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Mobile Cupping Unit (Feb 21, 2010)
Today we made our way from Addis to Yirgalem. The trip was quite long, all told we spent about 6 hours in the vans. On the whole the trip was quite easy, apart from the duration, we made our way without incident. The country side is dotted with farms and immaculately kept little properties. I was impressed with the level of care and concern that is obviously given to smallholder's property. Some little farms have the traditional round huts, and others a more square type house, but regardless, all of the small farms I saw along the way were exceedingly well kept. We made our way to Awasa where we had some lunch, and then had our final stop in Yirgalem. After dinner we spent a good three hours getting together a mobile cupping lab. Starbucks had donated two mobile labs which consist of cups, a kettle, a Gene Cafe home roaster, a Barista grinder and all the other required items. It took us about 3 hours to finally get both roasters working off of the VW Van battery, which was hooked up to a 2300 watt inverter and then converted to 220 amp power for the european power requirements. We were up to after midnight, but after shortening runs, and doubling up cables, we finally had both roasters working and only drawing 2100 watts which was completely manageable. The mobile lab is our back-up plan, as we hope for power at the stops we make tomorrow, but if we don't have power, the mobile lab is completely operational. This was a cool little project, that hopefully can be replicated in other countries too.
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Yirgacheffe, a day with the Co-ops (Feb 22, 2010)
I am writing this email at 10:30 Ethiopia time. We are in a bit rough of a hotel, no hot water in my room, loud music in the empty bar, and I am tired as we have had a full day of roasting, cupping, and meeting with producers. We were at two co-op stations today, first at Bale Kara and then after a late lunch at a station which featured the likes of Koke, Konga and Harfu Sa. After being up late last night and getting up early today, I am pretty tired. Today was a good day though as I tasted a couple of coffees, maybe three which would fall into the 87 - 90 point range. All of the coffees today were washed, meaning that they possessed very defined acidity, quite nice fruit, floral characteristics, and decent body to boot. By the way, did I say already that I am really tired. I need and want to go to bed, but I don't want to get into the bed in my room. I want the music to go away, truth be told, I want to teleport home just to have a good sleep in my own bed. I think I will probably come home 10 lbs lighter than when I left. In addition to cupping a bunch of very nice coffees today, we also spent time with some of the co-ops, chatting with them about issues of quality and their concerns about processing in general. The bottom line is that while there is spectacular coffee in Ethiopia, there is also room for improvement, and I know that some of the co-ops can do better quality than they currently do now; given the potential that we tasted today which could be even better with more care and attention towards picking ripe coffee, and also more care in the processing of it. All in all it has been a day where I learned more form the farmers than we taught them.
Aleta Wondo (Feb 23, 2010)
We are just in the midst of setting up our mobile cupping lab. Today with Jeremy's help we have better electrical contacts and we think that we will be able to roast with two machines instead of one like yesterday. We have 9 coffees to roast and cup today. Yesterday was a good day in terms of cupping. We stopped at two washing stations and cupped 9 coffees. After cupping we review our scores with the farmers present and allow for questions and answers. Willem does his spiel every day with the farmers explaining the value chain of coffee extending from the consumer in North America all the way down to the farmer in Ethiopia. It is a visual presentation, which seems to engage the farmers. I am typing this post sitting out in the open beside the running diesel Volkswagen Transporter which powers our mobile lab. The caravan crew is scattered about and the farmers from this co-op are all gathered behind me.
Everywhere we go we are a spectacle. The kids are continually running up to us yelling "you you you you you you you you" in a melodic way, and while they typically are asking us for a donation, they are mostly just curious about all of us white folk driving in caravan across their country. They love getting their photo taken and are thrilled to see themselves in the view finder; the joy of digital photography when at origin. Ethiopia is nothing at all like Latin America; not that I expected it to be, but now that I have been here, I can speak with authority about how differently things operate here compared to Central America. The discussions with the various co-ops have been very instructive for me. We hear the same question being asked over and over, which essentially gets boiled down to asking for more money for the cherries picked. Our answer has consistently focused on the correlation between quality and the price we are willing to pay for cherries. Other issues are also talked about, for example when we were talking to members of the Harfusa co-op the other day, one of their frustrations had to do with their eco pulper (or micro mill) which wasn't separating the green cherries from the red cherries. Part of solution to this issue is properly calibrating the pulper, but the more important issue identified in this concern has to do more with harvesting, and specifically harvesting not just red cherries. All in all, the conversations have been very useful, for both us and the co-ops and they have been very grateful that we would make the time to come and not only visit, but cup their coffees with them right at the washing stations.
Side note, our power inverter is misbehaving again today, so now we are down to one roaster which will slow us down. Mr. Ryan Brown from Ritual Coffee is at the Gene Cafe today, replacing me. I have been roasting all the samples for the last couple of days and thought some one else should get to burn their hands and push the red button.
I have much to write about this trip, as I have learned so much. I am actually pretty overwhelmed and have a lot to process. Obviously the basics of coffee harvesting and processing remain the same no matter where you are in the world. Pick red cherries and take care in the processing of the fruit regardless of whether it is a natural or washed process, or something in between. But the social dynamics here are completely different than they are in Costa Rica, or Panama, or any other country, which is no surprise. At the end of the day we are all about finding great quality coffee, and I think the responsibility of roasters within the specialty industry is to pay more money for quality when they find it. Within the specialty industry, roasters have to start thinking about more than just differentials and the C market. I know that I am willing to pay more, and I also know that I need to pay more for coffee, so long as that price corresponds to the quality provided. I know that I need to work harder at the relationships I have established already, and in building new relationships. I know that I need to work harder at communicating my expectations to both importers and farmers, so that they understand what I need, but at the same time, I then have to be prepared to reward the quality when provided, and not simply pocket any increased margins. The growing realization for me is that we need to work together, and thankfully in this day and age of technology and efficient travel, it is much easier to build relationships and work together than ever before.
