According to Mr. Jennings, what are life’s two necessary elements?

Tenement Settlment of Brasiguaios in Mato Grosso do Sul

A very interesting and touching Globo Rural edition this morning about Brazilians that were forced out of Paraguay with threats and acts of violence by rural gangs associated with the Landless Workers Movement in Paraguay. They have returned to Brazil, and landless and penniless they have formed a tenement settlement along the highway in Mato Grosso do Sul near the border. I wish I had time to translate this, but I think the images speak for themselves. (For those unfamiliar with Globo Rural, they get my full endorsement as a quality news source shining the light on a lot of interesting rural issues both here in Brazil and abroad.)

Further information

Here is the Portuguese Wikipedia Link on Brasiguaios (more detailed than English version)
And here is the English version

An interesting article from 2001 on Brasiguaios from Ronald Hilton (English)

And a great article about the Brasiguaios in Paraguay from Veja Magazine (Portuguese)

Notice how the cherries are a dark purple on the left (towards trunk), a brighter red in the middle, and green on the outer part of the branch

Increased moisture levels, (perhaps accompanied by an increase in daylight hours), stimulate the coffee tree to blossom. This blossoming is accompanied by pollination, and then the development of fruits. In Brazil, this usually occurs in September and October. The coffee reaches maturation and is ready to be picked 8-9 months after fertilization. The problem with multiple rainfalls throughout the springtime is that it leads to various blossomings, and therefore various levels of maturation on the same branch when it comes time to pick. (See photo above. From left to right: over-ripe, ripe, and green, or unripe.)
This means that either the same coffee tree most now be picked more than once (in the case above, three times), or it must all be picked at once and the green (unripe) coffee sorted out later. The cost of going back to pick three times is quite high. Brazil, fortunately, has some of the best labor standards compared to other producing countries. This means that the cost of sending someone back to hand pick only the ripe is quite high and oftentimes cost-inhibitive. Removing green coffee after picking requires a rather extensive infrastructure to which few have access. For naturally processed coffees, where the coffee seeds (beans) are dried in the cherry, the process of removing the green is even more difficult than in the pulped natural or washed processing methods since all of the coffee maturations are dried together. In pulped natural coffees, the coffee is pulped right away (before drying) and the machine can be adjusted to pulp only the ripe coffee. (Think about how much harder it is to peel an unripe banana vs a ripe banana). However, roughly 80% of the Arabica coffee produced in Brazil is naturally processed.

Why can’t they just pick the ripe and leave the rest on the vine to fall off, decompose, and act as an organic fertilizer?
Unfortunately, coffee left on the tree creates a myriad of problems, the main one of which is broca, an insect that bores its way into the coffee bean where it eats the bean and plants larvae. Leaving coffee on the tree provides an ideal environment for them and can devastate the next year’s harvest.

Let’s go with two coffees this week (one per person – so only give one shout, even if you know them both).

Edificio Rubiacea - Santos

I was walking to the bus station in Santos today and came across this building. So I closed my eyes… and I was invited by two residents, the Genera brothers, to their apartment for lunch. When we got to the apartment and sat to eat, I was surprised to see only vegetarian fare on the table – I was expecting a huge carnivorous feast with several other people. It must have been rather bacchanalian nonetheless though, since I don’t remember too much. I remember telling them that I traveled a lot in Minas Gerais buying coffee, to which one of them responded “Well I guess you have already paid for your meal.” But I can’t for the life of me remember the names of the two brothers. Can you help?

Associação Commercial de Santos

So after two days at the Curso Internacional de Degustação e Classificação de Café, I must say that my expectations have been exceeded. Granted, my expectations were fairly low, not because of anything I had heard or any negative perceptions about the ACS, but simply because spending one month classifying commercial coffee and learning to cup defects is far from regularly cupping some of Brazil’s best coffees. A little bit about the course…

The Certification
The ACS certification is one of the most widely recognized certifications worldwide. Completion of the course and a passing grade on the test gives one the title of “coffee classifier.”

