Posts Tagged ‘Costa Rica’

Posted on October 12, 2008 - by deCadmus

Tasting Square Mile Coffees

Let’s face it. Right now the folks at Square Mile — Stephen Morrissey, James Hoffmann and Annette Moldvaer¹  — could phone it in. They could source dubious coffees, call them edgy, describe them cryptically while lavishing them with praise… and they would sell. A lot. At least until the hype subsided.

Happily, our world champion baristas and coffee tasters are doing no such thing. They’re sourcing coffees of great character — juried award winners and coffees from small, family-run farms — roasting them light to remain faithful to the beans’ origins, and letting the coffee speak for itself. Well done.

Costa Rica El Portillo C.O.E.

I admit to having a love / hate affair with Costa Rican coffee the last year or two. From where I sit, Costas have lurched in one of two directions, each at opposite ends of my bell curve of happiness: at the one end, bright, shrill, efferfrickinvescant acidity at the expense of all other character; at the other extreme, big, beefy and dumb-as-a-cow bullion flavors with no dynamic to the cup at all. The exceptions to these extremes can be found far from the big coffee estates on small, family farms… and — happily enough — the Square Mile El Portillo is just such an exception.

Balanced and round, with flavors of honeysuckle and buttery caramel. I find a burst of citrus on the front, and a dark cocoa surprise as the cup cools, and that honeyed sweetness and syrupy body throughout. This is a complex, many-layered cup, and immensely rewarding.

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Kenya Muchoki Peaberry

Tremendously bright, crisp, and dry with flavors of tart cherry, and strawberries with fresh-ground black pepper.  Its finish is dry, somewhat distilled and yet — somehow — suggests a candied sweetness. I’m reminded of a top-quality Muscato D’Asti.

The very light roast on this coffee makes for a cup that’s faithful to its origins, but the roaster in me can’t help but wonder if a bit more fire wouldn’t further develop the sweetness that dwells in this bean.

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Both of these coffees are highly recommended, and available now, at Square Mile Coffee Roasters.

P.S. It’s worth noting… this is two coffees down, and two to go. More soon.

P.P.S. Sorry about the marginal photography. It was a bit of a rush job.

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Notes and Links

1. Note that each name is described by double double letters… Coincidence? Or conspiracy? ↩

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Posted on March 30, 2008 - by deCadmus

C.A.F.E. Through Rose-Colored Glasses

It’s hard to peer into Starbucks’ notoriously opaque coffee sourcing standards. In a Sunday article in the Seattle Times — Changing the Way Costa Rican Farmers Grow Coffee - and Live — writer Manuel Valdes offers a glimpse, through the eyes of Rodrigo Vargas of Santa Eduviges — one of Costa Rica’s largest family-owned coffee-farming operations.

Vargas is one of the hundreds of farmers — large and small — in Costa Rica who have benefited from Starbucks’ arrival after an influx of cheap beans from Brazil and Vietnam saturated the market and sent prices tumbling in the late 1990s, creating a crisis for coffee growers.

As Starbucks’ presence grew in Costa Rica, Vargas’ relationship with the Seattle specialty coffee-shop chain tightened. He replaced 25 percent of his coffee plants with better breeds of arabica beans to keep up with Starbucks’ growing demand and quality standards.

By 1998, he sold 1.2 million pounds of coffee to Starbucks. In 2002, Vargas visited Seattle, met CEO Howard Schultz and sat courtside at a then-Schultz-owned Seattle Sonics basketball game.

Should you unwittingly get the impression that Starbucks’ coffee growers were all new-found members of the Seattle jet-set, chomping cigars and playing poker with Howard, the article further suggests that Starbucks still must wag the occasional disapproving finger at their naughty kids coffee suppliers…

Much like his boss, Yeiner Chacón’s life revolves around coffee. As head agronomist for Santa Eduviges, he knows coffee. He’s a fan of Café Practices, but he no longer deals with the certifiers that visit the farms.

“I almost killed the last guy,” Chacón says half-jokingly. But his attitude reflects the disagreements farmers have with the standards.

…snip…

But eventually, farmers began to see the benefits of the program.

“The plants are healthier; they produce better,” says Oscar Andres Quiros, a CoopeTarrazú member.

Well of course… it’s for their own good, after all.

