June 2014 - FAIRTRADE Organic Coffees coming in and out of season

Date Posted:1 June 2014 

FAIRTRADE Organic

With our holdings of FAIRTRADE coffees at dangerously low levels, we received another shipment of fresh crop FAIRTRADE Organic coffees in early June, just in time to avoid a critical out-of-stock crisis.

New season Ethiopia Sidamo Oromia, PNG Purosa, Mexico and the Peru Feminino are new crop arrivals of our well-known staples.

A few of our FAIRTRADE coffees will hit out of stock in the coming weeks - Dominican Republic, Colombia, Guatemala and the Sumatrans.

We have a Colombia Magdalena on order along with the Single Origin Sumatran Coffees - these should arrive 2nd or 3rd week of July.

A new FAIRTRADE Organic coffee that arrived in June is a Nicaraguan.

We are big fans of Nicaraguan coffees and regularly purchase many specialty microlots (non FAIRTRADE Organic) throughout each year.

Our recent favorites have been the Diamond, Santa Isobel and Finca Esmaralda.

We continue to offer the Diamond as our go-to preference Nicaraguan via the SHB product.

What makes Nicaragua coffees stand out from the neighbouring Central American coffee growing origins such as El-Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Bolivia ?

Clean, distinct, "classic" coffee flavour delivered in a well balanced cup.

This is a new arrival from UCA San Juan Del Rio.

It is roasted on the slightly darker side of medium to bring out the sweet, creamy notes of malt, tobacco and cucumber.

The slightly darker roast mellows the acidity and provides for a toasty finish.

This coffee is registered with FLANZ - FLOID 2967/2313

 

New Season coffees.

We are now seeing the effects of new season arrivals starting to integrate within our single origin and blends offerings.

It is important to point out that coffee is produced in 2 seasons every year and that each crop has it's own unique nuances - just like wine vintages.

We have written in our blogs and newsletters about how and why coffee changes in taste and we are firm believers in the principle that nothing should ever "stay the same".

This year, we have once again gone long and strong on Colombians and Rwanda - they are simply at the top of their game at the moment with rich, clean cups that are literally unbeatable.

Ethiopia has experienced improved conditions and it is showing in their quality. Of course, there is still a crazy shortage of Yirgacheffe that has plagued the Australia market since January 2014. We have moderate levels of Yirgacheffe grade 1 (Aricha and Kochere) and our specially selected Grade 2 continues to kick big goals. We have enough to sit out the shortage, but prices have sky-rocketed and we were forced to lift our selling price.

In late May, we contracted some top-gun Ethiopian Sidamo Guji Grade 1 washed and naturals to feature for our subscription clients. One of these coffees tastes like a melted cherry ripe in a cup - yummo.

Sumatra remains a serious challenge. Pricing is almost double the position from 18 months ago. Supply shortages for nearly 3 crops in a row have caused further escalation of the tight trading conditions. Our selling price has had to lift accordingly.

Brazil has experienced the worst drought in the last 30 years. Crop yields are down and it has been this adverse event along with the Roya outbreaks in Central America that resulted in coffee pricing jumping 50%. We have carefully picked some wonderful Brazils - continuing with the fabulous Cambara Estate specialty and our trusty Ipanemas.

We have a new shipment of Guatemala arriving in late August that was cupped a couple of weeks ago - what a cracker !