Come through to hear peoples voices freed from their boxes.

We want you, the people who drink Think Coffee, to ask us whatever questions you have for the coffee farmers of Bella Vista.  Be curious.  You can ask about the environment, coffee production, quality of life, anything about the coffee producing life that piques your interest.  We’ll choose the most intriguing questions and return to you with the farmers’ answers on video.

Submit your questions to @thinkcoffeenyc on twitter, Think Coffee on facebook or email matt@thinkcoffeenyc.com

Ask by Monday, June 24th, at midnight.

This is an excerpt from Noah Welch’s account of his original trip to Mexico in December.

I went to Mexico City. I tasted a coffee that I liked, and I wanted it for Think Blend. I flew to Chiapas to find the producers.  I met with Jorge Aguilar.

Jorge works for CASFA, an exporting cooperative that helps small producers of coffee, chocolate, fruit, and fish to export their coffee. Jorge picked me up in a CASFA van with Jose, the resident permaculturist, and we headed up the mountains to visit the producers.

Bella Vista is a very small village on the border with Guatemala. Bella Vista is by the Tacana Volcano. It has a small distribution of homes, with no real town center to be seen, lots of broken concrete, open doors, tiny alleyways. Everyone’s house has a patio for drying coffee. Each citizen of Bella Vista owns about 5 hectares of land scattered around the mountains leading up to town. I met Epifanio Lopez Bravo’s wife Rayar rotating coffee on her patio.

She pointed us to where her husband was harvesting on the mountainside and we went to hang out. We ran into Santos Hernandez, another villager, harvesting farther up the mountain.

He called out to Epifanio. Epifanio, Santos, the CASFA dudes and I sat for a while, kicked it, talked about waterfalls and coffee trees.

I decided to buy coffee from Bella Vista. It’s now a part of Think Blend.

Jorge and Jose and I returned to town and ate tacos, drank Modelo and ate carnitas, talked more about the importance of upholding environmental standards as a community, how glad we were to find each others’ companies, how we’d like to work in the future with the people of Bella Vista on improving coffee production and infrastructure. We’re going back at the end of June to organize a community project.

Every Friday. Come taste with us at 73 8th Avenue, 2pm!

Fetco- The airpot brewer at 8th Ave was set to 202 degrees fahrenheit. Immediately, we could taste some big changes from previous Think Blend iterations. With the Brazilian component no longer making the bulk of the blend, nutty flavors went down with the wood-like and cherry notes of the Ethiopian coffee becoming more prominent. The flavors of the Mexican Robusta played nicely as an addition, bringing a sugary and non-fruity element which made the cup more complex. Unlike previous blends, there was a welcome and pleasant dryness in the finish, likely from a combination of the Nicaraguan and Mexican components. The mouth-feel was also new, with the full, wet bodies of the Brazilian and Ethiopian coffees sitting alongside the solid mouth-feel of the Mexican.

180 Degrees- Brewing a Clever of the blend at this cool temperature changed the profile dramatically. The taste was far sweeter here, with chocolate and nuttiness coming in strongly; the Brazilian notes and the Ethiopian chocolate seemed to come out more with cooler water. Cherry and fruit were harder to taste here, and the Mexican flavors and mouth-feel were not well represented with the overall body becoming extremely heavy. The finish had an acrid character which did not leave the mouth pleasurably.

212 Degreees- With boiling water, the profile was closer to what we tasted out of the Fetco. The cup was brighter, fruitier and less sweet with hotter water, but was more bitter in the dry finish. We tasted less details than with the Fetco with the Ethiopian notes dominating, and the body, while leaning towards Ethiopian/Brazil wetness, was thinner overall.

195 Degrees- At the bottom range of ideal brewing temperature, the taste approached that of the 180 degree brew but was more balanced. It was a sweet cup with more nuts than fruit, but the Mexican notes and mouth-feel did come in. It approached bitter in the finish, but thankfully not at the 180 brew’s level.

