official day down here. After a rather surreal breakfast at a Denny’s (I seriously could have been anywhere in the Midwest… except for the fact that we were trying to make coffee at our tables with buono kettles, Hario Slims, and V60′s…), we headed out to our first stop of the day, a semi-private farm called Cicafe in the Central Vally.

Cicafe, an experimental farm...

Cicafe is an experimental farm that’s currently spending a lot of time working on a relatively new problem to Costa Rica… Coffee Leaf Rust. This fungus has really only made an appearance in the last couple of years, due primarily to drier than normal conditions in September and October, brought on by global warming.

It causes the leaves on coffee trees to wither, rot, and eventually takes cherries, and entire branches with it.

Thus the caffeine overload begins...

In the past, the government has encouraged farmers to plant Catimor, a disease resistant hybrid of arabica and robusta. Unfortunately, it turns out that the cup characteristic of Catimor can be very Robusta-like, which is to say, not that good.

Luckily, Cicafe has been working on a new varietal called F1, which has showed some promise. It produces about 30% more than Caturra and Catuai (the primary varietals in Costa Rica), and tastes much better than Catimor.

We had a chance to cup a few F1′s (in addition to about 30 other coffees…), and I found a pretty interesting cup. They were definitely sweet, with a very prominent perfumy characteristic, with distinct allspice notes. The coffee was still pretty young, so it would be interesting to cup in in a few more weeks. A very distinct flavor profile.

Las Lajas

Cicafe also produces some other experiments, including varying shade, varietals, and other factors.

After a quick lunch at a gigantic farm called Doka, we stopped at a really well-run farm and mill called Las Lajas. This is a certified organic farm and mill that focuses almost exclusively on honeyed and full natural coffees.

Francisca Chacon and her son Oscar. Francisca and her husband (also named Oscar) run the mill. Super knowledgeable!

I was extremely impressed with the cleanliness of the mill, the knowledge of the farmers, and their attention to detail.

The mill is actually part of a group of 7 farms all owned by 6 brothers and sisters and their mother. They actually produce 3 different types of honeyed coffees (yellow, red, and black), in addition to 2 kinds of natural coffee, one taking 15 days to dry on the patio, and one taking 30 days.

We actually got to cup through all the coffees, and I was amazed at the quality on the table. Even the 30 day natural was really clean all the way through the cupping. I kept waiting for it to turn fermenty, but it never got there. Perhaps you’ll be seeing this coffee on our shelves in the future???

I will say that I’ve never heard of black honey coffee before, but my first experience with it was definitely positive! Lots of depth and sweetness, licorice and dark chocolate…

After spending a lot of time at Las Lajas, we grabbed dinner at a place called La Trucha, where the house specialty is fresh-caught trout from the lake next door. Pretty sweet. Also pretty sweet when you consider they were closed when we got there, but they opened up for us, called in a cook, and did it all with a smile! Thanks guys!

Gettin' the cherry ready...

So it had already been a long day, but we figured the day had lacked an element of danger, so we decided to investigate the black market side of coffee…

It turns out that Costa Rica’s crop matured pretty early this year, and most of the Central Valley had finished harvest. No worries. We found a renegade, unregulated, uncertified, and unlicensed mill called [censored] run by father and son team [censored] and [censored]. These revolutionaries drove out to Tarrazu, bought some good cherry, and did some night processing for us.

Afterhours cherry processing. In the immortal words of Gabe, the "most punk cherry processing ever...".

Really pretty awesome of them, considering they had to drive about 2.5 hours to pick it up.

At this point, I’m not really sure who owns this coffee. Maybe we’ll grab some and do a Lagunitas-style Censored Ale type package. Could be awesome…

After this trip to this nano-mill (which, by the way, was literally in [name removed]‘s backyard), we decided to call it a day. Back to the hotel to regroup, grab some sleep, and get ready for day 2.

Until tomorrow!

Sorry for the delay in getting Part 2 of our trip posted. It seems that when you’re trying to open a new store, things get busy!

