JulieCraves

Retail and specialty roasters

New Cafe Femenino origin

I’ve previously written about Cafe Femenino, sourced from a Peruvian project run entirely by women.  These beans are available from a variety of roasters, although I’ve always purchased from Grounds for Change, which makes an additional donation to the project.

I received a notice from Grounds for Change that they are offering Cafe Femenino from Mexico…

“…grown, processed and traded exclusively by a group of women in southern Chiapas state. The women control the proceeds from the sale of their crop and are fully involved in planning for the next year.

This women’s cooperative cultivates their Fair Trade, organic, shade grown coffee within the buffer zone for the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, a Conservation International project that includes nearly 300,000 acres of ten distinct forest types, from perennial tropical forest to high altitude cloud forest.”

Bravo, Grounds for Change.

Coffee regions

NYT Rwanda coffee article

On Sunday, August 6, the New York Times business section had an excellent article on coffee growing in Rwanda (stable, no registration link).  The article gives background on how financial help from U.S. AID, via the PEARL Project I’ve written about before, has helped bring about a vast improvement in the quality of Rwandan coffee, and brought hope and economic vitality to a country in which nearly a million people were killed by genocide.

The article notes that it is the Rwandan government’s goal to make all coffee produced in the county specialty coffee by 2008.  This means no more cheap, C-grade beans purchased by the big four, higher prices paid for the beans which go directly to the farmers and their communities (lessening the need for exploitation of the environment), and even more attention to sustainable growing methods. The article included interviews with Intelligentsia’s Geoff Watts, Thanksgiving’s Paul Katzeff, Green Mountain’s Lindsey Bolger, and Thousand Hill’s Stephen Coffey.  It also tells a few amazing personal stories.  A very good read, take a look.

Coffee reviews / Indo-Pacific

Coffee review: Coffees from East Timor

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #7.

In a previous post, I discussed the political situation in East Timor, and the role of coffee in the economy. I promised short reviews of several Timor coffees, and here they are.  These are all Fair Trade, organic, and grown in shade.

Counter Culture — Maubesse.  City roast, very little oil.  The beans had a spicy, smoky aroma.  Freshly brewed, it had an amazing woodsy, cedar odor.  Both Star[bucks]ling and Nighthawk immediately exclaimed that it evoked the cedar bogs of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Soon we found out that it tasted very different than it smelled.

The first few sips of hot coffee had a momentary sparkle.  After, there was a very subtle butterscotch element that lingered slightly.  But overall, we were very surprised at the simplicity of this coffee.  East Timor’s nearest coffee-producing neighbor is Sulawesi, and it, like other Indonesian coffees, seems to have a lot of character (in fact, we really didn’t like the pungent Starbucks Sulawesi we reviewed). Yet this was much friendlier coffee, without a lot of easily distinguished flavors, to our palates.  We rate this 2.75 motmots.

Sweetwater Organic Coffee Company — Maubesse.  This was the first time we tried the same source, different roaster (unfortunately, not at the same time). Billed as a full city roast, it was medium brown, with only the faintest hints of oil on the bean.

Brewed, it did not have the initial citrusy sparkle as the Counter Culture, but overall it was more distinctive.  It had the woodsy, cedary taste and especially aroma, that we are learning is characteristic of Indonesian coffees.

We decided to really bring out the character and tried it in a press.  Doing so evoked strong reactions from all tasters. Those who like Indonesian coffees liked the cedar/woodsy flavors that popped out with this preparation.  Those that don’t really care for those tones thought it tasted like bark. There were distinct leather flavors as well, apparently typical of this source but not everybody’s cup of tea (so to speak).

I don’t very often drink milk in my coffee, but since Con Leche was not available, both Kingfisher and I tried it this way, his with soy milk.  We both liked it better with milk, but it gave it a kind of chalky mouthfeel.

I’m not a huge fan of Indonesian coffees, but kept trying this every other day or so. I was amazed that it seemed each time I tried it, some other taste combination cropped up, variations on a theme, depending on how I prepared it, or even with what I considered pretty minor differences in the strength.  Some cups I thought I liked more than others, one batch was just alarming — it took Kingfisher by surprise and he exclaimed that it was terrible on the first sip.  By the time it cooled, he ended up thinking it wasn’t too bad. All in all, a testimony to the complexity of this bean.

