Daniel's World of Coffee

Switching Gears, and Happy Halloween

The last day of my second class finished today. Tomorrow morning we will but up at 5 a.m. to hit the road. For the next five days we will be traveling by four-by-four vehicle to visit the coffee production areas of East and West Harar, starting with the East. Everyone keeps warning me how bad the roads are, but we are looking forward to it. Traveling a bad road and breathing the fresh road out the window can be invigorating after 14 days in the crowded, dusty city. It's been a lovely two weeks here in Dire Dawa, teaching the cupping classes and having discussions with the various export companies here. But it will be good to be on the open road, to get out of the urban areas and out under the stars.

Yesterday our class ended with such a great cupping session, I was positively glowing when we got back to the hotel. All the coffees on the table were 80+,
and there was one solid 90+, the Lensamo Lamisso coffee from Aleta Wondo that I have raved about before on this blog several times. What really made me happy, though, was the discussion our group had after the session. Everyone's scores were grouped together nicely, which means we were well calibrated, the technical aspects of the cupping were all handled cleanly, and everyone was focusing well. I wish I could invite anyone who is skeptical about the analytic power of coffee cupping to one of these professional sessions. It's amazing to see 17 different people come to basically the same conclusion. The Aleta Wondo coffee was number four of four that we discussed, so that people were all smiles as we left, thinking happily of how delicious that coffee is. One cupper said it was like mother's milk.

Strange to realize that today is Halloween! It's about 90 degrees and very dry here today, and no one is wearing a costume. I'll post when I can from
the road... we should have internet again in 3 or 4 days when we get to the town of Jiro, and if not then, in a week or so I will be back in the capitol Addis Ababa. I hope everyone has a fun day.

Anyone I know dressing like a cat today? You know who you are.

Coffee of the Week: Pure East Harar Coffee

For the last day of our cupping class last week, we spent the day focusing on coffees from Harar itself. On the final cupping table were three clean, specialty-grade coffees from this region. If you drink Harar coffees in the United States, you might get the impression that it's one monolithic region. Certainly the coffees are almost always simply billed as "Ethiopian" or "Ethiopian Harrar." I can't recall ever seeing a bag of roasted coffee that offered more information than that. Of course, this is usually not the roaster's fault. It can be difficult to get more specific information about geographical origins here.

Nevertheless, there is a noticeable difference between East Harar and West Harar, one that the coffee professionals here have no trouble distinguishing. Also included under the umbrella of "Harar" coffees are coffees from the regions of Bale and Arsi. If you look at a map of Ethiopia, you can see just how far these regions are from the central areas surrounding Harar city and Dire Dawa. These coffees get exporter as "Harar," but the locals often consider them to be separate origins.

Of the three coffees on that final table, one was from East Harar, one from West Harar, and one from Arsi. Most of the cuppers, myself included, gave all these coffees a score of 80 or above, qualifying them as "specialty grade." I very much enjoyed the West Harar coffee, and found the Arsi coffee to be perfectly fine.

But it was the East Harar coffee that truly stood out. This is the magical flavor profile that buyers in the States are so desirous of, and so frustrated about when they cannot find it. Think blueberries, cherries, chocolate. The mouthfeel is rich and creamy, and the flavors relatively heavy, but the acidity still has a bright clarity that enlivens the whole cup. The aroma notes I wrote included toast, honey, caramel, and the aforementioned berries and chocolate. I'm a pretty harsh grader most of the time, but this coffee was to me a solid 89.

Most of the class agreed. I had a conversation today with a friend here about not wanting to ignore the very good quality that comes out of West Harar and Arsi. There are some excellent specialty grade coffees to be had from this region, and they are at risk of being overshadowed by East Harar, which would be a shame. But I have to give credit where credit is due. The East Harar coffee is indeed special. My few sips from the cupping cup I had of it were the most memorable sips I have had in a week of excellent coffee here.

So there you have it, the gem-like quality of East Harar coffee, this week's coffee of the week.

Coffee Circa 1957, Part 2

Here are some more images from "Coffee: The Story of a Good Neighbor Product."

These ones are particularly informative and pretty. Click on an image to enlarge.