The Course Instructors
The two main teachers for the course are Professor Davi and Professor Nilton.  One would expect to have experienced teachers here in Santos, and on this, the course definitely delivers. Between the two of them they have over 100 yrs experience in classifying coffee. What I find even more amazing than their knowledge of coffee, is their humility towards coffee. How many times have you come across someone who learned how to pour some latte art or took a few SCAA or other coffee courses and is dogmatically condescending to you because they think they hold tons of “coffee knowledge.” And yet here are two guys each with over 50 years experience and the humility they show is amazing. They love coffee; not boosting their egos by telling you how they are “coffee experts.”

My Classmates
By nationality the class breakdown is 16 Japanese, 1 Taiwanese, and 1 American. By gender it is 16 male and 2 female. There is a Japanese interpreter for the Japanese students, and both the Taiwanese student and myself speak Portuguese.

Course Content
Every day the group will split into two and spend 1 hr each in the classroom and in the cupping lab.

Cupping Lab: This part will be lead by Professor Davi.  Every day in the cupping lab we will examine five cups each of two different qualities of coffee. We are prohibited from describing the coffees in technical terms (ferment, Rio, Riado, duro, mole, etc). Instead we need focus on our own perceptions of what we are sensing and hone in on it. I remember when I was training on Le Nez that I started viewing aromas as being in some sense 3-D. Depending on what time of day, what I had just done, how I was feeling, I seemed to smell different aspects of the same aroma.   I like their approach to teaching this (although Davi keeps insisting that they are not teaching, they are simply demonstrating how they do it here in Santos). Instead of hammering home “This is the rio defect, this is the rio defect, this is the rio defect” day after day, they force you to keep searching by asking “what do you sense, what do you sense, what do you sense.” Instead of easily slapping a label on the coffee, we are forced to search our own perceptions and augment our repertoire; to put more “knows” on our “know-ledge.”

Classroom sessions: The main focus of the classroom sessions will be in physically sorting the green coffee. However, I was quite impressed by the content that we will cover apart from this. Looking at the course packet, we will cover everything from the history of coffee, to botany, to coffee plant morphology to agronomic aspects to disease and pests to warehousing to processing….  A lot of good stuff.

How is this course different than the SCAA Cupping Judge Course?
The SCAA course is more a series of tests. A lot of pressure in a short period of time. Although there is a small part on classification, the SCAA course is, I thought, concerned more with your ability to distinguish specialty coffees from each other. What are the different types of acidity and what does each taste like? How do you use the SCAA form in evaluating coffee?   What are some of the essential aromas found in coffee and can you identify them. The Santos course is a more pragmatic course for those who trade coffee. It is much longer (one month in duration, though only 2 hrs/day) and the purpose is to teach the student how to classify grades of coffee, identify defects, and understand the procession of coffee from field to port.

Why are you taking the course if you work only with Specialty Coffee and not lower-grade Commercial Coffee?
If one is to say “this is not that,” then it follows that one must have knowledge both of “this” and of “that.” Most roasters in the United States (and even nearly all of the ones that profess they perform some sort of “Direct Trade,”) rely on the use of coffee brokers and importers to perform this task for them.  The importers are their safeguard against commercial grade coffee, or, worse yet, defective coffee (past crop, rio, ferment, etc). The problem with this is that you are at the mercy of what the importers are buying or willing to buy for you. Our system of putting together microlots from various small producers and vacuum-sealing at source is not feasible under this system, so we assume the safeguard role ourselves.  (So if you ever buy some Casa Brasil coffee that you don’t think is up to par, you know where to point the finger.) As Casa Brasil grows, more and more money is at risk and thus we have an even greater need to ensure that we are delivered what we bought. If I miss some ferment or even a slight astringency, money is lost.

Who can take the course?
As far as I know, there are no prerequisites to take the course.  The three main requirements are 18+ years old, high school diploma, and a statement from your dentist that your mouth is healthy.  I guess they figure that anyone who can spend a month away at a coffee course is serious about coffee. The levels of the students at the course are all over the board, though everyone has at least some experience in coffee.  The two big impediments are language (Portuguese only, the Japanese students have brought an interpreter), cost (the course is not expensive, but you must live in Santos for a month), and opportunity cost (a month is a long time to be away from work).

