July 2016 mycuppa Newsletter

Spilling the beans on favourites

When I take off the funny little hat that keeps my bald head warm in winter and return to my life as an average everyday person outside of caffeine, meeting people, engaging in some small talk and, sooner or later, the conversation turns to who you are and what you do.

I'm sure to be asked the all-too-familiar question, "What is your favourite type of coffee?"

Such a simple question causes me to pause for a few moments, take a deep breath and then think clearly about how I can respond concisely to avoid boring my conversation partner with contradictory facts.

A long time ago, I relished such opportunities to spread the gospel with a passionate spiel about sun-dried, high-grown, hand-picked, triple-sorted, light-roasted naturals from Africa - but with age and experience comes wisdom and the understanding that banging on about the intricate details of coffee is akin to politicians explaining the trade deficit.

Glazed eyes abound.

Generally, the easiest way for me to explain is "just depends really......it changes all the time, every week actually".

The more I thought about that answer, it's remarkable in its honesty and accuracy.

What I came to realise over 35 years of consuming coffee is that you can never really have a favourite that stands the test of time.

Sure, you can have preferences and the most memorable or compelling coffee experience etched into your brain, but coffee is a time and place thing - it's here and now and impossible to benchmark your favourite from, say, 2010 with the best of 2016.

You see, side-by-side comparisons of coffee are only valid and as vivid as your imagination allows.

Can you recall all of the attributes, how you felt, what you knew before and after and then reproduce the same environment and control all those variables at a different time?

Even a top barista might struggle to get multiple identical espresso shots from the same batch of coffee simultaneously - there are bound to be some subtle differences.

Here are my favourite observations on coffee:

• Nothing stands still for very long - everything changes all the time.
• Fads and trends swing wildly - fruity, acidic, and juicy can quickly replace bold, buttery cocoa. Never try to predict or assume.
• Your palate gets fatigued, and your customers' palates get bored over time; changing things around regularly keeps it fresh and relevant.
• The mind can distort your perceptions and expectations of coffee, while external opinions can easily influence you.

Great coffee deserves quality milk - not so much an observation - it's a fundamental necessity.

Honduras - a star on the rise

When I think back to 2008 - 2011, Honduran coffees were generally not well regarded in the quality category of the coffee industry.

The country suffered a political coup in 2009, and specialty coffee was emerging as a visible market segment in Australia and some parts of the world.

Unfortunately, back then, the crucial incentives and rewards for farmers to produce quality were lacking, so the rate of improvement was generally slow and limited.

In those early days of specialty coffee, many banged the drums for Kenya, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama and Colombia - origins that claimed clear quality leadership in various areas, from improved farming practices to more intelligent marketing.

Honduras had a reputation for inconsistency at the higher end of the market - sometimes producing exceptional coffee, other times producing mediocre and unremarkable coffee.

In 2007, we could see the early potential for quality from Honduras - lots that displayed superior levels of body, sweetness and complexity compared to other Central American origins - elements that we thought at the time were most likely to perfectly suit the emerging styles and palate of the Australian coffee drinker.

We remained in the small camp of faithful believers in specialty grade potential despite the industry viewing Honduras more as a commodity-style coffee.

It's essential to note that, like any other coffee-growing origin, there are subpar, average, sound, and exceptional coffees in the market.

After all, it boils down to sifting through various lots or having adequate good fortune and timing to acquire opportunities to source the best coffees.

The truth is that such chances only come by sometimes.

We stuck to our guns from 2008 to 2011 by executing a deliberate strategy to differentiate our coffee in the Australian market - taking a contrarian approach; where others were long on Brazil, Ethiopia and Colombia, we placed our bets on Honduras.

That punt paid off in 2010 when our Honduran-based blends ranked at the top for coffee roasting competitions.

Times change, and in some respects, whilst Honduras had been historically viewed as a supplier of inferior qualities compared to Guatemala - particularly by large North American and European buyers looking for cheaper supply - it was also these large buyers that were more than happy to manipulate the markets by pushing the price of Honduran coffees down so they could benefit by picking up large volumes at reasonable rates.

Fees paid for raw Guatemalan coffees are typically up to 20+ % higher than in Honduras.

Honduran farmers smuggled their high-quality raw coffee into Guatemala for higher prices.

In the last ten years, infrastructure and market initiatives for Honduran coffees have directly contributed to constant improvements in cup quality, product consistency and increases in overall volumes harvested.

Simple things like building better roads to the significant growing and processing areas, establishing educational programs to enable farmers to learn advanced skills, and introducing Government controls around certain taxes have helped Honduras prosper to achieve the #1 producer by volume in Central America.

Coffee is critical to Honduras; in the past, it has helped the economy avoid bankruptcy.

Today, coffee continues to increase its relevance in the Honduras GDP as a vital trade export.

We are pleased to see that farmers have clear incentives that link the production of higher qualities to better prices paid and contribute towards a more sustainable future in their coffee farming investments.