Pictures from Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

Teaching at the Coffee Liquoring Unit:

A cupper, Tarik:

Too hot to teach indoors in the afternoon, so we went to this nice shady grove:

My friend, Getachew, in the foreground:

Pretty flowers in bloom alongside the road in Dire Dawa:

At the Bashanfer export mill:

Expand Your Experience

The most interesting exercises so far in the cupping course here in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, have been those involving coffees from outside Ethiopia. Local cuppers have very little experience with coffees from other countries, let alone other continents. One cannot simply go to the supermarket and pick up a pound of Guatemalan coffee. In fact, it can even be difficult to get coffees from other regions within this country. Almost all coffee produced in the Harar region is sun-dried natural coffee, whereas coffee from Yirgacheffe is usually produced using the fully washed process. While the most important coffee for a professional to understand is of course the coffee that he or she works with on a daily basis, it is also very valuable to have an understanding of the wider world of coffee. After all, the importer/roasters to whom they sell this coffee have access to coffee from any region they want. The typical Harar exporter is up against competition from every other coffee producing country in the world. Right now, as I write this, our class of sixteen local professionals are doing a triangulation exercise with one coffee from Panama and one from Kenya. (In a triangulation, two unmarked coffees are the same, and a third unmarked is different — the cupper is charged with discovering the odd man out, and then providing a description of why it is different.) They don't know where the coffees are from — the exercise is done blind. Many people do not particularly care for the coffees, though some seem to be pleasantly surprised. The discussions we have had after these "foreign sessions" have been most enlightening, especially for me. It is fascinating and educational to hear an Ethiopian perspective on a coffee (for example, a Guatemala) that I know very well. A fresh pair of taste buds is like a fresh pair of eyes helping you to analyze scenery that you have become blind to out of habituation. At the end of the session, naturally, these cuppers will go back to working with the daily arrivals of their own Harar coffees. Hopefully they will have a broader understanding of what they are up against. In your own coffee explorations, you probably have access to dozens of different origins, at your own shop or roastery, or at your local specialty store or supermarket. But are there some coffees that you have been neglecting? Have you tried Bolivian coffee lately? What about Harar itself? We all have our favorites, but it's always worthwhile to try something you haven't had in a while, or maybe something entirely new. It is time for Friday prayers here... I have to go. Disrespectful for me to be typing on my computer now. Happy cupping!

Coffee Circa 1957

I've been meaning to share these images with you for a while. My old roommate found a slender notebook in a used book store in San Francisco, entitled "Coffee: The Story of a Good Neighbor Product."

It was published in 1957 by the Pan-American Coffee Bureau in New York City. I'm taking the liberty of reproducing large portions of it here. This was a promotional product; I can't imagine anyone objecting to me disseminating it further, albeit 42 years after the fact.

I like the style of the drawings, and the writing style too. The coffee information is almost all still entirely accurate. Here are a few images to pore over... I'll post more in the near future.

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Cupping in Ethiopia

Hello from Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Wednesday morning local time, my partner in organizing, Aylwyn, and I caught the early flight from Addis Ababa to Dire Dawa. Most of Wednesday was taken up with unloading supplies (some I brought with me, some trucked over from Addis Ababa the day before) at the new facilities of the Coffee Liquoring Unit (CLU) here. The CLU is charged with inspecting arrivals of coffee from the woredas, or districts, and serving as a general insitution concerned with coffee quality. Everyone at the CLU, and our partners with USAID/Fintrac, have done a lot of work to get things ready for the class. Thursday morning marks the arrival of 16 local coffee professionals who will be the students for the three day class. Participation is funded by USAID, and we had to cap the class size to avoid over-enrollment, which is a good thing. The interest is mighty high. People are eager for this knowledge. We've based the structure and format of the class loosely off of the cupping classes that Willem Boot teaches in California at his lab. Of course, a great deal has to be modified and specialized for the local environment. Focus will naturally be on the skills that will be most relevant to people working in the coffee industry in this particular region. But basically, it's a lot of theory (i.e. Daniel talking too much) and a LOT of cupping. Normally I like to travel very light, but this time I brought with me an extra suitcase, over 50 pounds, laden with notebooks and cupping forms, plus fresh roasted coffee samples from around the world. The rank and file of the coffee industry in any given country doesn't often get the chance to cup coffees from other places. So in addition to a heavy emphasis on Harar coffees, we'll also be cupping and discussing coffees from Central and South America, Hawaii, Sumatra, and Kenya. The other thing weighing me down was several pounds of food. One of the best ways to get people in the right state of mind for analyzing what they taste is to do a guided tasting of different relevant foods. So I have dried apricots, raisins, figs, cherries and blueberries; milk- and dark chocolates; and hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, and almonds. We're also putting together an aromas kit with spices from the local market (Ethiopian markets are heaven for spice lovers — big sacks of colorful, aromatic spices piled everywhere, spilling out onto tables). Dire Dawa is lovely as always. It's hotter and drier here than in most of the rest of the country, but not overly so. And the local custom is to paint the sides of houses in bright pastels, which makes for a charming effect when you walk or drive down one of the big streets (streets that are jammed with little bue three- and four-wheeled Bajaj taxi-carts). Internet access is a little better than when I was here last, so when I collect some good photos I will try to post them. In the meantime, happy coffee everyone!

