by badbeard
9. February 2011 21:55
The three new offerings; organic and Fair Trade® Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (YCFCU), Papua New Guinea Onaka Agoga and Brazil WP decaf are outstanding examples of terroir. All cup beautifully, and the PNG Onaka is a rare treat which my importer sold out of completely in just a few days. It has gotten increasingly difficult in today's crazed, frenzied-buying green coffee market (prices have been through the roof!) to procure even small amounts of great coffee, but this is Badbeard's mission.
by badbeard
12. November 2009 22:47
After much soul-searching, sampling and slurping, we have found some really exceptional new coffees, notably decafs. It's hard for most staff sergeants in the java army to get excited about decaf but these two are boat floaters....an organic Sumatra Mandheling and an organic, Fair Trade Peru. The Sumatra is from the Descamex mountain water processing facility in Veracruz, but offered now in an organic selection. This newly-landed Peru is decaffeinated using the super-critical CO2 method...a first for us...and relatively new to the US market, which has only seen organic CO2 in the past year. It comes from the Maximus Group plant in Houston, a ginormous facility cranking out massive quantities of commercial-grade and proprietary coffee. So now at least we FINALLY have access to organic, US-processed decaf...Swiss Water production is in Burnaby, British Columbia and the MWP in Mexico. Andrea and I were cautious when we first heard about the use of CO2 but have now had decisive discussions with not only the head of the Maximus company but one of our most stringent importers, Elan Organic. "Doesn't taste like decaf" has been a yada yada thing until now...this is wonderful COFFEE. To my mind tastier that the vast bulk of caffeinated Peruvian product out there. Elan, always a big believer in the best Peruvian co-ops, has outdone themselves in specifying superb green to decaffeinate and the cup results will delight you. I will add these to the product list when we receive them....
On the rocket fuel side we have an exquisite wet-processed organic/FT Yirgacheffe coming in in the next couple of weeks, as well as a nicely blueberry/curranty-toned Harar from the Oromia co-operative. We have sold out of last year's Yirgacheffe Anbassa Bunna, a stellar offering which was not brought into the US for 2009 crop as it didn't come up to Dominion Trading's high standards and profile. The ECX is mostly to blame for this, apparently, but we all hope the kinks get worked out for 2010 shipments, since this very high-grown, small co-op java was superb in '08. Also gone is the Daterra Sweet Yellow, but that leaves us with Sweet Collection and Sweet Blue still from our phenomenal partners in Brazil (www.daterracoffee.com.br)