Washing Station Profile: Masha

Name: Masha Operator: Greenco
 Province: Kayanza
 Commune: Gatare Construction Date: 1989 Processing capacity (mt): >750 Elevation (masl): 1 672
 Variety: Red Bourbon

 Soil: Hygro-Xéro-Ferralsols with Ferralic Number of delivering cherry producers: 467 Average trees per farmer: 387

 Processing method: Fully washed

About Masha

In 2012 Masha coffee washing station (CWS) placed amongst the winning lots in Burundi’s inaugural Cup of Excellence. The station has won 8 prizes at the Cup Of Excellence since that inaugural year. Excellent soil conditions, good altitudes, ripe cherry selection from delivering producers and a good water source are amongst the many reasons Masha’s manager believes the washing station is producing some of Burundi’s best coffee.

In the cup, the coffee consistently exhibits a well-balanced profile with tangerine-like acidity and sweetness backed by a honey sweetness that lingers in after taste.

Background to Greenco

Greenco is a subsidiary of BCC (Bercher Coffee Consulting), a Geneva based company established by François Bercher a few years ago.

Mr. Bercher is passionate about Burundi and its coffee and has gained extensive knowledge about, as well as has forged tight links with many key people working throughout the coffee sector, through his many years working as a coffee trader within the country. Since recently settling in Switzerland and starting his own company, François has continued to regularly source coffee from Burundi. In order to source consistently good coffee, he decided to invest his time and resources in being closer to field (e.g. through managing washing stations). In this way, he is able to have more control and influence over his coffees’ quality. This is especially crucial within an infant specialty coffee market such as Burundi’s.

Formerly being a regular buyer of coffee from Webcor (former management company and owner of Yandaro CWS) and thus knowing Webcor's operations very well, François decided to enter into a partnership with them. He knew from past experience that Webcor had purchased and run some of the best CWSs in Burundi, in part by being the first private company to buy CWSes during the country’s first stage of privatization of its coffee sector. It is therefore not surprising that with François' knowledge of Burundian coffee, his working with the best CWSes in the country, along with his high ambitions, that Greenco has had a very successful first year.

Burundi Coffee: Background context

Burundi is a landlocked country in Central Africa bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. The official languages are Kirundi and French, with pockets of Swahili being spoken mostly in Bujumbura (the capital city), along Lake Tanganyika. Hilly and mountainous, Burundi boasts ideal agroecology for coffee cultivation. The country’s economy is predominantly agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends very heavily on coffee and tea exports, which together account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings.

Coffee growing and production began during Belgian occupation in the early 1930s and from 1980 to 1993, Burundi invested heavily in the coffee subsector with the heavy assistance—both monetary and strategic—of the World Bank, which helped implement an ambitious program of coffee washing station construction and tree planting. During these years, the number of coffee shrubs increased from 90 million to over 220 million and 133 washing stations were built and strategically placed throughout the country. Currently, there are over 160 washing stations in Burundi.

Coffee is Burundi’s biggest export revenue earner, making up as high as 80% of earnings. There are 600 000 families, close to 40% of the population, involved in the coffee subsector. Until 2007, the coffee subsector was controlled by the state, with the result that all facilities (i.e. washing stations and dry mills) and exporting were coordinated by the government. Coffee has historically been of low quality, subsequently receiving low prices dependent on commodities exchange markets. However, in 2006, the government started liberalizing the subsector and began allowing privatization of coffee washing stations (CWS) and dry mills leading to a continuing expansion of producer access into high quality specialty markets.

The hilly topography of Burundi has made for how the country is organized politically and infrastructurally. A colline in Burundi (i.e. hill) is like a borough or rural neighbourhood. Ultimately, a certain number of collines constitute a commune (i.e. county). The farmers that live on one colline are likely to deliver their coffee cherries to the same washing station that is located within accessible distance from their farms. The different lots represent day-lots from these wet mills.

The climate in Burundi is predominantly equatorial, but the many hilly and mountainous regions, where coffee is grown, enjoy a moderate climate. Average temperatures vary from 17 to 23C and there are distinct wet and dry seasons: the dry seasons run from June to August and again from December to January; the wet seasons are February to May and September to November. These factors, combined with the country’s agroecology, combine for an ideal environment for coffee growing. Under these conditions, cherries can undergo ideal development due to stable and the relatively low temperatures on the plains. In addition, the distinct seasons allow for a proper blossoming of the plants and good drying conditions for the coffee beans (seeds). The main flowering period runs from October until November and there are two harvesting periods: the main harvest runs from February to March; the secondary harvest from April until May.

pdf version

Part II: The Transition Toward Quality

In Part I, a brief introduction to some major contributors to Burundi’s coffee subsector was made. I focused on three main groups currently involved in the processing and distributing of coffee once the cherries have been picked: the SOGESTAL (now, increasingly privately owned coffee washing stations (CWS)), local buyers (washing stations, amongst others) and dry mills.

This post will focus on how Burundi has begun moving from a coffee market selling low-quality commodities coffee into one that produces high quality specialty coffee. It is a significant shift in Burundi’s coffee paradigm and its success will require long-term planning, investment and the collective action and will of everyone involved. In this post, I wrote about USAID’s involvement in the process and how Burundi’s government has started to liberalize coffee through the privatization of CWSes and dry mills.

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The Transition

From my readings and the conversations I had with people throughout Burundi’s coffee sector, I learned that the already long and complex liberalization process would be even slower going without the involvement of USAID. As an example: when the first tender went out for washing stations, the government wanted cherry producers (via farmers' groups/associations/cooperatives) to acquire part ownership. In such a scenario, both buyers and sellers would have control of the processing capacity – a clear conflict of interest. One of the obvious questions outlined by potential buyers was: who are these people we’re supposed to be sharing ownership with? If partners with competing interests own the same washing station, whose interests win out? Is it the farmers (sellers who want to sell high) or private companies (potentially exporters wanting to buy low)? There was no precedent for this type of model; no other set of experiences to help make sense of how this was all supposed to work. In fact, farmers’ associations/cooperatives have not been able to organize themselves in order to buy the government suggested share of the washing stations (approx. 25%) and the government still own shares in washing stations that have been purchased privately.

With USAID’s involvement, companies that decided to go ahead and purchase CWSes had support and a bit of an intermediary to help smooth the transition from a government controlled industry to a semi-privatized one (the government still retains control of varying shares of each washing station). Cherry producers have been quite skeptical of companies buying up washing stations. A big part of the problem was mis-communication on the government’s part with respect to CWS ownership. Instead of communicating that producers were paying taxes to maintain CWSes, the government characterized them as payments that would eventually lead to coffee farmers groups’ ownership.

Also problematic is that governments, generally, aren’t very good at running things tightly and efficiently. The case of Burundi’s SOGESTALs is no exception. These have a history of running with huge overhead costs and producers have never been given the opportunity to participate in anything other than cherry production. They had no involvement or knowledge about markets and pricing; they constantly were or felt like they were being cheated (e.g. paid for less cherries than they delivered); they had no access to advances in agricultural knowledge and technology and no access to international buyers with whom they could negotiate. Amongst many, two consequences were low quality coffee and wildly fluctuating production levels.

What’s Been Done?

USAID’s five-year program (Burundi Agribusiness Program), which ended in November 2012, was significant in Burundi’s move toward high quality coffee production. The program, while small in scope in its targeting of a small number of washing stations and regions, seems to have provided the necessary initial push toward better agricultural practice, a marketing strategy (almost nonexistent prior) and better use of Burundi’s already impressive coffee infrastructure (the EU built the vast majority of currently operating washing stations back in the ‘80s). You can read more about specific initiatives in this post.

Private companies have also invested in better production practices. One of our partners in Burundi, Webcor, has an agronomist on staff who supervises an agronomic team to work with cherry producers on everything from fertilizer use to replacing old coffee plants with new ones (many of Burundi’s coffee bushes are between 20-60 years old; a definite hindrance to quality).

Just as important as improving the agricultural and marketing aspects of coffee production is the training of professional cuppers. If local partners don’t know what international buyers of specialty coffee are looking for, how can sales take place on equal footing? Again, USAID has invested in this area and one of its coffee specialists, Tharcisse Niyungeko, has been instrumental in both training and increasing the awareness of the importance of cupping for a coffee professional.

How Privatization has Benefitted Burundi Coffee

Actually, it’s too early to evaluate how the liberalization of Burundi’s coffee sector has benefitted those involved. It’s only been about four years since efforts began in earnest and I met with just a tiny fraction of the people earning their livelihoods from coffee. It’s pretty clear that it will take another five years or more before any widespread or significant consequences of this process will become evident. However, every single one of the 30 or so people I spoke with (ranging from government officials, to foreign NGO workers, to cherry producers) expressed that the liberalizing and privatizing of Burundi coffee is a positive thing. A very positive thing. From the producers’ perspective, the most significant consequence of allowing private players into the system has been competition. This new competition has led to several subsequent consequences: more transparency of the value chain, better and more connections amongst buyers and sellers (local and international), an actual choice in who to work with, since it’s no longer ‘the government’, amongst others.

Also commonly expressed was the conclusion that competition is good for quality. Producers are willing to be more selective in cherry selection and learn better agricultural practices if there’s incentive for them to do so. When the government controlled coffee production, cherry producers felt completely alienated from the selling of their own coffee – they characterized coffee growing as simply an exercise in producing something for the government to sell and benefit from. Since they had no idea how pricing was determined and coffee washing stations were 100% owned by the government, there was little choice or autonomy in how to work and with whom.

Thanks for reading,

Melanie

Go back to: Introduction Go back to: Part I

Note: The posts in this series contain both fact and opinions – from coffee professionals in Burundi and my own. Data collection for my master fieldwork has just been completed and has yet to be analyzed, so these posts will be updated as more information is revealed.

A Look Back on 2012 and the Coming New Year

Dear Collaborators, It’s been quite a momentous inaugural year here at the Collaborative, thanks in large part to the support and enthusiasm of all of you. For us, it’s almost a year to the day when this project became a reality and so it is doubly appropriate that we now look back and reflect on all that’s passed and plan for the coming year. Without further ado, here is our look back on 2012.

