What’s brewing this month at thump

July & August 
FEATURED CUP: Finca el Injerto Bourbon Varietal, Direct Trade

The coffee that wins our hearts and tastebuds year after year has returned! Stumptown’s first Direct Trade relationship coffee continues to delight us. Delicious! Stumptown writes: “YES IT IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER! Our Finca El Injerto 100% Bourbon coffee comes from Guatemala’s famed Huehuetenango region tucked away just below the Mexican border. Arturo Aguirre and son Arturo Jr. process their coffees with an eye for detail. Not one step in the quality process is skipped beginning with cherry flotation and extended fermentation to soaking, drying and proper storage. The Aguirre’s commitment to their coffee crop results in consistent quality, year after year. We are proud that it is our most popular single origin coffee. Fragrance of jasmine evolves into flavors of dutch chocolate, roasted almonds, meyer lemon and plum finishing with chamomile tea like grace.”

June
FEATURED CUP: Costa Rica Montes de Oro Direct Trade & El Salvador Coffee Cherry Tea (Limited Supply)

Caturra varietal


Catuai varietal

A favorite from last year has returned: Costa Rica Montes de Oro Direct Trade! The folks at Stumptown write: “The Gamboa Chacon family has produced coffee in the Tarrazu region since the 1800s. In 1977, Tuto Gamboa began managing his family’s farms and acquiring new land for coffee cultivation. With premiums paid for exquisite quality for the past three years, Tuto and his son Emilio purchased their fourth farm: Finca Teresita. Emilio ensures strictly ripe cherry and fully washes it with INGESEC technology. The coffee is gently dried on African beds to increase mouth feel. The taste and texture of honey completely envelops ripe cherry and fresh peach in this sweet bright cup that finishes with juicy tangerine.”

From the Coffee Farms of El Salvador’s Aida Batlle, coffee cherry tea is a fruity “infusion” similar to hibiscus, prepared by steeping dried, ripe coffee cherry fruit. The tea is delicious served hot, or iced, and is caffeinated. These coffee cherries were dried at their peak ripeness on the small coffee farms owned and operated by renowned El Salvador coffee producer, Aida Batlle.

Coffee Cherry Tea is a traditional drink of Latin America, Yemen, Ethiopia and the Middle East. To learn more about Aida Batlle, her award winning coffees and innovative coffee growing practices, please revisit our Dec. 2008 thumpology.

May

FEATURED CUP: Cascara Coffee Cherry Tea

From the Coffee Farms of El Salvador's Aida Batlle, Cascara Coffee Cherry Tea is a fruity "infusion" similar to hibiscus, prepared by steeping dried, ripe coffee cherry fruit. Cascara is delicious served hot, or iced, and is caffeinated. These coffee cherries were dried at their peak ripeness on the small coffee farms owned and operated by renowned El Salvador coffee producer, Aida Batlle.

Coffee Cherry Tea is a traditional drink of Latin America, Yemen, Ethiopia and the Middle East. To learn more about Aida Batlle, her award winning coffees and innovative coffee growing practices, please revisit our Dec. 2008 thumoplogy article.

Over the last two years, Stumptown has worked with farmers in the Loja province of Ecuador to improve the quality of their coffee. A first from Ecuador! Here’s another coffee where several years of work with Stumptown’s green coffee buyers preceded its arrival at thump!

Stumptown describes the Ecuador Quilanga Reserva: “Over the last two years, Stumptown has worked with farmers in the Loja province of Ecuador to improve the quality of their coffee. Valle el Ingenio (Valley of the Genius) sits at the heart of the Andes in Southern Ecuador. In traditional South American fashion our Quilanga Reserva coffee is processed manually with hand-crank depulpers, fermented in small tanks, then washed and laid to dry on either patios or raised beds. This is our first single origin offering of our Ecuadorian coffee. Our Quilanga begins with the scent of hibiscus, maple and lemonheads which lead to flavors of Rainier cherry and hibiscus with a long, sweet and lemony finish.”

Stumptown Coffee Roasters has worked for several years with Burundi coffee growers to bring their coffee to us, and we’re excited and grateful to share in the fruits of their labor! Here’s how Stumptown describes the Burundi Bwayi Direct Trade: “Violet and raisin aromatics open the flavor gates to perfectly clean notes of plum, black cherry and orange zest that are complimented by a syrupy body.”