Anyway… here we go!

Wednesday:

We departed the hotel after a quick breakfast and headed on over to Finca Ayutepeque, a farm owned by Maria Isabel. This was actually a pretty unusual visit, namely because Finca Ayutepeque is not considered a specialty coffee farm. The farm itself resides at 900 meters, meaning that the coffee is too soft, or low grown, to develop some of the interesting characteristics and acidity of higher grown coffee. So why were we here? Good question…

It turns out that Maria began to put herself on the map by focusing on the byproducts of coffee production: cherry pulp and dirty water. Rather than view these waste products as something to get rid of, she saw an opportunity…

Composting Coffee Cherries

Maria began composting her spent cherry, and ended up developing an entirely organic fertilizer that she has begun to sell to other farmers in her area. In addition, she’s had a great amount of success increasing her own coffee yields by using this fertilizer on her own farm.

Now, waste water from coffee processing is a very dangerous environmental hazard. It’s full of sugar, bacteria, organic acids, and other junk that can severely disrupt an ecosystem if it’s allowed to return to the watertable without  being treated. However, there can be a lot of really nutritious stuff in there if it’s treated properly.

Processing Waste Water

Before it’s treated, farmers refer to this waste water as “Sopa Bruja”, or witch’s brew. It’s pretty nasty. However, with proper treatment in lagoons, Maria is able to make soil supplements with a focus on important soil nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, etc. It’s actually a really cool system, and Maria’s farm is proof that using organic fertilizers can have a pretty significant effect: her farm’s output of coffee increased from 80,000 pounds in the prior year to 110,000  during what should have been an off year of production using her own fertilizers. Pretty impressive.

The End Product

After viewing the farm and her composting and treatment techniques, we headed into the onsite house. Maria gave us a short presentation on global climate change and the specific effects it was having in El Salvador. El Salvador actually experienced one of the wettest years ever in 2011, and it definitely played havoc on coffee production.

The seasonal rains (generally, in Octoboer) cause the coffee plants to flower, and even flowering allows for even ripening of the cherries, and efficient picking. However, early rains caused early flowering, causing cherries that matured too soon for picking. In fact, the rains are so far off normal, that we actually saw flowering on several farms during our trip, during harvest! Not normal indeed.

Cuzcachapa

After our trip to Finca Ayutepeque, we travelled over near Santa Ana to a very well-run mill called Cuzcachapa. Cuzcachapa is a cooperatively owned wet and dry mill, and though it does process a good amount of commercial grade coffee, they dry mill a very large amount of extremely good coffee. It is clean, advanced, and efficient.

After they fed us (delicious local hanger steaks), we went and toured the facility, starting in the wet processing area (mostly used for commercial coffees and specialty coffees grown nearby). Seriously, they had drying patios larger than football fields. Pretty amazing.

However, the real treat was the dry mill portion. Specialty coffees are dehulled, sorted by an Oliver table (a table that shakes to separate by density), and that’s pretty much it for specialty coffees that are carefully picked. Commercial coffees also go through an optical sorter to knock out any defects, of which there can be a lot. Some coffees also get hand-sorted.

Hand-sorting, Tim working furiously

Cuzcachapa is also an exporter, so as soon as a coffee is dry-milled and ready to ship, it’s bagged into jute (sometimes grain-pro), and packed into shipping containers. Transportation is then arranged to take the containers to port.

Coffee waiting to be milled

Perhaps one of the amazing things about Cuzcachapa is the sheer amount of coffee that is sitting, waiting to be dry-milled. Coffee is left in parchment while it is stored, until an importer comes along and buys it. We’re talking ton after ton after ton of coffee. And it’s all kept separate and labeled by lot to keep everything kosher. Incredible.

