Episodes
Sunday Apr 23, 2017
Sunday Apr 23, 2017
Finca El Fuerte was named in honor of the 'Fort of Samaipata', which is a unique ruin in Bolivia. El Fuerte de Samaipata (Fort Samaipata), also known simply as 'El Fuerte', is an archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the Santa Cruz department of Florida province. It is situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes, and it's a popular tourist destination for Bolivians and foreigners alike. It is served by the nearby town of Samaipata.
It is not actually a military fortification, but it is generally considered a pre-Columbian religious site, built by the Chané people, who were a pre-Inca culture of Arawak origin. There are also ruins of an Inca city built near the temple; the city was built during the Inca expansion to the southeast. Both Incas and Chanés suffered several raids from Guarani warriors, who invaded the region from time to time. Eventually, the Guarani warriors conquered the plains and valleys of Santa Cruz, and destroyed Samaipata. The Guaranis dominated the region well into the Spanish colonial period.
The Spaniards also built a settlement near the temple, and there are remains of buildings of typical Andalusi Arabic architecture. The Spaniards abandoned the settlement and moved to the nearby valley, where the town of Samaipata is currently located. The archaeological site at El Fuerte is unique, and it encompasses buildings of three different cultures: Chanés, Incas and Spaniards.
AgriCafe Buena Vista has been sourcing coffee from small coffee producers for three decades. However, the steady decline of coffee production has put at risk the sustainability of the business and the future of coffee production in Bolivia; it's at risk of disappearing completely. Faced with these circumstances and crises, AgriCafe assumes the challenge of boosting the production and supporting the Bolivian coffee growing. AgriCafe has undertaken the development of 'Fincas Buena Vista', which is home to new coffee plantations with a sustainable model based on three pillars: economical, social and environmental.
Besides Caturra and Typica (both of which are traditional varieties in Bolivia), Agricafe has ventured into new exotic varieties to plant on its farms, and is also implementing new processes post-harvest. Finca El Fuerte is the first coffee farm in the Samaipata region that's focusing on producing specialty coffees.
Finca El Fuerte is a bet to develop coffee agriculture in this new region which has all the conditions to produce spectacular high quality coffees, and it's a new opportunity for many farmers to start producing specialty coffee. Through a lot of effort in the new plantations, and a lot of effort in caring for the harvest and the beans' processing, it has managed to produce coffees like Geisha. AgriCafe has utilised a careful and delicate process, and it has achieved a coffee that highlights the attributes of sweetness, complexity and quality in the cup.
In the cup expect mushed up yellow fruit (but in a good way). Think apricot and peach puree sweetness, flavour and texture that ends with a white grape finish.
- Country: Bolivia
- Province: Florida
- Department: Santa Cruz
- Farm: El Fuerte
- Altitude: 1,450–1,700 m.a.s.l.
- Varietal: Caturra
- Process: Pulped Natural
- Total hectares of the farm: 35 hectares
- Latitude: S 18°11’57’’ W 63°45’31’
Sunday Apr 16, 2017
Sunday Apr 16, 2017
This farm and its coffee sparked a massive change in what I thought I knew about coffee. I remember the first time I ever cupped this coffee: time stood still as the cup opened my mind to what great coffee is and can be. Gabriel, the farmer, continues to produce great coffee year on year. We have access to the best of the crop this year – and have had for the last three years – on a European exclusive. This is due to the special relationship we, and our importers, enjoy with Gabriel.
Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama has been in the Carvalho Dias family since 1890 and recently celebrated its 109th crop. It is located in the São Paolo state, just three miles from the border with the Minas Gerais state. It enjoys the typical characteristics of the mountainous Mogiana and Sul de Minas regions, and it's located at an altitude of 1,100–1,250 metres above sea level.
Gabriel de Carvalho Dias is one of Brazil’s leading agronomists. His family owns several farms, and they border each other in this area. With a total area of 417 hectares, Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama has a coffee plantation area of 165 hectares. Everything is done manually on this farm since its topography does not allow any kind of mechanisation. The mill is located close to the spa town of Poços de Caldas, which is 45 minutes away from the farm.
The Carvalho Dias family consider social and environmental sustainability to be very important. The farm has a programme of planting native species of trees to maintain a better ecological balance. There is also a school, a club and an official-size soccer field for the employees and workers. There are 47 houses, all with modern facilities. The wastewater is treated in order to avoid polluting the stream that runs across the farm. The farm has a small hydroelectric plant and only buys energy during the peak harvest. Some of the original Bourbon varietal trees are as much as 108 years old.
