JulieCraves

Coffee reviews / Indo-Pacific

Review: Coffees from India

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #47.

In the overview of coffee growing in India, I promised some reviews. The crew here at C&C has, in fact, been busy drinking multiple offerings from India. We hope to do at least two posts, each with several short reviews.

We start off here with reviews of several non-traditional coffees. We purchased these from Muddy Dog Coffee Roasting in Morrisville, NC.

Sethuraman Estates Liberica

This is certainly one of the most unusual mainstream coffees (versus novelty coffee such as Kopi Luwak) currently available. Two species of coffee make up nearly all coffee on the market today: arabica (Coffea arabica) and robusta (C. canephora). Coffea liberica is a species native to west and central Africa, and accounts for only about 1% of world trade. It is a large tree with big, leathery leaves often grown on roadsides or as a windbreak.

Sethuraman Estates is in the Chikmagalur region of Karnataka state, near the town of Magundi and the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. By all accounts, including this excellent one by Muddy Dog owner Jim Pelligrini, there is ample shade and lots of wildlife on the farm. Much of the coffee at Sethuraman is grown organically, and part of the estate is in the process of being certified. Coffee is fertilized with estate-produced worm compost, and other environmentally-friendly practices have been initiated, including the installation of new water-conserving processing equipment.

This coffee is grown at about 900 m, and prepared as a pulped natural. The aroma of the ground coffee as well as the first taste is very fruity — there is the strong suggestion of blueberries, as in a dry process Ethiopian, but there are components of other dark fruit (plum was mentioned by one taster) as well as cherry. A fruit brandy or liqueur flavor was agreed on by multiple tasters, leading a couple of people to say it would be good as an after-dinner coffee.

As the coffee cooled, several drinkers who tended to favor milder coffees were put off by the sour notes that emerged. It wasn’t harsh or sharply sour — in fact, overall the coffee was remarkably smooth. On the other hand, the finish reminded one German taster of sauerbraten — in a good way. “I did not expect to have this kind of experience from coffee!!!” was his remark. I have seen this coffee described elsewhere as “meaty.” This may represent savory or umami aspects of the profile. We (gratefully) did not come up with “animal-like flavors of jackfruit…and mint.”

The first few sips are indeed powerful, and perhaps could be considered challenging to many. We found it was more approachable in a French press than as a drip.

I was a little surprised that such an assertive coffee was liked by so many people. Nobody dismissed it, and most people agreed that while they wouldn’t want to drink it every day, they’d try it again. A few were very enthusiastic. When scores from the larger-than-usual panel were averaged, the final score was 3.25 motmots, very respectable for such an unusual coffee. Please give it a try!

By the way, liberica has a higher caffeine content than arabica (beans at about 1.4% caffeine versus around 1%), but less than robusta (1.7%)[1], although nobody thought it produced any more buzz than usual.

Monsooned Malabar

I think for Americans, Monsooned Malabar is the coffee most associated with India. The name is a legal Geographical Indication, indicating that the coffee comes from a particular region. In this case, Monsooned Malabars are processed coffee beans (usually, maybe always, dry processed) exposed to the annual monsoon winds in warehouses along the Malabar coast of India. This unusual treatment is deemed necessary to replicate the unique taste and character of Indian coffees that were once transported to Europe on sailing vessels and subjected to months of humidity on the journey. As the beans absorb moisture, they swell and turn pale. Again, Jim of Muddy Dog has a great blog post on how the process proceeds in modern times: How Stuff is Made: Monsooned Malabar Coffee.

There are a number of adjectives that invariably pop up in descriptions of Monsooned Malabars: earthy, woody, pungent, wild, funky, low-acid, and heavy or syrupy-bodied. Unadventurous coffee drinkers might balk at a coffee described this way. Usually roasters don’t recommend Monsooned Malabars to people who like sweet, bright coffees. I consider myself solidly in that group, yet I really enjoyed this coffee.

The tasting panel did find some of those flavors in this coffee, but they were nowhere near as odd, unpleasant, or unappealing as this coffee’s reputation had lead us to expect. We found this coffee well-rounded, with pleasing tones of earthiness, leather, and smoke. There was a very agreeable rustic, musty nuance that added character to the overall mellowness of the coffee. Really no hint of fruit, despite the dry processing.