After touring the facility, we all headed over to the cupping room, where we got to cup through about 35-40 samples of coffee, including a sample from Finca San Jose, whom we bought from last year. Surprisingly, it was actually really hard to cup these coffees! These coffees were EXTREMELY fresh, most only a few days or weeks off the drying patio. By comparison, most coffees sit in reposo, or in rest, for 30-45 days after drying before they’re cupped by a roaster or importer in the US. You had to look past the grassy and green notes of the coffees to get into the true flavors. Not easy!

After leaving Cuzcachapa, we headed over to downtown Santa Ana for a while, hung out, and had dinner. Overall, a really informative, fun, busy day…

Thursday

Last day of coffee stuff. After breakfast at the hotel, coffee at Viva Espresso (I guess they didn’t hear me say “V60″. Oh well, an americano at least has caffeine in it…), and a quick stop at a tourist market, we headed over to visit two farms owned by Fernando Lima Mena, Finca Santa Elena and Finca Campanula. Incidentally, Fernando Lima is actually the president of the Cuzcachapa Coop. After determining that the bus couldn’t navigate the roads to the farms (seriously, we left a bumper somewhere out there), we hiked about 2 miles to the farm entrances. Well, some of us hiked. Some road in the back of a pickup. I was one of the (un)lucky ones…

Me and Regelio

Cherries at Campanula

We ate a quick lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, then headed up into Finca Campanula. This was a pretty awesome farm, and I’m proud to say we’ll be buying coffee from this farm this year. This farm resides between 1650 and 1760 meters, and encompasses about 14 acres. The farm itself is all new growth, as the volcano directly above it (Santa Ana) erupted in 2005 and destroyed the entire farm. Luckily, Fernando Lima decided to rebuild. He planted both Pacamara and Bourbon varietals. I got to talk for a bit with the farm manager, Rogelio Palma, and learned about their workers, processing, farm inputs, etc. Pretty cool stuff.

So this pretty much was the end of our time visiting farms and processors in El Salvador. After leaving Finca Campanula, we headed down to Coatepeque Lake, where we stayed at the house of Patricia, our guide, and took a relaxing swim. So nice to hang out after being cramped up in a bus 4-6 hours a day. After hanging out for a few hours and watching the sun set, we headed back to the hotel. Our time was coming to an end.

But not so fast. Our flight didn’t leave til 1:30 the next afternoon! Surely we could find something awesome to do for the morning?! How about the Pacific Ocean? Sounded tempting…

So a few of us packed up in the morning, and took a taxi south to the ocean. We found a small resort we could hang out at, and set up shop. We rented a couple of surfboards, so being the logical thing, I tried to surf. Key word: tried. I caught one wave, got up on one knee… and nearly drowned. It was spectacular. At least I didn’t break a board (sorry, Tim)! Anyway, we relaxed for a while, watched some surfers who actually knew what they were doing, and then left for the airport.

PROOF!

After a lengthy delay due to a bad radar system, we left San Salvador, got stuck overnight in Houston (karma?), and finally made it home Saturday afternoon. Overall, a great trip. 6 days and 16 hours of airlines, taxis, buses, pickup beds, vans, and walking just to learn a little more about our coffee.

Totally worth it.

-Dave

As many of you heard during our adventures at the 1st annual North Market Coffee Roast this past weekend, One Line Coffee will be opening up its first retail store this summer in the Short North, a food and arts district that also happens to be home to half the ownership of One Line Coffee.

We have officially sign a lease for the space at 745 N. High Street, just a few store fronts north of Buttles Ave. Demolition has already begun (and, in fact, is pretty much finished). We’ve ripped down all the drywall to expose the beautiful brick walls, and the space is really going to be something special.

So, what are we going to do there? Glad you asked…

First and foremost, we’ll be creating some amazing coffee. Our retail bar will consist of a beautifully-wrought, custom-made Hario V60 pourover bar, which will produce the majority of our black coffee. Yes, you’re going to have to wait for us to make your coffee. Lucky for you, we’re pretty quick, and it will always be fresh. In addition to the V60, we’ll be offering several other brew methods upon request, including Chemex, Clevers, and french press.