Cocada - 2 Reais

Sim – eh cocada boa.  It’s good to be back in Brazil, especially given the humidity in Austin.   I was dying of hunger on the bus to Santos when the bus stopped to pick up someone and I heard “cocada 2 reais.” So much better than the C-Store offerings on trips to Houston and Dallas (the exception, of course, being my beloved Czech Stop in West, Texas).

There just doesn’t seem to be an easy way to get from Guarulhos to Sao Vincente.  (Let me know if I am wrong. I took buses from Guarulhos to Congonhas, Congonhas to Jabaquara and now Jabaquara to Sao Vicente. Not fun when you are hauling a month’s worth of stuff). Anway, I will have pretty regular access to internet here, so I will hopefully be able to keep you all updated on my adventures down here. The first month will be basically the course here in Santos, with excursions to local farms, and a look at the exportation system here in Santos. Then a short vacation of sailing up the coast from Santos to Angra dos Reias and then Rio de Janeiro. Then 2 weeks of farm visits, then back to Austin.

Daterra Reserve and Daterra Peaberry Reserve

We have been carrying the Daterra Pearl Reserve for years now, and it is one of our most popular coffees (and one of my favorites).  I have had the good fortune to visit the farm near Patrocinio, Minas Gerais on numerous occasions, meeting with Carlos, Head of Quality Control,  and Luis Norberto Pascoal, the owner of Daterra and coffee-lover to the nth degree. (I have drawn the conclusion that no matter how much you think you love coffee, Luis  loves it more. The degree to which they take quality control is unparalleled in my source visit experience.)

The Difference Defined
Each year Carlos chooses the top lots of coffee to form the annual Reserve, the best coffee that Daterra has to offer from that harvest. Bean variety and lot location vary from year to year.  Screen size 16+ are sorted for the Reserve coffee, and the peaberry is sorted to form what Daterra calls the Pearl Reserve.

Pearl Reserve at Casa Brasil
I initially chose to carry the Pearl Reserve instead of the Reserve because of its more intense aromatics and its more pronounced sharper acidity. It was, I felt, a bolder coffee that made a stronger identity statement.  We were (and still are) a new business and I wanted a standout coffee to deliver a remarkable drinking experience. The Pearl Reserve certainly did that, adding to a high-quality coffee portfolio that lead Casa Brasil to be voted one of the Four Best Coffees in Central Texas by the Austin-American Statesman.

I have tasted the Reserve on many occasions over the past few years, comparing different roasters’ efforts with our own Casa Brasil Daterra Pearl Reserve, and have been content with my choice. Admittedly though, I have not sat down to roast both coffees in-house and cup side by side our efforts with both coffees.  As we have grown, we now have more outlets for coffees, and I thought it was time to recast a glance at the Reserve to see how the coffee has changed (or perhaps my perceptions – unfortunately we have not saved vacuumed sealed samples of previous year’s lots), how it compares to the Pearl Reserve, and how it might fit into our coffee lineup. On Wednesday Allen and I roasted both coffees. The roast curves were similar, though the Pearl Reserve was slightly darker. Yesterday we cupped side by side. Here are our observations from the cupping

Cupping Results: Fragrance/Aroma
I need to preface this by iterating that the roast was slightly darker for the peaberry, so unfortunately there is a small asterisk next to the results.

Allen: While generally speaking the fragrance for the Reserve could have been considered “nutty,” I thought there was a bouquet matching that of a freshly cracked pecan (Interestingly enough, when we looked for other descriptions today on the internet, Terroir Coffee too had described the Reserve as “Very soft creamy notes of pecan.”) Similarly the Pearl Reserve nicely fits into the “carmelly” [spelling matching the flavor wheel] and most closely resembles honey, though not the “honey” found in Le Nez that is more similar to honey suckle to me than squeeze bottle honey.

Joel:  For the Reserve, soft and complex is what came to me on fragrance.  Pecan did not jump out at me as it did Allen, more of a sense of nuts + sugar or even piloncillo. For the Pearl Reserve I got a strong maple syrup very similar to Le Nez (and hats off to Le Nez, b/c I never thought that their “maple syrup” smelled exactly like maple syrup, but maybe I just grew up with the cheap stuff). It was spot on here. Even the slight sharpness I get from the maple syrup in Le Nez could be found here.  Perhaps a harbinger of acidity to follow in the cup?

