Daniel's World of Coffee

How to Cup Coffee When You're Sick

Can you cup coffee when you have a cold? Should you cup coffee when you have a cold? The answer is yes and no, but perhaps not for the reasons you were imagining.

2014 greeted me with a nasty cold this year, and trying to drink some lovely Ethiopian coffee that I got from the shop down the street was a frustrating affair. I knew it tasted "good," but I couldn't quite tell why. It reminded me of the many times I or colleagues of mine have been forced to make a choice between cupping or not cupping when facing illness.

There's a grand irony in flying thousands of miles (often transfering through multiple airports in multiple continents) just to get somewhere to cup some coffee in a limited time. And when do we usually get a cold? Why, when we've been exposed to thousands of people from all over the world and then sealed up breathing the same air in a pressurized aluminum tube with them for 8 hours. Oh the joys! But when you only have 6 days to cup hundreds of coffees, and when you traveled 8,000 miles to do it... you find a way.

Is it possible?

First of all, strictly speaking, is it possible to cup coffee while you're sick? The answer is yes. (By "sick" in this article, I'm referring to a cold or flu that gives you congestion, a sore throat, or above all a stuffed-up nose... if you've suddenly contracted the Great Siberian Itch, I can't help you.)

You can cup coffee because your tongue is still presumably working. You have difficulty cupping coffee because your nose is all stuffed up. And as we all know (we do all know this, right everybody?) the olfactory component of sensory evaluation does the lion's share of the work. Without being able to smell things, your ability to perceive the overall flavor is deeply diminished.

But it's not completely eliminated. It's important to note that even when you are "totally" stopped up, you're usually still capable of smelling at a diminished level. If you don't believe me, try inhaling deeply from a rose bud or other intense, floral scent the next time you have a cold. You might be surprised to find just how well you can still smell it. Nevertheless, it is generally true that you can't smell nearly as well as you can when you're 100% healthy.

Beyond your temporarily damaged ability to smell, you still have your ability to taste using your tongue. You can still discern sweetness, acidity, and especially body and mouthfeel. In fact, cupping coffee while sick can be a great way to force yourself to focus on body and mouthfeel, which is a category that most cuppers have difficulty evaluating consistently (I know it was difficult for me).

So yes, you can cup when you're sick.

Should you do it?

Should you cup when you're sick? This is a different question altogether. The answer is yes. And no.

If you can put off an important evaluation until after your E.N.T. gives you a clean bill, by all means, wait until the sun is shining again. But that's often not possible.

For example, if the coffee is already roasted, and you're just starting to get sick, it could be a week before your nose is clear, by which time the coffee has staled significantly. That's a bit of a catch-22, but I'd err on the side of fresher coffee. Just do the best you can.

As I said above, many times I've been in situations where there's a time constraint. It would be nice to wait a while, but it's just not possible.

The really important thing when it comes to cupping coffee when you're sick is to be honest about it — honest with others and honest with yourself. And that leads us to...

How should you cup coffee when you're sick?

There are two key considerations; two things you need to ask yourself if you are going to cup coffee effectively when you're sick:

1) How will my sickness affect my fellow cuppers?

2) How will my sickness affect my evaluation of the coffee?

1) When you are cupping alone, you obviously don't have to worry about how your illness affects others. But in a group, it's important to be up-front about your condition. If anyone asks you to leave, you should. However, I've found that if you forthrightly explain what's going on, downplay the seriousness of it (assuming, of course, that it is indeed not serious), and come with a plan of action, most professionals are fine with sharing the room. After all, they've all been in the same situation at one time or another.

If there are enough cups on the table and you are not following strict competition protocols, you can designate one of the cups at each station as your personal cup. Make it the same cup for each sample, and make sure that everyone knows it's the "sick" cup. Then take samples only from this one cup; no one else should taste from this cup. If possible, try to get your own cup of water for cleaning your spoon too and don't share this one either.

If pushing off one cup to the side as the "sick cup" is impractical, simply wait for all other cuppers to pass through at least twice, then designate a "sick cup" and cup from that one. You won't be able to try the coffee when it's hot, but as we all know that's not the most important phase anyway.

Finally, if even that would prove to be too distracting, simply wait for all other cuppers to finish completely, then have at it.

