I just got some photos from our exporter Angel Arturo Paz at San Vicente showing the finalized construction. It seems Jobneel is already drying his coffee on the beds.
Based on a lot of trials we have done for the past years, we are certain that this will help prolong the shelf life and improve the quality of the coffee. Can’t wait to taste the results.
I have spent the last 10 days in Central America, visiting Gilberto at Los Pirineos in El Salvador, Marysabel, Moises and Fabio and their farms in Marcala, as well as Jobneel at Nacimiento in Honduras. The purpose of the trip was to make sure the coffees we buy are harvested, processed and dried up to our standards. We have been struggling with fading coffees from this region in the past, and therefore I decided that 2013 will be the year where we put an end to past crop coffees at TW. ( Although we always purchase coffees that are in season, it does not guarantee recieving coffees without “woody” flavours.)
Of course, I have had a dialogue with the mentioned farmers throughout 2012 and I have been visiting them many times in the past. The difference this year is that I am finally seeing the results of all these visits. It does take some time and experience to get to know the individual farms and their challenges, but after conducting several experiments at Finca Tamana in Colombia, as well as experimenting at other farms for the past 5 years I am now certain that our methods work well in order to maintain the quality of the coffee.
Gilberto had already installed new raised beds covered with shade (above picture) in order to dry coffees for TW. Marysabel and Moises had expanded their drying facilities in order to supply our demand for shade dried coffees. The only farmer left was Jobneel, who fortunately had decided not to build the planned cement patio by his house and instead use his money on fertilizing and controlling the leaf rust fungus at his farm. A very good investment indeed, because without any coffee on the trees, there will be no coffee to dry.
Jobneel was a bit sad to tell me that he had failed to build a patio as he had ran out of money. I decided immediately that I would support him with the money to build raised beds, covered with shade, if he promised to build them straight away and to dry all the coffees for TW according to our instructions. I told him that I am simply not going to accept coffees dried on cement patios anymore. Jobneel understood, and we both agreed that it was best to build a new construction in metal so that it will last longer.
It might not be the right way in many peoples minds to cough up money for a farmer to build drying tables. Even Jobneel was a bit embarrassed to accept the money. I understand that it is better to give a good price for the coffee and make Jobneel put his own money in to building infrastructure. As a matter of fact, Jobneel has been able to build a house, buy a car and plant a lot more land with coffee because of the extra money we pay for his quality coffee. I see it as an investment in our quality control, as this is one of the most important steps to make sure our coffees taste great. So I have no regrets helping out with the construction of these tables.
It has been very exciting to see that all the above farmers are now picking fully ripe coffees, sorting them before processing, washing the coffees with great skill, drying the coffee on raised beds in shade (no more dirty patios), storing the parchment in Grain Pro bags and getting the coffees shipped as soon as possible. I will be following up with a visit in April in order to make sure everything has been done according to our standards. The farmers have promised to send photos of the harvest and drying, but I am certain they will do a fantastic job as always.
It is really rewarding to know that all of our coffees are now dried on raised beds, and most of them are dried in shade. This method is really slow, but maintains the quality of the coffee for a much longer time as the coffee is not over heated. Over heating will break the cell structure of the beans and the fats in the beans then go rancid a lot faster, creating the woody “past crop” flavour. If you want to learn more about drying and processing, I suggest you take a look at my lecture at the 2012 Nordic Barista Cup.
Here is a rather lengthy post, and I apologize if it gets a bit fragmented.
For the past 2 weeks I have been spending quality time with the coffee producers we buy coffee from in Honduras. I spent 2,5 days with Jobneel on his farm Nacimiento in Santa Barbara and have been together with the Caballero family (Moises Herrera , Marysabel and Fabio Caballero) for 5 days.
Normally when I visit farms the schedule is always tight and I have never spent more than one full day with a farmer. Although you learn a lot in 1 day there is a lot of details and situations that never occur in such a short time.
On this trip I have learned a lot more about the everyday life of a farmer. I know that 5 days is not representative of what goes on throughout the year, but still I got the sense of how frustrating the life of a farmer can be.
Weather
It doesn’t come as a surprise that every single coffee farmer on the planet is 100% dependent on the weather. We do see climate changes in all origins we buy from and for most of the times it is very problematic. I have never really thought about how this affect the farmer from a day to day basis, but boy did I get a feeling of it while visiting the Caballero’s farms in Marcala.