Stumptown writes that “Bwayi is one of the pearls in our East African Direct Trade program. We’ve been working closely with this group of farmers over the past three years. In addition to improved cherry selection and a return to double fermentation, a la the Kenyan style, we’ve now installed a pre-drying stage to the Bwayi process. This addition has given the coffee’s mouth feel pronounced depth. Our quality control team cupped through each day of the harvest to construct this lot of coffee.”

If you ever wondered what goes into bringing you exceptional coffees through Direct Trade relationships between Stumptown and coffee growers around the world, check out Aleco Chigounis’s source trip notes. To read specifically about coffees from Burundi, scroll down to Burundi March 15, 2008, when Aleco was establishing Direct Trade relationships and sharing observations about life in Burundi.

Our Kenyan coffee lovefest continues this month as we introduce Kenya Gatomboya, grown across the valley from our beloved Gaturiri. Howdy neighbor!

Stumptown writes, “The Gatomboya Factory faces the Gaturiri Factory directly across the valley. Both washing stations are part of the Barichu Cooperative union. 700 small holder coffee farmers make up the membership of the Gatomboya Factory. Each farmer grows only SL28 and SL34 on their high altitude farms. Coffee cherries are selected for optimum ripeness then graded meticulously at the washing station before being accepted and processed with the utmost care in true Kenyan fashion.”

Read more about Kenya Gatomboya here.

We’re in love with this coffee! Really lovely dry aromatics and a wonderful cup! Stumptown tells more: “Only a handful of coffees can match Gaturiri’s completeness and complexity. Kenya’s process is the most intricate in the coffee world with double fermentation, intermittent washing and extended soaking. Wet coffee is taken from the soaking tanks to pre-drying beds which wick away most of the moisture on the beans before they are piled on another bed to gently finish the process. Grand Cru Kenyans have unmatched mouthfeel, dark fruit flavor and enlightening aromatics.”

OCTOBER

FEATURED COFFEE: El Salvador Kilimanjaro Organic, Direct Trade

This coffee is produced by Aida Battle, a female coffee farmer and Cup of Excellence competition winner, a prestigious accomplishment awarded to coffee producers whose meticulous farming practices yield outstanding coffees and record prices at auction. Stumptown describes the flavor as “perfume and rose petal aromatics introduce flavors of rainier cherry, blackberry and champagne grapes with a caramel finish.”

For the first time, we're featuring an Indonesian coffee - and for the first time, Stumptown is proud to announce an established Direct Trade relationship coffee from the Indonesia growing region. (Read more about coffee growing regions at thumpology.com.) If you have previously shied away from Indonesian coffees because of their syrupy body and herbal characteristics, you'll be pleasantly surprised by Gajah Aceh's enjoyable, clean cup! Stumptown describes this coffee as: "Dark fruit tones dominate the aromatics of a cup profile filled with ripe fruit notes of tamarind, blackberry and citrus."

"We shared a French press of the Montes de Oro the other morning. Wow! We love it even more than when we carried it previously! The bright notes are toned down a bit for a nicely balanced cup." - Kent & Hazel

Here's how Stumptown describes it: "The producers behind Montes de Oro, Emilio and Laura Gamboa, cultivate their coffee in San Pablo de Tarrazu. Emilio personally oversees the processing each and every night of the harvest. He ensures strictly ripe cherry and fully washes it with INGESEC technology. The coffee is gently dried on African beds, which provides time for sugar development. Flavors: Rainier cherry and clementine orange flavors meld harmoniously with sweet notes of honey, caramel and milk chocolate."

Deliciously different, cold-brewed toddy coffee tones down the treble and turns up the bass – it will rock you. We spent nearly a month testing different beans, blends, brewing times and water to coffee ratios. Well, we’re especially proud of what we’ve come up with! It’s exceptionally refreshing, with full bodied chocolate notes.

For those of you new to toddy, this is an iced coffee drink we brew as a concentrate using cold water, lots of coffee grounds, and lots of time - nearly a full day for brewing! The cold water does not extract the high citrusy notes or as much of the acids that you will find in drip coffee. The lower notes that give coffee its body and richness are extracted instead. The result is a smooth, rich, almost sweet, refreshing drink that doesn’t taste watered down or bitter like the classic iced coffee. People whose stomachs react to the acidity of hot coffee especially enjoy the lower acidity of toddy.

Stumptown says: "The Aguirre family produced the first prize winner at Cup of Excellence again. Arturo Aguirre and son took meticulous care during the cherry selection stage through extended fermentation, soaking and a delicate drying process. The lot was given extra time to rest, building composure within the flavor profile paralleling a fine wine resting in barrels. The lot comes from the middle of the harvest ensuring maximum sugar development which directly relates to the coffee's bursting floral notes, saturated sweetness and ripe fruit flavors." READ MORE AT THUMPOLOGY

We're excited to offer you coffees from Rwanda, both our featured Kanzu Microlot Direct Trade and Muyongwe Direct Trade. Seeing these coffees make it to the consumer is the result of tremendous effort on the part of key green coffee buyers such as Stumptown's Aleco Chigounis. The revitalization of Rwanda's coffee production is one important way this war torn country is healing from and moving on from its recent tragic history. Please read Aleco's trip notes for a compelling snapshot of Rwanda's vibrancy and challenges as well as Aleco and Stumptown's role in the movement to help Rwanda thrive once again. It's a long entry, but well worth reading! The entry is on Stumptown's website (scroll down to the Rwanda entry).

Also check out how Stumptown's "Bikes To Rwanda" program is raising money to build, distribute and maintain cargo bikes for Rwandan coffee farmers. When asked what would really improve their quality of life, the farmers said they needed a reliable way to transport their harvested coffee from their mountainous growing region. From that conversation, Bikes To Rwanda was born and cargo bikes were ingeniously designed to safely carry heavy loads for these farmers. To learn more about this ongoing project, go to Bikes To Rwanda. The home page shows a boy on a wooden bike that is traditionally used for coffee transport. The word "impossible" crosses my mind. The "media" page shows one of the "Bikes to Rwanda" cargo bikes. Wow! What a wonderful improvement! - Hazel

From Stumptown Coffee Roasters:

LOCATION: Mora Mora River region of the Guji Valley

ELEVATION: 1700-1900 meters

VARIETAL: Ethiopian Heirloom

FLAVORS: Black tea and candied lemon fragrances become oolong tea and lemon candy flavors in a transparent cup with the flavor of raw sugar. Haile Gebre owns and operates his Mordecofe washing station in the Guji region of Sidamo. With decades of experience managing processing centers across the country, Gerbe is now primed to take Ethiopian coffee to higher levels. This year's Mordecofe Sidamo lot is the prime representation of what washed Ethiopian coffee should be.

From Stumptown Coffee Roasters: “Bera Tadicho is a subregion of the southern Ethiopian province of Sidamo. Over 400 producers with an average of only 3 acres each, deliver cherry to the receiving station. At altitudes soaring to heights of 2300 meters above sea level this is one of the highest producing areas in the entire coffee world. After being traditionally fermented and carefully washed, coffee beans are sent to dry delicately on raised drying beds. Flavors: Our Sidamo displays a floral aroma and nuances of milk chocolate and berries in the cup.”

From Kent: “I included a sample of the Santa Rita in our public cupping in January and was pleasantly surprised to find it was the crowd favorite. It is an unusual bean because it is a "natural processed" Latin American, whereas most Central American coffees are washed processed. When done properly, the natural process can produce  sweeter, more berry-like flavors with a syrupy mouth-feel. I also like the fact that it was processed under the guidance of Aida Battle, who we had the good fortune to meet several weeks ago at Stumptown in Portland. Her Finca Kilimanjaro is one of my all-time favorite coffees, so it's no surprise that this coffee is of such high quality. Thank you Stumptown for finding another unique and exquisite bean!”

This month, Thump’s featured coffee is El Salvador Kilimanjaro Direct Trade, Organic. This coffee is produced by Aida Battle, a female coffee farmer who Stumptown recently invited to Portland to speak at their “Meet the Producers” series. (See the December thumpology for more info. on our fieldtrip to meet Aida.)

El Salvador Kilimanjaro is a former Cup of Excellence competition winner, a prestigious accomplishment awarded to coffee producers whose meticulous farming practices yield outstanding coffees and record prices at auction.  The Cup of Excellence (COE) competitions occur annually in Central and South American countries, and for the first time in 2008, in Rwanda.  READ MORE>

DECEMBER:
Kenya Gaturiri Reserve - Direct Trade (first Stumptown East African Direct Trade coffee!)