2) It's very important to be honest with yourself when you're cupping — sick or healthy. If you can't discern something, do not just make it up.

I often teach my students to just write something, anything, even when they have no idea what to write because this tends to loosen them up and helps them to learn the process of tasting and notating. But eventually you have to grow out of this phase, and if you are still writing wild guesses in a professional environment and presenting them later as "cupping notes", you're not a good cupper. You're anti-good.

Likewise, when you're sick, despite my encouragements above (You can still taste with your tongue! You can kinda smell stuff, kinda), a lot of what you come up with might be less-than-usually accurate. Just be honest with yourself about it. Make a note on your cupping forms or later reports that these notes are sketchy at best.

Again, you can use your sickness as a blessing in disguise and focus in on non-aromatic components of the coffee, specifically acidity and mouthfeel. If you have ever had trouble grading these aspects accurately, getting a cold is the perfect time to hone your skills.

If at all possible, of course, you should cup the same coffees again when you're at full strength. This can be one more good exercise for learning, too. Make sure to randomize and encode the samples, cup them all again when you're feeling tip-top, then decode and reveal and find how well your "sick notes" match up with your "healthy notes." There's always something new to learn about the coffee, and about your own evaluation skills.

Just dive in.

Always take care of your health first, and always be mindful of the well-being of those around you. But if you take sensible precautions and remember not to treat your own notes too seriously, I encourage every coffee professional to keep tasting even when it feels like your sinuses are stuffed with cotton.

Basically, you should never be turning down an opportunity to hone your skills and broaden your knowledge. Getting sick is less than ideal for many reasons, but it's part of life, and it can lead to some pretty interesting situations if you know how to look at it from the right angle.

Colombia

In late June, I was in Antioquia, a large department of Colombia. Antioquia (the Spanish version of the name of Antioch, an ancient Anatolian city known for its holy hand grenades), is not as well known in specialty circles as some other areas of Colombia, such as Cauca and Huila.

However, the total arabica production there is huge. If Antioquia were its own country, it would export more coffee than the entire nation of Costa Rica! And a lot of that coffee, naturally, is very high quality. They have stupendous altitude... in many places you have to go down from the roads and towns to get to the coffee growing zone; and they have expertise, varietals, soil, and everything else to produce great coffee.

Here are some pictures from my trip. It's "fly crop" season in Colombia right now. That means that most fields are not in production, or only with very low volumes, but that there is still some fresh coffee being picked and processed in some areas. Most of the volume in this area is harvested in November and December.

Typical street in Medellín, the beautiful capital of Antioquia

Lunch in the mountains

The mountains around Montebello

Another vista

Caballo

The reliquary of a 350 year old church; the oldest one in the region

Parque Botero in Medellín

Coffee: defects, sorted, and unsorted. (I brought about 3 pounds of pure defects back with me for training purposes... it's amazing how much they stunk up my suitcase!)

Cappuccino at Café Pergamino in Medellín

Mountain village of Jardín

I expect to be back in Colombia again soon. We cupped a lot of coffees while I was there, as part of a cup-profiling activity that is ongoing. There were some very good profiles we encountered: some real surprises to go along with some real classic Colombian profiles. The country is so beautiful, the people are so nice, and it's so big with so much to explore, I can't wait to go back.

The Best Shoes For Traveling to Origin

In the last five years I have traveled to origin 30 times, to the best of my recollection. That's about 6 trips a year, spread over 12 or 13 countries, mostly in Latin America, but also in Africa and Asia.

On all but one of those trips, I have taken the same pair of shoes. Not the same brand, no... the exact same pair of shoes. These shoes set me back about 65 bucks, if I recall. I've worn them in Ethiopia, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Panama, Peru, El Salvador, the Philippines, etc.

The one time I didn't bring these shoes, it was purely by accident. It was my first trip to the Philippines, and I was apparently so excited by the prospect of white sand beaches that I forgot to pack sensible coffee farm shoes. Ironic because some of the roughest terrain I've encountered in my coffee travels was on that trip, in the tribal lands of Mindanao. I had to hike the whole slippery mess in thin-soled tennis shoes. My friends showed me infinite patience as I fumbled around helplessly in the muck and mire. (Hi Zee!)

