January 2017 - Curated Top 10, Guatemala Huehue and Future trends in beverages

Date Posted:8 January 2017 

“Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.” — Mark Twain

 

curated coffee beans

Top 10

We've done a lot of work tweaking roasting profiles over the last few months so hopefully the rewards are showing in the coffees we send out to our mycuppa customers. I can't recall a time when I've thoroughly enjoyed literally every coffee we QA and hence it's become rather difficult to identify standout favorites, so here is our list of coffees we think have kicked some big goals.

Listed in no particular order

1. Kenya
I can't say any more about this.....no other coffee runs out the door faster every day. Since March 2016, the Kenyan has sat undisputed as our #1 single origin. Personally, I would have thought that Kenyan coffees would only appeal to a small percentage of our customers due to the high acidity and winey characteristics, but the proof has been in the stats - processing more than 5,700 kilos of top grade Kenyan in 8 months. It's good to be wrong sometimes. Kenya

2. PNG
An origin close to my own heart. For 5 years we had been desperately searching for a good PNG - it's been a barren zone for way too long. The gods were smiling our way in the middle of 2016 with our Highlands offering from the renown Simbu Province.
This stunning coffee is without peer - a classy, lavish, rich, full bodied liquor with subtle complexity and superb balance. We have gone long and strong on this baby as it will remain a key feature coffee in our store for the future now we have secured solid supply. Highlands

3. Costa Rica
Costa Rica keeping lifting the bar each season. Incredibly rewarding and moorish. Who would have thought toffee and nut in a coffee would create such a wild sensation..... gimme another cup please as one is never enough. We love the nut/toffee combo so much......such a pleasant change from the chocolate notes that seems ubiquitous in the coffee world. Jaguar

4. Ethiopia
Every now and again the superstar origins have a shocker and for Ethiopia the 2015 crop was very ordinary indeed. For much of 2016 we zigged and we zagged in our attempts to source increasingly better lots but they just were not coming up to the mark. Believe me our sentiment was a broad consensus with the entire industry affected the same way. Challenges existed across the whole Ethiopian range of Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Limu and Harrar.
The good news is that 2016 crop which arrived in late October 2016 has been far superior in every regard. We are seeing a return of the elegant citrus notes, vibrant acids and delicious complexity.
Currently our Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Limu offerings are some of the best we have seen in the last 5 years. Sidamo

5. Honduras Microlot 87
Probably the Cinderella story of 2016 - completely out from nowhere.
A few lots from a previously unknown farm pulling incredibly high cup scores. This coffee (well, it's actually 2 different lots we have from the same estate) has proven to be a huge hit with our mycuppa customers. In a short time the H87 has climbed the best seller's list and has been regularly sitting at #3 or #4 on our Single Origin top sellers scorecard since it's release.
So impressed have we been with this coffee we managed to scoop up another lot (#3) that amazingly cups even better than the first 2 lots. Honduras 87

6. Sumatra Aceh Gayo
Sumatra is always a tricky origin to source coffee as the beans can be significantly different from bag to bag and pallet to pallet. We jumped on a new shipper for this lot and it's been a very successful program.
The price and availability of Sumatran coffees have been challenging for the entire coffee industry over the last few years. Low supply and top prices have caused many coffee companies to reduce or even abandon Sumatrans.
We have been pleased with the performance of our Aceh Gayo as a clean, sweet and powerful coffee capable of matching the best from the vast and diverse Sumatran region. Lake Tawar

7. Colombia
The wonderful thing about Colombia is that it produces coffees almost the entire year, so it's one of those origins where you can pickup a new, fresh arrival literally at any time. Combined with thousands of small landholders that are rapidly implementing quality improvement at both the farming and processing areas, Colombia is fast returning to it's eminent position as a coffee super-power.
Noted for a rich, rounded and high flavored cup, our Colombians have always punched well above their weight. Perhaps one of the most versatile and solid performers in our portfolio that incidentally has consistently ranked in the top 3 Single Origins for the last 7 years. A coffee with a huge customer following and possessing a similar cult status to our Kenyan. Excelso

