Travel Journal
Single Source Decaf – PERU !
Our barista supervisor “Pipes” Piper went to Peru to make sure we were happy selling the decaf we sell. It’s delicious, but it also has to be traceable, sustainable, and fair. This is her report to you:
What do we look for from our direct trade or “relationship coffee?” What does it give us, as consumers? What do we hope this kind of relationship provides for its producers, distant from New York City in miles and in lifestyle?
I traveled to Peru to meet with CENFROCAFE, the cooperative from which Think Coffee purchases its Single Source decaf coffee. Samuel and Lenin from CENFROCAFE accompanied me on visits to two producing communities near the city of Jaén—Corazón of Chirinos and Brillante Perla Andina of Huabal. Producers from these communities generously led me around their parceles, patchwork swaths of green land covering impossibly steep mountain faces where coffee plants and other trees grew. Think plantains, passion fruit, cocoa.
We tried to learn a bit about each other. They asked me how big my coffee shop was, I asked them how long they had been growing coffee. They told me about cutting back branches every few years to improve productivity and about building special barriers to protect soil from the huaycos, or avalanches, common in the sierras of the Andes. I played games with their children and they fed me fried guinea pig and lentils.
Here's Pipes cupping coffee!
Wilson of Brillante Perla Andina assured me repeatedly that Huabal’s rainy, foggy February was the perfect climate for growing coffee, and that the washed-out road we traveled in a rattly Toyota dried up and was more easily traversable in the warm, dry summer months of May through June, when red coffee cherries were harvested and transported on trucks or burros back down to CENFROCAFE’s warehouse in Jaén. Huabal is prime real estate, and Wilson and his compañeros feel privileged to grow here. Wasn’t I impressed with their climate? Their pristine plants? I certainly was, but I was even more impressed with the knowledge, stewardship and pride with which they cultivated their land. Sipping coffee around a full lunch table later that day, enjoying flavors of citrus and flower petals, I wondered if pride was something one could taste.
Both communities told me to share the message with my customers that their producers worked tirelessly for the highest quality beans. Corazón and Brillante Perla were unabashedly proud of their Organic and Fair Trade certifications, but prouder still of the excellent cups of coffee their work resulted in. Straight from a pot on a wooden stove, that coffee was delicious.
So, Think drinkers, your producers are sharp, generous, happy Peruvians. But now I’ll pose you the question Vicente of Corazon asked me: What can we do for them?
CENFROCAFE didn’t need my validation, it is a strong, socially sound cooperative, a collection of skilled producers that know their careful cultivation makes award-winning coffee, coffee I serve in half-cup portions or espresso baskets each day. What is my role as a barista, and what is our role as consumers, in this producing cycle?
Perhaps it is to consider and appreciate what it takes for us to get a good cup of coffee. Or to demand that each cup we drink, no matter where we buy it, be just as tasty and responsibly grown. Or maybe we should demand of ourselves the same kind of consideration of conservation, equity and quality we demand of producers when we pay $2.49 for a cup of coffee.
Pipes at Cenfrocafe with coffee plants
I answered Vicente that I could tell people about him, and hang his picture in my café, and write “Produced by the Corazon community of Chirinos” on bags of coffee sold to customers. He smiled, big.
Ethiopia – New Coffee Info
We’ve made a commitment to sell in our blends only coffee from farms and farmers we know and visit. Because availability, weather, political and economical factors often change, we have to update our blends to maintain the same flavor profiles while using different coffees. This happens several times per year. If you would ever like more information or if you would like to visit our farmers, email furythinkcoffee@gmail.com to arrange it.
We have recently changed one component of our 8th Avenue, 4th Avenue, Broadway, and Mercer Street blends to an Ethiopian coffee called “Ardi.” Ardi refers to coffee processed in a special way and produced in a village called Kalenso, east of Hagare Maryam in Southwestern Ethiopia.
Aklilu Kasse is a third generation farmer and producer. He is the producer of Ardi coffee. That means he collects and processes the coffee to the point of being ready for export. He doesn’t grow the coffee. The coffees for Ardi are collected from small farmers around Kalenso at purchasing stations. They are paid cash upon delivery at a rate of approximately $1.75 / lb.
But it’s really not as simple as saying they are paid a flat rate in U.S. dollars per pound. First of all, they are actually paid 16 Birr per kilogram of cherries, and a kilogram of coffee cherries results in roughly one sixth of that amount in green exportable coffee. On top of that, the exchange rate of Ethiopian Birr to $ changes often.
The “farms” range in size from a few trees to a few acres. Saying the farmer receives a certain price per pound is misleading because what they actually get is a certain amount of money for the year based on what their farm yielded.
Coffee doesn’t put food on the table for most farmers. They live primarily through subsistence farming. But coffee often is the only crop that generates revenue, making it possible for them to buy school supplies, medical services, and clothing.