Anyway, I come from Seattle originally, where people wear mountain-climbing gear to formal events. It's actually become a point of pride for me to wear snazzy city shoes whenever possible, just to stand out from the NorthFace and New Balance. But when you're hiking a real, functioning coffee farm at the peak of harvest, style somehow takes a back seat.

The shoes I have are from ECCO. I think they might have discontinued the exact model I have. They're somewhat similar to these, but low top and less space-age looking. I like the ones I have because if you dust them off and spit-shine 'em, they don't look too bad in a city setting. But the main reason I like them is because they are as tough as nails, but very comfortable. I've abused the ever-living hell out of these shoes and never once replaced the laces or even thought about them. I just toss them in my bag when I'm headed to origin and then inflict the pain.

Here's a mash-up video of my most recent trip to Ethiopia and a trip I made to Honduras in 2011. In the first part (grainy, sorry) I am stepping on a rural road between two farms, on my way up to the waterfall at Wondo Genet in Sidamo. I started filming because I was amazed at the thin crust that overlaid the two inches of powder-thin red dust that made up the road. It felt like walking on the moon, except it was about 100 degrees and the sun was BRUTAL. In the second part, as you can tell from the angle of my legs, I'm stumbling down a very steep, very muddy and slippery hillside in Honduras. Same shoes, two years and half a world apart.

So anyway, I don't work for ECCO and they aren't giving me any money. But if you are heading to a coffee farm soon (and if you're not.. why not???), maybe check out some of these shoes.

Here's my pair in all their dusty glory after I got back from my most recent trip last week:

Ethiopia Again

Greetings from the Motherland. I'm in Ethiopia now, preparing for the Taste of Harvest competition and all kinds of cupping activities that are happening before and after. I'm getting an up close and personal view of how this year's crop is; I will share some general impressions once I hit the cupping tables early next week. For now I am just fighting off the jet lag and indulging in some injera and chickina tibs.

I promised pictures and videos from Brazil and the Philippines, but of course all the big files are back at home on my big computer. I travel lean and mean, data-wise. Got to have plenty of storage room for all the photos of farm visits in Jimma and Sidamo later on this trip. So that will have to wait until I return, unless I can dig up a few things in the corners of my smartphone, or from friends that were on those trips with me.

Ethiopia is such a lovely country; it's been a couple years since I have had the privilege to visit. Even the somewhat dirty chaos of Addis Ababa is charming, and that pales next to the stunning countryside vistas in the coffee lands. The sun is so powerful during the day, but the air is almost crisp, and it never gets that hot thanks to the mile-high altitude. The sounds and smells here are so unique: driving on the way to a meeting today, I detected a familiar scent, that of "mitmitta", an unmistakeable spice mix used in cooking here. I commented and the taxi driver just laughed and nodded and said, "That's Ethiopia."

That's Ethiopia indeed. Just some cultural musings for now. I'll have more to say about the coffee when the rubber hits the road next week.

Coffee — Every Year is Better Than the Last

Happy New Year. I have been in the specialty coffee industry for over ten years now, and I can honestly say that every single year has been better than the year before, both for me professionally and, more importantly, for the industry as a whole.

Not everything is perfect all the time, of course. Sometimes we uncover new problems just as we think we are solving an old one. For years we bemoaned the low price of commodity coffee. Then it shot through the roof in a matter of months, and suddenly we were wondering if this industry was sustainable anymore. But crises are just opportunities. High costs, for example, just highlighted the need for increased efficiency and more resourceful practices.

The past year took me all over the world again, gracias a Diós, as they say in lands to the south: I had the chance to make coffee trips to Panama, Honduras, the Philippines, and Brazil. Not to mention the exotic, far-off land of Portlandia; my second-home New York City, and always-gorgeous San Francisco. In the coming year, I hope to make it back to Central America, to spend some quality time in Colombia, several weeks in the MOTHERLAND (Ethiopia, of course), get some real development work off the ground in the Philippines, and of course teach more courses in San Francisco.

Before my next trip, I'll be getting caught up right here on the blog with a few more articles, some picture and video posts, and whatever else coffee-centric that comes my way.In the meantime, from the chilly, dark, and crisp Pacific Northwest, here's hoping that 2013 brings you more wonderful coffee moments than ever before.