8. Centre Way
It's rather unusual for a blend to appear in our annual list of favorites as the is a strong tendency to lean towards stunning single origins - they have a habit of sticking in your mind more profoundly.
This coffee was created just under 2 years ago for a ball-breaking cafe owner who turned his nose up at everything (and ironically still does). He had been running many big cafes for 15 years and knew exactly what he wanted - the journey to a solution was incredibly painful, but worth it.
This is the coffee I like to serve visitors and guests just to see their reactions. It's the silver bullet you reserve for the "best shot". Nothing pleases me more than seeing the expression on their faces when you serve up a flat white or latter made from Centre Way.........watch their head spin around like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Centre Way

9. Redemption of the Spro
Yet another blend makes the list and for good reason.
Spro has to be the most under-rated coffee in our entire portfolio and I'm gobsmacked why it's never really taken off as a popular choice. We have loyal customers that regularly purchase this coffee exclusively, but we think it's been flying under the radar.
Tons of rich chocolate, caramel and toffee. Whilst Spro was originally engineered as a standalone espresso coffee, it has undergone many changes to morph into a superbly balanced milk-based espresso. If I want a latte or flat white, this is the coffee I always go to first - rich, smooth and creamy and a coffee that pleases any time of the day. Spro
 
10. Mexico Pluma Organic
Pluma may be listed here as #10, but it really is the #1 on our list.
This lot of Mexican Pluma was perhaps our overall winner for the year - big call considering the competition it was up against.
A coffee that set me on the path of re-discovering the virtues of true balance in a coffee.
Like the Costa Rica Tarrazu and the PNG Highlands, this Mexican Pluma Organic has complexity, balance and class in spades.
We think the tipping point was about it's subtle complexity. Somewhere in the Pluma were hints of various spices that we just can't accurately describe - spices that add incredible texture and uniqueness in ways we rarely see in a coffees. It's not a distinct coffee sitting on some edge, just very memorable indeed.
Our roasted coffee bag supplier said this to me in June 2016 - "my wife is very fussy when it comes to coffee. As you know we supply 800+ coffee brands and after trying many of their coffees, this Mexican Organic been the standout coffee - she won't drink anything else!".
Black tea and lemon citrus acidity. Delicate and refined body through to a lingering toffee and subtle buttered stone-fruit finish. Pluma

 

guatemala
 

This month I'm not going to write a long story about Guatemalan coffee as its all been done before just a couple of years ago. Suffice to say, just like Kenya, Costa Rica and Ethiopia, Guatemala is well regarded as a benchmark origin in the coffee universe. Coffees from Guatemala exhibit higher levels of flavor and acids - often described as one of the world's most flavored cups. Guatemala possesses ideal growing conditions - rich volcanic soil, perfect micro climate and high altitude.

Challenges in Guatemala continue to hamper it's economic development and the living standards of it's people. Unfortunately, coffee farming in Guatemala remains on a knife edge as the majority of coffee communities (farmers, pickers and processors) producing these wonderful coffees live well below 3rd world poverty - it's a terrible injustice considering the outstanding quality of the coffee.

Guatemalan coffees trade on a price premium due to the quality and worldwide demand by coffee companies and hence Guatemalan coffees are not cheap, so the prices we pay for the raw coffee are not reflected in the living conditions of the farmers. It's an important point to clarify that as coffee roasters we are not exploiting the situation in Guatemala and by way of comparison coffee roasters pay more for Guatemalan coffees than of comparable quality from Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Mexico.

For 5 years now we have been big supporters of a high quality estate in Huehuetenango. In the past, this coffee was a key feature in our premium blends but over the last 8 months there have been some major difficulties in the ongoing sourcing of the bean in the volumes we have required. For a while during 2016 we had been perilously short on our trusty Huehue, needing to substitute with Huehue's from other estates to fulfill our demand.

The good news is a new shipment arrived just before Xmas so we have our wonderful, trusted Huehue back in store.This specialty grade coffee is a premium offering, scoring 83.5 points - a perennial favorite.

Bright juicy cup with a refined and balanced berry acidity.
Long, sticky caramalised sugar and peanut finish.
Sensational in milk-based espresso.
Grab it here >> Huehuetenango

Over the Xmas break we managed to indulge in the usual ways befitting the festive season - lots of eating and especially drinking anything alcoholic.

This year I noticed something interesting in the marketing of alcoholic beverages - and it's only relatively recent. That or I've been totally missing it all year when sneaking down the budget aisle looking for cheap volume over quality.

