Aida Batlle story in The New Yorker

It's always great when the pioneers of truly specialty coffee are recognized in mainstream media. Such is the case with the article in November 2011's The New Yorker, "Letter from El Salvador: Sacred Grounds -- Aida Batlle and the new coffee evangelists." The journalist, Kelefa Sanneh, was on-site in El Salvador at Aida's beautiful and captivating farms. She writes with touching vignette's about Aida's career and the challenges she faces as a coffee farmer. The article highlights well the many challenges any professional in specialty coffee has come across at some time. This makes it a delight to read.

But you'll need some time -- and a good cup of (decaf) coffee. (The story is captivating enough to not need the caffeine.) But it's 10 pages of New Yorker fine print!

Finding Flavorful Decaf Coffee

Dec. 5, 2011
It's been fun hearing stories about people in search of great tasting decaf coffee. One student on his junior year abroad wanted decaf coffee for his mother's birthday. She's been looking for something that really tastes good -- not flat and burned. AND, if possible, it should be organic and certified as fair trade. He found it by searching the internet.

Peru, Swiss Water Process, organic, fair trade is what he bought!

DeliciousDecafCoffee.com launches!

Calling all gourmet decaf coffee lovers!
The website of your dreams has just launched - www.DeliciousDecafCoffee.com. It gives you the opportunity to buy roasted premium decaf coffee on-line, from a source you can trust: Artisan Coffee Imports (the only importer who specializes in great-tasting, high end decaf coffee.)

I've tried the decaf Kenya AA Meru-Riankune, and it's excellent. For those that want an organic and water-processed coffee, try the Peru.

The site is great, because it categorizes the coffees by decaf process. And ALL the coffees are single origins -- no blends of "nasty + moderately bad" trying to masquerade as good coffee. There's even a decaf espresso that's a "custom design" for great decaf espresso drinks.

Enjoy!

Decaf Admired - Ann Arbor.Com Newspaper

My local newspaper, AnnArbor.Com, just published a touching review of coffee culture in our county - Washtenaw County, Michigan. From a 1924 Men's Morning Coffee Group, to Frank's and the S.S. Kresge, the article recounts the history of coffee in our community. Love the Steinbeck quote, "The hot bitter coffee scalded our throats. We threw the last little bit with the grounds in it on the earth and refilled our cups."

Now the coffee scene is diverse and offers a wide variety of quality choices. Love it that one of my favorites, Zingerman's Coffee Co., is called out with a quote from a decaf drinker -- "I only drink decaf, and their decaf blend of Americano is really wonderful," she said. She is so right. When I've ordered decaf Americanos there I almost always am stopped in my tracks for a few seconds thinking, "DANG, that's good coffee!"

Keep doing that decaf right out there, folks! And if you need a source for good decaf grounds, besides Zingerman's, I've heard of another local provider who has great-tasting roasted decaf coffee.

Decaf Coffee In Europe - Data and Mysteries

Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, October 2011
This month's issue of Tea & Coffee gave a rare and detailed insight into the world of decaf coffee in Europe. A glimpse at Europe is, in many ways, a glimpse at the entire world of decaf coffee, because so much of the the world's decaf coffee is decaffeinated in Europe.

The article takes a look at the first ground-breaking compilation of market statistics on decaf coffee done in 1999 (using year 1997 based figures). The result back then? "Above 10% in Austria, Germany, Holland and Spain; just below 10% in Belgium and France; below 5% in Itlay and the UK; negligible amounts in Scandinavia." Averaged out -- "15 years ago the decaf tonnage consumed within the EU amounted to about 7% of the global [EU] coffee consumption, on a green bean disappearance basis."

Interesting terminology, eh? "GLOBAL EU coffee consumption? I assume that means there is also a "GLOBAL North American coffee consumption figure? As an editor, I would prefer to use "combined" to describe combined data, and save the word "global" for when we're really talking about the whole world.

Anyways -- the article goes on to estimate decaf consumption by country today. Unfortunately, there is no directly comparable report to the one done in 1999. Instead, Tea & Coffee has compiled various data and reports: France at 7% (down from before); Germany at 7.8% (also down). Decaf growth appears to have happened in Italy, now reporting 7% and Spain, "remaining the champion" is at 20%.