Backstreet Boys in the Philippines

Cute kids; Backstreet Boys; Coffee stall in the Baguio Market; Arabica growing under cover of chayote vines; Rainstorms; Flooded river; Wild coffee plantation; Eine Kleine Nachtmusik; More cute kids.

Photos from Bukidnon, Philippines

Thanks to my friend Zee Zamorah Perez for sharing these beautiful pictures of Bukidnon province on our trip to the village of Miarayon. This trip was in late May of this year; I spent a month in the Philippines and got to visit Bukidnon towards the end of the month.

Miarayon is on the lands of indigenous people there, on the southern island of Mindanao. We had such a lovely trip. There was even a double-rainbow.

Yes, those are coffee trees overhead, and coffee wildlings underfoot.

Coffee Anteater, Coffee People Singing, Coffee Farm Giant Tree — Panama

Here is a video of a baby anteater, an evening impromptu concert by a brother and sister, and a huge ancient iga tree waving in the wind on Finca de Eleta coffee farm in Panama.

I always post about the coffee-related things I do in my job, on the road. I thought it would be nice to share some of the little slices of life that happen on the periphery; they are the simple details that make life beautiful.

Since my last post in December I have been traveling a lot, with much more actual coffee-related stuff to post on. Over the next week I hope to go through some of my notes, videos, and pictures and clean them up a bit to share here on the blog.

Advanced Roasting Fun

Here's a video I took this afternoon... a sunny August afternoon in Northern California. This is day two of a three day Advanced Roasting Techniques class I am teaching at Boot Coffee.

There are three groups going here, one on a 1 pound San Franciscan roaster (the red one), one on a 5 kilo Probat from 1948 (the black one), and one on a three barrel Gothot sample roaster (the silver one). Each team has a different task to complete, using green coffee from the stock of dozens of different coffees Boot Coffee has in its lab.

Tomorrow morning we are going to cup the results (27 coffees!) and have each team interpret and defend the results of their experiments.

What I've Been Up To

The last time I posted in May, I was in Panama. I'm in Seattle now, and here's a quick run-down on what I've been up to in the coffee world.

1) First of all that Panama trip. As I noted before, I was acting as host for a group of Puerto Rican coffee farmers who were sent to Panama to observe specialty coffee practices in Panama. There were a dozen people in our group, and we spent our time in the western highlands of Chiriqui. I knew it was going to be fun before I left, but it really ended up exceeding my expectations. I'll post some videos and comments about this project over the next few days.

2) Speaking of Puerto Rico, I'm finishing up the analysis of the soil-data project I started way back in November. There's a huge document detailing all of our findings that I've created. I will share part of that this week, and the rest of it when it's all officially available.

3) As always, I'm teaching roasting and cupping courses in California with Boot Coffee. In May and June I was down there with Willem, Jodi, and the rest of the crew for some really great courses. I will be going down there again at the end of July for another 10 days, into August.

4) In the next 12 months I'll be teaching courses in Honduras (twice), Panama, and hopefully Colombia as well. Stay tuned here for more information. Or you can check out the Boot Coffee website.

5) After a long and arduous journey through my own preconceptions, I've become a full-on believer in Kahlua. It's just so much better than every other coffee liqueur I've tasted (and you'd be surprised how many I have tasted.... think double digits). Last September I did some work for Kahlua in Stockholm. In June, this project took me to grand old New York, where the Ost Café folks were as good as good can be to me, despite new babies and new pork sandwich stands springing up left and right. Best cafe in NYC, y'all. In the next few months I'll be doing more work for Kahlua here in the USA. I'm excited to share with you what I've been doing. I'll be sure to mention it here on the blog when it becomes appropriate. Did I mention I get free rum, coffee, and Kahlua?

6) Fresh Cup Magazine published an article I wrote in the June issue, about branching out from the old familiar origins and finding new gems (Nepalese coffee, anyone?). I'll post some snippets here, copyright permitting.

7) Theoretically I have something coming out in Parade Magazine... but I have yet to see it appear and your guess is as good as mine.

7) Somewhere along the line there I was in Houston for the SCAA conference. Somewhere along the line there, Alejandro Mendez from Viva Espresso in San Salvador won the World Barista Championship. Anyone who reads this blog is already well-informed of that stuff. But still... it did happen.

8) All work and no play makes Homer something something...

(PS I am in Seattle currently... oh wait, I already said that).