But the most nettlesome quote from the entire rosy article is this beauty — a standard company talking point that is unquestioned and unrefuted by the author:

Peter Torrebiarte, Starbucks’ point man in Latin America, says any farm certified by Café Practices meets other certification-program standards, including those of Rainforest Alliance, which companies such as food conglomerate Nestlé use.

First of all, I don’t know that I’d use Nestlé as a standard for good practices in certification and corporate social responsibility. Second, the whole “one certification is as good as any other” line is tired, wrong-headed, and the basis for corporate greenwashing of the worst sort.

The article — and make no mistake, it’s a towering, sugary puff pastry — comes on the heels of Starbucks’ announcement of an expanded relationship with Conservation International, with whom it has partnered to develop a new mark for its coffee. Starbucks’ stated intent is to reinforce and expand its “Coffee and Farmer Equity” (C.A.F.E.) principles and practices.

That’s good, because those practices need some propping up. In September, 2007 the Sacramento Bee penned a stinging investigative report¹; an exposé on Starbucks’ failures to meet its own C.A.F.E. standards — standards for fair wages, environmental protection, decent housing and working conditions — in the production of one of its vaunted and pricey “Black Apron” exclusive coffees. A coffee that Starbucks offered at $26 a pound, and that put a mere 66 cents a day in the pocket of the farmers who produced it. A coffee grown on land recently deforested and replanted to better support coffee production.

My worry is that the new mark that Starbucks and Conservation International create will prove a meaningless stamp of approval; one with lots of marketing upside, and little to show for it in terms of environmental or social impact in coffee-growing communities. Starbucks has won an enviable position in the specialty coffee marketplace; they are the $12 billion gorilla in the room. With that sort of purchasing and marketing power, everything they do — unwitting or not — creates a benchmark, a measure by which all other coffee companies will be judged.

Starbucks has manufactured a great opportunity to raise the bar. I hope they’ll use it.

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Notes and Links

1. Hat tip to Siel at Green LA Girl for the link ↩

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Posted on August 8, 2007 - by deCadmus

Wanted: Adventurous Travelers for Coffee Kids Costa Rica Trip

Ever thought about what it *really* takes to get coffee from seed to cup? What life is like in a coffee-growing community? There’s really only one way to learn… make a trip to origin!

Coffee Kids — by any measure, a terrific non-profit group that does great work in coffee growing lands — is hosting a trip to coffee communities in Costa Rica in November…

Coffee Kids and JavaVentures will host a fun and informative tour in the coffee lands of Costa Rica, Nov. 6-11. This five-day tour will focus on coffee communities and a student scholarship project supported by The Rural Children’s Education Foundation (FHC) and sponsored by Coffee Kids. Deadline for registration is Saturday, Sept. 15.

On this trip participants will have the opportunity to learn how coffee and grassroots community development serve as critical elements to providing families and communities a higher quality of life and hope for the future.

The cost of the trip is $1,295… the benefits — priceless. For a complete trip itinerary and more information, visit www.javaventures.com or www.coffeekids.org or call 415-595-2924.

I have to warn you… a trip like this will forever alter how you look at your cup… and how you look at the world.

Posted on August 3, 2007 - by deCadmus

Congrats to the World Barista Champion

Congratulations to James Hoffman (whom you may know as Jim Seven (that’s his blog in the list down yonder) on capturing the top honors at the World Barista Championship in Tokyo. His performance was — in a word — artistic. Poised, relaxed — or doing a damn fine job of looking relaxed — Jim wowed the judges with his technical skills, his presentation, and a signature espresso drink that combined separately-pulled single origins from Costa Rica and Kenya (an intensely blackcurrenty Gethumbwini) with a tobacco and cream infusion, topped with a biscotti foam. (I’m thinking it’d probably be labeled illegal in the U.S.)

If you’re at all wondering what the Barista Championships are all about, watch the finalist videos at ZacharyZachary and be amazed. (As a bonus the videography is quite good!)

Congrats to Jim, and congrats to *all* of the national barista champions (and that means you, too, Heather Perry!)

Posted on November 5, 2003 - by deCadmus

Tasting: Santa Elena Tarrazu Miel

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Coffee is a fruit, you know… Sipping the cup in front of me, this simple truth is underlined. The cup is lush, heavily fruited with black cherry, and reveals a sweet tobacco finish. Oh… and it’s from Costa Rica.