Nobody gave this coffee less than 3 motmots, and the average score was between 3.25 and 3.5 — so we’ll go with 3.5 to encourage people to give it a try. Whereas many Indian coffees are hard to come by, Monsooned Malabars are not terribly hard to find. Some roasters even offer single-estate origin Monsooned Malabars. On the other hand some also have monsooned robustas, and many roasters are just not sourcing very high quality monsooned coffees, or have the skill to roast them correctly. I assume that’s why so many Monsooned Malabars are described as extreme or intense. Choose a roaster carefully. I know our positive experience with this coffee was due in large part to Muddy Dog’s honoring the bean’s interesting profile.

Kaapi Royale Cherry Robusta

This robusta selection is also from Sethuraman Estates, grown lower than the liberica, at 750 m. “Cherry” in regards to Indian coffee means a natural or dry process. Much of the world’s bad supermarket coffee is made up of cheap robusta. However, there are some carefully grown and processed robustas used in espresso blends. Typically, people don’t drink robusta straight, with the exception of the occasional single-origin espresso shot. Since we have so far not branched out into espresso prep reviews, we bravely prepared this sample as a drip and in a French press.

Robusta beans have a distinctive rubber flavor, and a bitterness that comes from the high caffeine content. When prepared in my Technivorm drip coffee maker, these characteristics were a bit more emphatic than they were when prepared as a French press. Because a sourness also developed as the coffee cooled, making this coffee in any typical consumer drip coffee maker would surely accentuate the most formidable aspects, while drowning out the intriguing properties. Thus, we proceeded with several trials in the press.

Although a dry processed coffee, fruit was not the dominant feature. There was no mistaking it was a robusta — the “rubber” was there — but it was tempered by semi-sweet chocolate, wood, and earth. It was not bitter, but very, very smooth. Nobody found this offensive. While everyone agreed this wasn’t something they’d go out and buy a bag of, they liked the idea of a cup now and then, and very much appreciated an opportunity to taste a high quality robusta, rather than the crap in supermarket coffees. It ended up with a respectable 2.75 motmots.

A future review will cover some more traditional, single-estate arabicas from India.

We’d like to thank Jim Pelligrini for putting together a great package of Indian coffees for us to buy and try out. Nor can we neglect to also thank Allen Leibowitz of Zingerman’s Coffee Company for inspiring us to embark on exploring Indian coffees.

[1] Ashihara, H. and A. Crozier. 2001. Caffeine: a well known but little mentioned compound in plant science. Trends in Plant Science 6:407-413.

Retail and specialty roasters / Starbucks

Starbucks to discontinue Organic Shade Grown Mexico

Late last month, Starbucks announced they will be offering four “Blonde” roast coffees beginning in January 2012. This comes after many years of complaints from consumers that the company roasted all their beans too dark, hence the often-heard “Charbucks” moniker.  The lighter roasts will be two new regular coffees, Starbucks Veranda Blend (using Latin American beans) and Starbucks Willow Blend (Latin America and East Africa), a decaf (Decaf Starbucks Willow Blend), and an instant (Starbucks VIA Ready Brew Veranda Blend).

Rumor has it that four of their current offerings will be replaced by the new coffees. They are the Fair Trade certified Café Estima Blend, the decaf Café Verona, the decaf House Blend, and the Organic Shade Grown Mexico. In response to my specific inquiry, I have confirmation from Starbucks that the latter will indeed be discontinued.

We reviewed the Organic Shade Grown Mexico here awhile back, and provided a lot of background information. In a nutshell, this coffee was sourced from farmers in Chiapas in the buffer zone of the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve. The sourcing of coffee from this area was done in partnership with Conservation International, and lead to the development of Starbucks’ green coffee sourcing standards program, known as CAFE [Coffee and Farm Equity] Practices. The Starbucks/Conservation International partnership began in 1998, continued for years with substantial reinvestments by Starbucks, being known as the Conservation Coffee program.