200 Degrees- The balance and complexity of flavors was up more at this temperature, with wet and solid mouth-feels sitting alongside each other again. Fruitiness and sugar also came forward with chocolate and nuts stepping back, and one taster picked up a note of green beans. Surprisingly, the dry finish was more bitter here than with the slightly cooler cup.

205 Degrees- This temperature was the closest to what we got from the Fetco, with a very complex blend of flavors and mouth-feels from the different beans. The finish was also most balanced at this temperature, leaving the mouth dry but with no unpleasant bitterness.

All the tasters this week felt that the blend got more from hotter brews. While the nutty notes were easier to pick up at cooler temps, it left out a lot of the complexity that the other components brought to the profile. Unlike the last blend we tried this test on, where 200 degrees held the most balance of flavors, we found that this blend shined when brewed a bit hotter.

We chose the coffees for the way they add a specific type of mouth-feel and the way they carry some of the fruity and intense flavors of the other coffees in our blends. They are delicious on their own (sometimes they are available individually from our Single Source menu) but as a catalyst for the texture and flavor combinations found in Think Blend, they are superb.

Think Coffee has a certain amount of purchasing power thanks to our loyal customers and fans and that has allowed us to enter to relationships with small farms around the world unfettered by unnecessary steps in the supply chain. We have very personal friendships and purchasing relationships with our farmers and the small communities in which they live. Due to size and large economic nature of most Brazilian estates, this has been more difficult there. More to the point, they don’t need much from us. They live under a strong economy with great working conditions, nice houses, and terrific access to health care and education. Think Coffee is based in New York City, so the disparity between how we live and how they live is generally opposite what we find in other coffee producing countries.

So how do we become a part of their lives, of their communities? In other places, we have asked if we could join in helping to improve quality of life. We’ve partnered to build better housing, schools, medical facilities, and more. Here in New York, most of our baristas would agree they wished they had the quality of life enjoyed by Brazilian coffee employees.

We don’t have an easy answer. We’ve decided to consolidate our Brazilian coffee purchases to one estate. That will give us more relative purchasing power in one community and allow us to be more of a viable partner for future projects within that community. Second, we are going to be humble and recognize that our Brazilian friends probably have more to offer us than we have to offer them and graciously accept their offers of coffee-related education and research. We can use what we learn from them concerning coffee business, processing, technology and environmental control to help some of our other partners in other countries. Third, when our partners ask for us, we will be there. Our friends at Fazenda Nossa Senhora Aparecida have begun some community garden sharing projects, their water treatment and reclamation system is world-class and in its second year, and they are in their first year of on-site business education for community youth in an effort to keep their talented students interested in using their talents at home rather than seeking opportunities in the larger cities or other countries.

In Brazil, we don’t climb mountains to find the coffee or help begin small libraries. We drive thousands of miles on nice highways and have meetings in beautiful office spaces and stay in amazing estate-owned lodges or nice hotels. It’s not as romantic as our other relationships, but it’s how it really is. We’re proud to have every personal relationship we have and happy to be able to share the truth behind all of our coffee with our customers.

Adriano at Nossa Senhora Aparecida cups coffee, discusses its smooth body:

Clever- With this brewer, the Buenos Aires had the classic taste profile we’ve loved on the Single Source menu; tart flavors, balanced and interesting acidity, strawberry and peach compote notes, and a velvety, smoky vanilla in the finish. The Santa Isabel had an overall sweeter taste, a more broadly balanced profile and acidity that felt more sharp and focused. In the finish the acidity left nice lemon notes. The body and mouth-feel were more full and wet. Unlike the more fused layering of tastes in the Buenos Aires, drinking this coffee seemed give an impression of separate top and bottom, a sweet and full anchor with an interesting sparkle on top.

French Press- The Buenos Aires did not taste incredibly different through the French Press, but changes still occurred. The velvety mouth-feel was less noticeable this time around, and the fruity strawberry/peach notes took a back seat with the vanilla becoming more pronounced. The acidity went down as well, with the profile tasting more sour than tart. The Santa Isabel was still a full, balanced coffee in the press, but was even sweeter here with the lemon acidity rolling off. We all agreed that the Santa Isabel fared better with this metal filter brewer.