Wow! 20%! Why would that be? How could that be? That's a bit of a mystery. The article says "the Spanish decaf manufacturers have been intensely communicating about the benefits of decaf consumption." But who are the Spanish decaffeinators? We only know of plants in Italy and Germany.

So not surprisingly, an article delving into the world of decaf also digs up new mysteries in this shadowed and barely understood market!

Valuable by-products of the QGrader Exam

Maybe it's this way with every training course, but having just completed my QGrader re-takes, I've now had the opportunity to do 1.5 QGrade courses with two different sets of 10-12 coffee professionals. That experience, whether one passes the test or not, is truly valuable. I'm not saying I'd pay $1000 just to hang out and cup with 1o people for a week -- but there is a truly valuable learning aspect that one probably doesn't anticipate when one signs up for the course. At least I didn't.

What I noticed is that because each roaster and importer has different backgrounds and areas of expertise, all week you are on a learning curve about aspects of the coffee industry that are less familiar to you, given your place "in the supply and service chain". And when it comes to the coffee in the cup, it's fascinating to see how one roaster finds a cup "well rounded and bold" and another finds it "too earthy." Of course, it's great when a room of disparate traders, roasters, importers, cafe-owners all have a unanimous experience, too -- "that one sucks!", for example. Now we can debate how and why.

Keep cupping, everyone!

Passed the QGrader - Summary of 4 Retakes

Hopedale, Mass., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011
Passed! Yesterday at Coffee Solutions in Massechusetts I got the great news, I had passed the 4th of my 4 retakes needed to complete the QGrader certification.
Indonesian Cupping: took that first thing Thursday morning along with the other 10 people in the class and at least one of the other people doing re-takes. Challenging! The calibration cup was a washed PNG. So bright and clean it hardly seemed like an Indonesian. I gave it a higher score than the rest of the group. That's OK -- this is what calibration is for, right?

I was able to pick out that reference cup on the table when there were 6 coffees to cup blind. Of those 6 one was bad. I got that one, too, but thought (after the review with Rob Stephen, the instructor) that I hadn't dinged it hard enough. On the rest, I surmized that I had scored each relatively low compared to the scores Rob said he would have given them. I had over corrected on the scoring! But it must be that others had scores in a broad range also, because I did still pass. (One's cupping scores have to be within the range set by the group.)

Matching Pairs: This is one of those tests that takes place in a darkened room with red lights. Very Halloween-like! Each cupper faces a table with 8 or 10 sets of 4 coffees. Two of the coffees have an acid added to them, two of them don't -- they're just the same standard coffee that's in every cup. So the test is to 1) pick the 2 cups that have the acid and 2) name the acid that's been added.

Roasted Grading: This is the easy test -- note that one does not necessarily pass the first time just because it's easy. Like me! I honestly did not know what a quaker was the first time I took the QGrader, so I incorrectly identified some light-roasted beans as quakers. I studied up on it in the meantime, though, and this time was able to pass!

Aromatics - dry distillation: I think there are 4 aromatics tests, where one has to name the smell contained in each of 9 different little vials. The dry distillation set includes such things as cedar, clove, pepper, coriander, malt, maple, tobacco and roasted coffee. Again, having the opportunity to focus my study only on these aromas helped me pass this one the 2nd time around.

It's a rigorous test to pass, but it achieved a goal for me -- not so much having the certificate, but having a much more in-depth appreciation for the SCAA cupping form and the skill and craft of cupping. I'd been to many of the cupping classes at SCAA events. They were good introductions to cupping, but even the advanced ones do not have enough time and intensity to force a comprehensive understanding of how we cup and evaluate coffees. There's so many questions and nuances that get questioned and answered when a group of 10 - 12 coffee professionals work through the QGrader exam agenda over the course of a week.

Once completed, one has to say -- "you were right on, Ted!" (Lingle). And to all the QGrader instructors -- especially the two that tolerated and trained me a VERY BIG THANK YOU -- Rob Stephen and Kelly Amoroso, you guys are the best.