The coffee is Santa Elena Tarrazu Miel. Now, Santa Elena is a big coffee farm in Tarrazu, Costa Rica. Big enough they have their own mill… and big enough that when the top 10% or so of their coffee meets specialty coffee standards, it’s a lot of coffee. Erna Knutsen, the grand damme of the specialty coffee trade [and the originator of the term Specialty Coffee] convinced the folks at Santa Elena to process this coffee, this very fine Tarrazu coffee, like folks in Sumatra do… a “semi-wash” process that left the pulp of the fruit on the bean while it dried.

Unheard of! (more…)

Posted on June 11, 2001 - by deCadmus

A Tarrazu Triple Play

I am — nearly every day — amazed by coffee. By its infinite variety, its complexity, its capability to surprise and delight… and all this within just a single growing region of the world, the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica.

There is a story to be told of the tempests that occur when people debate what is, and what is not Tarrazu. The short version is this — Tarrazu can at once be defined by the geo-political border that is Tarrazu county, by the ICAFE designation of what is a Tarrazu finca, and by the micro-climate that exists within a particularly mountainous region of Costa Rica that produces very hard coffee beans with distinctly spicy, aromatic qualities and bell-like brightness. I’m running with the latter of these three definitions, and I’m willing to let ICAFE and the SCAA sort out the rest.

With this in mind, I’ve assembled a number of Tarrazu coffees with the idea of formally cupping them to compare their characteristics — but I keep drinking them instead! It doesn’t help that I’ve had little time at the roaster recently — the lion’s share of what I roast lately is straight away ground and brewed. Even so I’ve managed to pull out the silver spoon long enough to jot down a few notes…

La Minita Estate
What can I say that hasn’t already been written a thousand times before, and more eloquently? La Minita, a pioneering estate run by Bill McAlpin — something of a organizational and horticultural wizard — year after year produces some of the very finest coffees in the world. Long before I was a fan of roasting my own coffee, I was a fan of La Minita.

At a light city roast it is richly aromatic and spicy. Its acidity is sparkling and clean. It’s layered with complex spice flavors… when I hit just the right spot in the roast it tastes something of apple pie with its fruity and savory notes. It’s still clean and refreshing as the coffee cools. If you like iced coffee, this is your cup.

That much said, it’s all too easy to destroy the unique characteristics of this super premium coffee. A moment or two of distraction is all it takes… anything beyond a City roast, and you might as well be drinking just about any other Central American coffee. Full City? Second crack? Fughetaboudit.

Dota “Conquistador”
Dota is a valley within Tarrazu some distance removed from many of the other growers. While still a Tarrazu coffee [and these days brokered by La Minita] it’s got its own personality. Not quite so fragrant as La Minita, not quite so bright either. It’s got a winey characteristic that fans of East African coffees will appreciate, with some fairly powerful bitter chocolate notes as well. While not a full-bodied coffee by most measures, it does have a surprisingly long, lush finish. I think if I were to cup it blind I’d think it more related to a Yemen than a Tarrazu.

Dota has a bit more range in terms of roasts… some heat after first crack will burn away some of the brighter notes and reinforce the chocolate. Still, go easy… this coffee shouldn’t stray too far from the City limits.

Tres Rios
The appellation for this coffee comes from Sweet Maria’s… Tom Owen says it was brokered as Holland Especial, and the name didn’t seem to fit. No matter, by any other name, this is one sweet coffee.

Tres Rios is not the product of a single Tarrazu finca, it’s a co-op blend of regional coffees. As such, there’s really no telling what next year might bring to the region… so get some of this fine stuff while you can. Not quite so bright as La Minita, but nearly as spicily aromatic, Tres Rios is another Tarrazu cup that’s brisk and clean right to the finish. Unlike the other Tarrazu’s compared here, Tres Rios is quite forgiving of the roaster, and can take a range of roasts from a very light City to a very deep Full City — and if you want to experiment with a deeper roast, this bean will take some heat.

At a City roast the Tres Rios reminds me very much of coffees from the Kona coast… it’s got something of that same “evergreen” quality to it — piney, balsamy, call it what you will — it’s a flavor that I thought was distinctive of Kona, and I couldn’t be more pleased to find something of it in a cup that costs less than half as much.

And there you have it… Three coffees from Tarrazu — one of the very best growing regions in the world — and each distinct in flavor and aroma. What traits do they share? They are each bright, clean coffees, and beautifully prepared. Maybe someday the Tarrazu appellation won’t matter so much… what counts, after all, is what’s found in the cup.