Location: Karatina de Nyeri
Elevation: 1700-1800 meters   
Varietal: SL34, SL28  
Region: Africa   
Flavors: Sweet sugar browning aromatics introduce dark fruit flavors of raspberry, huckleberry and black currant which compliment the coffee's stout body and honeyed finish.     
Notes from Stumptown: The members of the Gaturiri washing station within the Barichu Cooperative are the proud producers of our first ever East African Direct Trade coffee! To be able to guarantee such a phenomenal price to the association members of Gaturiri, under the Barichu Cooperative umbrella, is the first step towards transparent coffee business in Kenya. Stumptown worked on the ground directly with growers and washing station managers in the Central Kenyan Highlands. This grand cru lot, from the peak of the harvest, represents the finest quality coffee produced at Gaturiri this past harvest.

A really cool bean that very few farmers in the world are growing. From Stumptown: "The Barrantes brothers are pioneers of the micro mill movement that is producing unprecedented quality in Costa Rica. Herbazu, their farm in Lourdes de Naranjo in the West Valley, is planted almost entirely with the Villasarchi varietal, a mutation of bourbon renown for excellent quality and productivity at higher altitudes. Herbazu's beans are demucilaged mechanically using Bendig equipment and then patio dried."

LOCATION: Mora Mora River region of the Guji Valley
ELEVATION: 1700-1900 meters
VARIETAL: Ethiopian Heirloom
FLAVORS: Black tea and candied lemon fragrances become oolong tea and lemon candy flavors in a transparent cup with the flavor of raw sugar. Haile Gebre owns and operates his Mordecofe washing station in the Guji region of Sidamo. With decades of experience managing processing centers across the country, Gerbe is now primed to take Ethiopian coffee to higher levels. This year's Mordecofe Sidamo lot is the prime representation of what washed Ethiopian coffee should be.

Once the season hints at warm weather, we get requests to start making our divinely refreshing cold brewed toddy. Most brewing processes use hot water and take a relatively short time, anywhere from 23 seconds to 6 minutes. Toddy however, requires cold water, a lot of coffee grounds, and patience, about 20 hours! The cold water does not extract acidic, or citrusy notes, like hot water. The result is a wonderfully smooth, ever so slightly sweet, refreshing beverage that's served iced.

Give our cold brewed toddy a try the next time you're in the shop and looking for an iced beverage. It will likely become your summer drink!

Click here to learn more about toddy coffee.

MAY:


Costa Rica Montes de Oro - Washed Processed

APRIL:


Ethiopia Yirgacheffe - Misty Valley (Organic)

From Kent:
“Misty Valley is back! Our favorite from last year has returned. It is a dry processed bean from the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia. This is unusual because most Yirgacheffes are wet processed. Stumptown describes it as: “Our Misty Valley shows fresh berry and red licorice in the aroma followed by flavors of fresh strawberry, lemon drops and crème soda.” To me it smells like Strawberry Quick. I get the strawberry, crème soda and a little chocolate, although not as chocolaty as last year.”

MARCH:


Guatemala Finca el Injerto - Pacamara varietal (Direct Trade)

From the folks at Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Portland: The Stumptown-El Injerto relationship is one of our proudest relationships. It’s our longest standing Direct Trade coffee and we feel like our efforts, combined with that of the Aguirre family, have improved the coffee year after year. Unfortunately, that’s not enough for us. We need more El Injerto!

Last year we brought you folks the Maragogype varietal for the first time and it sold quicker than a hoppy IPA at our ritual Friday ‘Mandatory Meetings’. This year, we brought in another El Injerto varietal family member: the Pacamara. The Pacamara is a hybrid varietal, created in El Salvador, from the Maragogype and Pacas varietals. Pacas is a mutation of the Bourbon. If the Marago is the young, punk rock brother, the Pacamara is his classy older sister. She’s bright but refined. She’s past-punk and delves into the darker toned underground. Finca El Injerto’s Pacamara varietal beautifully balances a delicate savory flavor with milk chocolate, orange pekoe tea, orange blossoms and violets.

FEBRUARY:


Visita de Colombia

“Visita” means “tour,” and that's exactly what our featured coffees will be this month - a tour of outstanding Colombian coffees Stumptown Coffee Roasters has made available in limited supplies (in some cases, they bought just one bag of green, unroasted beans!). They will roast and sell two different Colombian coffees at a time from their selection. Once they're gone, they'll move on to two more. Throughout February, we will feature these different Colombian coffees as they become available.