It all started with a drying experiment that we had planned to conduct. We were drying freshly washed coffees in 8 different methods where 7 of them are depending on dry and sunny weather. On the Monday where we was supposed to start the experiment, it started pouring down from the skies, and it continued for 2 full days, leaving the Guardiola (mechanical dryer) as the only efficient method for the first 2 days. (Except when the electricity disappeared for 4 hours in the night.) The rain really made me frustrated as I had planned to come and do these experiments for a long time. Fortunately it stopped raining on the third day, so we could proceed with the experiment.
Rain has been a problem in a lot of origins during 2011. Colombia has had non stop rain in some areas for almost 3 years. Kenya had rain during the harvest in December making drying complicated and just a few years ago they experienced a severe draught, making the crop very small. El Salvador and Guatemala had too much rain causing land slides and a drop in crop yields. In Honduras they had a long cold and moist period in Marcala and the coffee shrubs were attacked by fungus such as leaf rust and “ojo de gallo”. At some of the Caballero’s farms there are so much wind that the coffee trees struggle surviving. They had also experienced extremely cold weather that affects the quality of the beans and also kills a lot of new coffee plants.
There are also a lot of other problems with too much rain that is hard to imagine if you don’t experience it yourself. Pickers refuse to pick coffee on rainy days, although they need the money and the farmer desperately needs to harvest the cherries in order to prevent the cherries from bursting. (During rain, ripe coffee cherries will get filled with too much water and burst / crack and get fungus attacks resulting in moldy and phenolic flavors.)
The dirt roads from the farm to the mills transform into what some people call mud baths, making driving coffee around very challenging. The list just goes on and on and it all affects the livelihood of coffee farmers who sometimes are 100% dependent on the coffee crop as it is their only income once a year.
Climate change is not only making it difficult for the farmers, but is changing where and how coffee is grown as the coffee shrub requires many years to adapt to new climates.
Social aspects
I also witnessed a lot of social issues that are very challenging for farmers to handle.
In the rural areas where the coffee farms are located in Honduras there are loads of problems with drinking, stealing, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and security in general. That doesn’t mean it is not safe to live there. You just need to take precautions. In fact one of my very good friends and coffee exporter in Santa Rosa, Mr. Peter Rodriguez was shot in the lung while driving his car on his way home from work. The whole thing was a misunderstanding according tot the shooter, but Peter almost lost his life. Fortunately he is recovering in hospital and we all hope he will be back stronger than ever before. Of course shooting is not a daily event for farmers, but there are loads of other problems that can occur.
Here are some examples.
Moises and Marysabel in Marcala is not able to keep bee hives in order to promote pollination of coffee trees, as local people living around the farm will just steel them. In El Salvador, the Pacas family could not keep fruit trees in their farms as local people will cut them down or break the coffee trees while trying to harvest the fruit. At Caballero’s farms they do grow fruit for their workers to harvest, but sometimes people cut down the trees just to get their hands on some avocados.
Another problem is that a lot of the local people have cows, but no land to keep them. They therefore break the fence at the coffee farm in order to let the cows grass feed. Of course there is damage done to the coffee trees and for small farmers this is a problem as it ruins part of their livelihood.
Jobneel at Nacimiento has challenges with getting pickers to work for him. Although he pays a better salary for the pickers to only pick red cherries, the pickers prefer to work for less and pick what they want. Fortunately there are some exceptions, but Jobneel is struggling getting enough people to pick coffee as his farm is at the top of the mountain and there are no people who live there.
Other farmers have problems with pickers being a bit too eager to pick. In fact some will trespass into the farms at night and steal coffee straight from the trees. However, stealing coffee from the trees is not the biggest issue I have seen.
Since the coffee prices are quite high and has been for almost 2 years now,coffee has become a target for organized crime. In fact our exporter Servex in Guatemala had several containers of coffee stolen from a warehouse they were renting about 1 or 2 years ago. There were about 50 uniformed and armed people that raided the warehouse at night and came in with several trucks and stole the coffee. It is not uncommon to hear about coffee being stolen from the road or small warehouses or even the patios at the farms, but normally it is 1 container or less and not high quantity like this. Since this was a big quantity loss, Servex only got 40% covered by the insurance which is a major economical drawback for any company.
Unfortunately we were also affected by theft this year as a truck with coffee driving our very best lot of coffee was hijacked and disappeared on it’s way to the dry mill. I am absolutely devastated as this coffee was the best I had tasted from this origin, but unfortunately there is not much I can do about it.
There is of course a lot more challenges that a coffee farmer has to live with than I have described in this post. This was just a few things that had occurred while I was traveling for the last 2 weeks and although I still struggle getting a feeling of how frustrating this must be for a farmer, I hope that more people realize that coffee farming is hard work (especially if you are trying to grow the best quality) and needs to be rewarded with better and consistent prices as coffee is the only income for most coffee farmers.
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 are so proud and very happy to have some new coffees for sale.
This time, the new crop from one of our all time favorites, Jobneel at Finca Nacimiento is finally in house and on the shelves.
We have bought 5 lots from him this year and the first release is a Bourbon picked on the 3rd of March. This coffee is so ripe and juicy that people think it is a Kenyan coffee. Loads of ripe cherry flavours. For more information on the coffee go here.
We are also thrilled to finally be able to sell some very special coffee from the Caballero family in Marcala, Honduras. They have several farms, so we decided to honor their name by calling the coffee “Caballero” as their family has been pioneering coffee in Honduras for over a century. We bought 7 different lots from the Caballeros this year, and first one for sale is the first picking from the farm Los Cipreses. For more info go here.
The third release this week is a coffee from one of the first farms we ever bought coffee from when we opened in 2007. Finca La Montañita is situated in the mountains of El Salvador. The Pacamara that we bought from Mr. Antonio René this year has a lot of crisp apple acidity and intense fruity flavors.
For more info go here.
We hope you will enjoy these coffees.
Here are some more pictures from my visit to the farms Naciemento and Cielito Lindo in Santa Barbara in Honduras.
Yesterday I spent a whole day with Jobneel at him and his father’s farms Nacimiento and Cielito Lindo in Santa Barbara in Honduras.
As I had already been to the farm last year, I asked Jobneel if he could show me how they pick and process their coffee at the farm.
Normally they would be in full harvest by now, but due to climatic changes, they had only done the first picking and were still waiting for the main harvest to happen in March / April.
(My exporter, Angel showing me Jobneels diferent lots)
Fortunately, Jobneel had already finished the first picking and separated his lots into different varietals, like I had suggested for him after last years visit. Early in the morning I had the chance to cup two different Bourbon lots next to a lot of Pacas and Catuai and Extreberto’s Catimor varietal (IHCAFE 90) and some of the coffees from the neighbouring farms. I insisted cupping the coffes blind as always and for the fourth year in a row I selected Extrebertos coffee to be the best. I actually thought his coffee was Catuai due to a misprint on the Cup of Excellence web page about his coffee, and therefore was very surprised to learn that the coffee was in fact a Catimor varietal. (Catimor is often regarded as a low quality varietal due to its genes from Robusta plants.)
After the cupping I went straight up 700 meters in an old Toyota pickup, to visit Jobneel and Extreberto at their farms. At he end of the road on top of the mountain at 1500 meters above the sea is the farmhouse of Nacimiento where Jobneel and his family stays during the harvest.
Upon arrival I could clearly see some changes from last year. Jobneel had spent a lot of the money he earned last year on a new wet mill with 2 fermentation tanks and a washing channel, water reservoir, etc. Compared to the old wooden tanks and tiny depulping machine it was a huge improvement. The mill was just finished and Jobneel had only used it twice before I came, so I had to teach him a few tricks I learned in Kenya in November on how to properly wash coffee to remove floaters, etc. (I will post a video of his processing technique later)
I also got a 2 hour tour of the farm where we looked at all the different varietals he is growing (40 year old Bourbon and old and new Catuai, Pacas and Catimor ) I convinced him not to remove the old trees, but rather prune them so that they get more healthy. Old trees have proved a few times to produce better quality due to stronger roots and less fruit on the tree.
Walking, or should I say climbing around the farm is breathtaking, both because of the high altitude and extremely steep hills but also in terms of the scenery. The day was very cool and misty and I could only in brief moments catch the beautiful view of the lake and surrounding mountains.
In one of the steepest hills (probably 55 degrees) I met Extreberto, Jobneels father. Extreberto is 73 years old but still working every day. As a matter of fact he was picking coffee so that I could see how they process the cherries later in the afternoon.
One of the things I noticed when they were picking was that a lot of the cherries had cracked due to a lot of rain and sun. I had earlier on my trip learned that this may be a reason for phenolic defect in the coffee (Phenol tastes medicinal and mould and is a huge problem as one bean will affect the taste of a whole pot of coffee.)
