Kenya 2009 - 1

Just a brief note from Kenya.

This is a wonderfull place! We just arrived in Nyeri today, which has the most fantastic view of Mount Kenya.



On the way to Nyeri we visited Ndaroini Coop and I brought back their coffee in one of our bags. This is one of the greatest experiences for me as a roaster to bring the coffee back to where it came from - To meet the people that has created the coffee that we appreciate this much and to show them how we try to take care of their product!



Getting this personal contact is one of the two legs of our Direct Trade model. The other leg is the direct payment. Which in the case of Kenya (and the coffees we look for here) will go to the Coop. When you sit down and talk to the Producers they are (of course) very eager to get higher prices and we try to tell them that this is exactly why we do Direct Trade - to be able to pay a premium price directly to the producer. But we also make it clear that we pay for the cup quality and we need to taste some very good lots before we can pay good prices - we are not willing to pay significantly higher prices than Fair Trades minimum price out of charity but because we get the quality that our costumers are willing to pay a premium price for.



We have already cupped a lot of coffees in Nairobi and had some very good and constructive talks there about the more technical sides of Direct Trade and the possibilties here. Tomorrow we will be cupping more of the coffees up here and visit a few more coops - can't wait!



To kill the waiting time I think I will go and have a beer with my wonderfull colleagues and fellow travellers Tim W. and Thompson Owen (Sweet Maria's).

Will be back!

Peter

Off to Kenya

Today Peter took off to Kenya where he'll spend the coming week visiting the Ndaroini mill and search for a possible Direct Trade partner. He's meeting up with our colleague from Norway Tim Wendelboe and hopefully we can cooperate on getting this coffee to the North.

Peter will tell more about his trip once he's home, and he's promised that he will take a lot of pictures.

Danish Barista Champion: Morten

Congratulations to the new Danish Barista Champion Morten Winther Vestenaa from Sigfreds Kaffebar in Århus!

Morten will represent Denmark at the WBC in Atlanta later this year. We know he'll get great support from his wonderful colleagues at Sigfred's. Morten used our espresso and dark roast Idido, Aricha Microlot #6 in his presentation.

You are welcome to join us this evening at 1900 hours to celebrate Morten's victory at Jægersborggade.



Update: Pictures on DR and TV clip from TV2 Lorry

Danish Barista Championship 2009

Tomorrow the semi-final kicks off for the Danish Barista Championship 2009.
Wednesday is the grand finale.

Rumours has it that 8 baristas will compete (although it might just be 6).
Judges come from Iceland (Miss Sonja Grant), Sweden (Mr. Matts Johanson), Italy (Silvia I think), Greece (Alex), Lebanon (Joe Hayek) to help find the next Danish Barista Champion. Three of the baristas that are competing will be using our espresso blend, so cross your fingers for them! Or even better: Come cheer them on!

You need a ticket to enter, since the competition is being held as part of the TEMA 09 fair.
It takes place at Bella Centret:

Vis stort kort

You can read more at the SCAE site and probably EspressoBar will be a good source for updates.

Good luck to all the competing baristas!