Allen: Interestingly, an equal shift occurred on aroma into the enzymatic category. More specifically the Daterra Reserve possessed a more lightly floral aroma not unlike Tea Rose, while the Pearl Reserve had a strong red fruit aroma.

Joel: The intensity on the break for both coffees was amazing – so strong.  The Peaberry came through as always, with milk chocolate and red fruit.  Allen mentioned tea rose and I think this nicely describes the Reserve, elements of both succulent and floral.

Cupping Results: Taste

Allen – Reserve was slighty more acidic (citric acidity) with  solid body for a sample roasted coffee.  Body maintained throughout cupping and a pleasant aftertaste.  Overall well balanced, though acidity did become the predominant sensation as it cooled.  Pearl Reserve had good acidity, but less than the Reserve.  Great body and  great balance.

Joel – The softness and complexity of the Reserve came through on taste as well, with a very bright and pleasant acidity adding to the cup. I had noticed some peach/stone fruit flavor in previous Daterra Reserves and kept rolling the coffee around looking for it, though to no avail.  Instead there was a very nice citric sweetness  – a sweet orange that maintained as cup cooled. No astringency whatsoever. Body was a little light next to acidity as cooled.  The Pearl Reserve did have more body than the Reserve, though this was probably more a factor of the darker roast.  As always, the Pearl gave me chocolate with red fruit/walnut flavor.  Aftertaste prolonged, though not as sweet as in previous Pearl Reserve roasts.

Conclusion and Thoughts.

Prior to this cupping, my position was that the Pearl made a stronger identity statement. It’s strong aromatics and sharper acidity made it immediately stand out.  This cupping held true on aromatics, but not on acidity and taste in cup. While the somewhat muted acidity in the Pearl compared to the Reserve was more a factor of roast level, the “bold identity” difference that initially led me to choose the Pearl was not as evident.  While both coffees are somewhat similar – they are from the same farm- they are different enough to offer simultaneously in the portfolio.  Rereading this entry before I hit “publish,”  I guess I should emphasize that  both coffees are exceptional choices.  We are talking about small difference on the upper end of the register. Have you had either of these coffees? I would love to hear your thoughts and how your experience compared to ours.

Local Mayan carrying water jug

The farm workers, 100% Mayas, live on the finca  in simple houses. Last night when we were coming home we met one of the locals (here with her nephew) dressed in typical Mayan garb and carrying water on her head. It’s amazing to see, and even the young girls can carry the water like that.

And food…

Los indigenas de la Finca make delicious fresh cheese wrapped in banana leaf. They sell the cheese in Acatenango.

Cheese in Banana Leaf

Besides coffee, Finca Santa Felisa also produces avocados

Lisi with Melissa in Coffee Field

Finca Santa Felisa will be my home in Guatemala for a month.  It is an organic and shade-grown coffee farm with an intense focus on social initiatives and developing the community around it.

Local Mayas in Trajes Tipicos

Here is a shot of the coffee at Finca Santa Felisa. A few things to note about the coffee is that it is shade grown (evident in photo below) and organic.  (Note the diversity of flora and ground-cover in the photos below.) Finca Santa Felisa also grows the famed Geisha variety of coffee, known for it’s intense aromatics.

Santa Felisa coffee is organic and shade grown

And some shots from around the farm. Santa Felisa is an Organic and Shade Grown coffee farm.

Lisi with Children from La Guarderia

Day 2 here in Guatemala. I started the work in la guarderia of Proyecto ADESPA (Asociacion de Desarrollo Sostenible de Paraxaj) in Acatenango. La guarderia (day care) is currently helping 21 kids of employed mothers or kids of family living in extreme poverty. The kids are so cute and sweet. After awhile, they were all hugging me and rubbing my hair. One photo that I took was enough for all the kids to get excited about it; they began to ask me to take pictures of all of them and every time a picture was taken I had to show them how it came up. They are so cute and sweet. Here are some photos we took together:

Here are some photos of the daycare:

And a shot of Acatenango: