Coffee reviews / Latin America

Review: AgroEco Coffee

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #49.

The Community Agroecology Network (CAN) seeks to to link farming communities in Latin America to consumers in the United States. Researchers from five universities partner with faculty and organizations in Latin America to forge long-term community-based relationships. Researchers, organizations and farmer members address questions related to sustainable farming systems. Student interns work with farming communities and cooperatives. Often the work revolves around coffee farms themselves — such as mapping farms and surveying shade trees, orchids, or other fauna. Interns may also work on social projects, other aspects of sustainable agriculture in the community, or training members on computers, etc.

Among CAN’s projects is the AgroEco Coffee Initiative, in conjunction with the Union of Farming Cooperatives Augusto Caesar Sandino (UCA San Ramon) in San Ramon, Matagalpa, Nicaragua, an organization of 21 coffee cooperatives and over 1,000 members.  Research projects include tree biodiversity conservation, establishing a local herbarium, and food security issues. Part of CAN’s efforts include trade innovations, and in this case they work with Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting to bring AgroEco Coffee to market.

The coffee is available in both light and dark roasts, and can be purchased one-time, or by recurring subscription. CAN sent a bag of light roast for us to try.

This is a bag of coffee that does not have tasting notes, but instead has a “sustainability facts” label similar to the Nutrition Facts labels found on food products in the U.S.  What a great idea! It gives data on the coffee-growing community and its environmental, social, and economic conditions. You can see the environmental section on the label at right: there are 541 shade trees of 14 species per hectare. For comparison, Smithsonian Bird-Friendly certification requires at least 10 shade species in the production area (beyond that, how much canopy cover/shade is provided by a given density of trees depends on the height, species, and structure of the trees).

The AgroEco light roast was heading toward a medium, with some beans showing oil. I’d say this was closer to a full city roast. The varietal was not mentioned, but UCA San Ramon grows caturra, bourbon, and maragojipe (and some of these beans did look quite large).

Everyone found this coffee to be a well-balanced, not-lively-but-sturdy, good breakfast coffee. Chocolate and subtle cherry came up more than once in people’s descriptions. Brown sugar and fig were also mentioned. It got the most favorable ratings as a drip. In a French press it seemed a little sharp, but mellowed as it cooled. Nicaragua is a favorite origin of mine for dependable, quietly mid-tone, chocolate-based coffees. The AgroEco is a classic example of this cup profile.

For the first time, we are able to incorporate an evaluation of a review coffee as an espresso drink, as we’ve been supplied with a consumer-level espresso machine by Hamilton Beach (for consistency in our reviews, we won’t be incorporating espresso drinks into our ratings, but will provide our thoughts on them for completeness).  A light roast Nica is probably not the greatest choice for an espresso shot, but while the body and crema were a little thin, a nice sweetness was evident and it was quite tasty and enjoyable. However, it didn’t quite hold up to the addition of milk and/or foam in a latte and cappuccino, although the chocolate tones were nice in with the sweetness from the milk. The medium roast of this coffee might be a better choice for espresso drinks.

As of our review, it’s harvest season in Central America; this bag was no doubt from last crop season. I was in the San Ramon area last March at the end of harvest, and many coffee trees were very afflicted with fungal diseases due to the wet weather in the preceding months. This coffee had no flaws, and I can only imagine that with better growing conditions it could really shine. Certainly I expect that a newer sample would be perkier and demonstrate a little more complexity that this sample. It came in at a solid 3.25 motmots, and obviously supports a program that has done an excellent job at establishing a broad program of assistance that benefits farmers, students, and consumers.

Coffee news and miscellany / Coffee reviews

Favorite coffees of 2011

I was going to include a briefer version of this list in my post on “My year in beans: 2011,” which focuses on cost. But as I began to compile it, I noticed some common threads regarding the characteristics of my favorite coffees of the year that were interesting enough to warrant a separate post.

These are some of the coffees I considered outstanding in 2011. They are in no particular order. The price is converted to per-pound, and the flavor descriptors were from the roaster or reviews — the opinion of others, not my own.

  • Nombre de Dios, El Salvador (single estate) by Kuma Coffee. Washed, 1500 meters, bourbon. $21.33/lb.  Floral, honey, brightly acidic, citrus, apricot, apples.
  • Capucas, Honduras (cooperative) by Irving Farm. Organic, Rainforest Alliance; washed; 1400+ meters; caturra, pacas, catuai, bourbon; $19.33/lb. Honeysuckle, apple, honey, cashew, pineapple.
  • Carmen Estate 1750 Reserve, Panama (single estate) by Klatch Roasting. Rainforest Alliance; washed; 1750 meters; caturra, catuai, typica; $15.93/lb. Honey, tangy bright, citrus acidity, floral.
  • Cafe Takesi, Bolivia (cooperative) by Zoka Coffee Roasters. Organic; washed; 1900+ meters; $25.33/lb. Citrus acidity, floral, fruit (raisins), honey, graham.
  • La Golondrina, Colombia (cooperative) by Counter Culture. Organic; washed; 1500+ meters; caturra, castillo; $18.07/lb. Bright citrus, fruit (cherry), caramel.
  • El Manzano, Colombia (single estate – microlot from one farmer in a cooperative) by Kickapoo [now Wonderstate] Coffee. Washed; 1700 meters; caturra, colombia; $17.67/lb. Mandrin citrus, caramel, toffee.
  • Haru, Ethiopia (cooperative) by Counter Culture. Organic; washed; 1700+ meters; $17.27/lb. Lemon, honey, tea.
  • Kenya Karibu (specific origins unknown) by Caribou Coffee. Rainforest Alliance; washed; $14.99/lb. Sparkling brightness, blackberry, current.

What does this say about my coffee tastes? I strongly favor washed coffees. In fact, one of my biggest disappointments is the trend to pulped natural (“honey”) and natural process coffees now coming out of Central America. I’m not a big fan of the berry-like fruitiness that tends to be imparted by these types of preparation, except on occasion. I’ve had quite a few of these new preps, and some of them were quiet nice. But my go-to coffees have always been bright Centrals, and I have sometimes found nice washed options hard to find lately.

The high elevations of my favorite coffees also stood out to me. The average elevation of these coffee was over 1600 meters! Higher elevation slows bean development, resulting in a denser bean and typically more well-developed flavors. Alas, we may be seeing more coffee grown at these high elevations in the decades to come. This doesn’t mean there will be a proliferation of coffees with characteristics like that of high-grown coffees today. Climate change will mean the temperatures required by fine arabica coffee will move upslope, but of course conditions at 1600 meters may soon be the same as 1200-1400 meters today. And sooner rather than later, we will run out of “up.”

The average price per pound of these coffees was $18.74 or $0.78 per 6-ounce cup. If I had only purchased these coffees at my typical (family) consumption of 62 pounds a year, I would have been enjoying fantastic, sustainably-grown coffee for $3.18 a day. As I said in my previous post, if only all of life’s simple luxuries were so cheap!

Note that all but two of these coffees had eco-certifications (organic and/or Rainforest Alliance).

A number of flavor characteristics were also common to many of these coffees, in particular bright citrus acidity, and honey or floral tones. Caramel or apple also factored in. So many coffee descriptions use very arcane terminology (which is why we’ve tried to make our reviews here more approachable). Yet these particular descriptors are broad, basic, common, and understandable enough that they can act as a good guide to choosing coffees I know I’ll probably like.

Finally, it’s exciting to me that some of my favorite coffees came from roasters I tried this year for the first time: Irving Farm and Kuma Coffee, and there was a runner-up from Olympia Coffee. Some people find a roaster they like and stick with them, and certainly I have a handful that I turn to frequently. But one of the joys of coffee to me is the discovery of new coffees, and new roasters that are bringing them home. More and more roasters are looking to source great-tasting, sustainably-grown coffee. I love drinking it, and making new friends along the way!

Here’s to more coffee adventures in 2012.

Bean photo by David Joyce under a Creative Commons license.