I also noticed that a lot of the pickers were picking a lot of these cherries and green unripe cherries among the ripe cherries. I explained to Jobneel that in Kenya all the farmers remove the green and bad cherries from the ripe cherries before they are processed, so I suggested for Jobneel to start doing the same. Fortunately he is very commited to growing quality so he decided to start immediately. That meant we had to get on our knees and remove all the bad fruit from the good coffee before processing.
Angel (my exporter and partner of Jobneel) decided to make an experiment to see if the cracked fruit would taste like phenol, so we separated that from all the other cherries to process and taste to see if we are right.
After a long day with many discussions, we concluded that Jobneel is going to do the following this harvest:
After a lovely home made dinner before the end of my visit, Jobneel politely took me aside to ask me if we were willing to pay a bit more for his coffee this year as he had made a lot of investments and I had also suggested a lot of new techniques for him to implement that would add more costs to his production. He also wanted to know if we will buy his coffee in the future and how much coffee we need from him this year. He even asked if it was ok with me if he participated in the Cup of Excellence.
My reply was of course, Yes! Please participate in the COE. Yes, we will continue to buy his coffee as long as he is producing high quality and Yes we will pay according to our agreement from last year which was between USD 4 to 6 per lb of coffee depending on the quality.
All in all I am just extremely happy, Inspired and greatful to see that Jobneel and Extreberto are still committed to do the extra work to produce quality, that they invest in their farm for the future and that they are willing to improve and experiment to develop the quality of their coffee. This is not normal to see this year when the farmers are getting payed USD 3 – 4 per lb even for the worst qualities due to the record high New York C -market prices.
I am really looking forward to taste the coffees they are about to pick, and most likely they will be in Norway in August.
Thumbs up!
Yesterday I got a link sent to me by a good friend and coffee enthusiast in San Francisco. The link is to an Internet forum called Home Barista that is basically a discussion forum for coffee enthusiasts from around the world. I was a bit surprised to read this post on a forum created by and for coffee lovers, so I felt I had to reply in order to educate our customers and also to try to explain that not all coffee companies are the same.
Transparency
A lot of high quality driven roasters, including ourselves, preach that transparency is the most important part of our trade, but rarely do we actually get to see the numbers in the coffee industry. Sustainable Harvest is one of the few companies that are trying to do something about this through their Relationship Information Tracking System.
Cup of Excellence is also a great example of where consumers can get full traceability of the coffee trade.
I have been trying to establish a traceability system of our own and also to develop a contract that shows what the farmer gets when we pay USD 3 pr. lb (453g) FOB for coffee. We do have the contracts in Kenya as this is cooperative coffees created by hundreds of farmers. For all the other coffees we have bought this year we feel we don’t need it as we are communicating directly with the farmers anyway. We are still far away from being 100% transparent but hopefully in the future we will be able to get a system for it that enables our customers to get all the info they need.
As a temporary solution I have started to systemize all the information about our coffee purchases from the end of last year, and to my surprise we are actually paying a higher average price for our coffee than I thought we were.
Coffee prices
For the past months we have read that the C market price for coffee is at it’s highest in over 10 years at about USD 1,6 pr. lb. (453 g) of green coffee.
Although this is not a very high price for coffee it is still very positive that it is going up, as the price has been way too low for the last 10 years, forcing a lot of producers to start growing other cash crops in order to survive.
As you all probably know, we do not trade coffee based on the C market price and we do not sign future contracts based upon today’s prices like most of the bigger roasteries do. We buy the coffee direct from exporters or farmers and negotiate the price based on taste and quality. We negotiate with the farmer and the exporter. Not with a broker. We also have gentlemen’s agreements with farmers that if they continue their work with quality, we will be there to support them by buying their coffees.
As promised, I will try to do an effort for transparency, so here are the prices in USD pr. lb that we have payed for our coffees FOB (free on board) in 2010:
Panama, Hacienda la Esmeralda:______ 26,50 $ + packing
Honduras, Cielito Lindo 2010 COE:_____ 8,10 + packing
El Salvador, Las Palmas 2010 COE:_____ 5,31 + packing
Honduras, Naciemento:______________ 3,50
Honduras, Finca El Pantanal:___________3,00
Guatemala, Santa Ana:_______________ 3,50
Kenya, Mugaga:_____________________ 4,77
Kenya, Tekangu:____________________ 5,23
Of course these lots are not the same size. The Esmeralda was only about 120kg for instance. So the average price per lb. so far this year is actually USD 5,06.
Adding to the cost
As you may know, this is just for the green coffee. We also need to pay for the shipping and handling of the coffee before it gets to our roastery. Shipping cost can vary greatly depending on the origin of the coffee. The price of the coffee gets about 25 to 30 % higher for the coffee when we include these costs. On average this means the price for the coffee when it has arrived to Norway is about USD 6,58 pr.lb.
We also need to cover our travel expenses that we spend when we travel around the world to find these coffees and visit the producers.
So far this year I have been to Kenya and Honduras, and I am going to Brazil next week, to Colombia in October and visiting Kenya again in November. That adds up to 60 days of traveling and a cost around NOK 120.000,- or about USD 20.200,- only for 2010.
My accountant may think I am crazy spending so much on traveling, but I think it is totally necessary and a good investment for the future. We are building relationships with serious farmers and we are trying to secure a good supply of great coffees in the future. We want to develop long term relationships with the farmers, not have one night stands with them.
After the coffee has arrived to Norway we still need to roast it, so you have to add the cost of production, rent needs to be payed as well as salaries, delivery truck, electricity, maintenance, etc, etc. Of course the cost of living is higher in Norway than in Colombia and therefore we need to add a bigger margin to the coffee than a farmer in a producing country needs in order to make a living. For example, a beer in Colombia is about 1 USD. In Norway a beer in a bar is about 10 USD.
Is coffee expensive?
Some people think our coffees are expensive, and I understand that they believe so, especially if they compare us to a coffee sold in a supermarket. But if you taste the difference and understand how much work and effort is behind these coffees, I still believe that our coffees are cheap. It all boils down to about NOK 5,- or about USD 0,9 pr. cup. Compare that to what you pay for a bottle of water here in Norway (USD 5) where we have plenty of super clean water free from the tap, I think there is no need to discuss whether coffee is expensive or not.
Why is some coffees worth more than others?
Because quality of the coffee varies. Not only from farm to farm but within the same farm we can sometimes find a huge range of different qualities and varietals.
Take Cielito Lindo and Naciemento for instance. These 2 farms are neighbouring farms run by father and son. They grow coffee from 1500 to 1800 masl. in 2 very different types of soil. They grow 5 different Arabica varietals (Pacas, Catuai, Catimor, Geisha and Bourbon) These trees produce (like all other fruit trees) both very mature coffee cherries and also unripe and cherries that fall to the ground and get mouldy and rotten. Of course this will produce coffee of different quality.
Next year we will be there during their harvest in order to help them separate the different varietals. We are going to taste the coffees blind and score them according to the COE cupping form. We will pay more for the better tasting lots and less for the lots that get lower scores. Would we do this if there wasn’t a difference? I think not. So, why do we do this? Because we want to encourage the farmers (above: Jobneel and Extreberto) to grow more of the qualities we like so that we can get more of this coffee in future years.
Simple and easy.
Why pay more for coffee?
Well, I see it as an investment. The farmers are able to invest in necessary equipment in order to raise the quality and they are able to save a little money and make a decent living. If we treat them well today, they will treat us well tomorrow.
I believe that we cannot continue to exploit the coffee producers. Sooner or later they will stop producing coffee and that is a scenario I would not like to see. So, if you love coffee and would like to continue to be able to appreciate its wonderful flavours and diversity, then choose quality coffee before cheap quantity coffee.
I also think all roasters need to practice transparency in a greater way. It is time we practice what we preach so that more people understand what we are all about.
Hopefully this post was of some help to clarify what we are doing and trying to do in the coffee world. I could go on and on writing about this, but instead I encourage you to leave comments in our comments section and I will make sure I reply as soon as I can.
Extreberto from Cielito Lindo at the Cup of Excellence 2010
We are very pleased and proud to announce the purchase of Cielito Lindo CoE #18 in the Honduras Cup of Excellence for the 3rd year running. The purchase price was $8.10 per pound.
Tim was part of the international jury this year, so had a very close relationship with the top coffees – and especially with the wonderful Cielito Lindo which has become a favourite at Tim Wendelboe between both staff and our customers. It is very exciting to know we will be offering this coffee again soon!
More information on the Cup of Excellence and what it means to us and the farmers can be found here.
More info on Cielito Lindo can be found here.
Here is a little road movie that sums up my recent Honduras trip.
Hope you like it.
2010 Honduras COE and visit to Cielito, Santa Barbara from Tim Wendelboe on Vimeo.
If you think there is a little too much driving in this video, think about how I felt after sitting in a car for 4-6 hours every day for 7 days.
