Easter open

We are open ALL easter in Copenhagen 9-13 april between 10-18.

In Roskilde we are closed exept for the 11th when we are open 10-16.

Both places open as usual 14th april again.

Have a good easter and hope to see you !

Morten goes to Atlanta

Danish Barista Champion Morten Vestenaa is getting ready to represent our tiny nation in the 2009 World Barista Championship in Atlanta which happens just next week! His grand rehearsel has actually taken place just as I write this.

This year I will be staying home with my little son and enjoy some family time. It's a bit wierd not attending the WBC for the first time since 2004, but luckily Linus and Karen have agreed to spend endless hours in airports and hotels just to keep the rest of us a little in touch with the specialty coffee community. Thanks guys. We know it's a heavy load to carry. Give our best over-seas!

Morten has a blog where those interested can read about his preparations. He's using a special roast of the Idido coffee that Casper has made. We don't want to reveal to much - we'll leave that up to Morten.

All we can say is GOOD LUCK MORTEN!

Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama

You can find more photos here on Flickr.

Just before I left Copenhagen, we had cupped some 1 year old Geisha samples from La Esmeralda farm in western Panama. This is legendary coffee, but we didn´t expect it to have such a vivacy after 1 year. 

So my expectations were high when I met up with Daniel Peterson to see the farm.

It is a place with extreme differences in microclimate from one hillside to the other, precipitaton is generally high and can actually be twice as high just from side of the walley to the other.

I have to mention one more aspect of the climate i found fascinating before we move on -the wind. 

Wind is almost constant in the valley and can reach really high speed. David showed me some of the windbreakers they had grown, but even with robust plants and very narrow rows, the wind is sometimes unstoppable.

You could also build an almost solid wall of plants or any other material for that sake. But solid windbreakers is no good- at worst they can acually accelerate the wind just behind the screen. The wind takes a steep dive after a solid object. What you want is a more dispersed screen that let´s some of the wind filter through and thereby slow it down.

Anyhow, time for cupping after an intense tour of this beautiful farm- it is not only just wellkept, it is extremely beautiful. 

I got the chance to do some plain quality control cupping. Daniel remarked that this is maybe not the ideal cupping to expose for a potential buyer. 

But I beg to differ. Getting the chance to see what is going on at the farm everyday is very rewarding and tells rosteries like ours such a lot- even about the cups that are not on the table. 

Thanks for everything Daniel.

Rachel Peterson is Daniels sister who coordinated my visit, but couldn´t join us cupping unfortunately. Next time Rachel.

In the afternoon I got to walk around with a remarkable gentleman: Don Pachi Serracin at the F.S. Cafetaleros farm. A part of the farm is called Don Pachi. Through research and organisational skills, this man has done more than most to elevate the quality of coffee on his own Estate, around Bouqete and thoughout Panama. Don Pachi shared so much about coffee in general that I find it hard to know where to start. 

One of the things that did strike me was his mix of passion and sober realism.

To give you an example: The reason why the Geisha variety was brought to Panama, was that Don Pachi had heard that it was resistant to a disease common on many coffeetrees in the area.

I could easily have thought that it was an adventourus pursuit of a new taste in the coffee. 

Another example: Don Pachi talkes about how impractical the Geisha is to mantain and pick from. At the same time he admires its architecture and caresses every leaf as he walk through the fields. 

Thank you Ivette and Franscico Serracin making this visit possible. They are the next generation running the farm together with Don Pachi. 

A very memorable stay in Boquete.

You can find more photos here on Flickr.

Finca Vista Hermosa, Huehuetenango, Guatemala part 2

Se more photos on Flickr here.

Trust your tastebuds: If a coffee tastes great, you are almost guaranteed that there is a very big group of passionate people that makes it that good. This next part won´t explain the relationships behind a good cup of coffee, but I will give you examples of people I´ve met during this trip. And then you combine it to something that makes sense.

First a word of appreciation to everybody from the Martinez family and their collegues who help running the farm.

I got an extremely detailed explanation and guiding about watersupply by Edwins father, (also named Edwin). They have a project of securing and upgrading the existing waternet which is already an evolved system of waterbassins. Sourcing is from surfacewater (mostly streams). The water is led in pipes both down the mountain but also across ridges. Over ridges you need constant pressure or water coming at great speed. 

As long as the starting point is at higher elavation than the end point, it works brilliant. Sometimes they have to take help of pumps if the airpockets are too extensive in the pipe, but fortunately this doesn´t happen too often. They don´t use water for irrigation of full grown coffeetrees, but the nursery (where the you grow the small plants) is watered every day. The water is mainly for the post-picking process and personal use for the households in the area.This might not sound very complicated since many of us are used to getting our water from watertowers- it is the same principle. But the point is that many coffeefarmers has to both source water and build their own waternet and make it work- everyday.

Diego, Lencho, Or and everybody else who works at the farm, I really appreciate you let met follow some of your daily routines.

Chad (MadCup and EVO), folks at Beaverfalls and everybody at Geneva College- very rewarding getting to know you and sharing experiences.Around Huehuetenango there are some very significant people and instititutions. We went to see some of them: The drymill of COFECO, which is located not far from the street where many of the major exporters have their warehouses. We also went to see another farmer: Aurelio Villatoro. Very interesting to hear him talking talking to Edwin, one farmer to another .
Edwin has everything he needs in Huehuetenango, including his own sample roasters and a drymill ! Very much fun to be around and even get to drymill some samples. In Guatemala City we made a quick stop at Casa Blanca roastery, which is run by Elaisa Guadalupe de Kestler. You get jealous just being there 15 minutes. A forest roastery with glass walls and endless amounts of light, at the outskirts of a capital!

I also got the honour of handing in FVHs sample for the annual regional competition at Anacafé. Klaus already wrote a lot about Anacafé, so I will just summarize: Guatemala Growers Associoation which occupies a whole building with laboratories, roasteries and much more.

Anyway, FVH has won the price to represent Huehuetenago as the regions most prominent coffee 3 years in a row, so I was more than hounured to deliver this years sample to Anacafé myself. We wish you the very best luck Finca Vista Hermosa !
Doris at Anacafé gave me a very extensive tour around the different institutions in the building.They are doing so much to support the farmers in every aspect. I then ran into a very interesting person: Raúl Rodas. He is the reigning Barista Champion of Guatemala and he is training hard for the World Championships in Atlanta, USA. Unfortunately I didn´t see his program, but just by talking to the guy, you can tell he will give a match to anyone at the WBC.

Later I went around town to see different Coffeeshops: &Cafe (where Raul works) Barista, Saúl E. Mendez- which is actually a suitstore that serves coffee. A nice ending to my stay in Guatemala.

       

See more photos on Flickr here: