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 just got a mail from Jobneel from Finca Nacimiento in Honduras with some pictures of the construction of the drying tables I asked him to build on his farm.
Jobneel has not been able to dry his own coffee before and he has been delivering the coffee to the local exporter and dry mill San Vicente in Pena Blanca. (See picture above) Although San Vicente does a greta job drying the coffee, the coffees have been fading fast every year, most likely due to high temperatures of the coffee laying on the patio. The patios are also dirty and people and animals always step on the coffee. That is not how I want our coffees to be treated. So this year I asked Jobneel if he was interested in building drying tables covered with shade, as we have had great success drying coffee this way in other places. (Read more about it here.)
We are therefore contributing with USD 1500,- to get the drying beds constructed. This will not cover everything, but maybe up to 90%. Jobneel is making them with wood and metal so that they last for a long time. They will be big enough to dry all our coffees and a bit more. The plan is to have them ready in a couple of weeks, before the pickings in March and April when most of Jobneel’s best coffees are harvested. Here are some of the first photos Jobneel has sent me from the project. We will give you an update as soon as we get more.
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.
2 weeks ago I visited Jobneel at Nacimiento in Santa Barbara in Honduras. We have been buying coffee from Jobneel and his father Extreberto (Cielito Lindo) for almost 5 years now through the Cup of Excellence and also direct. Although I had a very productive visit to their farms last year, I wanted to try to push Jobneel into doing even better during this visit.
Processing
I was really happy to see that Jobneel was already using the african washing technique that we worked on last year. This certainly removes a lot of the floaters and helps improve the average density and quality of the coffee. However, I was disappointed to see that his wet mill was a total mess and very dirty. I told him straight away that if he did not clean his mill, most likely we would not buy the coffee as it is very likely to ruin the quality of the coffee. Jobneel started cleaning it straight away and on my recommendation he decided to go to San Pedro Sula the following week in order to buy a pressure washer (I don’t understand why not more farmers use this) to make cleaning the mill easier. We also agreed that it is a good idea to lay tiles in the fermentation tanks as the concrete is hard to keep clean. When I came back to the farm the second day, the mill looked spotless and we were both very happy.
Varieties
Another positive development I saw was that Jobneel was already planting more Pacas on higher altitudes on his farm because of the feedback and the higher price we gave him last year for that particular variety. The Pacas seems to be the best performing variety on his farm when it comes to cup quality as it produces winey and intense fruity coffees. Jobneel asked me if I liked the Catimor he is growing, and to be honest the Cielito Lindo coffee we have loved in the past has been a blend of Catimor and Pacas. Therefore I did not really know what to respond to Jobneel’s question, so we decided to cup the Catimor (Ihcafe 90) to see if I liked it. It turned out to be a very unpleasant experience. It tasted a lot like tobacco and burlap and had a rough mouthfeel and astringent finish. (Like clean Sumatran coffees can taste) Since this has been my experience from a lot of other Catimors I have tasted I decided to advise Jobneel not to plant more. Jobneel however, decided to start to remove his catimors and re plant more Pacas and Bourbon as soon as the new Pacas was performing well.
Cherry selection
The biggest challenge for Jobneel is to get enough pickers to work for him during the harvest as the farm is on the top of the mountain and there are no people living around the farm. At Nacimiento there needs to be picked coffee almost every day as the ripening of the coffee is not uniform because of the unstable climate. This makes it difficult for the pickers to only pick ripe cherries as there is a lot of green unripe and also overripe and cherries, that has broken because of excess rain, on the same tree. I was quite disappointed to see that there was a lot of green coffee in the receiving tank and had to spend about an hour talking with Jobneel how bad this is both for quality and his income. Jobneel constantly answered with how difficult it is to get workers and although he pays them more for only picking ripe cherries, it does not seem to be efficient. I decided to make an example in order to make Jobneel realize the importance of good cherry selection. I took a sample of cherries from the receiving tank and started counting all the unripe, ripe, overripe and broken cherries. The numbers turned out to be:
Next year and beyond
For next year Jobneel will finalize his drying patio and raised beds so he can control his own drying. He will also start implementing the following:
I can’t wait to get started, but first I will be enjoying the fresh crop samples from Nacimiento and Cielito Lindo this year. Hopefully they will be available for sale in July.
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.
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:
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!