The beans are harvested on a sheet and prepared by the ‘natural’ process, where cherries are taken and dried in the sun.
This comes from the rare Canario varietal, which is a Bourbon mutation that originated in Brazil. You can find out more about it here, but what you will notice in the cup is that it adds complexity and acidity compared to Bourbon.
In the cup this is a really creamy coffee. It has a digestive biscuit sweetness and gentle orange acidity on the finish.
- Country: Brazil
- Region: Mogiana (São Paolo)
- City: São Sebastião da Grama
- Farm: Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama
- Processing: Natural
- Varietal: Canario
- Altitude: 1,100–1,250 m.a.s.l.
- Owner: Lidolpho de Carvalho Dias and family
CUPPING NOTES
Creamy, digestive biscuit, orange.
Clean cup: (1–8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1–8): 6
Acidity: (1–8): 6.5
Mouthfeel: (1–8): 7
Flavour: (1–8): 6
Aftertaste: (1–8): 7
Balance: (1–8): 6
Overall: (1–8): 7
Correction (+36): +36
Total (max. 100): 88
Sunday Apr 09, 2017
Sunday Apr 09, 2017
In the early 1920s Arturo Silva bought land located in Apaneca, Ahuachapán, and planted coffee trees on one of the highest summits of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range. He named the farm San Cayetano. Years later it was inherited by Luis Arturo Silva, father of Rafael Silva, the current owner.
San Cayetano is a 15 hectare, 100% Bourbon, farm that sits at 1,500 meters above sea level in Ahuachapán. The Bourbon plants were planted fifty years ago and are a traditional varietal for El Salvador: one I am always pleased to see. Among its attributes are the vigour and strength of its branches and the volume of the foliage, but most of all it just grows really really well in that region.
The name Rafael Silva might be a familiar one to lovers of El Salvadorian coffee. Rafael and Carmen are the owners of one of my favourite coffees, La Fany. They also own the Siberia farm, and we have bought from them for many years.
I first came across coffee from San Cayetano on a visit to El Salvador a few years ago, Rafael and Carmen very kindly gave me a day of their time and took me to see their lovely new mill and to cup some coffees. This was one of the coffees that jumped off the table at me and is an outstanding example of what Carmen and Rafael can do and so I knew I had to have it.
In the cup expect a really silky coffee that’s full of redcurrants and brown sugar, with cherry and chocolate on the finish.
- Country: El Salvador
- Department: Ahuachapán
- Municipality: Apaneca
- Farm: San Cayetano
- Farmer: Rafael and Carmen Silva Hoff
- Farm Size: 15 Hectares
- Coffee growing area: 15 Hectares
- Annual Production: 17,000 kg
- Workers: 50 during the peak harvest
- Average Temperature: 18 degrees centigrade
- Average Annual Rainfall: 2300mm
- Altitude: 1,500 m.a.s.l.
- Processing Method: Red Honey
- Varietal: Bourbon
CUPPING NOTES
Redcurrant, brown sugar, cherry, chocolate.
Clean Cup: (1-8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1-8): 6
Acidity: (1-8): 7
Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6.5
Flavour: (1-8): 6.5
Aftertaste: (1-8): 6.5
Balance: (1-8): 6
Overall: (1-8): 6
Correction: (+36): +36
Total: (max 100): 87
Roasting Information
Medium dark - just into the start of second crack.
"Quick Look" Guide
Redcurrant, brown sugar, cherry, chocolate.
Sunday Apr 02, 2017
Sunday Apr 02, 2017
The Musasa Dukunde Kawa cooperative has three washing stations lying high in Rwanda’s rugged northwest. Nkara –the cooperative’s third washing station -was built by the co-op in 2007with profits earned from their first two washing stations, Ruli & Mblima, and a bank loan. The washing station lies at 1,800 metres above sea level and serves farmers within the Ruli Sector of Rwanda’s Northern Province.
Much of the success of Musasa Dukunde Kawa can be attributed to the transformational PEARL programme of which it was a part. The project switched the focus in the Rwandan coffee sector from an historic emphasis on quantity to one of quality, thus opening Rwanda up to the much more highly-valued specialty coffee market. The programme and its successor, SPREAD, have been invaluable in helping Rwanda’s small-scale coffee farmers to rebuild their production in the wake of the devastating 1994 genocide and the 1990s world coffee crash.