Visits to Origin Partners

Our main aim is to facilitate long-term partnerships between roaster and producing partners and regular and frequent face-to-face visits to our producing partners are crucial to this process. Just as much for building trust and engaging in mutual exchange as to observe, learn and participate in coffee production of Collaborative lots.

Most of our trips this year were to gain a deeper understanding of the partnerships already established in the 10 countries we are currently working in. For most of these visits, we were present near the end of harvest in order to select the best the harvests’ had to offer. In the case of Bjørnar’s two-month stay in Guatemala, he was able to regularly cup day lots at Bella Vista’s wet mill and this gave him the unique opportunity to skim the “cream of the crop” of that season’s harvest. Also doing a two-month stint at origin was Melanie, who chose Burundi as the site of her fieldwork for her master thesis. At the same time that she interviewed people from all over the coffee sector about how “direct trade” is impacting the livelihoods of coffee producers, she met with and visited the people and coffee washing stations we have purchased coffee from. Burundi is a new origin country for us and we are excited about the potential of this developing origin with its recent focus on producing high quality specialty coffee.

During our most recent trip to Ethiopia, we spent two full weeks in the West and South regions of the country in order to become experts in these areas. Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, provides distinct and some of the most sought after coffees in the world and we are as in love as everyone else. Joanna and Robert toured cooperative washing stations we currently work with, met potential future partners and chatted with cherry producers about how coffee quality is determined at farm level.

Events

Just as important as meeting origin partners is meeting face-to-face with Collaborative roasters, current and potential. You drive the work we do. Your drive to obtain and provide better coffee is what inspires us to do the work we do. This is a community of producers and roasters. The goal is to close the gap between producers and roasters, so the collaborative aspect of what we do is foundational to the building of this community.

In London we cupped with some of London’s finest purveyors of coffee at Prufrock’s lovely café. The two cuppings hosted at Prufrock proved to be so interesting and successful that the Prufrock crew decided to continue hosting their own cuppings and involving us via Skype. At SCAA in Portland, we met with and cupped with producer and roaster alike. Robert participated on a panel discussion on direct trade at this year’s Nordic Roaster Forum. Finally, we hosted Le Carnaval du Café in Paris where leading experts and producers coming out of Brazil, Panama and Burundi presented on how varieties and processing techniques impact coffee quality. To round out and provide some context to these theories and experiences, participants cupped representative samples of the very differences in variety and technique that were presented on.

Most recently, Joanna and Robert flew to Korea to attend Café & Bakery Fair, an expo dedicated to presenting the latest and greatest of all things café: coffee, tea and bakery, with a heavy emphasis on coffee. Korea is a rapidly growing and interesting new market for specialty coffee. We were invited by our first Korean partner, Momos, who felt there were good opportunities for us to meet with roasters eager to work with high quality specialty coffee but currently lack access to these producers and their coffees.

Coming Up in the New Year…

Collaborative roasters have recently solidified their commitments for fresh crop Brazils (Carmo and Piatà regions) and Burundis. We are expecting these shipments to arrive in February. Check out our current list of offerings here.

We are finalizing plans for a January trip to Central America. This will be the first of (hopefully) many trips where we will be joined with Collaborative roasters who will meet the producers they buy their coffees from face-to-face! The tentative 10-day itinerary includes stops in Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. In February, Bjørnar and Robert head to Kenya and Ethiopia to finalize this harvest’s lots and to meet with current and potential partners.

We at the Collaborative Coffee Source would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas. May the New Year bring you success and excellent coffee...

Robert, Joanna, Bjørnar, Per and Melanie

Coffee with Seoul

So off we went, Robert and I, almost as far from Norway as you can get, to another small, coffee loving country - just on the other side of the world.  Invited by Momos of Busan, we visited the Café Show expo in Seoul, did the rounds and caught up with the coffee circuit regulars, and then created a little event all of our own: a presentation about the Collaborative, attended by the specialty coffee roasters of Korea and a cupping, presenting the best of Brazil (Minas Gerais) and Burundi. If you have ever visited Korea you will notice many things to be different from Norway, or indeed anywhere else in Europe.  Bowing is a good start. Passing things with delicacy and grace (and receiving them with even more) is another. Drunken businessmen asleep at the dinner table while their colleagues continue to eat is particularly noteworthy cultural norm. Kimchi. Cooking your own pork belly. Feeling like your living in a futuristic movie.  But we were there for Coffee, not Gangnam Style re-enactments under subway signs.

We visited the finest coffee establishments in the land, Coffee Gong Jang, Momos, Coffee Libre, to name a few.  The variety of brewing methods was impressive, (‘dutch style’ being the trend of the moment), the coffee was great, (although of course more darkly roasted than up here in the arctic) and the locations were at the same time predictably well-designed and surprisingly large.

After a day whipping round the Café Show in Seoul, we headed down to Momos HQ in Busan, Korea’s coffee port.  Here snuggly nestled in a traditional building is Momos: rising several floors and spreading across verdant courtyards and dappled terraces, this café is a distinct destination.

We held a cupping and presentation at Coffee Gong Jang; a multi-floored industrial/cosy red and white extravaganza of a coffee shop in downtown Busan.  Busan is the speciality hub of Korea, and the city’s coffee roasters turned out in force. With the help of Momos’ beautiful in-house polyglot Ines, we were able to communicate the Collaborative vision of trading utopia to the good roasters of Korea.

Yet despite the substantial investment, size and design of the coffee shops we visited, and the overwhelming interest from the roasters and baristas we met, we conclude that the coffee scene here is delicately blossoming rather than booming.  Most coffee chains continue to serve impressively low-grade coffees, although this does not seem to hamper their rapid growth.  The majority of coffee shops are closed during what we would consider as the on-the-way-to-work rush hour in the morning.  They prefer instead to start later and stay open until the wee hours, providing a sensory sanctuary for the alcohol averse.

Interestingly, many roasters here also run training academies (from whence they gain the majority of their revenue) comparting the delights of cupping to the bubbling masses of coffee enthusiasts willing to pay for these services.  Thus as we speak a handful more dedicated Koreans have learnt to decipher a good dark roast from a toast, single origin from a blend, fresh as a daisy from baggy and old.  And here lies the future my friends.  For soon these zealous Disciples of the Bean will be spurning the mainstream, and jumping, salmon-like, against the flow of mediocrity to buy only the best, create their own cafés, and roast their own coffee. And with a population of forty nine million and rising, South Korea is one to watch.

Joanna

Interview with Olivier Wege (Webcor)

During my two months in Burundi for my master field work, I took the opportunity to meet with our producing partners. The following is a conversation I had with Olivier Wege, Director General at Webcor. Olivier oversees 13 washing stations and Webcor's dry mill facility and we have bought three lots from/through them - two come from Webcor's Nemba and Masha washing stations and one from Businde washing station, which Webcor purchased from Icocoge. Because the Collaborative is about facilitating long-term partnerships between our origin partners and roasters, I wanted to find out from Olivier what sets Webcor apart in Burundi's coffee industry; why Collaborative roasters should want to work with him and his team.

Thanks for reading,

Melanie

Olivier: [Webcor] was acquired by a Swiss company in 2008 and when they acquired this company, there was a team of three traders. Coffee traders in the trading business for more than 20 years and then right after, they entered Burundi because in 2009, there was this privatization, so Burundi was selling some of [its] coffee industries, like washing stations, dry mill factories. So Webcor arrived in Burundi in 2009 and we bought 13 washing stations and we started building our own dry mill factory in the area of Ngozi/Kayanza. We bought those three washing stations…13 washing stations and so in 2010, was the first harvest. So the first harvest but also the first time that we have private [ownership]. Directly involved at the stage of the cherries and things like that; owning a washing station – that was the first time.

Because all the private and foreign companies were waiting at the door, at the export level but this was the first time that there was a new player so far in the chain. And the first year was quite complicated because everybody had to understand the new system, how are we going to proceed and etc. So we had this whole system that used to be there with the state and then the new system… So in 2010 and 11 was a transition phase. It was quite hard for us, so we went through a lot of issues: political issues. A lot of communication problems between different partners and etc. and actually, we are still…we are now in and things are now quite calm. People now understand that the system has changed.

Now we have more private – a more private campaign, so we are really into a new area for this Burundi coffee industry. And so this is how Webcor has come into the coffee…the Burundi coffee industry but right from the beginning, we had…the way that the whole project was thought. So we have, we managed to have a good team because the idea was to really to go to this specialty coffee because we are first [in the] Ngozi/Kayanza [region] – it’s really the best area if you’re looking for the best coffee. And so our washing station[s] are from there and now when you have the right location, you have to have the right people and we managed to have the right people and have an agronomic department which is not really…it’s quite unusual in a commercial company to have an agronomic department because this is the state or…this is the state affairs but the commercial company…we chose this [model] to have control because there are many issues – the quality or the productivity of the coffee in Burundi.

So we want to make sure that the right things are met. So that’s why with our agronomic department, we can work with people like Tharcisse and Emile, with the project they are trying to put on. And that’s what we are doing: we are trying to work directly supporting the farmers. Making sure that at least the area where we are located, make sure that all the agronomic issues are followed. And then this is the only way to make sure that the productivity can grow and that we can keep on the same quality or even growing better.

And participate in some competition, like Cup of Excellence. Last year there was this Burundi Prestige Cup and then in 2012, it was the East African competition. So this is a way to show people that we are not here to just make some money, we came here to make sure that we have the quality and we make sure we keep on the quality. That’s why we are participating on these competitions and the first competition in which we participated in 2010, we had the first prize. Last year, we didn’t have a lot of coffees, so we didn’t have a very good position and this year, with the Cup of Excellence, we came back to a good position.

So this is our [mandate]: to focus on productivity and quality and make sure that we keep on this point.

Melanie: So if Webcor started working with coffee in 2008, why did they decide to enter into it from the specialty standpoint rather than just commodities?

O: We do both. Burundi…this is the strategy for Burundi. But we do both. So when they bought this trading company, they bought all the business, so the team was already buying a lot of coffee from Latin America, from Asia but few coffees from Africa. And the idea was really to strengthen the business from Africa. And on Arabica. Because this is where they felt the trend was – Arabica, fine coffee. And that’s why we came to East Africa. And then actually, we bought this entities in Burundi but we are also in Rwanda, we also in Uganda, Ethiopia but Burundi is kind of the first step. We put on, we are trying to put on business models that we are going to replicate in those countries.

