Since we are out of Aricha #7, we have made a new espresso blend.
This will be the blend until we get the new coffees from Aricha and Colombia in just a week or 2.

The new espresso blend consists of:
50% Badnekhan Estate, washed coffee from India
50% Mununga, washed coffee from Kenya.

The flavour profile is:

During my visit to Finca la Lomita last month, my friend and exporter Mr. Alejandro Renjifo shot some film on my handycam.

Although Mr. Alvaro Diaz is speaking spanish and it might be hard for those who don’t know any spanish, most of the things he is talking about is translated by Don Alejandro.

There is some great information on the video, and it reflects on the everyday life of a coffee grower. I personally find it very interesting.

There are also a lot of pictures from the farm here.

When I was in Colombia a couple of weeks ago, I visited Cooccentral, the cooperative where we found the Finca La Lomita coffee last year.
I arrived there on the sunday night after being a cupping juror in the 2008 Colombia the Cup of Excellence, so my palate was pretty calibrated and fine tuned to detect excellent coffees. We were presented 6 coffees on the table and we tasted them blindly. In other words, I did not know which coffees we were tasting.
After a 30 minute quiet cupping, we all agreed that one of the coffees on the table were outstanding and of very high quality. I described it as extremely sweet like sugar cane, fruity and floral aromas and flavours and a very nice balance. I scored it 89 points out of 100, using the Cup of Excellence format.
When we revealed the grower of the coffee, it turned out to be my friend Mr. Alvaro Diaz of Finca La Lomita.

Once again he had surprized me with his excellent coffee.
Since one of my reasons for going to Colombia was to visit Mr. Alvaro Diaz, I was extra happy to be able to tell him when I met him the day after that his coffee was tasting great.

We have now agreed upon working together in order to improve his coffee and of course his quality of life even more. Therefore we have agreed that we will buy his coffee for a premium price of USD 2,50 per pound (456grams) for the next 3 years, if he is able to deliver good quality. This is far above market price which in Colombia as of today is about USD 1,50 per pound for his quality of coffee. For Mr. Alvaro it means an extra dollar per pound straight in his pocket.

In return for getting better payed, Mr. Alvaro will invest in better equipment on his farm and also do a lot of changes in order to improve quality of the coffee, reduce his impact on nature and also improving the life of his family.

If you want to read and learn more about the project, we have uploaded a lot of pictures and text on our Flickr account.

Last year we got a book in the mail from Mr. Scott Rao.
Unfortunately, since the opening of Tim Wendelboe, there has not been a lot of time left for reading books.
The Professional barista’s handbook written by Scott Rao is a great read and a must for all professional as well as the espresso enthusiast.

The book describes brewing techniques to the fullest and is up to this day the most updated book on the market when it comes to espresso extraction.

And while you are reading, it might be wise to also enjoy a last cup of our Aricha #7…

The wonderful Aricha #7 from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia is having it’s final days here at Tim Wendelboe. Aricha has been very good to us, it helped Chris perform so well in the World Barista Championships in Copenhagen this year and more recently contributed to us winning the Nordic Roasters Cup.

Please don’t miss out on experiencing this incredible coffee. We have about 10 250g bags remaining for sale and as always it is available on the Clover – can’t promise there will be much left after the weekend…

We have published a 10 step recipe on how to make great Aeropress coffee.
Go to our Flickr page to see it.

Go here to read more.