Our espresso bar will feature perhaps the finest espresso machine in the world, a 3 group La Marzocco Strada EP. Yeah, it may be a little overkill, but hey, this is my dream bar! We’ll produce a selection of traditional espresso-based drinks: espresso, macchiato, cappuccino, and lattes. Every drink will focus on 2 things: properly pulled espresso, and beautifully textured milk. And for those who insist on a little something extra in their drink, we will be offering a single origin (hopefully single farm) chocolate.

And before I forget, we’re working closely with Joy at Petali Teas to implement a small, focused tea program using a selection of seasonal, single origin teas that match the dedication we show to our coffee.

Now, this store will be much more than a retail coffee bar. We’ll have a great, focused selection of home brewing equipment, allowing our customers to brew coffee at home using the same methods they see us using in the store.

All of One Line’s coffees will be available for purchase as well. We’ll be roasting most of our coffee for the store in a small, 2 kg roaster on site, allowing us to roast as needed and keep our coffees super fresh. This includes not only the coffees being served on the bar, but also the coffees being sold to you for brewing at home. All our coffees are dated to give you peace of mind.

Now, we’re selling all this equipment and coffee, but how do you use it? Good thing we’re offering home-brewing courses as well! We’ll be offering regular home-brewing classes for those who wish to learn a bit more about how to get everything they can out of our coffees at home.

In addition to these classes, we’ll be offering regular public cuppings, demonstrations, and classes about all facets of coffee.

Alright, time to get back to work. We’ll keep updating people as we move forward! Can’t wait to see you all!

-Dave

Just this past weekend, Mark and I returned from El Salvador after spending 6 days travelling the country with a couple of great guys from Cafe Imports. We were lucky enough to be included on this trip, and definitely want to thank Tim, Matt, and all the crew at Cafe Imports.

The primary focus of this trip was education, with a focus on coffee processing and cultivation. Mark and I also wanted to use this trip as an opportunity to visit several of the farms that we may buy coffee from this year. Overall, the trip was tiring, intense, but definitely fun and productive. Anyway, here’s a day-by-day account:

Sunday:

We got into San Salvador around 1:30. Found our ride to the Hotel (a Courtyard Marriott), and arrived there around 2:45. After a little miscommunication with our driver, we got checked in, settled in, and had a beer by the pool, catching up for a bit with Tim, whom I traveled with last year to Guatemala. We then headed over to dinner at a local place, consisting of chicken, veggies, flan, and beer. Overall, a nice easy day to ease into El Salvador.

Monday:

The first real day of the trip. Time to travel! After a quick 8 miles on the treadmill and some breakfast, we headed over to Finca Pinares Dos, a farm owned by Hector Velasquez.

Hector was actually only two days removed from an appendectomy, so it was pretty awesome of him to come out. Hector’s farm lies between 1300 and 1515 m., fairly close to San Salvador. He grows pacamara and bourbon varietals, and processes his own coffee on an ecological mill, essentially a mechanically washed, or semi-washed coffee. It uses very little water, and involves no fermentation. Hector then dries on African raised beds initially, and switches to a concrete patio to finish. Overall, Hector had a pretty nice operation. It’ll be interesting to see how he does over the next few years.

After spending some time wandering the farm and watching Hector and his crew mill some coffee, we had some lunch (and beer), and it was time to leave. Up next? A long drive to the north end of the country, to a town called La Palma. We got there well after dark, checked into a little mountain resort, and had dinner. Papusas, among other things, and beer. As well as a couple of beers at the bar afterwards. I swear, we really did work hard during this trip. Off to bed…

Tuesday:

This day started off pretty sweet. Olivier (who has a bike shop/roastery up in Minnesota, and who happens to be a pretty elite cyclocross guy) and I went for a run around the resort compound, which was about 100 acres. Only got to do about 5 miles, but the scenery as the sun came up in the mountains was pretty awesome. Misty mountains and the whatnot. And let me tell you, I may run far, but Oli runs fast…