These payments for coffee are made to the farmers at a rate set by the Ethiopian government. In order for them to have more, Aklilu has developed a system for them under which they are not required to labor extra to deliver only ripe, highest-quality fruit. They can pick whatever they want from their trees. Then Aklilu pays farmers to sort the coffee. This allows for less labor during the growing season and more steady income during the harvesting and processing season. In addition, the lower quality coffees which have been sorted out are consumed and sold again within the local community, allowing farmers to often be paid three times for the same coffee: they sell their coffee to Aklilu, then they’re paid to sort it, then they’re paid again for the non-exportable coffee.
Ardi is organically and sustainably grown in clean and safe working environments. Education is available to all children of Ardi farmer coffee. Ardi is one of three ingredients in the Think Blend at the locations mentioned above. Currently, the other components for those coffees come from Brasil and El Salvador. Look for specific information at each store for each of its farms.
Again, please ask questions. Feel free to ask for Matt Fury, he will spend any amount of time you wish discussing our coffee. Email furythinkcoffee@gmail.com to meet or visit one of our farms. PICTURES !
Stirring drying coffee every 15 minutes
Fury gets schooled by Dawit
Aklilu checks the sorting of red coffee cherries
BRASIL
We went to Brasil. In our Think Blends, two of the component coffees in our blends are from farms called Fazenda Lacador Sementes and Fazenda Nossa Senhora Aparecida. Lacador in the the Cerrado region of the state of Minas Gerais and Nossa Senhora is on the northern border of the state of Sao Paulo.
The Cerrado, meaning “closed,” is an expansive region of farmland stretching flat and deplete forever and in all directions. Not really, but that was the impression. Crops do seem to have been planted in endless rows in an unnatural and sterile environment. But, we learned that that is what the Cerrado looks like. And it is anything but sterile.
Jose Orlando is the General Manager of Lacador Sementes Café. He is in responsible for the land, flora, and fauna and he loves his job. The farm didn’t match the romantic idea of the steep tropical farms of Central America or Africa, but Jose, like any small Finca owner considers his job a sacred responsibility and the land an extension of him. Jose spent hours showing me how the environment of the Cerrado works and how the farm fit into the environment. Because the Cerrado is a vast enclosed area, they farm in an enclosed way. Nothing from the farm ever leaves the farm into the neighboring farms or into the watershed. The farm is certified by a variety of social and environmental watch-groups, but it’s not necessary. It’s a responsible farm and with Jose Orlando in charge, it will stay that way. Fazenda Lacador Sementes Café is owned by Airyon Jose Magne. It is one of three components in our Bleecker Think Blend.
The General Manager of Nossa Senhora Aparecida is Serrafin. He is so cool, we love this guy so much. Serrafin has the same job as Jose Orlando. He exudes joy and peace. Unless you mess with the farm. We watched him “interact” with coworkers. It’s best to do things his way. He keeps Nossa Senhora clean, sound, responsible and BEAUTIFUL. It really is lovely, like wine country and with the same water issues. The Quercia family, who owns Nossa Senhora, is funding a huge reservoir project. It holds over 25 million gallons of water and will significantly reduce the farm’s draw on the already overworked river and aquifer. It’s a very expensive and responsible project that should be internationally commended and probably will be. Adriano Reis Da Silva is the farms coffee quality control manager. He was incredibly accommodating. He spent hours teaching us about the farm’s finished product. We cupped coffees and prepared for the arrival of this year’s crop.
For questions about our environmental or social responsibility efforts, or to visit a farm, contact our Director of Coffee furythinkcoffee@gmail.com.
Fazenda Nossa Senhora Aparecida
Serrafin, Nossa Senhora Aparecida Manager
Lacador, they really grow coffee here.
Adriano, Quality Control for Nossa Senhora Aparecida
Jose of Lacador Semenetes Teaches Fury about the Land
Coming back from Brasil
It was our first time in Brasil. Not what we thought. Somebody´s gonna have to learn Portuguese because we´re gong to spend more time here. Check back in a couple days for a full report.
CERTIFIED
We were running out of time and it was dark. It was going to be a mistake. We were paying a lot of money to travel 70km by taxi to a coffee processing plant operated by Luis Alberto Balladerez. We sell his coffee by the cup from our Single Source menu.
We call it “Single Source” because we get it from the smallest geographic area possible and then find one person or family responsible for it. Single Origin coffees usually come simply from an individual country, but they are blended from different sources.
The facility, call Las Segovias, is located somewhere in the town of Ocotal, in Northwestern Nicaragua. We were lost. Our driver stopped at a roadside hangout. Someone asked someone to find someone who knew a guy that works there. His name was Abel Gutierrez.
Abel didn’t work there, but he was adamant that he wished he did. He passionately described why Las Segovias was the best place to work and why it processed the best coffee. He told us the conditions were terrific. The equipment was the best. He told us that Sr. Balladerez grew great coffee and knew how to process it. He knew how to treat people. He was at church and do we want to go and get him from church. We hadn’t asked anything.
No, we didn’t want to go get him from church. This man from a roadside café, with nothing to gain or lose told us everything we needed to know. We sell delicious coffee that comes from a good person. It was worth the last minute expensive trip in the dark to have heard this. We sell NICARAGUAN coffee from the farmer LUIS ALBERTO BALLADEREZ with pride and integrity.