We are now out of Nacimiento, but new samples were approved this week, so we will get more of it this fall.

There are 2 new coffees on the shelf this week. Both from Sitio Canaa in Brazil and both are natural processed. Some of you may remember this coffee from last year. This year we have separated the varieties (Bourbon, Catuai and Sumatra) and we will be releasing all of them one by one.

First out is a  lot of Red Catuai variety that is roasted for espresso. The other lot is from old Sumatra trees and is roasted light for all brewing methods except espresso.

The line-up for the 2012 Nordic Barista Cup has been announced and our very own Tim Wendelboe will be speaking again this year – he will speak on his experiments to improve green quality at origin. The Nordic Barista Cup is one of the premier coffee events of the year and this year there are some exciting changes to the competition.

He’ll be amongst impressive company – Rene Redzepi from Noma, Oliver Strand from the New York Times & James Hoffmann from Square Mile Roasters – to name just a few.

The full line-up of speakers and their profiles are available on the NBC website : www.nordicbaristacup.com

We have now finished all the Caballero coffees and therefore we have updated our espresso blend.

The new blend consists of:
30% Tekangu, Kenya (Washed)
70% Sitio Nossa Senhora Aparecida, Brazil (Organic, Natural)

Flavour profile:
Aroma and flavours of red berries, milk chocolate, caramel and nougat. Creamy texture with low acidity. Lingering sweet aftertaste.

For more info go here.

We have now started selling the very best lot from Nacimiento 2011.

It is from the Pacas variety that was picked in April 2011.

This coffee, because of its variety, growing conditions and especially late harvest time has a very consentrated flavor of cherries and black currants. A very juicy coffee with firm winey acidity.

By far the best lot we bought in Honduras last year.

For more information about the farmer and the coffee go here.

Like last year we want to push the coffee industry to be more transparent and therefore let you know what kind of prices we payed for coffee during 2011. Most of you know that the coffee prices has been rising for the last two years, and as we speak the commodity prices for coffee is about USD 2,20 per lb. (450g) of green coffee. Although we are buying coffees that are valued a lot higher than the commodity coffees and where the value is based more on quality rather than supply & demand, the quality coffee prices are for sure affected by the commodity market as well.

Unlike in 2010 where we did buy a lot of expensive Cup of Excellence coffee and some other auction coffees that lifted the average price a lot,  in 2011 we only sourced coffees direct from the farmers. The reason for this is to be able to buy fresher coffees and we also had better opportunity to do so as we have developed good relations to the producers we buy from. Instead of buying from many countries, we decided to focus on a few ones and rather get better coffees from these origins. We believe this has given us better value for our money. The average price for our coffees F.O.B (Free on board) in 2010 was USD 5,06 per lb. In 2011 the average price we payed per lb was 5,45, ranging from USD 4 to USD 7,55.

In 2012 we aim to get even better quality from the same producers as well as we will get to know some new origins that we have started working with through our sister company Nordic Approach. Ethiopia is one of the origins we will be getting coffees from this year and that is very exciting for all of us.

Before we list the prices we payed for coffee in 2011 please take a note that these are prices FOB, which means for unroasted coffee delivered to the boat that ships it to Norway. We still need to cover shipping cost that varies from where it is shipped from, storage, handling, roasting, packing, labour, rent, gas, electricity, etc, etc. I did a blog post  last year that explains why quality coffee costs more and if you are interested I recommend reading it to get a better understanding of how these mechanisms work.

So, for those who are curious here are the prices we payed for coffee last year:

TW coffee prices payed in 2011

We have 2 new coffees on sale this week.
A coffee from the Bwayi co-operative in Burundi, bought on the trial Cup of Excellence last year.

Flavour description:
Flavours of citrus, coffee flower and ripe cranberries.
Mineraly and slim mouthfeel.
Lively citric and slight lactic acidity.
Short refreshing finish.

The other coffee is a Barazilian  natural processed organic coffee from Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza from our friends Marcos and Felipe in Mococa, Sao Paulo

Flavour description:
Flavours of berries, nuts and milk chocolate.
Hints of flowers on the nose.
Berry-like acidity with low intensity. Creamy mouthfeel.
Lingering sweet finish.

Both coffees are available on our Webshop.

It gives us great please to introduce the people of Copenhagen to Tim Wendelboe coffee, as we will now be supplying Europa 1989 with filter coffee. Europa 1989, an institution in Copenhagen, has historically been very close to speciality coffee; spawning 3 World Barista Champions and a World Aeropress Champion, and now they have decided to step up their coffee service.

Currently, Europa will be using El Puente of Caballero as their filter offering. They have refocused their efforts to provide their customers with this delicious coffee from Honduras – you can read more about Caballero here. They will also be offering their customers 250g bags for retail purchase and the coffee offering will change throughout the year.

We are very excited to be able to serve our coffee in our favourite cafe in Copenhagen. So, if you are in Copenhagen visit Europa – and have the best brunch Denmark has to offer.

We have changed a lot of coffees this week.

First of all it is a pleasure to be able to sell Mr. Fabio Caballero’s coffee from Finca Santa Isabel. We have decided that this is our Christmas special lot as we only have around 300kg of this coffee.

We have also changed the following coffees:

• New TW Espresso – now a new lot from the Caballeros from their farm Los Cipreses.

• A New El Puente lot from the Caballeros is replacing the old one. This new lot is not traditionally fermented to remove the mucilage but has been processed with an aqua pulper. The coffee is even cleaner and crisper than the previous one.

• A new lot with Bourbon coffee  from Nacimiento is replacing the previous Catuaì lot. The Bourbon is picked on the 7th of March and has a lot of juicy blueberry flavors.

We have changed the contents of  Tim Wendelboe Espresso once again as new coffees have arrived and old ones are selling out.

The new espresso is a single estate coffee from the Caballeros in Honduras.

For more info go here.

I just visited Sitio Canaa to see how Joao Hamilton is doing. He just finished his harvest and had done a lot of experiments that we tasted later in the afternoon. My good friend Felipe Croce is translating.

Felipe is now managing the quality control and experiments at Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza that is also partners with Joao Hamilton among others.

In my opinion these guys are producing the very best coffees coming out of Brazil at the moment. I will for sure write a little bit more about that later, but for now you can enjoy the interview I did with Joao Hamilton on his farm.

Interview with Joao Hamilton at Sitio Canaa, Brazil from Tim Wendelboe on Vimeo.