M: And why did Webcor choose Burundi as the first?

O: Because the opportunity was there at the moment. Because in 2009, there was this privatization and then the [opportunity] came at that moment. So the idea was to find Arabica coffee in this trade, in East Africa and Burundi there was this privatization at this moment. So that’s why we started in Burundi but since it wasn’t so easy, because we had a strategy and the first year was to enter Burundi and then Uganda, etc. etc. And then finally, it happened that it was not so easy to enter a country and then especially when the system is changing and everything. So what we decided was to really focus on Burundi and make sure that everything is well understood and then we go step-by-step.

M: So is the agronomist that works here, is he the only agronomist? Or does he have a team?

O: He has a team. So he has three agronomic technicians. He is himself an engineer, he has three agronomic technicians. Why three? Because we have three regions. Washing stations separated in three regions. And then when necessary, we used to have…the first year, we had the…2010 and 2011, we had a team of 70 agronomic monitors. So people on the field are going around and making sure that… Finally, it wasn’t so useful, so we decided to refocus on these three technicians. And then making some partnerships with local entities.

M: Like cooperatives? Or…

O: Exactly. What we are looking for is making groups…it’s a kind of cooperative. But the name of cooperative in Burundi because in the past they had some issues, so when we say cooperative, there are sometimes…farmers, they don’t like this name. So we say groups of farmers, associations…

M: But they’re independent.

O: Independent. Exactly. So we wanted them to be independent because the thing is that people are always used to follow someone. So the problem we had is when we had those monitors, who are employees of Webcor, it was like those monitors were ruling the…then all the farmers, those groups of farmers were following this monitor like he was the one who was deciding…no, no, we wanted to be really independent and then we work together with trying to find a way to grow, to collaborate. So that’s why we…those monitors who are already people in the coffee from those areas. So we gave them independence and then so they are building those groups for some of them and then after, we’ll see a way to work together. So within the…even a visit to a washing station that’s called Butegana, because we have actually three washing stations that are the way of UTZ certification. So there’s one that’s really advanced: Butegana and now the group of farmers and everything. This is a great model to see where we are going to. So we already have this group of farmers are organized and we have this way of collaborating. We have some texts to give the partnership we are putting in place, so we are trying to build that but it’s not so easy.

But to come back to the first question you said: yes, we are focusing on…really this specialty coffee. Because this is really the added value for Burundi coffee because we are landlocked, the production is not so huge and then we have this possibility to have really good, good, good coffee. But at the same time, we are also doing coffee trading. Pure coffee trading. So we are going on volumes and everything. So that we also do it but we want to really focus on this specialty…

M: What motivates that?

O: First because it’s really, it depends really on people. Because traders we have the Webcor group. They are really for going in that way. So first you have to have the people you trust the way you choose and show us this way. That’s the first thing. Because they believe in that and then they want to go in that way. Doing volumes in Latin America and Asia, some other region in Africa but they know that for East African fine Arabica, there is this opportunity. They trust that but first… And then the second, I think, when you see how things are going. You see that there is a real opportunity. Because there are so many issues that you can overcome. So many issues because if you take Burundi in particular, you have had so many issues: political issues, the war and everything. So you know that if we work hard on things, the opportunities are there. We can really reach some… So first you have to trust that and really know that the opportunity is there and can work hard to try to find…

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M: Why do you think that you’ve been successful in Cup of Excellence? What is it about the way you do things that has gotten you to the point where you’re placing very well in Prestige Cup and Cup of Excellence? What are you doing differently than the other washing stations?

O: First, again, we have the right team…

M: Where does their expertise come from? Because if you’ve only been here since 2009, that’s three years. So how do they know how to produce specialty quality coffee.

O: Those guys have been there for a long time before us. We didn’t come here and then say, “Okay, we’re going to show you how things are going to be.” No, we [were] already buying coffee in Burundi a long time ago. The traders that Webcor bought the company and this company was already buying coffee from Burundi, so it’s a long time. So they have the experience of Burundi. They knew what was the potential. So when we came here, it was not so difficult to find the right people because they were already working with some of these guys. And the team was to constitute the right team and then to constitute the right…to buy the right washing stations. Because this…we have, for certain, the best washing stations in the country. We are really good located in Burundi. So where we are, if you take Kayanza: Kayanza the region where our washing stations are, this is the region that has always been winning competitions and everything. Coffee from that region is always winning because it’s the best coffee.

M: What makes that region so special?

O: Because of the high altitude along the 1800, 1900, up to 2000 altitude. You have the good soil. Volcanic soil in that region and then you have also a discipline amongst the workers and farmers. That region, people really have the discipline to work well in their fields and everything. So I think those elements…

M: Were those SOGESTALs managed better? Is that where that comes from? This work ethic and the knowledge of how to produce high quality coffee? Because before privatization, everything was government run.

O: Exactly. Let’s say before government, there was a problem of [organization and coordination] that was really missing. And I think maybe not enough was done to make sure the productivity was well supported and everything. But on the other side, nothing was done to make sure that there is a dynamic between what you are trying to build. The end buyer. Maybe not the end buyer but one of the buyers, one of the final buyers and then the producers. There was not this dynamic. Everything was given to the state and the state was selling it. So people were not used to have feedbacks on their coffee and everything. The thing is all the coffee was kind of mixed, so if you had a good coffee from that region and average coffee from the other region, it was quite the same because finally, everything was given to the state and then the state was selling and then we were already receiving the money when there was this money and that’s it. No feedback, no exchange.

As, actually, what we got was this difference. So there is this feedback coming in and I was telling you about this quality team we have, for example. They have been working in that. In the quality of the coffee for a long time. So they have this experience but this is the first time since two years, three years that they have feedback from the buyers. From the user of this coffee. That give them knowledge to…ah, this is the kind of quality they are looking for, this is the kind of coffee they are looking for. Before that, they didn’t have anything. So it was like something linear…okay, they do what they have to do and then that’s it.

But now, since there is this dynamic, they know how they can… So actually what we do is really from the starting point, when we start…even before starting receiving the cherries at the washing station, we try actually, in the agronomic department, we try to locate some exceptional field. So when we look at those field, we start to [work] with those farmers to really make sure that they understand not only how to make sure that the field is well kept and the cherries will be fine, etc. but the way they are going to bring the cherries. When are they going to cut the cherries? How much time…they don’t have to wait long before they bring the cherries. Or putting them in different baskets and then make sure they don’t mix something they started collecting six hours before and then blending it or something.

All those small kinds of things. With that, we make sure that from the beginning, from the starting point, we have this selection. This selection is already made. And then, it comes to the washing station and then since we know we want to go to the way of having those specialty coffee, those high quality coffees, we are ready to make those selections at the washing stations. Which was not the case before. Before, coffee was…everything was thrown into the same haul and then everything is processed because it’s costing money, costing time and everything. But we have this money and we have this time. We have this time and this money because we know that we have which partners which can go and help people who are working for this kind of quality.

Because we know how to sell those kinds of coffees, we take the time and the money to select those coffees. This was not the case before and this is not the case… If you take Businde, this is a washing station which is not really far from our area and we have been helping them a lot. Because we know their coffee. We know the coffee they have, we know it’s good coffee. The thing is that because they don’t have the time or money to make sure…they blend everything. There is a big part of the coffee that is wasted. Probably not a bad coffee but good coffee…there is less good coffee. We help them to make sure that the good coffee they identify, they keep it selected from the others and we help them… We help them buy saying we are going to buy this good quality in order to select. They don’t have the time to wait until…like now. September, October, November. For getting the money. Actually, that’s a big problem. They have to go fast and have the coffee processed really fast and make sure that the coffee is ready for export early in the year so normally it can come in and then they can pay everybody.

Most of the time we lose good coffee because of the reality of the situation. I know I’m talking a lot…

M: No but it’s important because our customers don’t get to have these conversations and they really want to know these details. It’s very important to them.

O:  You’ll have a lot of details when you in the field. You’ll feel more…and you’ll talk with one of our guys who’s called Luc who’s the chef de production. He’s supervising one region. We have these three [agronomists], I told you supervising these regions and supervising the washing station. He’s also coordinating certification. So you’ll have a chat with him and you can feel…and then he’s been in the coffee for more than 10 years and you can have also a chat with Felix and specially another one – the quality manager who’s coming: Lucien. And he can tell you about all this. He’s doing a lot. When he came into Webcor…well he’s a technician. Before he was only a technician. And now he can be a coffee lover. Passionate.

When we start having those cherries at the washing station, starting from March/April, he’s running all the washing stations and really at the beginning, selecting the good coffees. So sometimes he’s going all the fields just for a few kilos. So we really have to have the flexibility for a guy like him. A guy like him needs to have this flexibility to go and say, “OK, I’m going to use the car, spend money on fuel, go to the field, spend time…” He has this flexibility because we say, “OK, you go and you make sure that we have the right quality, the right fruit.”

M: The ultimate goal for us is to have those small microlots. If it’s possible to get it down to the farm level, that is our ultimate goal, so if it’s possible to eventually move towards that, then that’s very much what we want to do because we’re working with roasters that want to have relationships with specific farmers, so that they’re buying the same coffee from the same farmer year after year.

O: That we can do. We are starting because when we are building those groups of farmers, that’s really the objective. So we want to make sure that we can locate the coffee that was produced up to the field. We separate the coffees from the hills. We know this coffee is coming from hill number 1. This coffee from field number 2 and 3. So we separate from hills. What we want to do is really work from this group of farmers who themselves can say, “OK, we have this lot from this field. We have this lot from this field.” This is a job those guys will do. We cannot do everything but we have to… After that, that’s when we come back to this feedback, we say, “OK, if we can say this is the final buyer of your coffee,” and then he’s coming back because he loved your coffee, so he wants to know more about you. That’s absolutely fantastic for them because there is something coming back. Some recognition. They need also that. When they have that, somehow…

M: But it’s not only recognition… It’s about relationships [and buying from the same people year to year]. What we want ultimately is to negotiate our contracts with those farmers. Is that something that Webcor is willing to facilitate?