After a quick breakfast, we headed out to Finca La Roxanita. This farm’s owner, Don Nacho, won the 2011 El Salvador Cup of Excellence competition, which means three things: 1. He’s growing some awesome coffee. 2. Everybody wants his coffee. 3. The price he’s getting for his coffee is officially insane. His mill operation was extremely clean, which is one of the most important things. In addition, he was drying exclusively on raised African Beds, another big plus. Another thing we noticed was that Finca La

Roxanita was one of the only farms we saw that was doing special prep natural processed coffee, during which the coffee cherries are not depulped, but allowed to dry while still in the cherry. The drying cherries look a little like raisins. Most farms in Central America process their seconds (or coffee that was not ripe) this way, resulting in inferior coffee that is sold in the local market. However, if you apply this process to red, ripe cherries, you can get a really fantastic end product, with notes of cognac, bourbon, dried fruit, etc. It’s pretty cool to see stuff like that going on.

We spent a couple hours talking to Don Nacho about everything from cultivation practices to why he got into coffee to why he named his farm “La Roxanita” (turns out its named after his daughter, who ran away with some guy. Too late to change the name now though…). Afterward, we headed over to a fairly new coop called ACPROA. This coop includes Finca La Roxanita, as well as many other small farms throughout the area.

Our biggest task at ACPROA was to cup through about 40 coffees! Easier said than done, especially when you’re used to cupping 4-8 different coffees in one sitting. Not to be discouraged, we pushed ahead.

Let me tell you, cupping through that many coffees takes it out of you! In addition, it’s a little nerve-wracking cupping a bunch of coffees while all of the farmers are watching you! That being said, there were some really great coffees in there, and we’re hoping to bring several of them to you guys this year. Ideally, we’re looking at a “Tour of La Palma” series of coffees, showcasing had coffees grown in close proximity to each other can often taste massively different, due to varietal, micro climate, cultivation techniques, processing techniques, etc. Pretty cool stuff. Keep an eye out for it.

Anyway, after the cupping, we headed to a late lunch at Restaurant El Roble of vegetable soup and a simply amazing roasted chicken. Man, everything tastes better when your tired and hungry (and when it doesn’t come from a factory farm!).

After we refueled, we headed to another farm in the area, a well known, well-run place called Finca Los Planes. It’s owned by a guy named Sergio Ticas Reyes, and let me tell you, he’s growing some pretty fantastic coffee. Everything was clean and beautiful. Sergio grows primarily bourbon and pacamara (pretty standard for good farms in El Sal), but I’ve also heard rumors of orange bourbon, which is pretty rare. Didn’t see any, though.

There were a few really cool things about Finca Los Planes, aside from the beautiful coffee trees and gorgeous hillsides. First, Finca Los Planes is a Rainforest Alliance certified farm, meaning they’ve done a lot to protect the ecological health of the farm and surrounding land. This year, they put in a new water recycling program, including a treatment tank that makes the waste water associated with coffee processing safe to go back into the water table.

In addition, because of the very high altitude of the farm, after the cherries are pulped, they go into a tank for fermentation, but without water. I’ve personally never seen dry fermentation before. Pretty sweet.

Lastly, Sergio has a beautifully constructed “greenhouse” that covers several raised African beds to facilitate the drying of the coffee.  Again, something I haven’t seen before, and evidence that Sergio is really going all out to make some fantastic coffees.

From here, we were all extremely tired. We loaded up the bus and headed back to San Salvador, stopping for bit at an Italian (go figure) restaurant called Restaurant Al Pomodoro. Pizza and pasta, though it was pretty good. And the chocolate poached pears for dessert didn’t hurt. Man, what a long day.

Part 2 is on the way!

-Dave

We’re excited to release a single dry mill coffee from the San Vicente beneficio of the Santa Barbara region of Honduras. This coffee was hand-selected from a variety of the finest small farmer lots the mill could find. Often, small farmers own such a small parcel of land that it’s impossible to keep separate and traceable. They simply don’t produce enough coffee to export.

Often, a wet or dry mill (beneficio) will cobble together some of the best lots they come across, allowing truly excellent, very small lots of coffee to remain separate from lesser grade coffee. This coffee is a prime example.

This coffee hits you with lots of candied fruit on the nose (remember fruit striped gum?), very sweet, with berry and cherry notes. The fruit carries into the cup, with a cherry-lemon acidity. The coffee is still well developed, with medium body and a nice finish. This is a very easy drinking light roast.

Our second coffee is from the country of Papua New Guinea. It comes to us from a cooperatively owned single estate called the Kimel estate. This farm, which is about 620 hectares, was starter in 1974 by an Australian named Bobby Gibbs. Today, it is cooperatively owned by the region’s traditional land owners, namely the Opais tribe. The farm provides housing, medical facilities, and schools for the 432 people who work there.

This coffee is shade grown at an altitude of 5200 feet. We’ve decided to take this coffee to a dark roast level, accenting the baker’s chocolate and phenomenal smoothness of this coffee. It really tastes like a cup of roasty, toasty chocolate. You do get some nice notes of licorice and crème brulee on the nose, just to add a bit of complexity.

These coffees will be available for the next few months.

One Line Coffee announced the release of a new coffee, Guatemala Finca La Bolsa.

This coffee originates from a single farm in the La Libertad section of the Huehuetenango growing region. The farm’s name is Finca La Bolsa, and is owned by Maria Elena Vides de Ovalle and managed by her son, Renardo Ovalle. Renardo is a third generation coffee farmer. His grandfather, Dr. Jorge Vides, originally bought the farm.

Renardo grows Bourbon and Caturra varietals, and Finca La Bolsa sits between 1300 and 1500 m. of elevation. This coffee is fully washed.

When we first got this coffee in, we were amazed by the roundness and sweetness of the coffee. Our first impression was this coffee was a perfect every day coffee.

We decided to take the coffee just a hair darker than we normally would, hoping that it could appeal to a wide range of customers, and we believe we succeeded.

You’ll notice that the coffee has a very sweet fragrance, slightly winey, with notes of milk chocolate and a hint of blueberry. In the cup, you start to notice subtle, balancing roast notes, along with vanilla, caramel, bittersweet chocolate, and cinnamon. This coffee is medium-bodied, with a touch of a grapefruit acidity. It shows a nice, lingering finish.

River Road Coffeehouse in Granville and Newark, OH, has officially adopted this coffee as their current house coffee, available throughout the day.

Located in the picturesque New England style village of Granville, Ohio, this market has been called “the best in Central Ohio” by vendors and shoppers alike. It is full of beautiful flowering plants and cut flowers, locally grown vegetables and fruit, and organic produce, meats and cheeses. There are delicious cottage industry foods such as home-baked breads, assorted baked goods, candies, salsa, mustards, and more! www.granvilleareachamberofcommerce.com

According to one line coffee General Partner Mark Forman, this year’s booth will offer a “Pour-Over Coffee Bar” that “aligns nicely with our goal of helping area residents become more familiar with origin coffees and the farmers and laborers who produce these coffees.” Of course, freshness counts… and coffees served have been roasted 2-3 days prior to market day. The pour-over bar allows each customer’s selection to be fresh ground and brewed while they watch and learn about where the coffee was grown and harvested.

Each week, one line coffee selects a light-roast and a dark-roast origin as pour-over choices as well as a decaf option. Forman emphasizes that their coffee roasting company specializes in the roasting of origin coffees to “put a spotlight on the farmers and countries where quality coffee is grown and harvested.” Coffee pouches are offered for sale to market-goers for take-home and provide printed information about the country of origin as well as tasting and cupping notes form the roaster. As the summer heats up, the booth provides a special “over-ice” option that has become a real favorite for many of the market shoppers. While the pour-over technique is clearly more labor intensive, according to Forman, “this process fits well with the underlying theme of Farmer’s Market products….high quality, local and hand-made.”