It seemed that Sweetwater was able to bring out a little more of the terroir of this bean, which would have been an asset if there were more Indonesian fans in this tasting round. It ended up with 2.25 motmots. Also available as decaf.

Sweetwater Organic Coffee Company — Carpe Diem blend. Side-by-side with their Maubesse, we tried Sweetwater’s blend of Timor, Sumatra, and Bolivian beans.  It was also labeled a medium roast, although it looked just a tiny bit darker.  Both as a brew and in a press and Cafe Solo, this coffee had the characteristics of the Timor, mellowed just a bit by the South American bean.

It was nicer as a drip, rich and interesting. In the press, the Sulawesi, perhaps, contributed to an earthier tone than the single-source. This earthiness intensified as the coffee cooled; some of us detected a nearly musty flavor. The woodsy flavors were also pronounced, and it was a bit spicier and smokier as well. There was a cocoa/carmelly lingering aftertaste. I consistently tasted a rubber note in both of these coffees…but I liked the blend better than the single source.  We gave the Carpe Diem 2.5 motmots.

These were tough reviews for us…their complexity often left us at a loss for words, and for the most part none of us were huge fans of the distinctive flavors of the coffees of this region. If you are fond of Indonesian coffees, though, absolutely give these a try.  The timid can drink them brewed to be teased by the character, or prepare them in a Chemex, press, etc. for much more intense flavors.  We would not recommend a Timor in a dark roast…we did try a darker roast Timor from Heine Brothers prior to getting into these formal reviews, and none of us liked it.

To get a load of what the experts think, go read the Coffee Review reviews of Timor coffees (sounds like I have a stutter).

Birds and other biodiversity / Research on coffee growing

Research: Biodiversity in wild coffee farms in Ethiopia

Senbeta, F. and M. Denich. 2006. Effects of wild coffee management on species diversity in the Afromontane rainforests of Ethiopia. Forest Ecology and Management 232:68-74.

Traditional coffee management in Ethiopia ranges from harvesting cherries in relatively undisturbed forest, to reducing tree and shrub density in semi-forest systems. This study looked at plant species diversity in these two systems in the southeast (Bale Zone of Oromia) and southwest highlands (Bench-Maji Zone) of Ethiopia.

In the forest system, coffee plants made up less than 25% of the plant density versus greater than 88% in the same size class in the semi-forest system.  Continuous management of coffee in the semi-forest system suppresses tree regeneration, reduces tree density, and eventually leads to the disappearance of forest plant species.

This management is leading to a tall tree canopy with no intermediate layer, effecting not only diversity of plants but the structural diversity needed for other wildlife.  In some plots, not even young coffee trees were allowed to regenerate, which means coffee production will end up being affected.  Another way the production of coffee may suffer is that the lack of native forest plants species may also result in a decline of bees and other pollinators. Other studies have shown that coffee fruit set is strongly influenced by the abundance of pollinating insects.

The authors note that “Traditional wild coffee management methods are not based on systematic analysis, and hence opinions among the farmers vary on how to manage the forest.” With a higher demand and stronger market for Ethiopian coffee, farmers
in these areas tend to focus on seed production rather than
preservation of the natural regeneration of coffee trees.  The authors recommend a strategy that will strike a balance between plant diversity (and hence pollinator diversity, which contributes to coffee production, as well as other biodiversity) and coffee production.

They conclude that biodiversity conservation spots are crucial to maintain and enhance biodiversity, including acting as repositories for plant and animal diversity, and genetic resources of wild coffee populations — which are under increasing threat from deforestation — which can prove invaluable in developing new strains.

I consider this an important paper, as most of the emphasis on coffee and biodiversity has been on farming methods in the New World, while African coffees are usually considered “wild” and grown in an un-manipulated manner.  As the Ethiopian and African coffee industries gain momentum, we will have to see how management methods develop, and no longer take for granted that the coffees we purchase from these regions are always sustainable.

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