Hario V60- The Buenos Aires had much more pronounced acidity through this version of a pour-over, to the point of feeling shrill. The complex tasting notes did not get represented here, with the characteristic tartness being replaced with bitterness. The Santa Isabel did better with this brewer, but again the details did not come through and it became bitter in the finish with excess acidity.

It was good to taste the contrasts in these two Nicaraguan coffees. In the case of the Santa Isabel, it was a treat to try it alone without other Think Blend components and get a strong grasp of it’s character. We all agreed that the Buenos Aires has a deliciously distinct flavor profile, while the Santa Isabel made for a well rounded and approachable cup even outside of a blend.

Nicaragua Cafetalera Buenos Aires- This coffee kept much of its familiar profile when brewed cold, but with some changes. The acidity was toned down, but the characteristic fruity tartness was left intact. One taster compared it to banana before it was fully ripened. The velvety, smoky finish was also still present, which blended well with the heavier mouth-feel. It all made for a crisp, refreshing drink.

Ethiopia Kellensoo “Bushwick”- This cold brew brought some surprises to the table. It was still a very fruity coffee with cherry and lime notes, but the chocolate undertones fell out a bit with it’s woodish flavors playing more of a role. It was also even sweeter than before, but it’s characteristic wet, heavy mouth-feel unexpectadely thinned out in the finish, with a sour flavor coming in at the end. It had enjoyable flavors, but we all felt that cold brew wasn’t the ideal way to prepare this coffee.

Brasil Daterra Monte Cristo- The acidity for this coffee was lower as a cold brew, so the dried fruit notes gave way for nuts and cacao to take up the profile here. Dried fruit could still be tasted however, and unlike the other cold brews there was a dry finish that lingered in the mouth. Also, there was a new nutty flavor in the initial taste that was a bit unfamiliar, but enjoyable. With a full body lasting throughout, we all agreed that this made for the most balanced cold brew outside of Think Blend.

French Press- The metal filter of a press pot always brews cup significantly different from paper, due to insoluble solids which pass through. The body was expectedly heavy from the oils and particles, and the dry, tart fruit we normally taste in this bean was subdued, sneaking in most noticeably in the finish. The nutty cacao flavors, on the other hand, came out strongly. Combined with the unexpectedly sweet chocolate flavor, this tasted like a new rendition of a known profile. It was a very pleasant surprise indeed.

Clever Dripper- With this familiar brewer, the refined filtration of paper is combined with a french press’s controllable infusion time, and allows a finer grind than the press. There was less nut and cacao here, and more dried fruit. It was a more tart than sweet flavor compared to the french press. The acidity was also more pronounced, leaving the mouth dry in the finish. Tartness toned down to leave room for nuttiness as the cup cooled. The body was cleaner, less heavy and more wet and sumptuous.

Pour Over- This brew method uses the same filter as the Clever Dripper, but with the three small holes on the bottom of the cone it extracts the coffee while the water is poured. For this reason a finer grind is usually needed to prevent too quick of an extraction. The flavor and mouth-feel resembled the Clever brew, but was more sweet and fruity in the initial taste and even more dry and acidic in the finish. It was as though this brew made a bit more of everything; pleasant flavors were highlighted as well as unpleasant ones.

Hario V60- This recently popular update to the pour-over cone has unique twists. It has one large hole on the bottom, spiral grooves along the inner wall and uses thicker than average paper filters (an even finer grind is needed for this brewer). The taste was like a more balanced version of what we got from the former drip cone. It had less immediate fruit and less heavy dryness in the finish, with sweeter flavors coming in at the end. This cup was not ‘more of everything’, and was a bit more palatable for it.

We got a lot of different perspectives on the Brazilian’s flavor profile with all these brew methods. The French Press brew was the favorite in this tasting, bringing out a lot of sweetness that had been less noticeable with the paper filters. It just goes to show that experimenting can let you see an old favorite in a new light.