Almost every wine or spirit I purchased around Xmas (lingering for too long in the expensive section) used the concept of "single estate" as an attempt to create a point of difference. This was not just subtle text on the label, but rather a prominent display like a badge of honor.

Then I started to take a bit more notice and wines from $20 a bottle also appeared to use Single Estate as their key message. Light bulb moment.........hang on..........was the alcohol industry now trying to mimic coffee ?

10 years ago the coffee industry was regarded as being somewhere between 5 to 10 years behind the wine industry in terms of marketing and maturity. That's a pretty fair and accurate assessment that nobody could dispute. Even today, winemakers are have a far better skill in eloquently describing the fruits of their labour compared to us tongue-tied coffee roasting folks devoid of descriptive flair. For the last decade we had been accustomed to the often used phrase......."coffee follows wine".

Seeing these  new  marketing labels on the wines and spirits at the end of 2016 would have you believe that perhaps coffee had managed the impossible and leapfrogged wine at some point in the last couple of years. Did this mean that coffee now occupies a more "advanced" position relative to wine in terms of marketing to the consumer's increasing desire for Providence.

Coffee has always enjoyed extreme freedom and therefore diversity as it has not been locked into some of the rigid forms of traditions and heritage like wine. In fact, coffee would appear to be almost the opposite of wine whereby innovation in the last decade has moved an order of magnitude faster in the coffee industry compared to wine - which I guess on balance wine lovers would strongly debate of course.

Coffee is also not as consolidated and regulated (constrained) like wine or spirits in Australian retail. The retailers for alcohol tend to hold most of the power in the business relationship and it's this concentration of just a small handful of influential alcohol retailers that are calling all the shots (yes, those devils in disguise the supermarkets - the wrecking ball of many vital industries).

Coffee therefore leverages an infinite level of freedom to innovate and experiment without fear of failure in the marketplace. Yes, we have seen the emergence ciders, an explosion in craft beers and new micro distilleries - even a creative product that blends cascara coffee with moonshine managed to pop it's head up recently.

So what does it mean for the coffee consumer ?

The pace of innovation in coffee shows no sign of slowing. It's hard to imagine where the coffee industry will move next, or at least jump to next. Whilst it's always been moving, it's the big jump that's incredibly difficult to predict.

Take for example the USA where Ready To Drink (RTD) coffee has been going crazy for years and now seems to rival batch brew - the excitement over cold brew in the US is at fever pitch and 90+% of the coffee industry reporting in the US is dedicated to the plethora of new RTD brands being released onto their market. Then of course there is Japan and the very smart coffee in a can from vending machines situated everywhere. In Nordic countries, light roasted filter coffees are perhaps more popular than espresso, so now you get the idea that the coffee universe does not revolve around espresso.

In Australia, nitro brewed coffees have been served in a small number of cafes and bars for almost 3 years (sometimes referred to as coffee on tap - that's right, it's prepared in a keg just like beer). To date, these nitro brew programs have only experienced a lukewarm response by consumers so I would not consider that segment as a success - at least not yet. I tend to liken the nitro brew to downing a Guinness but it's coffee - it sort of messes with your mind a bit and for many people it's one of those bucket list items that needs to be ticked off.

As a summertime beverage, it's pretty hard to beat a beautiful cold brew coffee over ice and we can see the emergence of light roasted, extremely fruity coffees being extracted for blending with vodka and other spirits. These are examples of the many mad-scientist coffee-related innovations that start small but struggle against the established markets for espresso. The real challenge is in how to scale new innovations large and convert consumers across from their trusty espresso.

The market for alternative brewing (non espresso) keeps expanding and growing. I like to tinker with new and interesting methods for applying coffee but there is one thing that's certain - for my personal tastes there nothing that comes close to beating a well made espresso and as far as the Australian coffee market is concerned, espresso-type beverages remain the dominant category at this time.

As a beverage consuming nation, Australians love their coffees during the day and their alcohol in the evenings. I'm just not sure when (or if) the Ready-To-Drink coffee in a can/bottle system will break out and gain mass-market appeal given solutions have been available for more than 2 years now, but yet to really crack the mainstream in finding a home on Australian retail shelves.

Enthusiasts for the alternative brew segment (non espresso) would like you to think it's a booming opportunity ready to explode at any minute - whilst it's just a cottage/sub-craft market, this innovative sector is important for the future of coffee as espresso in Australia has already peaked.