Barista, the Cartoon

A strange little cartoon movie called "Barista." (h/t: Sprudge Report)

My first thought was: the only thing more annoying than people who ask rather uneducated questions like the blue lady are the baristas who answer with prickly, egotistical non-answers like the man in the hat. Being a friendly, non-pretentious human being ought to trump being some kind of coffee sommelier. On a second viewing, though, I think that's the point of the video. Er... I think... Um, maybe I should stick to the coffee and leave the social satire alone.

The ending made me laugh.

Quality from the Homeland of Coffee

For the next month I will be posting from Ethiopia, the homeland of arabica coffee. This is not just any old origin trip. I'm not sightseeing, and I'm not buying green coffee. I'm not even judging a competition.

A year and a half ago I went to Ethiopia for the first time. When scheduling nightmares left Willem Boot and I with several days to kill, we organized a trip to the Hararge region with a few other folks. We saw the bustling city of Dire Dawa, and the ancient walled city of Harar proper. It was all very beautiful.

What left the deepest impression on me, however, was the complete disconnect between the miller/exporters in Harar and the consumers in Europe and North America. Nobody — nobody — was cupping the coffee as it came out of Dire Dawa. While the collective coffee knowledge in the area is a million times more than I will ever have, there was next to no information in the area about what consumers in the USA (for example) are looking for. I could go on and on, but I don't want to give the impression of denigrating anyone there. I learned so much from the people in Hararge. The best way to put things, I suppose, is to say I saw an opportunity.

Before we even got back to Addis Ababa, as I was waiting in the Dire Dawa airport, I began working on a proposal for how one might go about turning this situation around. Often times in life you can see a problem, but no obvious way to ameliorate the problem. Other times, the exact steps needed to improve a situation seem so obvious to you that you can hardly wait to get working on it. Well, the ideas came straight away, but of course organization and funding takes time.

Eighteen months later, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development, and leadership and expertise from Boot Coffee, I am going back to Hararge province to contribute (along with many, many others, both inside and outside of Ethiopia) to a project to boost quality and improve targeted marketing from Harar.

It starts with two courses I am teaching on cupping and sensory evaluation to exporters and other local cuppers in the Harar region. There are expert cuppers in Ethiopia already, of course. But there is very little interaction with international cuppers. I'm teaching, this coming week, one introductory course for novice cuppers. Next week I teach a course for expert cuppers, helping them identify the key factors of quality Harar coffee that consumers looks for.

Anyone in the specialty industry who has had a great cup of Harar coffee knows that this is a truly unique origin — perhaps the single most distinct coffee origin in the entire world. The chocolate-blueberry profile of great Harar coffee is unlike any other.

But coffee specialists can also tell you how incredibly frustrating it is to try and locate that "true Harar" taste. Green buyers, roasters, baristas... they all know how elusive great Harar coffee is. Quite frankly, a lot of the stuff that ends up in the States is a shadow of that ideal coffee... somewhat fruity, maybe a touch sweet, but generally uninspired.

The goal of this project is ambitious. The goal is to identify, at the farm level, at the ground level, where the true Harar taste comes from; to spread knowledge about proper practices to create this taste among producers across the region; to train cuppers at the export level to reliably recognize and separate out coffee with this quality; and to market these improved coffees directly to the kind of specialty buyers in the US and elsewhere who are willing to pay a premium for that pure, true, chocolate-blueberry Harar coffee. If it goes as planned, everybody wins.

There are a number of phases that make up this project, some of which I will be laying groundwork for in early November. It's daunting to think of all the steps which lie ahead. For now, I am concentrating on the cupping courses.

I will have lots of things to write and report for this blog, and will be taking plenty of pictures. Internet access is spotty in Ethiopia, especially away from the capitol, so my posts may be somewhat scattershot.

Questions and comments are welcome at any time. Wish me luck.

Flickr Back Up

My neglected flickr account is back up, featuring neat photos of coffee trips to El Salvador, Ethiopia, and Peru. Plus general coffee nonsense in Seattle, New York City, and elsewhere.

I'll be posting new photos of Ethiopia there in the upcoming days and weeks.