Most of the small scale producers with whom Musasa Dukunde Kawa works own less than a quarter of a hectare of land, where they cultivate an average of only 250-300 coffee trees each as well as other subsistence food crops such as maize and beans. The cooperative gives these small farmers the chance to combine their harvests and process cherries centrally. Before the proliferation of washing stations such as Nkara, the norm in Rwanda was for small farmers to sell semi-processed cherries on to a middleman, and the market was dominated by a single exporter. This commodity-focused system -coupled with declining world prices in the 1990s - brought severe hardship to farmers, some of whom abandoned coffee entirely
Today, it’s a different picture. Farmers who work with Musasa Dukunde Kawa have seen their income at least double, and the co-op produces some outstanding lots for the specialty market year after year. ‘Musasa’ means ‘a place to make a bed’ and ‘Dukunde Kawa’ means ‘let’s love coffee’ in Kinyarwanda - a reference to the power of coffee to improve the lives of those in rural communities.
Musasa Dukunde Kawa now owns three washing stations and is one of Rwanda’s larger cooperatives, with 2,148 members as of the 2014/15 crop year. Nkara washing station began serving local farmers in 2007-8 and today buys and processes cherries from between 15-20%of the cooperative’s membership. The numbers and paperwork involved are substantial!With the help of the Wet Mill manager, 4 permanent employees and around 53 seasonal workers, Nkara has grown to process 2 containers of exportable coffee lots.
The level of care that Musasa Dukunde Kawa Nkara takes over the processing is impressive. Cherries are hand-picked only when fully ripe and then pulped that same evening using a mechanical pulper that divides the beans into three grades by weight.
After pulping, the coffee is fermented overnight (for around 12 hours) and then graded again using flotation channels that sort the coffee by weight (the heaviest – or A1 – usually being the best). The wet parchment is then soaked in water for between 18 and 24 hours to stabilise moisture content.
As at most washing stations in Rwanda, women do the majority of the hand sorting. This takes place in two stages - on the covered pre-drying tables and on the drying tables. Washed beans are moved from the wet fermentation tanks onto the pre-drying tables, where they are intensively sorted under shade for around six hours. The idea is that greens (unripes) are still visible when the beans are damp, while the roofs over the tables protect the beans from the direct sunlight. Next, the beans are moved onto the washing station’s extensive drying tables for around 14 days (depending on the weather), where they are sorted again for defects, turned regularly and protected from rain and the midday sun by covers, ensuring both even drying and the removal of any damaged or ‘funny looking’ beans. After reaching 11% humidity, the coffee is then stored in parchment in Nkara’s purpose-built warehouse prior to final dry-milling and hand-sorting at the Cooperative’s brand new dry mill in Kigali. Each coffee that arrives is also cupped by Musasa’s team of expert cuppers along with the Q-graders of their exporting partner, Rwashocco.
Lots are usually separated out by days. Upon delivery as cherry, the coffee receives a paper ‘ticket’ that follows the lot through all its processing. This ticket bears the date of harvest and the grade (A1, A2 etc) of the coffee – for instance, if a coffee lot is called ‘Lot 1-06/04 -A1’, this means it was the first lot processed on April 4 and the grade is A1. This simple but effective practice is a crucial tool in controlling quality and ensuring the traceability of lots.
In addition to the great work that the cooperative does with quality improvement and assurance, they also have various social programs that greatly contribute to the livelihoods of their members. School fees and medical insurance are provided along with training in quality and productivity in cultivation of coffee. The cooperative also gives cows as bonus payment for quality cherry. These cows not only produce milk for cheese, which helps improve diets and provides supplementary income for farmers, they also provide fertiliser for coffee! The cooperative has also invested in a fleet of tailor-made bikes that help smallholders deliver their cherry to the cooperative's washing stations.This not only reduces the labour required for producers but also means that it is easier to deliver cherry on the same day as picking, which helps ensure greater quality.
In the cup expect something bright and shiny, lime and white sugar with a light but very clean body. On the finish there’s lime zest and a shoulder of white tea.
- Country: Rwanda
- Province: Northern
- District: Gakenke
- Sector: Ruli
- Washing station: Musasa Nkara
- Owner: Musasa Dukunde Kawa Cooperative (2,100+ smallholder farmers)
- Varietal: Red Bourbon
- Processing method: Fully washed & sun dried on raised beds
- Washing station altitude: 1,800 m.a.s.l.
- Altitude of farms: 1,800 to 2,000 m.a.s.l.
- Average size of farm: 0.25 hectares
CUPPING NOTES
Lime, white sugar, lime zest, white tea.
Clean Cup: (1-8): 6.5
Sweetness: (1-8): 6.5
Acidity: (1-8): 7
Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6
Flavour: (1-8): 6
Aftertaste: (1-8): 6
Balance: (1-8): 6
Overall: (1-8): 7
Correction: (+36): +36
Total: (max 100) : 87