Learn more about Ethiopia's coffee

In my post about Starbucks Black Apron Ethiopia Gemadro Estate, I suggested Denver's Novo Coffee as a source for a great variety of Ethiopian coffees (20% off your first online order, too!). Novo's Ethiopian coffees -- and approach to selecting and roasting -- are the antithesis of Starbucks. Novo's slogan is "Get closer to your coffee."  Coffee & Conservation couldn't agree more!  That's the point: to understand where your coffee comes from, so you can make informed choices and end up with the best-tasting coffee that is also the best for the farmers and the environment.

Anyway, I just disovered that Novo's buyer and director of origin Joseph Brodsky has started a blog as he embarks on his latest trip to origin -- Ethiopia.  In addition to cuppings and visits to growers, Joseph; his head roaster, Ethiopian Semeon Abay; and a small film crew will be searching through wild forest coffees in Kaffa, in particular hunting for the geisha bean to find the closest relative to the famous Panama Geisha. This sounds like it will be really interesting, and I'm looking forward to following along.  It's been awhile since the C&C panel has tasted any African coffees, so we are also anticipating trying several of Novo's selections and reporting our thoughts to you.

(By the way, two of our other favorite roasters also frequently report on their trips to origin.  Check out entries at the web sites at Counter Culture and Intelligentsia.)