O: Absolutely. I think that when you start building those groups, give them all those facilities…the basic essentials…give them the tools…all this is to make sure that tomorrow they are independent and can manage themselves and can then have this direct relationship because after all, we have the washing station and dry mills and facilities. So we want to make sure that those groups of farmers, once they’re independent, once they understand that there is an opportunity of producing much more good quality, the facility is there… This is the way we’re going. We want independence for the farmers. We need more quality and more production. This is where we want to be. We are investing for that. More production and better quality. So everything that can make sure that they produce more and better quality is better. If they have this direct relationship, then they feel that they are producing for that person and that person has asked them to produce this type of coffee… this brings a dynamic that for us is fine. Because there’s no use to control everything and not making sure that things are getting better. But we want to make sure that since there is productivity, the quality is growing. That’s fine for us…

People in Burundi are really independent, they don’t like when you put them in one entity. People like to be free, independent.

M: I mean, it’s their livelihood, you can understand why.

O: But let’s make sure they really become independent in the right sense. Not independent in the sense of them failing and not knowing…not organized and knowing what to do. Really independent and know how to live off the soil…

Washing Station Profile: Nemba

Name: Nemba Owner: Webcor Manager: Fabien Nyambere Province: Kayanza Commune: Muruta Founding year: 1993 Elevation (masl): 1 816 Varietals: Bourbon Water source: Spring-fed Production: 247 153 kg (2012) Number of delivering cherry suppliers: 1 295 (2012) Soil: Hygro-Xéro-Ferralsols with Ferralic Average rainfall (mm): 1 345 Average farm size (ha): 0.3 Processing method: Wet

About Nemba

Nemba is two entities: a cooperative and a washing station. The cooperative is comprised of the delivering cherry producers to the washing station and Webcor owns the washing station. At the beginning and end of harvest, the washing station is open twice a week and operates everyday during the peak of the harvest period.

According to Nemba washing station's manager, Fabien, the biggest challenges to quality are good agricultural practices and farmer access to fertilizer. Webcor's team of agronomists work with the farmer associations on educating good agricultural practice but fertilizer use is a challenge connected with poverty: cherry producers struggle to be able to afford fertilizer. However, Fabien believes that higher prices can be achieved in the market as farmers increase yields with better agronomic practices and improve the quality of cherry selection. To that end, Nemba provides support to farmers through nurseries’ installation in addition to the agricultural training in best practices

Background to Webcor

During Burundi's first round of privatizing its washing stations in 2009, Webcor acquired 13 of the washing stations located in the Kayanza and Ngozi regions. These provinces, especially Kayanza, are well-known and highly regarded for producing some of the best coffees in the country. High elevations, rich volcanic soils and experienced and disciplined farmers are some of the things that set Kayanza apart from neighbouring coffee growing areas within Burundi.

Webcor has set itself apart from the competition by developing a professional agronomic team, comprised of three engineers who oversee the three regions Webcor currently operate in. This team is responsible for overseeing agronomic best practice, education of and collaborating with cherry producers both pre-harvest and harvest, with an emphasis on ensuring producers have the necessary tools and knowledge to oversee and determine agronomic practices best suited to producers' own plantations.

Due to civil war and complete state control of Burundi's coffee sector, cherry producers have had little control over the coffee production process, leading to wildly fluctuating harvest yields and poor quality control. Fortunately, Burundi is well provisioned with good agricultural and climatic conditions, as well as varieties with great potential for producing unique and quality coffees. Webcor's mandate is to increase coffee productivity and quality through financial investment, a strong professional team of agronomists and a focus on good cherry selection. This team is excited about the opportunity of closing the gap between cherry producer and buyer and facilitating producer independence through good resource management and transparent business practice.

Burundi Coffee: Context

Burundi is a landlocked country in Central Africa bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. The official languages are Kirundi and French, with pockets of Swahili being spoken mostly in Bujumbura (the capital city), along Lake Tanganyika. Hilly and mountainous, Burundi boasts ideal agroecology for coffee cultivation. The country’s economy is predominantly agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends very heavily on coffee and tea exports, which together account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings.

Coffee growing and production began during Belgian occupation in the early 1930s and from 1980 to 1993, Burundi invested heavily in the coffee subsector with the heavy assistance—both monetary and strategic—of the World Bank, which helped implement an ambitious program of coffee washing station construction and tree planting. During these years, the number of coffee shrubs increased from 90 million to over 220 million and 133 washing stations were built and strategically placed throughout the country. Currently, there are over 160 washing stations in Burundi.

Coffee is Burundi’s biggest export revenue earner, making up as high as 80% of earnings. There are 600 000 families, close to 40% of the population, involved in the coffee subsector. Until 2007, the coffee subsector was controlled by the state, with the result that all facilities (i.e. washing stations and dry mills) and exporting were coordinated by the government. Coffee has historically been of low quality, subsequently receiving low prices dependent on commodities exchange markets. However, in 2006, the government started liberalizing the subsector and began allowing privatization of coffee washing stations (CWS) and dry mills leading to a continuing expansion of producer access into high quality specialty markets.

The hilly topography of Burundi has made for how the country is organized politically and infrastructurally. A colline in Burundi (i.e. hill) is like a borough or rural neighbourhood. Ultimately, a certain number of collines constitute a commune (i.e. county). The farmers that live on one colline are likely to deliver their coffee cherries to the same washing station that is located within accessible distance from their farms. The different lots represent day-lots from these wet mills.

The climate in Burundi is predominantly equatorial, but the many hilly and mountainous regions, where coffee is grown, enjoy a moderate climate. Average temperatures vary from 17 to 23C and there are distinct wet and dry seasons: the dry seasons run from June to August and again from December to January; the wet seasons are February to May and September to November. These factors, combined with the country’s agroecology, combine for an ideal environment for coffee growing. Under these conditions, cherries can undergo ideal development due to stable and the relatively low temperatures on the plains. In addition, the distinct seasons allow for a proper blossoming of the plants and good drying conditions for the coffee beans (seeds). The main flowering period runs from October until November and there are two harvesting periods: the main harvest runs from February to March; the secondary harvest from April until May.

pdf version

To the cradle, and beyond...

ETHIOPIA PRE-HARVEST VISIT 2012 [gigya src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649" width="700" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=/photos/kaffa1/sets/72157632218112843/show/&page_show_back_url=/photos/kaffa1/sets/72157632218112843/&set_id=72157632218112843&jump_to=" allowFullScreen="true" ]

While constantly speaking of relationships in the green coffee trade these days, it is tempting to make an analogy about this relationship. It is like one of those difficult ones. Even if it is far from easy, sometimes plainly painful, you just want it to work, because it just has to. Will love and loyalty one day pay off?

Getting beautiful coffees from Ethiopia has been made challenging, yet you can’t help wanting to get it. She is the mother of all coffees after all. This time we even went to the origin of the origin. We’ve been to Kaffa now; we visited the region, the forests and farms around the town of Bonga, and beyond: the Cradle.

We went in good time. In some places they were only a few days into the harvest. Other places they were about to start a few days later. Thus we had time to sit down with the people, and they had time to sit down with us. We wanted to speak to the management at the cooperatives we have been buying from, and we wanted to get to know new places and new people. The farmer himself is rarely in the picture; that is how it is in Ethiopia. It is all about the coop. Well, actually it’s all about the union. The unions are the ones that actually sell the coffee, on behalf of the coop, on behalf of the farmer. But the unions are not selling coffee yet. The harvest has barely started, and for the specialty coffee they want to see how the market is going before they commit to establishing prices.

Then there are the exporters. So we met with them too. Who is the most knowledgeable, who has got the best people on the ground, who has got the best set up for processing the coffee and who is most trustworthy? Work in Ethiopia, is like everywhere else: it's work with people. Yet the “system” wants to alienate us from each other. We don’t want that. We want to work with people we know, people we have met, simply people we like! Now we have met many of them again, and we are all preparing for a new season.

We spent time visiting farms and cooperatives in the Kaffa and Illubabor regions in the west, accompanied by the good people of Technoserve (TNS). TNS has been involved with helping coops in this part of Ethiopia since 2009, in bettering their farming practices, improving the processing, solidifying the management and teaching about how to assess the quality of their coffee. How much is the value of a special coffee? Finally Technoserve is facilitating finding a marketplace for their special coffees. The results are sometimes remarkable. We owe them our gratitude, so do the farmers involved.

Then we went south, to the regions we all know, to Sidama and Yirgacheffe. Again with high hopes and anticipation. If Ethiopia is the mother, Yirgacheffe is the fairest of her daughters. The scenery is lusher, the houses are neater, the people are different – and so is the coffee. Here they still practice the traditional fermentation and washing process – at least for now. As of last year, Technoserve is also getting involved down there. That means installing Eco Pulpers and other more or less dramatic changes: helping farmers with book keeping; assisting in coop management and so on. But with the coffees from here they will not get involved with marketing, finding buyers or assisting with sales. That is curious. After all, the quality improvements seen out west come from the interaction between the maker and the market. And at this origin, we all need all the facilitation and help we can get!

Enough has been said about the ECX (Ethiopia Commodity Exchange) working in the opposite direction of what the whole specialty coffee community is craving. We want transparency and to build relationships: the systems calls for the opposite. Fine. So how do we get around it?

In the west we are working directly with the coops, using the second window. We choose to work with the partners from whom we have bought stellar coffees, but we are constantly looking to broaden our horizons with new relationships. In the west we work with the TNS assisted cooperatives. These coffees are processed by and marketed/sold by the Oromia Union. There is no way around that.

In the south we will work with a different strategy. The second window allows for direct buying from privately owned farms and processing stations. We’ll be looking for traditionally processed washed coffees and meticulously processed naturals, and we’ll make sure the coffee is further dry processed (dry milled) and screened (selected) by the best people in Addis Ababa.

A detailed list of farms and coops visited will follow. Then we’ll go in depth about the stats, the peeps, the outlook and challenges at each place.

It should go without saying that we are soon to follow up on the actual picking, and we will be cupping and assessing the lots as the harvest proceeds. For now, please see pictures and notes from the places visited over the past couple of weeks.

Thank you for reading. Stay tuned.

Part I: Who's Involved?

Reforming of Burundi’s coffee subsector began in 1990 but was never fully implemented until USAID’s entrance into the process in 2007. After a yearlong consultation process, USAID launched the Burundi Agribusiness Program (BAP) in 2008. In addition to its work in the coffee subsector, BAP’s mandate also covered reforming of Burundi’s dairy and horticulture subsectors. Like coffee, these subsectors were also highly disorganized, inefficient and unprofitable, but due to coffee’s preeminence as the country’s largest export, as well as current state of infrastructure (i.e. the government had invested in coffee more), coffee has received the most support from BAP’s activities.

Many of BAP’s activities have been focused on increasing the quality of Burundian coffee, with the goal of turning Burundi’s coffee subsector into one that is appealing to specialty markets. During the course of my interviews I learned the recent focus on quality comes from a recognition that production levels cannot compete with more quantity-focused countries like Brazil and Vietnam. Burundian cherry producers own very small plots of land (i.e. less than one hectare with maybe 200 trees) and washing stations and dry mills are not typically equipped to handle large volumes of coffee. Everyone I spoke with, from cherry producer to SOGESTAL manager to washing station owner, believes a move toward high quality specialty coffee production is the right course for Burundian coffee. Coffee production is a time and resource intensive enterprise and coffee is a notoriously low-paying endeavor. Thus, those working in coffee in Burundi would like to see higher prices for coffee and believe the way to achieve this is by producing better quality coffee.

BAP’s team has consisted of consultants working in the specialty coffee industry in other countries (e.g. managers of coffee companies in the US), as well as local agronomic, cupping and marketing experts. Those who have experience working with BAP’s team have already experienced the benefits of their expertise. For example, winners from 2011’s Prestige Cup and this year’s inaugural Cup of Excellence, have consulted with BAP staff. The program ends at the end of November 2012, however, so the program’s long-term effects remain to be seen. Although people are disappointed that the program is ending, they remain driven and hopeful that the development of specialty coffee will continue.

The SOGESTAL

The majority of Burundi’s landscape includes coffee plantations and the government has divided coffee-growing regions in roughly the same way political provinces are separated. There are 17 SOGESTALs and each SOGESTAL is an autonomously run organization of the coffee washing stations (CWS) within each region. Before the government began selling its 160 washing stations, each answered to and were run by the SOGESTAL responsible for the region it was located in. SOGESTALs ran as a mix between business and government department. Although much of the SOGESTALs have since been sold to private people/companies, the government still retains shares, though they do not retain more than 14% within any of the SOGESTALs.

The SOGESTAL is responsible for running the washing stations within its region. Managers oversee harvest, processing and production, pay farmers for their coffee cherries and are responsible for finding buyers for coffee. Thus, SOGESTALs have always been in competition with one another, which is evident because some SOGESTALs have been and are better run than others.

Some of the people I interviewed believe that SOGESTALs will become obsolete because they simply cannot compete with the more efficiently run and profitable washing stations. SOGESTALs currently do not manage any of the privately run washing stations but still maintain the structure of a government department, including numerous staff and big overhead costs (e.g. offices and equipment, such as vehicles). However, SOGESTALs do maintain a function, especially when it comes to expertise in coffee agricultural practice and management of washing stations. Though many of the brightest and talented of these professionals are being hired away by private companies.

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Two Markets

There are two types of processing methods/markets in Burundi: “washed” and “fully washed”. Coffee is termed “washed” when it is processed by hand; coffee that is “fully washed” is processed at a CWS. Sometimes cherry producers prefer pulping by hand because local buyers of the coffee are in higher competition with one another (denoted by prices they offer) than washing stations.

Local buyers are purchasers of either cherries or hand-pulped coffee, thus a washing station is a local buyer. Some washing stations have been/are accused of cheating farmers either by recording false volumes of coffee delivered or by selling at low prices. Cherry producers are able to negotiate with buyers of hand-pulped coffee and so they will sometimes choose this route. However, the government discourages these activities, resulting in cherry producers often having to sell in both markets.

From a quality perspective, I can see why hand pulping should be discouraged: cherry producers are not using machines to pulp the coffee; they are scraping fruit off on pavement, literally using their hands.

Dry Mills

There are eight dry mills in Burundi (a new one has recently been constructed in Gitega) – some are state-owned; others are private. Of the mills, SIVCA is widely regarded as the mill most capable of processing quality coffee. This is due to SIVCA’s equipment, ability to separate lots and the training and experience of the people managing and working at the mill. It is owned by a group of over 300 people and is the first privately owned mill in Burundi. It was built as a response to coffee professionals feeling like they had no control/ownership over coffee production, marketing and selling, in having to deliver to state-run mills. SIVCA is the mill that was contracted to process the winning lots from this year’s Cup of Excellence.

Thanks for reading,

Melanie

Go back to: Introduction

Note: The above and following posts contain both fact and opinions – of coffee professionals in Burundi and my own. There are many different views on how and whether government and USAID activities have worked. I have just collected data and have yet to analyze, so these posts will be updated as more information is revealed through my analysis.

Introducing Burundi

Introduction The purpose of the following posts is to provide an overview of the Collaborative’s newest origin country. Burundi has become an exciting new destination for coffee in large part due to the major reformation the coffee sector has undergone throughout the past five years. Ever since Belgian colonizers introduced coffee to Burundi’s agricultural landscape, it has been the country’s primary export crop. But for the majority of coffee’s history within Burundi, it has been treated as simply a commodity: traditionally, production levels have been of principal concern and connected with this, Burundian coffee has neither been marketed, nor sold as a product of Burundi. It was often anonymously blended along with coffee from neighbouring countries and sold at “C” market prices.

Parallel to Burundi coffee’s anonymity, the country, as a whole has failed to attract much international attention. It is tiny and landlocked and although it has experienced much in the way of ethnic conflict, political instability and resulting and long-lasting economic and social repercussions due to these factors, Burundi, with its decades long history of tragedies and horrors, has been overshadowed in international media coverage by the conflicts and tragedies of neighbouring Rwanda – once a neighbouring region within the same kingdom.

Since the 1950s, Burundi has experienced five civil wars; two of these categorized as “genocides” due to the systematic planning and sheer number of killings of one group over the other: In 1972, the mass killing of Hutus by Tutsis and in 1993, the mass killing of Tutsis by Hutus. What hasn’t been adequately presented in the majority of descriptions of the history of these two groups is that much of the shared past was characterized by peace. In fact, in speaking with Burundians who have lived through conflict, I was continuously met with sincerely expressed comments that there are few differences between the two groups. More than a few people described being completely ignorant of ethnic divisions until meticulously planned segregation campaigns (e.g. within educational institutions) began.

The information that will be presented in the following series of posts is an accumulation of information collected over the course of seven weeks. In addition to working with my colleagues at the Collaborative, I am a student at the University of Oslo and decided to focus my thesis on Burundi’s coffee sector and how its very recent move toward privatization has impacted the livelihoods of Burundian coffee producers. While Burundi’s history is not a focus of these posts, it is important to situate the following within this historical context because it all relates to the current state of the coffee sector and the ways in which its stakeholders are working.

The Coffee The best Burundian coffees exhibit intense sweetness and elegance. They are balanced and have a honey-like mouthfeel. Burundi boasts great natural resources for high quality coffee production: high altitudes, suitable cultivars, good soils, good rainfall. However, execution of high quality coffee is in its beginning stages. The coffee sector has changed structures several times in the past 60 years and after a long period of inefficient, complicated and disorganized management by the government, liberalization and privatization of the coffee sector began in earnest in 2007.

To Come The following posts will be broken down into three themes: 1. Structure and organization of the coffee sector; 2. The movement toward “specialty coffee”; and 3. What stakeholders from various parts of the sector are saying.

Thanks for reading, Melanie

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Le Carnaval du Café (videos)

http://vimeo.com/channels/417597/52600994 Robert Thoresen: introducing the Collaborative Coffee Source

http://vimeo.com/channels/417597/52447142

Jacques Carneiro - Creating Carmo Coffees: producing some of the worlds best naturals and pulped naturals

http://vimeo.com/channels/417597/52427194

Professor Flávio Borém, Understanding natural processing: the science behind the creating the perfect cup profile

http://vimeo.com/channels/417597/52604159

Daniel Peterson, Hacienda Esmeralda, Panama, Pioneering Geisha

http://vimeo.com/channels/417597/53152090

Emile Kamwenubusa: specialty coffee in Burundi.  Challenges and opportunities!

Fully Booked

Dear roaster, dear cupper, dear fellow colleague & coffee lover,

The Collaborative Coffee Source event 2012 –  Le Carnaval du Café in Paris  –  is fully booked.

We are thrilled to announce that so many coffee professionals, from so many places, are coming to share this with us and with each other. As we speak, presenters are fine-tuning their presentations and collaborative team members in Africa, America and Europe are preparing samples for two days of education, cupping and fun. So for you who can not make it this time, we are very sorry.

In good collaborative spirit we’ll post the lectures and document all the fun too. Stay tuned!

Emile Kamwenubusa - Burundi Agribusiness Program

Emile comes to Paris from a coffee growers’ family. His family acquired land in 1971 in the Ngozi province – one of the most merited and recognized provinces for high quality coffee in Burundi. As a teenager, Emile studied full-time but helped out on the family farm during the holidays – picking, mulching and pruning. He eventually graduated from the University of Burundi’s High Agriculture Institute. The beginning of Emile’s career was spent working on large-scale projects aimed at reforming the country’s whole agriculture sector. From 1988-1995, Emile was involved in a World Bank funded project that was administered through the Ministry of Agriculture. The aim of this project was to collect data of all Burundi’s crops for the purpose of future planning and reformation.

In 1996, Emile began to specialize in the coffee sub-sector; his first position in coffee was SOGESTAL Ngozi’s general manager. All Burundi’s coffee washing stations (CWS) are grouped into five regions and the Ngozi region oversees 28 CWSes. As general manager, Emile’s chief responsibility was to coordinate and organize all wet processing activities amongst the CWSes. In addition, he was charged with introducing, promoting and selling coffee from SOGESTAL Ngozi to international markets.

The East African Fine Coffee Association (EAFCA, now simply African Fine Coffee Association, AFCA) exists to first, increase quality of coffee in participating countries and second, to promote and present coffee from participating countries to international buyers. Burundi became a member in 2000, as one of six of the earliest members of this body. From 2003-2004, Emile acted as Burundi’s country coordinator to EAFCA.

From 2004 to 2007, Emile worked with a variety of associations and organizations in Burundi aiming to increase knowledge and best practice of high quality coffee production. He has worked to implement UTZ certification with SOLIDARIDAD, has consulted for the Regulatory Authority of Burundi’s Coffee Sector (ARFIC) and various other groups, in order to develop training materials on best agriculture practices in coffee.