Caribou Coffee / Rainforest Alliance / Retail and specialty roasters

Caribou Coffee: 100% Rainforest Alliance

Caribou Coffee has achieved its goal of becoming the first major coffee company in the U.S. to source 100% of its coffee from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms. As I verified in 2010, this means every variety of coffee at Caribou consists of 100% RA-certified beans. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the coffee is organic or shade-grown, but Rainforest Alliance farms do comply with a variety of environmental, social, and  sustainability standards.

Based on 2010 green coffee purchases, this represents about 9100 metric tons. While this amount of coffee doesn’t even put Caribou in the top ten green coffee buyers in the world, it does mean they purchase more genuinely eco-certified coffee than at least five of the seven biggest buyers that disclose this data. They’ve accomplished this without compromising quality:  The average score for the ten varieties reviewed by Coffee Review in the past two years is 90, and in 2008 Caribou’s Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Roastmaster’s Reserve won the Roaster’s Choice award at the annual SCAA event. I think two of their coffees are especially good. A favorite at our workplace is the Guatemala El Paraiso (92 at Coffee Review). One of my favorite coffees of the past year was their Kenya Karibu (93 on Coffee Review), unfortunately now sold out.  This coffee is especially noteworthy since eco-certified coffees from Kenya are few and far between.

Caribou Coffee is the second largest coffee shop company, behind Starbucks, with over 550 stores in 20 states as well as some international markets, most in the Middle East*.  Caribou plans on adding another 20 to 25 stores in 2012. If you don’t live in a state with a Caribou store, you can shop online. This is a company worth patronizing for their sustainability achievements and great coffee.

You can read other posts I’ve written about Caribou, including reviews, here.

*The Middle Eastern presence was no doubt influenced by the fact that for many years, Bahranian-based Arcapita Bank was Caribou’s major shareholder. This meant that Caribou was a Shari’ah-compliant company which, along with a general paranoia about Muslim ownership, resulted in Islamophobic boycotts of Caribou.  As someone who is completely secular but living in the most Muslim city in the U.S., I can tell you that stance is totally asinine. But the hand-wringers can get caffeinated again. As of last summer, Aracapita sold off its remaining stake in Caribou.

Housekeeping

My year in beans: 2011

Annual recap of how much I spend on coffee in a year

I started this several years ago, and I think the method has now been more or less standardized. See below for previous results and caveats.

This year, coffee prices were higher, but I was able to spend a little less on shipping due to taking advantage of specials, or buying more bags per order. Here are my 2011 stats:

  • 89 bags of coffee totaling 63 pounds.
  • Total retail price for the coffee only = $1297. I buy most of my coffee online, so I spent $123 on shipping, for a grand total of $1420 for the year. It’s not too hard to find free or reduced shipping specials online.  Note that my shipping costs only work out to $1.38 a bag.
  • Cost per six-ounce cup: only $0.54 ($0.49 without shipping).
  • I buy a lot of really high-quality coffee. The average price per pound (not including shipping) this year was $22. The big outlier was a half-pound of Finca La Valentina Geisha from PT’s Coffee, which retailed at the equivalent of almost $120/lb. Including that coffee, I indulged in 23 bags of coffee that retailed for over $20/lb. If only all of life’s simple luxuries were so cheap!
  • This year, I took a closer look at the top ten or so coffees that I had flagged as my favorites this year. The list revealed some interesting trends — I’ll be doing a separate post on them shortly.

Previous results

My three-year average (discarding 2008 stats) is 62 pounds of coffee a year at an average of just over$20/lb, and $0.49 per 6-oz cup, including shipping.

Other facts about my 2011 coffee:

  • I purchased from 25 roasters, 8 of which were new to me.
  • All but two bags were from single-country origins, representing 20 countries.
  • I buy mostly single-estate coffee so that I can do research on the source and gauge sustainability, as not all farmers can afford certification. At some point in the fourth quarter of the year, I began recording certifications, and tried to go back and look them up for older coffees (not all of which were still available). Of my 89 bags, 31 were certified organic, with some of those having additional certifications; another 8 were certified by by Rainforest Alliance only.

As I’ve said previously, great coffee that helps support ecosystems and rural communities worldwide is not too expensive for all of us to enjoy.

I’ve posted this before, but if you’d like to calculate how much a cup of coffee costs, based on the price of a bag of beans, just punch in the price and weight of the bag here: