The processing and fermenting is virtually the same
Black pepper is sun dried / natural
White pepper is washed
René
Monthly Archives for June 2012
Colombian CENCOIC organic production issues:
During the SCAA 2012, Justin from TAI (coffee buyer from Trade Aid Importers) and I talked with Ricardo from CENCOIC, our Colombian co-op about some issues they are having with organic production. The soil of the Cauca region is deficient in nitrogen and sulphates, (among other things) and fertilizers must be used in coffee production.
Recently the co-op went through some changes and now has quite a different member make up, because of this they lost their organic cert (as most new farmers didn’t have cert), and only can ship a very small amount of organic coffee.
Later Ewan from TAI (Ewan is coffee quality person from TAI) spoke with me to see if we would be interested in buying un-organic coffee for a time while they gain their cert again.
There is a thing called Transitional coffee, it takes 3 year to transition from chemicals to organic, starting from the day you stop using chemicals. One school of thought is it is a good thing (for a roaster) to buy transitional coffee, esp if you start working your way up to the organic premium (say an extra 5c per pound each year), as farmers have to do all the extra work (it is a LOT) without getting $ reward till 3 years is up and cert is achieved.
We need organic coffee and it is much harder to produce, we need to be helping farmers transition to meet our market.
I think organic is a big part of our brand, so wouldn’t want to be 95% organic, whats the point.
However this may mean we will stop buying for a co-op we have been trading with for years, having a big impact on them, and (arguably) reducing the incentive for them to transition.
I’m not sure where this will go, I don’t think we will change our 100% organic stance, but food for thought as this may necessitate the need to find a new co-op which meets both TAI and our requirements.
René
Do Micro Lots matter to Producers
Remarks from the SCAA lecture about ML’s
On the pannel there was a spead of industry people; co-op members, brokers, roasters, researchers.
+if you only buy a ML from a producer and not their normal harvest this is NOT seen as good practice in “relationship trade” (by some producers) its like only going out for dinner with a friend when they are shouting dinner.
+Skimming the best out, on the whole doesn’t greatly reduce the quality of the main harvest, rather- that the good quality beans are missed in the cup when left in normal harvest, so skimming can be a good way of achieving a special lot, esp when already harvested or harvest special lots at “optimum picking time”.
+Farmers (from CENFROCAFE in Peru) who attained a ML once never received it again, seemed like luck to them. This brought about big disappointment. They have often had to re-blend ML’s back into normal coffee as they had no buyers. It was mentioned that farmers (in private) like the idea of ML’s- its the co-op who mainly talk about jealousy among producers.
+In peru, ML are seen as a seperate business, requires farmer to file tax return (which the co-op would normaly do) this is also on a higher tax code and rate, and requires accountant. Also land lots which have produced ML’s are seen as more valuable so land tax and value go up too.
+everyone wants to taste samples of ML’s, but few actually buy.
+Roasters are creating (perceived) demand for ML’s, not lead by customers or market.
+ML’s can be useful for producers to develop a “new” flavour profile to meet a market, and apply these agronomic practices to main crop. (To me this seems like the best role of ML’s -develop best practice at micro level, test it on market, and roll out macro level if successful)
+There is a need to increase confidence between producers and roasters, conducting dialog and questions around adding value and ways to make ML’s work for farmers is very important as ML’s increase in trade.
Peoples Coffee has held off from pushing for ML’s from our producers due to the feedback we get when raising this topic. It is a lot of extra work for farmers and the co-op to produce, and outside of the COE auction system- it’s hard to find buyers to pay what the farmers would like to receive for all the extra work.
However some of our producers are now offering special lots which may be skimmed or ML’s, which we will be receiving later in the year !! (july 2012??)
I think it is more beneficial to raise quality of total harvest, rather than focus on ML’s which only see a few mouths. Then, when we talk about quality it is relating to our bread and butter coffee, not the ML’s which make up 0.1% of business. This issue is frustrating when other roasterys talk about buying the highest quality coffee for high prices, but it only relates to 0.1% of their business as ML’s. (Stumptown is often mentioned in this capacity)
René
Roasting coffee for black or with milk.
I have recently decided to change our approach to roasting coffee, and want to relate it specifically to whether it is going to be drunk black or with milk.
I want to bring out the best flavour in each origin but it seems clear to me now that you want very different flavours in the coffee, depending on whether it has milk or not.
Black coffee I want the flavours to be fruity sweetness– like the coffee cherry looks like it might taste. But these flavours turn sour when combined with milk, so I want caramelised sweetness to work with milk.
This mindset covers soft brewing and espresso, and I am currently developing (june2012) new roast profiles for each origin: but on the whole the Americas will be both black and white, but some Africans may be black only.
This will be presented on our new retail bags as, recommended Black, recommended White.
During June July we are now receiving our fresh harvest of most origins. These will be tasting extra good while they are fresh, and I will use these as a conduit to roll out the new roast profiles, as they will all be tasting good and this will hopfully help customers with the transition.
The first question to ask someone is buying retail bags is “do you take milk with that?”, (where it used to be “is it for plunger or stove top…”) and lead people towards origins based on white/black, then we can better explane flavours, and encourage customers to be looking for fruit sweetness in acidity for black, and bitter sweet choc for milk etc.
This partly came from knowing our coffees make great espresso, and most of our business is espresso, but trying to make single origins really good with milk and black is not poss with many origins.
What this means is we will be doing Single Origin Espresso light roasts, which (for me) is a very exciting new flavour experience which works very well with most of our coffees!!
The Don and Taddesse roasts are the lightest they have ever been (just enter second crack) and we might find it usefull to mainly recommend blends to people who like the big bold “coffee” flavour, as these taste awse with milk!!
This enables me to bring out more interesting flavours for the black coffee roasts, not having to worry if about it being drunk with milk and customer thinking we don’t produce a great product.
I will still try to keep a spread of available flavour thru our origins, bringing out certain characteristics in each origin to get a good spread, but it is a move towards emphasising fruitiness in black coffee.
René
Pour over vrs push button brewing
Auto brewers, the future of coffee again??
Interesting article saying brewing machines even bulk brewers, can and do produce a consistant brew every time- because there is no “human error”
The more work I do on soft brewing- the more I can see the importance for a soft brewing machine, just like we have for espresso. There are so many variables and controlling them in cafe setting is tough.
It should be said that this is next level stuff, what we are trying to achieve is “the best cup we can- every time” not just “good brews” and this level of difference may only be noticeable when cupped side by side, and when a good knowledge of the origin potential is contrasted with cup.
Strangely this comes from Slayer site which doesn’t have programable settings, its all manual.
Here is a machine which makes soft brewing to any brew parameter viable in busy cafe.
I tried every coffee available at SCAA and the best soft brew was from the Trifecta, and it is the most usable due to programable features
René
Paddle / pressure profile / pre-infusion brewing
Renés notes from talks with the designers and builders of:
Slayer, Marzocco, Synesso
Different ideas:
Pre-infusion with set pressure- just like the bloom stage of soft brewing, wetting the puck to swell it and fill all the gaps between grind, to ensure full saturation, to allow brewing to start without pressure so no channeling will occur. This also will stop “fine grind” being pushed thru the gaps to the bottom of puck and clogging, with PI they are trapped where they sit as the coffee swells.
Post infusion with set pressure- allows the bar pressure to be reduced at end of the shot- to be able to continue extracting good solubles and flavours out of the coffee without over-extraction with high pressure, just like a lever espresso machine
– direct response in bar pressure, relating to changes on made on paddle, visible on manometer,
== ==
Slayer: Jason Prefontaine
Slayer has a 2 stage brewing potential, pre-set on both stages- ie 3 bar, 9bar
It uses a mechanical brew head (and paddle) to switch between 2 pipes feeding hot water,
Stage 1- is Pre-infusion (using an adjustable tap inside machine) set on eg:3 bar,
Stage 2- to select main brewing pipe, eg:9 bar.
Towards the end of shot you can return paddle to stage 1, but it won’t simply return to 3 bar, can vary greatly in post-infusion stage due to residual pressure remaining in puck. So post-infusion isn’t very reliable/ useful.
Weakness- mechanical brew head requires bi monthly seal changes inside head, requiring full machine shut down.
totally manual means its not possible to perfectly replicate shot profiles in cafe.
Recommends only using one brew head at a time as muli use will reduce overall pressure on each group due to only 1 pump. (same as most machines which don’t have pump per group)
== ==
LM: Scott
La Marzocco Strada (MP) Mechanical paddle and (EP) Electronic paddle
MP- has a variable brew pressure paddle, and manometer dial on top of each group to see pressure changes. But usability is very hard as the amount of room you have to move with paddle from 0 to 9 bar is about 1cm, I couldn’t get any useful pre-infusion from these machines, would always show no pressure on dial or quickly ramp up to 9 bar. Therefore this seems useless to me, and almost everyone I’ve talked to doesn’t use pre-infusion on these machines.
EP- Uses a geared pump to progress “varied pressure brewing” (unique to EP I think) it electronically changes pump speed to deliver diff bar, all water is delivered via one feed.
Uses electronics to program different brew pressures during extraction. You can chose any pressure settings, or run shots manually with paddle. No manometer dials on group heads. This machine is touted as designed for pressure profiling, but would be best used for pre and post infusion.
Weaknesses:
Both Strada’s also have wear issues with the mechanical group head, need seal replacement regularly requiring full machine shut down, and has wear / casting issues. Also paddles don’t like hard use, it misaligns internals making the paddle useless till repair replace internal parts which have bent or broken.
Recommends only using one brew head at a time as multi use will reduce overall pressure on each group due to only 1 pump. (same as most machines)
== ==
Synesso Hydra: Mark Barnett,
Hydra uses the 2 pipe water feed to separate bar pressure.
Stage 1: pre-infusion on inline pressure
Stage 2: even ramp up to 9 bar, taking a few seconds
Stage 3: Extraction at 9 bar
Stage 4 post-infusion on inline pressure
All stages have adjustable taps to change bar pressure.
The Hydra has an electrical switch assembly not mechanical so group head requires no maintenance!
Volumetric is programable to run these pressure settings and stop shot.
Paddle groups can be programed to have first 3 stages programed (you push paddle all the way across) and the ability to start post-infusion when ever you like, by swinging paddle back to stage 1, then off.
Paddles prefer gentle use also, but won’t damage internal parts if heavy handed.
Hydra has a pump per group designed for simultaneous group brewing- no pressure loss.
All these machines have similer modern tech- Saturated group head, PID temp controls, dual boiler etc
== ==
Pressure profiling and pre-infusion has to be replicable every time to get flavour consistency, ie electronically controlled, This eliminates Slayer and MP. The EP has mechanical group which by all accounts needs regular servicing, but has great LM tradition of quality,
By all accounts full pressure profiling opens a can of worms, too many variables during changes of pressure. None the rockstarts of espresso I spoke with at SCAA had anything good to say about Pressure profiling relating to cafe service, but they agreed pre and post infusion has merits if it can be replicated every time.
René
The Cooling Tray Sessions 