Beginning in 2007, Emile started working solely on the Burundi Agribusiness Program, as Coffee Value Chain Manager. In this capacity, Emile oversees improvement in production, productivity and quality from grower to exporter. He works with coffee actors at all levels with the overarching aim of linking quality in the field to quality in the cup. In addition, Emile works with growers, cooperatives and certification bodies to obtain certification and also helps develop new grower cooperatives.

 Emile will be joining us to speak in Paris.  We still have a few places left, click here to purchase. 

When processing coffee cherries... What happens?

As professional coffee roasters, as professional coffee tasters, as professional baristi we often wonder: What is the relationship between the flavor attributes in the coffee beverage and what has actually happened to the cherry while processing. And beyond that: What did the coffee genotype (varietal) contribute to the flavor in the first place?

These topics are what the research work of Prof. Flávio Borem from University of Lavras in Brazil is all about. At the Collaborative Coffee Source Event in Paris Oct. 26-27 2012 he will present his groundbreaking work in this field. As you can understand, we are very excited!

CCS: We're curious! What exactly happens during natural and washed coffee drying?

Prof. Borem: In my presentation I will show that differences in the quality between natural and washed coffees during drying go beyond a simplified explanation that the sweetness of the natural coffee comes from the sweet mucilage.

CCS: Oh, Radical stuff! How about the interaction between the Genotype, the Environment, and the Processing?

Prof. Borem: Basically, I’m planning to show some results from the studies of space/time distribution of natural and pulped natural coffee quality. After that, we will be cupping samples from this study!

CCS:  Can't wait. See you in Paris!

Prof. Borem: I am very pleased to go to Paris to meet you, cupping and speaking about coffee. This is an amazing opportunity. Thank you!

...

You:  Coming ?

Origin Profile: Burundi

Burundi is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania. The official languages are Kirundi and French, with pockets of Swahili (mostly in Bujumbura along Lake Tanganyika). Hilly and mountainous, Burundi boasts ideal agroecology for coffee cultivation. The country’s economy is predominantly agricultural with more than 90% of the population dependent on subsistence agriculture. Economic growth depends very heavily on coffee and tea exports, which together account for 90% of foreign exchange earnings.

Coffee is Burundi’s biggest export revenue earner, making up as high as 80% of earnings. There are 600 000 families, close to 40% of the population, involved in the coffee subsector. Since 2007, the coffee subsector was controlled by the state, with the result that all facilities (i.e. washing stations and dry mills) and exporting were coordinated by the government. Coffee has historically been of low quality, subsequently receiving low prices dependent on commodities exchange markets. However, in 2006, the government started liberalizing the subsector and began allowing privatization of coffee washing stations (CWS) and dry mills.

In 2007 USAID started funding a five-year program – Burundi Agribusiness Program – aimed at reforming the horticulture, dairy and coffee subsectors. Within the coffee subsector, part of BAP’s mandate is to expand grower access into high quality specialty markets.

Burundi Agribusiness Program

BAP’s purpose is to encourage, “Activities focus[ing] on strengthening trade knowledge and the skills of producers and processors. Technical guidance and material support are being provided to enable producer organizations… To enhance product competitiveness, producers and entrepreneurs are provided with the opportunity to increase their knowledge of market standards”.

In practice this means a lot of things. BAP programs focus on everything from agricultural best practice, to obtaining certifications, to coordinating the Cup of Excellence (COE) program, to marketing and promotions. Amongst some of the more relevant and interesting programs to coffee quality are: pest management, fertilization, nursery production, plantation maintenance, composting, processing techniques and cupping training.

These programs, particularly the agricultural best practice ones, have been methodically implemented, assessed and tested. For example, control and treatment plots within individual farms with different types of compost: organic (manure, coffee pulp, and food waste from other crops) vs. chemical fertilizers. Farmers who piloted organic compost fertilization have noticed visibly greener, healthier looking, more robust plants. For cupper training, seven trainer cuppers have obtained Q-Grade certification and received consultation from Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE)/Cup of Excellence (COE) prior to the 2011 Prestige Cup; precursor to the first Cup of Excellence in Burundi, hosted in 2012.

Coffee professionals within Burundi are beginning to understand the link between being able to identify quality through cupping with receiving direct trade sales from buyers of high quality specialty coffee. Though the Burundian cuppers base is currently small, there is growing support for cupping training programs.

Prior to the start of BAP, nation-wide infrastructure assessment, pilot projects and planning reports were compiled to ensure the coffee sub-sector's reformation was as targeted and efficient as possible. Based on these initial assessments, three regions/SOGESTALs were identified as already producing the best quality coffee and have the best infrastructure already in place. These regions are Kayanza, Ngozi and Kirundo-Muyinga. Together with coffee buyers, the former government-run Office du Café de Burundi/Coffee Board (OCIBU) decided to focus on these SOGESTALs for pilot projects aimed at determining how to best target BAP activities. Kayanza, Ngozi and Kirundo-Muyinga were chosen as “model” regions based on the following 16 criteria, with elevation, water quality, and distance to a paved road as the most heavily weighted criteria:

• elevation of CWS
• number of producers
• annual production (5 year average)
• water system (gravity fed or pump)
• source of water (spring or river)
• system for controlling waste water (drainage or recycled)
• percent of production from Arabica varieties
• flotation tanks (presence and number)
• warehouse facilities at CWS
• condition of depulpers and other mechanical equipment
• condition of tanks and channels
• average distance travelled by producers (km)
• distance to one of the smaller dry mills
• distance from paved road
• quality of management
• SOGESTAL’s overall assessment of coffee quality based on cupping competitions and other.

Burundi Agribusiness Program’s Coffee Team 

Emile Kamwenubusa – Coffee Value Chain Manager

As value chain manager, Emile oversees improvement in production, productivity and quality from grower to exporter. He works with coffee actors at all levels with the overarching aim of linking quality in the field to quality in the cup. In addition, Emile works with growers, cooperatives and certification bodies to obtain certification and also helps develop new grower cooperatives.

Tharcisse Niyungeko – Coffee Quality Specialist

In his position as quality specialist, Tharcisse is BAP’s expert in all things cupping and best practice during harvest season. He works with growers on ensuring ripe cherry selection and consults during the processing stages. As a cupping specialist, Tharcisse organizes and runs cupping programs for growers, dry and wet mill technicians and students pursuing a career in coffee.

Lyse Ndabambalire – Coffee Promotion and Marketing Specialist

When travelling to Burundi, you will almost certainly have met or will meet Lyse. She organizes buying trips and national/international coffee events and is representative for Burundian coffee at international exhibits and events. Lyse is the woman linking Burundian coffee professionals with international buyers. She also oversees media and promotions of Burundi’s specialty coffee industry.

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Le Carnaval du Café

We are excited and proud to announce that Emile will be joining us in Paris for Le Carnaval du Café! Emile will bring his experience and Burundi's unique perspective on how coffee quality is related to varietal and processing. His additions to Le Carnaval's programme will ensure richer dialogue and more vibrant discussions and debate and we now have the opportunity to compare not two, but three origin countries' contributions to the coffee craft. For more details and to reserve a coveted spot to the first-of-its-kind event, visit Le Carnaval's website here.

Honestly! Why Paris?

With all due respect, as much as Paris is the food capital of the world, it used to be a joke to even think of Paris as a coffee destination. Well that was until just a few months ago.

For two days we want to make Paris the Coffee Capital. And as a matter of fact, things are changing quickly – and Paris IS on its way to becoming a coffee destination too and that is why we want to be here now.

We are in Europe after all. And Paris is at the center of it. Geograpichally it’s obvious. It’s Convenient. Its Beautiful.

CUTTING EDGE(S)

Lets start with talking about the fringes.

Any movement usually starts as a marginal thing. Even in marginal places. Just like Seattle once was the specialty coffee hub (deserved or not) it is at least geographically not at the center of the US market. And as we know, the cutting edge coffee places were not seen in NYC until recent years.  Japan´s most influential Coffee company is in a mountain hill town, Kentaro Maruyama moved into Tokyo last week. Scandinavia is an outpost on this continent, but in specialty coffee it has become a destination.

THE EVENT. THE IDEA. PARIS 2012

For one weekend we want to share. We want to facilitate. We want to participate.

The ambition is to build a community. Many eager and competent coffee roasters around the continent have received coffees through the Collaborative. On behalf of the coffee farmers we are proud to say that we have found good homes for their lots. Now that the coffees are ”out there” we want to ask for samples of it back that we can cup together.

We are gathering a bunch of roasters – you – from all over Europe, to get together as proud craftsmen and women. We’ll talk about our craft and proudly share the coffees that we have roasted with such skill and care.  Sourced by The Collaborative, roasted by you, all together on the same table. We are organizing a cupping where you’ll get the rare opportunity to compare you roast style with other ambitious roasters and craftsmen and women of Europe.  Not for competition, but for cultural interaction and education. Other professional coffee cuppers and Baristas from all over the continent (and further) have signed up to come as well. Thus this is a unique chance to get a truly interesting feedback and discussions on the regional, company or personal culinary craft of roasting coffee. (even coffee from same farm, but roasted, thus approached with different craft. Then cup it comparatively. On the same table, the same day). For collegial interaction and fun.

We have carefully restricted the number of attendees at the event.  We want there to be time and space for interaction and access to the coffees and the people who grew them.

THE COLLABORATIVE COFFEE SOURCE

It lies in the name. The Collaborative Coffee Source´s ambition is to be a source, and we want to do it in a collaborative way. We strive for making the coffee trade a transparent interaction between equally important partners; the maker, the importer, the roaster.

We source the coffees from the origins we work with that are outstanding the every meaning of the word. It goes without saying that the cup needs to speak for itself, thus beyond that – or better said – before that, there is a place and people who we want to learn about. The collaborative model is not to take ownership of that, but share it with you – the roaster. After all, it is your coffee.

There is no coffee trader around who’s ultimate goal is to connect you directly with the Place and the People who actually made the coffee you’d be roasting. The Collaborative doesn’t stock green coffee. We find it and we make sure it finds good homes, in Europe, and further afield. If you liked one coffee in the first place, you might be willing to stick to working with a farmer who has committed himself to making awesome coffee for you.

