Folks, will be out of town and resume roasting and shipping. On Tuesday, June 11.---badbeard

A limited offering of an exceptional coffee from Rwanda, bringing back memories of the Rwabisindu we had a couple of years ago. This joe is a rock star...like our Kenya Ruera Estate, smack-in-the-face citrus notes yet intrinsically sweet.

Welcome mat rolled out today for the biodynamically-produced, organic certified Fazenda Floresta from Bahia State in Northeastern Brazil. Doesn't get much better for single origin espresso cravers.

And the juicy Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Blue Nile back in stock, fresh crop just off the boat, better than ever. I LOVE this coffee.

Hey there Badbeardians, gotta chill for a few days and head out to lovely Chapel Hill, NC to witness my stepson's UNC Law School graduation...yay Maaatthew! Will be roasting and shipping any and all orders placed before Wednesday, May 8 but not again til Tuesday May 14. In the next life I'll try to be in two places at once, or better yet, have a roasting beotch.

This will be posted on the last page of the order checkout box as well.

Will be replenishing the outstanding Yirgacheffe Blue Nile in a couple of weeks with the new crop offering...sold out. Also hope to introduce the complex "honey process" Sumatra Mandheling, a pirated brief description from Royal Coffees info portal..."This coffee is processed in a unique style, which we doubt is found anywhere else in the world. It begins with ripe cherries from the Bener Meriah District being run through hand-cranked de-pulpers to remove the skins. This is followed by a “dry” fermentation overnight. No water is added at any stage. On the second day, the parchment, still covered in sticky mucilage, is laid out on the drying patios. The coffee is dried to below 30% moisture content and then wet-hulled in the traditional Sumatra style, after which it returns to the patios for final drying of the green beans. So, in effect, this is a Dry-Fermented/Pulped-Natural/Wet-Hulled coffee. Definitely an advanced level of coffee processing which yields quite a unique final product." (courtesy exclusive importer Royal Coffee, Emeryville, CA)

Happy to have very nice Peaberry Kenyas from Oaklands and Ruera Estates in stock! These are vivid cups in all respects, and belie the gloom and doom of the lowered quality and price indices coming out of the recent Nairobi Coffee Auction reports. Reposting the Bloomberg entry for today, which is really for commodity trader-types. Coffee lovers will be very pleased with these new offerings.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/kenyan-coffee-declines-for-a-fourth-week-on-weakening-demand.html

Lest you had any thoughts we don't live in a fragile world...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-23/coffee-fungus-spurs-central-america-migration-plans-jobs.html

All you biologists-in-the-closet have doubtless heard something in the press about the devastating fungal outbreak of "Coffee Rust" being experienced by particularly hard-hit Central America and Mexico. States of Emergency in the coffee sector have been announced in Guatemala and other affected countries. The is a very interesting and thoughtful article here which merits reading for the curious and concerned.  The pic is what it looks like.  Our coffees were all produced and harvested prior to this outbreak and we have our collective roasting fingers crossed that the blight is successfully dealt with in the next year.

Coffee rust pic.jpg (49.19 kb)

Bang-bang! is the only way to describe the trade of Kenya auction coffees some years, both in Nairobi and here in the 'states Most of what arrived and cleared customs yesterday, April 11, was cupped today and sold immediately, so we were able to procure a couple interesting & super-yum Riuru-district Peaberry offerings, Oaklands and Reura. Will be arriving next week at the roastery for immediate disbursement! Also a fantastic Ruvuma AA from Tanzania which rivals the Kenyas in cup profile. Also more inventory of the exceptionally good Honduran lot we recently took in from the Beneficio (mill) Santa Rosa. Honduras will be appearing on the upcoming Market of Choice 'Savories' special in all 8 Oregon locations.

This trade paper reprint about Vietnam's coffee consuming and production has raised a few eyebrows about the world's #2 producer by volume (pretty much all of it Robusta, an inferior species to Arabica, which by nature contains twice the caffeine as Arabica) isn't as surprising as it is kinda tragic. One of the reasons we don't ever touch the stuff, although in fairness some relatively-if-barely drinkable Robusta is still produced in India, Africa and Brazil).  But when you buy some rank, jacked-up brown liquid you can be some the roaster has used some Robusta in the blend. Worth avoiding!