Asokwici: This is a silky textured coffee with notes of candied orange, vanilla bean and sweet pecan pie permeating the fragrance, followed by fruit flavors of maraschino cherry and tangerine.

El Jordan: Maple and meyer lemon flood the aromatics of this creamy-bodied coffee, while hints of pear, macadamia nut, vanilla wafer and malt appear in the flavor profile.

JANUARY:


Yirgacheffe Wondo Co-op

From Stumptown Coffee Roasters:
The Wondo Cooperative is comprised of 2000 members each of whom farms an average plot of land only about one acre in size. These farms are “garden-style” meaning that they have excellent spacing between trees which is a key factor in perpetuating outstanding quality. Located between 1800- 2300 meters above sea level, in the Gedeo region of Yirgacheffe, one would be hard pressed to find coffee farms at higher altitude anywhere in the world. The flavor of this coffee is close to perfection in terms of the ideal washed Yirgacheffe. Scents of jasmine, sage and cascade hops dominate the fragrance while flavors of sweet peach juice, apricot, mango, butterscotch and dutch chocolate tantalize your senses.

DECEMBER:


El Salvador Finca Kilimanjaro - Direct Trade

According to Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Finca Kilimanjaro is the first-ever grand prize winner in the history of the El Salvador Cup of Excellence: “Since her 2003 victory Aida Batlle has maximized the potential of her SL28 coffee trees (hence the reference to Mt. Kilimanjaro, one of the original planting sights of the famous seed varietal) through vigorous commitment to picking and processing. Her family's farm, purchased by her father Mauricio in 1973, is perched along the slopes of the Santa Ana Volcano in Central El Salvador.

With altitudes ranging between 1580 and 1720 meters above sea level, Finca Kilimanjaro truly soars to heights above the rest. Finca Kilimanjaro's silken texture overlays flavors of red currant, cherry jolly rancher and rosé with a delicate perfume aroma.”

Read more about El Salvador Finca Kilimanjaro, here.

To read more about Los Delirios and the Canales family, click Source Trips and choose Central America on the Stumptown Coffee Roasters site.

This straight up from the coffiends at Stumptown:

“Don Carlos Aquilera has proven the pedigree of this coffee with 4 top 5 finishes in the Best of Panama auction. Stumptown Coffee Roasters began buying Don Carlos' coffee four years ago and we've been loyal buyers ever since."

"Carmen Estate is situated in the Paso Ancho micro-region of Volcan, a sub-region of the Chiriqui province, at 1750 meters above sea level. Efrain and Carmen Franchesci first planted coffees on this plot of land in the 1950's and have since bequeathed the farm to their sons and grandson, Carlos, who maintains full control of the farm."

"Carmen Estate produces mainly Caturra and Typica varietals although there are also lots of Catuai in the mix. The coffee is depulped with Penagos technology, mechanically demucilaged and patio dried. Carmen Estate displays flavors of lemon zest, cardamom, baker's chocolate and English toffee with a blackberry finish.”

Explore the excellent Carmen Estate Coffee website here.

This month we dive into some of the new crop harvested in Central America in late spring/early summer. Near the town of Pueblo Nuevo in Nicaragua, the Canales family farm — known as Los Delirios because locals thought Daniel Canales to be “delirious” for buying this abandoned farmland 25 years ago — produces some of this country’s most highly prized coffees. This “micro lot” consists of beans harvested from the El Cipres y Ojo de Agua section of the Los Delirios farm.

Here’s what Stumptown Coffee Roasters says about this special organically grown coffee purchased directly from the Canales family for higher than Fair Trade prices: “Caturra, Typica and Bourbon varietals are all present in this lot, which grew between 1200 and 1400 meters above sea level. Candied orange, apricots and sugar cane are notes found in the Cipres y Ojo de Agua cup.”

To read more about Los Delirios and the Canales family, click Source Trips and choose Central America on the Stumptown Coffee Roasters site.

Just in time for the summer heat, we’ve got toddies for hotties! Come cool off with Bend’s only cold-brewed, toddy-style iced coffee. The cold brewing process eliminates much of the coffee’s acidity, lending it a smooth, rich, full-bodied flavor.

Click here to learn more about toddy coffee.