Starbucks just recently renewed the partnership for two years and $3 million, with a focus on climate change. The renewal will mark the beginning of work in Brazil, and expand on programs in Sumatra and Chiapas. However, I was unable to get a direct answer from Starbucks on whether or not they will still be providing an organic, shade-grown Mexico coffee as a seasonal offering, whether it will be used in one of the new Blonde blends, or in some other blend.

With the advent of the Conservation International partnership and the development of their CAFE Practices, Starbucks imposed quality standards on the Chiapas cooperatives supplying  this coffee. While it supplied significant benefits to the co-ops initially, many objected to the requirements and quit selling some or all of their coffee to Starbucks once their own capacity and abilities improved. These included CESMACH (Ecological Farmers of the Sierra Madres of Chiapas), Organizacion de Productores Cafetaleros de Ángel Albino Corzo (OPCAAC), Finca Triunfo Verde Sociedad Civil, and Organizacion Regional de Productores Agroecologicos (ORPAE). At least one source [1] indicates that many of the suppliers to Starbucks in this area of Chiapas are small producers that do not belong to cooperatives. Perhaps there is not enough volume to support a quasi-single-origin coffee from this region any longer.

In any event, the Blonde roast roll out will coincide with an overhaul of coffee packaging/branding at Starbucks to emphasize the three roast levels (with the lightest being Blonde, which is still roasted to second crack) rather than origin, and that may also play a role in the discontinuation of this coffee.

I have generally recommended the Organic Shade Grown Mexico to friends who are Starbucks customers looking for their most eco-friendly offering.  While I generally believe that the Starbucks CAFE Practices environmental standards, which apply to nearly all their coffees, are quite strong and relevant, I’ll have to reassess to come up with a specific recommendation once the Mexico disappears from shelves.

Renard, M.-C. 2010. In the name of conservation: CAFE Practices and Fair Trade in Mexico. Journal of Business Ethics 92:287-299.

Coffee awards and competitions

Support Cup of Excellence

What was to become the Cup of Excellence program began over a decade ago in Brazil. The goal was to recognize the efforts of individual farmers who were producing outstanding coffee, often lost in blends at the time. Today, there are COE competitions in nine countries which select the best coffees produced each year. Coffees are cupped at least five times by a jury of national and international judges, and must achieve high scores each round to move on. Final winners are sold to the highest bidders in an internet auction.  Not only does the farmer get a very good price for the award-winning coffee, the farm and producer are recognized for their quality, attracting attention from roasters for future crops. Often this recognition also trickles down to benefit the entire community.

COE is owned and managed by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, a non-profit organization based in the U.S. It is funded by partners, corporate sponsors, and members. Currently, COE has 220 Community Supporters (primarily roaster, many small roasters), 58 Benefactor Supporters (larger roasters and importers) and 17 Lifetime Pioneer members. In 2010, COE added a Solo Supporter membership category.  Coffee & Conservation paid our dues as soon as we learned of this opportunity to support the program, and are among the 35 charter solo members.

Among the benefits of a solo membership is an 8 oz share of COE award-winning coffee. This year, it was from the 2011 Nicaragua COE:  Finca Bella Aurora, Dipilto, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua.

Farmer Joaquin Augusto Lovo Lopez grows caturra on 33 ha at 1350-1400 m. The coffee scored 88.17, earning it 6th place. Bella Aurora previously ranked 27th in 2010, and 14th in 2007. The coffee sold for $5.10/lb in the auction held in June 2011. It was purchased by Invalsa Coffee® (USA) with Specialty Coffee (Korea), Java Blend (Canada), Montana Coffee Traders (USA), Rojo’s Roastery (USA), Willoughby’s Coffee (USA), Social Coffee (Canada) and Brasett AB (Sweden).

We really enjoyed this coffee — and part of it was simply knowing what it represented.

Coffee news and miscellany

Update on Finca Dos Gatos

In April, I gave an overview of my home coffee growing project, a.k.a. Finca Dos Gatos, prompted by my discovery of buds on one of my Panama plants, planted from seed collected in 2008. Here is an update.

The plant on which I discovered buds on 12 April, and which I believe to be the only typica variety among 10 other caturra, flowered on 25 May. I think I ended up with four flowers.

The flowers lasted only a couple of days. Meanwhile, some of the coffee beans I had picked up in Nicaragua in March 2011 were starting to germinate. First was a one of two coffee cherries I picked up at Selva Negra. These were not from the production area, but from a plant growing wild in the cloud forest, right next to the spot where I saw my first Resplendent Quetzals. I thought a coffee plant from that location would be a great memento. My germination method is the same as how I sprouted lima beans in elementary school: on a wet paper towel, kept warm in a plastic food container. One bean sprouted which I planted in soil on 7 May.

Bourbon or caturra seedling, from Selva Negra, ready to plant.

At around the same time, on 15 May, I had a number of beans from El Jaguar start to sprout. Although they grow several varieties, I only collected yellow catuai, for the sake of variety. This variety was developed in Brazil and is commonly grown there, and is a cross between caturra and Mondo Novo

Some ripening yellow catuai at Finca El Jaguar.

We had a very rainy spring here in southern Michigan, so I did not put the coffee outside for the summer until June. By mid-summer, it got very hot here, and I do not have enough shady places in our small yard for all the large plants, so I created some. I purchased some 40% shade cloth, and some plastic snap-on grommets. “S” hooks go through the grommets and hook on to the gutters, and the other grommets fit on tree stakes in the lawn. The shade cloth is therefore very easy to take down to mow. A spare piece of shade cloth can be clipped on top to provide some extra protection on really hot days.

I kept the seedlings in a more protected spot. The Selva Negra seedling grew faster than I remember any of the others progressing. By mid-July it already had its first set of true leaves.

Meanwhile, not much was happening on my plant that had flowered. I read it takes some time for beans to begin to develop. Indeed, I did not find any sign of beans until 15 July.

I have a two-bean crop; perhaps they will be ripe by Christmas. One of the other Panama plants also flowered, and had many buds. But the heat and humidity took it’s toll, and I lost most of the buds before they opened. Further, every plant was in dire need of repotting, so on 6 August, I potted up every plant. I used  a good topsoil, plus organic potting soil, all mixed with Espoma Organic Bio-Tone Starter Plus, which contains beneficial bacteria and mycorrhizae. Up to this point, I’d given these plants plenty of root space, using deep, narrow tree pots. The problem at this point was that new containers deep enough for the roots were ridiculously large and heavy. Several Panama plants (3 years old) went into 15″ deep 3.2 gallon tree pots, the last size up that I have.

Not sure how long this one will stay in the larger pot.

The Nicaragua plants (2 years old) are all two growing together. They went into two or three gallon pots. The largest pair posed a dilemma. The little rubber trash can seemed like overkill, so I ended up using a cat litter bucket, after drilling drainage holes in the bottom. What could be more appropriate for Finca Dos Gatos?

I now have a finca too large for the bedroom window, where I overwintered the plants last year. Indoor winter vacation, which began last month, is now in the basement under two four-foot Sun Blaze T5 fluorescent fixtures, each with four 6500K (blue) bulbs (same as before, just an additional fixture). The lights are on a timer, about 12 hours of light a day.

Three Panama plants on the left; six Nicaragua on floor/to the right (I gave away a pair of Nica, and some seedlings). I have a little class: I covered the cat litter bucket with four duct tape sheets. I didn’t even know such a thing existed, but it sure makes for a durable, waterproof covering. I chose black, but they come in all colors and patterns. Those pots are heavy, so they are on rolling stands.

The seedlings are under a smaller set of lights. As of now, late October 2011, here is the  Selva Negra seedling; it’s about six inches tall.

And here is the El Jaguar seedling, about 4.5 inches:

The two unripe cherries survived being transplanted. They are full size, but still green.

I’m happy to report that the two cats for whom the finca is named have stayed out of the pots. Actually, they both like lounging in the bright lights on gloomy days.

Sophie guarding the finca.

This winter, I plan to induce and promote flowering by providing a dry period followed by renewed water, switching out half the bulbs for red spectrum, and changing the fertilizer. I’ll let you know how it goes early next year.