We want to make sure that that happens. And we want to make sure that you get it in a timely fashion.

Welcome to the collaborative!

THE NEWEST CROP: SOUTHERN BRAZIL

We are presenting and cupping the freshest lots of coffees right now.

BRAZIL finished their harvest in the highest growing regions a few weeks ago, the coffee lots are resting and getting ready to be shipped. We were there to preselect the cream of the crop from the highest merited regions - and now we’ll present them to you.

BURUNDI. We are thrilled to present to you this East African gem. It is like the new promised land. A new star from the African continent, wonderfully clean and sweet-tasting. We can’t wait to share our findings and our excitement.

HARD CORE EDUCATION:

VARIETALS

All of the coffees that we are getting from Carmo de Minas in Brazil and all of the coffees from Burundi are Bourbon coffees, thus this is a unique chance to taste & talk about and attributes of Bourbon as a varietal.  To further enlighten and enhance our understanding of varietals, we have invited some of the highest merited coffee farmers on the Planet, the person who has had the fortune, curiosity and skill to work out a strategy for this is what has driven the roasting end of the industry more than anything else in the last few years.

PROCESSING NATURALS

Flavio Borem is a big deal.  He´s never shown his work in Europe before and we are flying him over to share his work with us.  His investigations at the University of Lavras in Brazil are about how processing affects the quality and the taste profile of the coffee in the cup.  This is what we have all being dying to know for so long.  And here he is to tell us.

SO WHY, AGAIN?

Because it is a unique opportunity to choose coffees you wish to purchase.  And to mingle with your European counterparts.

Because it is educational and informative thus giving you a better understanding of what is happening in the coffee world – directly from source.

Lofty ambitions? Sure, why go for less.

So we have found a sexy loft for it.

- Robert

A portrait of a coffee personality: Daniel Peterson, Hacienda Esmeralda, Boquete, Panama

24 Panama, Daniel Peterson

Coffee is an old commodity. But the way we buy nowadays; tasting, describing and thinking about the coffee, it´s almost as if it is a completely different product. This applies at least to the coffee we know as specialty coffee.

The definition of specialty coffee can be just that: a specific coffee, made by concrete - often named people, that causes the coffee to have specific taste attributes - which is attractive - and thus a market value as something special. These coffees come with a higher price: let us call it added value.

Meanwhile, simultaneously to this development in the last 10-20 years, the industry has fostered personalities who have come to merit a place in coffee history. As the industry of specialty coffee is so young, and many people are working with coffee in groundbreaking ways, there are many who have been named (rightly or no) as experts and pioneers. In other fields those experts would have had to have studied and worked for a lifetime to be adorned with such titles.  It is only with hindsight that we appreciate the true value of their work.

However, I would like to take this opportunity, in the present, to talk about a person who has worked with coffee in a way that is going to make his mark on the history of coffee. There is evidence already.

This year it is 10 years since Geisha coffee's unique flavor attributes were discovered at Hacienda Esmeralda, for which the whole Peterson family should be congratulated. But it is individual people who do very specific tasks. So in this little history of Geisha coffee, despite it being a truly familial endeavor, it is Daniel Peterson who will be designated as the discoverer.  It was he who tasted his way through all the batches of coffee from the farms, to the revelation that one in particular had such unique attributes that it ought to be persevered.

Exploration, tasting and description, is the key. To taste coffee is nothing new. But to work on it in a systematic way, carefully separating the coffee varietals when picking, separating sections from different areas of the farm, separating the day lots and tasting everything separately, is a relatively new concept in coffee farming. It was only when Daniel Peterson started working with this methodology in 2002 that he was able to discover the true character of Geisha coffee.

The Geisha varietal could be found in Central America decades before this "discovery". The first seeds were planted in Boquete in 1978 on the advice of coffee agronomist Francisco Serracín. Francisco is a coffee farmer himself, and has succeeded in producing one of the finest Geisha coffees in the world at his own farm, Don Pachi in Boquete. The discovery of the taste attributes of the coffee were as new to him as to everyone else when it was first ´discovered´ ten years ago.

The varietal was in fact originally cultivated because of its resistance to fungal attack in the humid climate in Boquete, and not on account of its unique taste characteristics. This is where the distinction lies between specialty coffee and commodity coffee. Yes, it is an agrarian commodity, but it can also be a product with concrete, sometimes subtle yet very desirable attributes. That is the kind of coffee we enjoy, and it is the coffee we now want to celebrate.

Boquete is a small valley tucked in the corner of the Cordillera Central next to the towering presence of the Barú volcano. Here, the Peterson family have run their farm of cattle and coffee since 1967, under the name of Hacienda Esmeralda.

The family's coffee farms are scattered around the valley. The Palmira farm is located near the farmhouse and processing station; Cañas Verdes is located at the foot of the volcano and the Jaramillo farm is located on the south facing slopes of the Boquete Valley.

The Peterson family bought the 50 ha farm in the Jaramillo area in 1996 on account of its favorable microclimate and altitude: they grow coffee up to 1750 m.a.sl. Aside from these topographical recommendations, and the fact that the plants appeared to be in generally good health, little was known about what lay ahead.

Cousin Mario, another of the Peterson clan, chose the best view of the property, with vistas of the lush Boquete valley, and on a clear day, the distant Pacific coast. Mario is a wooden furniture maker, enjoying quiet rural life with the family in his self -built house within the cosy walls of coffee bushes on the Jaramillo farm. But despite Mario´s domestic presence on the farm, it has always been Daniel who has looked after the coffee, and he is the man who found those unique coffee bushes up there on the hillside - but it took some years before this discovery was made.

Daniel Peterson is a boqueteño, born in 1974, youngest son of Susan and Price. After studying, including periods in the U.S., he came home and took responsibility for coffee in the family business Hacienda Esmeralda.  I became acquainted with Daniel on one of my new origin trips.  Panama was the new destination, the year was 2005. In the Best of Panama competition (BoP) the year before, Daniel and his family won the contest with a coffee with a character that no one had tasted before in Central America. No one had ever before tasted a coffee from that continent that had such a floral aroma, and such a fresh acidity, with such a silky and elegant mouth feel. The closest one could get to explaining the taste was by referring to the best coffees of Yirgacheffe in Ethiopia, but even there you will not find a coffee that is quite so perfumed, and certainly not as well processed.

At the ensuing internet auction, this little lot of coffee made at first historic - then astronomical prices - at $ 21/lb. It was initially thought that it was a hacker who had sabotaged proceedings, but no: it was just many, many willing bidders for the # 1 of Best of Panama! The following year it won again and we had to bid over $ 50/lb for the lot. Everything has changed since then.

In those days there were only a few bags that went to auction, while the rest of the farm´s 100 bags of Geisha needed to find their buyers through other channels. We bought a small lot through Ian Kluse, a coffee trader in California. Then our characterful friend, Duane Sorenson of Stumptown casually wondered if we might share some bags of a coffee that he had come across that was completely 'radical, man'.   Sure, man!  We paid $10/lb. for that coffee, outside the auction.  At the time that was 6 times more than paid for specialty coffee elsewhere. But this was more special!

This was at a time when it had not yet become common to communicate the coffee´s varietal. But with such explicit flavor attributes it became necessary to refer to that, since terroir alone could not explain it all. Thus there has been a clear shift in how we must now communicate coffee flavour: it starts with the varietal.

Some years earlier, Daniel and Ian (Kluse) got to know each other around the cupping table at Hacienda Esmeralda. Hacienda Esmeralda has many types of coffee from different farms and Ian traded from these. Ian was already trading green coffee with customers in the U.S. who would pay a little extra for a coffee that had extra freshness of acidity, and Ian was in Boquete to test this year's harvest.

As a coffee farmer, Daniel´s interest in the sensory evaluation of coffee was once a rarity. The custom at Hacienda Esmeralda has always been to pick coffee berries as they ripened, plot by plot, but all the coffee from Jaramillo was mixed. It was only in 2002 that Daniel became aware that it was the few plants (3%) on the farm of this special varietal, which elevated the overall fresh acidity of the whole lot. Daniel began to selectively pick and separate the berries that he considered to be the particular varietal creating this unique aroma and flavour.  This is where the new era begins.

Boquete is a very special place in this respect: there is good camaraderie and professional solidarity between clever and ambitious coffee farmers in one place. From this fertile ground sprung the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), and the Best of Panama (BoP), first held in 1996 - three years before the CoE.  Many coffee farmers here know their coffee well.  They are seasoned roasters and skilled cuppers. Daniel has been a part of this community since its inception. (In 2012, the BoP made the radical - and absolutely natural - intervention to separate Geisha coffee in a separate category of the competition.  This made BoP the first auction program to do so, but we are going to see more of it ahead!)

Daniel is a meticulous, curious and ambitious person. When I visited him in 2006, I was presented with a coffee that he had put great pride in "making".  Daniel had selectively picked from the areas on the farm he had presumed to be the best.  He then tasted his way through the coffees, selecting only the best, mixed the small lots, and sold it as Esmeralda Special Geisha. Winning the BoP every year from 2004 to 2007 would suggest that this was not a bad strategy. But I wondered if it would be possible for us - who would buy his coffee anyway - to taste the day lots, from different areas of the farm separately. Given that the characteristics would be slightly different from area to area, from early to late in picking season, we would thus be able to select the best of the best.

To begin with, Daniel wasn´t sure of idea of etting us have this opportunity.  He had, after all, taken great pride in finding the best, and then creating (by blending) the best of the best. But the following year Hacienda Esmeralda agreed to this strategy. They even put up an auction where they offered small lots from all areas, with different picking dates. All were from Jaramillo, everything was Geisha, but all the lots were a little different. It was a success!

They early Hacienda Esmeralda Special Geisha offerings have become an exercise in showing the different characteristics and potential of a single varietal; with aromas ranging from highly refined bergamot to jasmine; flavors varying from stone fruit sweetness to citrus acidity, and different mouth feels - and all from a small geographical area. Prices at auction have also shown that subtly different attributes attract different buyers, and show that roasters are valuing those attributes very differently. This auction has now become a yearly barometer for the value of The Geisha Coffee from Boquete in Panama.

The Coffee World can consider itself lucky that this single piece of land, a small coffee farm in Jaramillo, Boquete, ended up in the Peterson family's hands. In such a short time, the trend in the specialty coffee world has gone completely parallel to this story: this practice is no longer unique to Hacienda Esmeralda.  In that sense, this is also the story of the development of specialty coffee in recent years.

Lucky for us, that at this time in history, in our time, a clever young man named Daniel, saw an opportunity – and grabbed it with both hands.  Daniel's work and his impact on specialty coffee are undeniable, but still the inquisitive and dedicated family as a whole must be commended. In a clever way, the Peterson family of Hacienda Esmeralda have helped us to define the true value of truly good coffee: it’s about its taste. And that is priceless.

Robert

Going In-Depth in Burundi

After one big move across the ocean from Canada to Norway, a year of adjusting to a new place and culture (not so much the cold - I am already from another place that is proudly "North"), countless lectures and furious exam writing, and the start of exciting new work with the Collaborative, it's time for me to begin another adventure. This time in Burundi.

The whole reason I came to Oslo was to study and examine coffee in a new way. I had been working for a company that proudly participates in direct trade (let's ignore the complexity and contentiousness of this term for now) and was both fascinated by and happy that good money was being paid for a higher quality product. But I was also very curious as to how these newly establishing ways of trading coffee is having an impact on the producers. And being the kind that likes to methodically examine things I'm curious in, I decided I needed to go about my study in a rigorous way. So I began studying at the University of Oslo because they offer a unique interdisciplinary program that investigates the wide and far-reaching concepts of environmental sustainability and development.

It's time to put all the theory and discussion I've absorbed over the last year - both at school and with coffee professionals from Norway and abroad - and go and do my fieldwork. It's an exciting time for me, both as an academic, and as a professional at the Collaborative. I chose Burundi because I'd tasted some very interesting coffee from there while still working in Canada. I also had a vague notion about it being one of the least developed countries in the world and was curious as to how that wasn't hampering the production of great coffee (although there is a lot of reforming and development of the coffee sector happening/still to come). The Collaborative is now working in Burundi and I have a unique opportunity to spend a good amount of time learning about this exciting origin on the Collaborative's behalf, as well as for my thesis.

The doing of this fieldwork is pretty straight-forward: I will be talking with/interviewing people involved in producing specialty coffee (i.e. coffee that is grown, picked and processed with care - there is no good short phrase for this, is there?). I want to know what they think about this direct trade concept. I want to know how direct trade affects their livelihoods - their ability to live the kinds of lives they want to live. In a word, how does direct trade affect their "wellbeing"? I'm starting with seemingly simple questions because I know the conversations will yield complex, diverse and unexpected opinions and thoughts. Do producers experience the benefits to their livelihoods that direct traders assume? How do producers perceive this trade model and what direction would they like to see it move ahead in?

In addition to my data collection, I will be visiting washing stations and farms the Collaborative will purchase from. I want to give you roasters as detailed a picture of the people and places you're buying from, as possible. Robert met some very motivated and ambitious producers while in Burundi for CoE last month and now we have an opportunity to better know these people and places. There are some amazing coffees coming your way soon; right now is the time for you to get in on the action!

Drop Joanna a line about what is on offer. Better yet, get in on the action and choose your own lots for us to bring in

Melanie

Le Carnaval du Café: tickets on sale NOW!

That's right chaps, the wait is over.  Tickets go on sale today.

Drop whatever you are doing! Grab your wallet! Get to a computer near you! Limber up those enter-hitting fingers and GET IN THERE QUICK!

Two days in PARIS, surrounded by the speciality coffee community of Europe, cupping some of the world´s best coffee and being at the forefront of groundbreaking research are just a few clicks away...

Intergalactic cupping #1*

´The future has arrived!´ exclaims Jeremy as Robert´s face looms into view across cyberspace: from a cupping lab in downtown Oslo to projection onto a brick wall in buzzing early-evening east London.  The party has assembled, ready to cup six of the best samples Honduras has to offer, a classic Costa Rica and an unparalleled Panama Geisha.

The Line Up:

Honduras, Santa Barbara region

1) Oscar Tinoco         HICAFE 90/Catimor 

2) Don Amado             Yellow Catuaí 

3) Danny Moreno       Pacas 

4) Jesus Moreno         Pacas 

5) Neptaly Bautista    Pacas 

6) Eulogio Martinez    Pacamara 

COSTA RICA, Tarrazu region:

7) Don Mayo. La Loma farm, lot march12th      Caturra

PANAMA, Boquete region:

8) Hacienda Esmeralda      Geisha

Robert introduces us to the coffees one by one, the history of the farm, the successes and challenges of the farmer, the varietal, the terroir, the journey of the beans in each cup.

The Honduras line up is immensely varied considering the proximity of the farms to one another.  Although some are from different micro regions, many are from adjoining family farms, and all hail from the broad, lush hillside of Santa Barbara.

We start with Oscar Tinoco, who has won Cup of Exellence, but struggled with consistency.  We know he has the quality, we have seen it.  And we keep working with him, following his investments in farming and equipment, in the knowledge that there is so much unlocked potential.  This sample is full bodied and clean, but there is a briney tang to the cup we had not anticipated.  But this savory characteristic is distinctive, and while not as floral as that of his neighbours, this coffee has its own character, not to be overlooked.

We proceed to the much loved (excuse the pun) Don Amado.  This is the only yellow Catuaí on the table.  Seen widely across Brazil, most of central America does not favour this varietal above others.  Fresh, clean, crisp, delightfully well balanced with honey, toffee and milk chocolate.  Not for nothing is it extremely difficult to get hold of this coffee.  This farm has world reknown, and we are lucky to has this coffee.

We proceed to Danny Moreno, whose crisp, clean and well-balanced coffee establishes the theme of the Honduras for this year.  A mild burnt sugar finish, improving on cooling, bright acidty with enough supporting body to balance out the cup.

His brother Jesus overshadows him on this table however (well he ought to, with a name like that).  Here we have all the clean, fresh, balanced attributes of Danny´s coffee, but there is an intensity, and a fuller mouth feel which starts to introduce the quality we have come to expect from this region.  Dried fruits mix with caramel and plums, blackcurrants and dark chocolate.  The liquid level rapidly depreciates in the glasses; people nod earnestly while re-dipping spoons.

Neptali Bautista does us proud.  This coffee is juicy and round.  Full bodied and bursting with fruits and that burnt caramel finish again.  People like this coffee.  Some cuppers site this sample as their favourite and it´s easy to see why.  The complexity of this coffee gives it an edge, and has the power to render its excellent neighbours less interesting.

The name of Eulogio Martinez´ farm is Los Yoyos, which makes me like the coffee before we´ve even started.  It good: consistent, well balanced and bright.  But most saliently, it has a beautiful aura of coffee flower.  Not the hefty intensity of his neighbor on the table, but a delightfully delicate contrast.

Today Don Mayo does not live up to the quality we know and love.  We think the roast was off and the beans are underdeveloped.  We examine them.  A slight shade too pale perhaps, 30 seconds more would have done it.  This is an excellent lot and the man is internationally acclaimed, so we are sad not to be able to do justice to the product of his toils.

And now for Geisha! Where to start? Before we reveal what the coffees are, one cupper asks ´what is this coffee? This is not like any coffee I have ever tasted before´.  I nod, and a knowing smile escapes from the corner of my mouth.  Hacienda Esmeralda have been pioneering the Geisha varietal in the area for years, cultivating the little known variety against the advice of their neighbours, and with outstanding results.  We don´t know why the varietal is called Geisha, but its pretty apt.  I imagine an early explorer, a botanist: notebook in hand, braces, linen shirt and Panama hat.  Cupping the coffee for the first time he wonders how to capture all the attributes in one name: beautiful, exotic, floral, demure, accomplished, different from ordinary coffee - Geisha!

From Central America to Oslo, from Oslo to London; these coffees have travelled the world to reach us.  From our friends on the hillsides to the land of the midnight sun, and onwards to Clerkenwell of all places.  What a long old journey for such a little bean.  And who came to join our party?  Cuppers from down-the-road and round-the-corner, from Poland, from France, from Japan, from America.  A veritable United Nations of Cuppers it was.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and will be back again for more.

- Jo

*ok so it was only really international, but skype was involved, which made it kind of exciting...

Producer Profile: Miguel Moreno

Miguel Moreno
Farm Name: El Filo
Micro Region: El Cedral
Region: Santa Barbara
Farm Size: 3.5 hectares
Variety: Pacas
Altitude: 1550 m.a.s.l.
Processing: Washed

Daniel Moreno – patriarch of the Moreno family – wanted to give up coffee farming 10 years ago, when coffee prices were abysmally low. At this point, the sons had all moved to the US to work and earn a better living, and Miguel in particular, moved in order to earn enough to pay off mounting and substantial debts. In 2005, however, Miguel returned to Honduras and his neighbor, Mr. Benitez, won the 2nd Honduras Cup of Excellence competition. He didn’t make it to the awards ceremony, so Miguel accepted in his stead.

This experience ended up being a turning point for the family and Daniel split up El Filo into five lots (keeping one for himself and calling it “El Campo”). Currently, El Filo is split into eight lots, with Miguel’s son Dolmin most recently receiving his own plot to manage. The brothers began submitting their coffees to CoE and in 2007, Miguel’s lot won 4th place at the competition, with 90.6 points. This same year, he began to pick more selectively, pulp and dry his own coffee. In each subsequent year until 2010, his coffees placed well at competition. In 2010, motivated by the successes of his coffees and his neighbours’ successes (more than half of CoE winners were now coming from the Santa Barbara region), Miguel and his brothers began looking for a buyer for all the coffee produced at El Filo. Due to his hard work, dedication, innovation and investments, we decided to enter into a long-term partnership with the entire Moreno family and in 2011, we received the first of these shipments.

The brothers have bought more land at a higher altitude and decided to plant more unique varieties there. Because production will substantially increase in the coming years, they have already invested in good quality equipment, which will be able to handle these increased volumes.

Although the Moreno brothers work closely together, each brother’s and their father’s lots are processed separately, which is why we label each lot distinctly. Following from unique and individualized practices, each lot cups distinctly and differently.

We are proud and excited about the progress of these relationships and looking forward to even better quality coffee in the years ahead.

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washing facility

miguel moreno

hillside

drying room