Cuvee Coffee

This is my second trip to Brazil in less than a month. It is an important region for us, for a number of reasons. My goal on this trip is to make some final decisions for the next 12 months. Of course, the constant goal is to learn and experience more each trip. This one has been quite an eye opener. I spent the last 2 days cupping coffee at Fazenda Ambiental Fortelaleza. FAF is a farm, but more than that they are an "umbrella" for a group of regional farmers. Marcos Croce, the farm owner is very passionate about organic and sustainable farming. He has created quite a movement of organic farming that is slowly gaining momentum. One of the coffees that we cupped...actually 2 of the coffees were something very special. The fruit citrus and structure of the coffee reminded me of some of the best Kenyas that I have cupped over the years. Could this really be true? In Brazil? The answer is yes!

Today, I got to visit the farm that produced this coffee. The altitude is high for Brazil...over 1300 meters. It is very rugged travel to these farms so we rode in the back of a truck. This was great until the rain started...and never stopped. We visited several farms, most of the families related to each other, around a mountain range until we stopped for a late lunch with a the group of farmers and the Minister of Agriculture. A local news crew was there to document our visit and aside from being wet and cold, it was a really great day.

Now we are back at FAF and cooking pizza, drinking beer and talking about our day. Tomorrow we get up early to drive south for more cuppings.

I have been traveling in South America about 3 of the past 4 weeks (more on the travels in another blog). I am enjoying my final coffee drinks in my favorite specialty coffee shop in Sao Paulo, Santo Grao Cafe. It is a beautiful store with wonderful people and amazing coffee. Two days ago I did a tasting of 4 espressos. All of the coffees are single origin (Brazil), but these were single region shots. First a coffee from Sul de Minas, then Cerrado and finally Mogiana. I was fortunate to visit farms in all of these regions the past 10 days. Our barista is a young man named Marcelinho Manoel de Lima. He started competing in their regional barista championship 2 years ago and took 14th place. Last year he placed 8th. Marcelinho does not speak English and I don't speak Portuguese so we made lost of hand gestures to communicate with minimal success. After my tasting, we exchanged cards and email addresses. I was outside the cafe waiting for a ride when Kitty, one of the staff who speaks English very well, ran out to talk to me. She said that Marcelinho was very excited because he recognized Cuvee Coffee from our web site and You Tube account. He had watched video of Clancy Rose at competition and learned to grab the coffee cup with his palm up when he pours the milk.

It is amazing to me how small the world really is when you factor in the power of the internet...email, videos, Facebook, etc. This morning I stopped in for breakfast and automatically all of my coffee was on the house. I am 2 espressos and 3 cappuccinos into it and now I am not sure if I will be able to sleep on the plane! I showed a video of Dan pouring a tulip and everyone was very excited and interested. Then I was put on the spot to perform. My success was minimal, but all Marcelinho got the technique and poured a very respectable tulip (way better than mine). After that, he sent me over his signature cappuccino with powdered chocolate and a heart, rosetta combo on top. All of my coffee has been delicious and the people here at Santo Grao Cafe are some of the best I have ever met. If you ever travel to Sao Paulo, don't miss an opportunity to have coffee at Santo Grao!

Last week in the office Clancy, Mike and I conducted an experiment. We wanted to document the effects that "quakers" have in a shot of espresso. "Quakers" are under ripe coffee cherry seeds that make it through processing and end up in roasted coffee. In green coffee "quakers" are almost impossible to detect, but once the coffee is roasted they reveal themselves as significantly lighter beans. See the picture below, there are quakers on the left and normal roasted coffee on the right.

We started the experiment by weighing out 21g samples to prepare espresso. We ensured there were no quakers in any of the samples. Clancy then prepared a shot of espresso for Mike, and I with no quakers to establish a baseline. Mike and I went into another room, and Clancy brought us shots of espresso with undisclosed amounts of samples, ranging from none to 6. Mike and I wrote down what we thought about each of the shots, and rated them. After we had tasted a pile of espresso we reconciled with Clancy which shots had how many quakers. The most powerful observation we made was that even 1 quaker will have a negative impact on the flavor of the espresso.

Lastly, we prepared a shot of espresso that was made from all quakers.... you can see a photo of the difference between the all quaker spent puck and the normal puck below.

Six days, 17 Baristas, 24 gallons of milk, and 36 pounds of espresso later I have wrapped up a marathon run of barista training. I have to say it has been one of the most rewarding weeks of my career. Every chance I have to train new baristas it reminds me how much I enjoy working with people who are enthusiastic and take pride in what they do.

Many times people think that it must get frustrating or boring to say, and do the same things day after day. My experience however was completely the opposite, even though the basic structure of each day was the same, the newness of each group of baristas brought on both a new challenge and a new opportunity. The reward for me is helping to open a new door for these baby baristas and watching them grow. I told several of my classes that "being a barista is a journey of personal discovery" trying to instill in them that being a coffee professional and especially a barista is a craft, and only you can take control and responsibility for your skill and development. I can as a trainer teach you principles, techniques, and give feedback. The individual however has to master them through their own effort and desire.

Learning to become a great barista is a process. Working with someone who has been down that road, and can give you a roadmap is a distinct advantage, and something I work hard to do with my students. It is always so rewarding to see the excitement on someone's face when they pour their first heart or rosetta, or taste their first 'good' espresso. Not only did I have a great time doing all of the trainings, I am excited about what this means for the skill level of baristas here. I know that as more people commit to training and educating their baristas the better chance we all have of getting great coffee, and the more successful coffee businesses in Texas will be.

The COE Honduras cupping was a HUGE success and they will just keep getting better. We had about 20 people in the house, including a farmer from Honduras, and I have never seen the parking lot so full! Dan had a training lab going on, but everyone got the chance to taste some great coffee. We roasted the top 6, then focused on a group of coffees that all came from the same beneficio...14 of the 37 ran through them. We did not end up purchasing any coffee because we are anxiously awaiting a sample that promises to be stellar. The only reason it was not in COE is the farm altitude is so high that the coffee was not ready for picking in time. If things work out, Honduras will be on my travel docket in the not to distant future.