I have been thinking quite a bit lately on the current state of the world and its impact on my world of coffee.  I received an email from Rachel Peterson yesterday, wherein she indicated that their harvest was half of what it was last year.  I am not sure if that is all weather related, but I know that the whacked weather that I experienced in February in Panama wreaked havoc with the coffee and was at least partially responsible, if not wholly.  Those 5 days in Panama have given me a lot to think about in terms of the future of Specialty Coffee.  Global warming seemingly is going to play games with the production of coffee, as I witnessed first hand, the confusion that the plants were experiencing.  The rain was setting bloom way too early, and as a result, those flowers will not set fruit, or if per chance there is fruit, it will be significantly reduced.  The winds that blew through Panama and Costa Rica, and as it turns out El Salvador too, were very damaging, not only to the plants (stripping them of their leaves) but also to farm's infrastructure as well (mills, drying beds, etc.).  In short, I think that our rapidly changing weather patterns are going to make the coffee world much more tumultuous, and unpredictable, and in the end the price of coffee will have to go up, as volumes shrink.  Demand will outpace production, and that will have to force the prices up.  On one hand this is a good thing, as farmers should be getting paid more for their crops, but on the other hand, I am not sure that the specialty coffee industry is ready for a 30-50% increase in the price of coffee.  Thankfully this topic is one of the issues being discussed at the upcoming SCAA Symposium, although I am not sure what we can do to prepare for this, other than brace ourselves and our customers for the price increase that is bearing down on us.

The economy looms large in all of our minds right now, and while I try to ignore the talking heads, who make things worse with their constant nattering and naysaying, the reality is that the world economy is in a tailspin.  Just simple factors like currency rates have resulted in our operating costs going up by 30%, a cost that we have not passed on to our customers as of yet.  I think that banks, especially in Canada, are both contributing to, and benefiting from the crisis, and are doing what banks do best, making money.  I know that the banking fundamentals in Canada are strong, and yet they are essentially shutting the valve on credit, making it very difficult to borrow.  I have heard that Royal Coffee is totally changing their terms and forward contracts, making it very difficult to buy coffee on forward, and it is all credit and cash flow related.  Companies are clawing back terms, and forcing customers to pay cash or credit card to avoid receivables.  All of this will play havoc with the specialty coffee industry.  When I hear of some of the low margins on wholesale coffee out there, I am sure that some companies will simply not survive.  Thankfully, our business has remained constant, and even grown a bit, which is encouraging in these tough times.  Nonetheless, the coffee industry has gotten a lot harder to navigate both here at home, and abroad, as I know that producers are having a hard time financing their crops, and will likely have a hard time buying fertilizer and other key ingredients required in the growing of quality specialty coffee.

While it might seem like I am spewing doom and gloom, I am not.  I am however painfully aware of the changes that are coming our way, and as an industry, we can either be prepared and weather the storm, or we can be overwhelmed and sink.  I personally am trying to get my head around how things are changing, and how we as a company and as a global citizen can participate in an ongoing and meaningful way.

As we finished cupping early we (Andy Newbom and Fernanda from Elan) had the opportunity to head into the heart of LA to visit some cafes.  We made the slow trek into LA on the confused silly string-like freeways towards Silver Lake.  Our first stop was the newish cafe of Lamill, which is a very stylish cafe, red and green and tourqois colors with clean lines.  We subjected ourselves to the hardship of MORE coffee, after cupping 35 samples of coffee previously in the day (it is a hard job, but someone has to do it).  We enjoyed some espresso and some COE El Salvador on the Clover. From there we made the short trip down Sunset Blvd. to Intelligentsia's Silver Lake Coffeebar at Sunset Junction.  Again we were treated to some great coffee, a shot of SO Santa Teresa from Volcan Panama (tasty, rich, heavy bodied, nice acidity), and their new Kenya on the Clover.  After hanging for a while, drinking in the ambiance, we were lead by Nick (he in his Passat) and us in Andy's rented PT Cruiser, to Intelligentsia's LA Roasting Works for a tour.  This was a treat and I am thankful for Nick's willingness to forego his family time to give us the tour.  From there we headed back to Silver Lake to a cool wine store, to drink wine and eat some tasty franks.  All in all, it was a great way to spend an evening in LA.  It was great to meet some of the crew from Intelli and get to know them a bit.  Today we are cupping the last 19 coffees and then it is airport bound to get back to the chilly north.

Finished the first day of Cupping for Quality at Long Beach.  We cupped 25 coffees today, including coffees from Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Ethiopia and Sumatra.  All of the coffees we cupped bling, so I have no idea what we cupped.  In truth, most of the coffees were pretty average, scoring on the whole between 80 - 85 points.  This is not a COE event, but a farmer feedback cupping for those producers who are Rainforest Alliance certified.  In short, the scores and feedback will help farmers improve their quality, and enable better coffee for their future crops.  It was a good day, full of cupping and new friends.  Tomorrow will be a day of another 35 coffees, and ending with a trip to Intelligentsia's cafe with Andy.  Hopefully some pics for the next post.

I can't believe how quickly time disappears.  It seems, seriously, like March just began a couple of days ago.  No I am on my way to Long Beach to participate in the Cupping of Quality jury, to work through a bunch of Rainforest Alliance coffees over the next three days.  I am stuck at the Denver airport as my connection was a bit tight, and I am now on a later flight.  No harm, just getting a bit tired.  It should be a good event I hope, more work for the palate and an opportunity to try some new coffees.

On that note, we cupped a bunch of Costa Rica samples this morning with a few that we standouts, although we were short some of the samples that we were looking forward to, so we will have to chase those down.  Needless to say, we will have some new Central American coffee on the road here soon.

On another front Chad, Josh and I are getting excited about the 2009 SCAA Exhibition and World Barista Championship.  We are being featured at the Daterra WBC Espresso Bar on the Saturday, and will have an espresso blend (blended especially for the event) in the spotlight on the Saturday of the WBC.  It is an exciting opportunity for us to showcase our coffee in this venue.

We have a number of new faces around the shop, so if you haven't been in lately, drop in and say hi.  Also, I just sent out a March Newsletter and if you are not on our mailing list and would like to receive these, click here to sign up.

That's it for now, my almost 40 year-old body and mind is starting to fade, I will post pics and info as the cupping progresses, I am sure there will be some great coffee to talk about.

A couple of quick announcements.  This year's Prairies Regional Barista Championship will be held in Calgary at the House of Fratello (same venue as last year), on the weekend of September 12th.  We will be looking for quality sponsors, judges and competitors to make this one of the best barista competitions in Canada yet.  Stay tuned to the ongoing updates at www.2009prbc.com.

On another note, I am on my way, back to El Salvador at the end of April to participate in the Cup of Excellence Jury for 2009.  It is an honour to be asked and I will be joining some legends in the world of specialty coffee, so I look forward to learning and growing in my understanding and ability to cup some of the best coffees in the world.  On the El Salvador note, they just had an election, and voted in a leftist government, so some big changes are on the way in that nation.  I just heard back from Luis who works for the Consejo in El Salvador, who remains hopeful for the specialty coffee market and industry in El Salvador.  I will learn more first hand as we spend a week tasting the best that El Salvador has to offer.

We will be sending out the subscription coffees tomorrow, so those of you with subscriptions, watch for the mail man.  Also, don't forget, that we are having a farewell party for Andrew Legg (departed from Transcend barista) on Friday evening at the shop, starting around 7 pm.  Wine, cheese, coffee, and some live music too.  It should be a grande evening.  Drop by and say faretheewell to Andrew.

I have been spending a lot of time watching barista competitions online this past week.  It started with the UKBC championship early in the week, and now I am stuck in front of my computer watching the USBC championship; the finals are on tomorrow.  Apart from watching, I have been thinking about the upcoming competitions in Canada in the next 6 months.  As far as I know, the Prairies Regional Barista Championships are going to be held in Calgary again, back at the Fretello house, which was a great venue last year.  They did us all proud, and were great hosts.  This year, if indeed they do host once again, we will all have the Slayer to play on, as a forth machine.  Speaking of which, Chad and Josh are heading down to Cowtown later this month to go play on the new Slayer, so stay tuned for a Transcend review in the next couple of weeks.  The CNBC (Canadian National Barista Championship) are being held in Vancouver this year on October 20-21 and it should be fun as always.  Part of the reason for this post is to throw out an invite to those in the Prairies region, who might want to start talking about this years competition.  The more volunteers we can get out the better.  Watching the USBC online, I think that we can raise the bar on how we pull off the 2009PRBC and to that end, I have purchased a couple of domain names for the event so that we can properly promote and stream the event live.  It would be great if we could get a regional committee together to properly promote the event, secure some great and meaningful sponsorship, so that the event rocks the specialty coffee world not only in Canada but everywhere.  I think that we can do a lot with the 2009PRBC and with good lead time, get some better press this year.  It is the one event in the prairies where we get a chance to expose the rest of our little world to really great coffee.  So if you have ideas or are interested in what I am writing about, flip me and email and lets see where this goes.

Video chat rooms at Ustream

Gwilym Davies UKBC Final Performance held on March 4th, 2009 in Scotland.

Transcend Coffee is changing some things in terms of how it sells whole bean coffee over the counter.  As many of you know, who are faithful customers of ours, we have a practice of filling our Kraft bags full of freshly roasted coffee while you wait.  As we have pondered this practice over the last couple of weeks, we have made a decision to change our current practice.  Rather than roast and dump the coffee into bins, and then fill bags when the customer orders, we are going to fill up the biodegradable Kraft bags immediately after roasting.  The coffee will still have a chance to rest, and de-gas which is necessary, and it will speed things up behind the counter as well.  Ultimately the driving force behind this decision is to increase overall flow and customer service.

The secondary change which will result from this new practice has to do with what will be available on any given day for brewing on the Clover.  With our previous practice of filling bags as they are ordered, the shelves at Transcend have been replete with choices, in terms of what to Clover.  This now will change a bit, and the choices will be somewhat narrowed (albeit for the better).  We will now pull any coffee off the shelf which doesn’t sell within 4 to 5 days, and use that for Clover brewing.  This ultimately will increase the quality of Clover going over the bar, as we have been known to serve coffee that is a tad too fresh.  This new practice will now ensure that the coffee being Clover’d is properly rested.  It also is a nice transition into our direction of being more seasonal in our coffee offerings, where we won’t always have every coffee all of the time.  I will post something in the near future regarding the different harvest seasons for each country, so that people can get some idea when their favorite coffee is “in season”.