Quantities of specialty, organic and certified coffees in Honduras continue to increase year on year - a sure sign of a progressive, healthy and growing industry. Compared to other origins like Costa Rica, PNG, El Salvador, Panama and Ethiopia, overall volumes show trends in decline as coffee farming has less commercial appeal than other commodities, industries or use of prime farmland.

The exciting news is that Honduras has been the fastest-growing specialty grade producer in the world - locked in a 3-horse race with Colombia and Brazil in shipping higher ratios of specialty grades.

For us here at mycuppa, over the last four years, we have sourced considerably less Honduran coffee and significantly more from Guatemala.

The ratios had effectively inverted from Honduras in 2008 - 2011 to Guatemala since 2012.

The reasons for those shifts had been solely due to the availability of the required qualities from the domestic brokers.

We could source exceptional, high-grade Guatemalan coffees year-round, whereas the choices for Honduras were limited.

It had nothing to do with cost as we consistently paid anywhere from 10 - 20% price premium for Guatemala over Honduras.

Some of the best Honduran lots we had become accustomed to buying were getting snapped up by Japanese, US and European buyers.

The demands lifted, and so did pricing benchmarks.

Being unable to gain access to the qualities of Hondurans we believed were needed for the competitive Australian market, we switched to alternatives in Colombia and Guatemala for our leading blends and feature coffees.

In the last couple of years, Honduran coffees have been critical components of winning entries used by World Barista champions.

Even the Honduras El Filio Cup of Excellence coffees we purchased between 2011 and 2013 for a private label customer were priced at more than 400% higher than the prevailing Honduran specialty grade at the time (which is common for top-ranked Cup of Excellence coffees, regardless of origin).

These quality Honduran COE coffees were undoubtedly up there with the best coffees I have ever tasted - but of course, selling $80 per kilo coffee is only partially viable, and neither is a regular supply of highly limited COE coffees.

For 18 months, we have wanted to highlight Honduras as a premium coffee origin and showcase some of its excellent coffees.

With this brief, we came across a unique and complex micro lot that cups so damn good I rank it better than our own special Kenyan and a contender for best bean in our portfolio.

We have scored an impressive 87.5 points for our exceptional premium estate coffee.

With only 360 kg of this coffee, and we plan to set some aside as a potential candidate for competition entry.

This is proof of how much we value this delightful coffee.

Where most high-grade Hondurans cup with a delicate structure of stone fruits - apricot, peach, pear, green apple, fig, etc. this coffee exhibits something entirely different with the most intense, robust dark chocolate, buttery body with hints of African-like blackcurrant and sparkling lemon acidity.

It's grown in a rich volcanic soil with an almost perfect micro-climate.

What impressed us most about this coffee was the silky, smooth, buttery body that lingered for hours after finishing the cup.

To do this fine coffee justice, we suggest matching the stunning Honduran micro lot 87 as espresso with some quality, branded full cream milk (we use Shultz's Organic and Demeter Biodynamic if you are in Melbourne).

It's worth the treat to buy the best milk, and in the process, you may achieve coffee nirvana - superb balance, poise and texture - a true classic.

Grab it now before it's all gone - Honduras Microlot 87

 

What happened to the zip locks on 1kg mycuppa bags?

Our custom coffee bags take up to 16 weeks (or longer) to be manufactured and delivered.

A few months ago, more than 16,000 from a shipment of 37,000 of our custom coffee bags mysteriously disappeared in transit between Gold Coast and Melbourne.

After months of investigation by the supplier, it seems highly unlikely that the missing 16,000 bags will ever be found.

This costly freight incident has caused some business impact, as our customers have noticed subtle changes.

It's important to understand that zip locks on coffee bags provide no fundamental feature or purpose in regard to preserving quality.

I wrote about zip locks in this article in 2009, available here - storing coffee.

Coffee is unlike most other food products, and the packaging is a complex system of 3 separate layers and a unique 1-way pressure-activated valve.

The metallic barrier protection layer in coffee bags is heat-sealed after being filled with freshly roasted coffee for a reason.

Freshly roasted coffee contains volatile compounds that can easily pass through plastics via a process known as effusion.

Zip locks are typically made from soft, pliable, and highly porous plastics, which makes them unsuitable for storing coffee.

Zip locks are an unreliable sealing method - they often open unexpectedly and are designed for short-term convenience only, e.g. days, not weeks.

Many other food products can happily reside in zip-lock, primary plastic packaging without degrading significantly, but coffee should not.

Coffee bags are meant to transport coffee to the intended location.

Once opened, the bag's contents should be consumed within two days or transferred to other containers.

Please note that these bags are not designed for long-term storage of coffee and should not be used as an ongoing storage medium.

We have always advocated that coffee is sealed by multiple folds of the bags fastened by some pressurised spring clip (or bull clip).

Alternatively, we recommend you tip the contents into metal, ceramic or glass air-tight containers.

For glass, the beans should be stored away from direct light, such as in the dark pantry.

Shutting off oxygen via a zip lock is not sufficient to preserve quality.