Like the Seasonal Espresso, there were areas of the label we felt had been successful and others we wanted to improve on.  One thing we wanted to do was to standardise the information on the labels a little bit more.  We also wanted to give a little more space to the name of the coffee – the most important thing on the bag in our opinion.

We’ve kept the colour scheme from before.  Coffees with the red label like this are roasted to be enjoyed as brewed coffee, rather than espresso. For the single estate espressos we’ve tried to make things clearer again, and the switched colours carry over from the previous labels.

Finally there is the decaf espresso label which is still just black and white:

We’ll keep using the blue label for special coffees like Cup of Excellence lots or other unique coffees.

We hope you like the changes and we hope you keep enjoying the coffees!

After nearly missing my connection through Nairobi I arrived in Kigali to no bags, but thankfully local Technoserve rep and fellow juror Matt Daks knew how to work the Rwandan lost luggage system and got my bags sent in on the afternoon flight. While waiting for that, I tagged along to a cupping at the Rwanda Trading Company, hoping to find some gems to take home even if I lost out in the COE auction. It was a nice warm up to the week of cupping ahead, it’d been a while since I’d had a great Rwandan table and in spite of the infamous potato defect I have fond memories of the Nyamagabe we used in the WBC 2008. Rwandan coffees in my head were all like that; soft, light and sweet, with some floral notes and a delicate acidity, so I was hoping to have that profile broadened a bit.

Cupping at RTC

Mickey and Mallory at Matt's House

After meeting up with my lost luggage and the rest of the judges, we boarded a bus to Rwamagana where we would be staying for the week, each day making a roundtrip to the cupping lab in Kayonza. The beautiful rolling hills of Rwanda covered in lush greenery, the brick red soil and the trucks carrying loads of vibrant yellow bananas had everyone bring out their cameras snapping away from the bus windows, and I suddenly felt very much like a tourist. However a placement on a COE jury is anything but a leisurely week away from the office, so after a restless night of being kept awake by the mosquitoes buzzing around on the other side of the netting, the first day of coffees saw us straight into calibration.

Cupping lab

Tables at the ready

Lunch tent

Jurors spend their first day cupping test tables of varying qualities to discuss flavours and align scores as much as possible, a great way of warming up and get an overview of what the week will bring. Potato reared its ugly head almost immediately, and I was hoping it’d be the first and last time we encountered it as it’s an immediate grounds for disqualification. During lunch I had a nice chat with Tharcisse and Eliane from Burundi who were observing the competition in preparation for the COE expanding into their country in the next couple of years. I know very little about Burundian coffees so I’m very excited to see how that goes!

That evening we had a cocktail party back at the hotel where the Mayor of Rwamagana, the head of OCIR and my old colleague Grant, now Managing Director for the COE, gave a few speeches that reminded us of the importance of what we were there to do, the notion that behind every cup is a community, families and high stakes should they be cut out of the running or make it to auction. One of the things you can never forget judging these competitions is to be humble and do your very best to score fairly and appropriately. It’s an honour to be there to give a final verdict on the coffees that have already been scrutinized by the National Jury, and we had 45 of the finest coffees in Rwanda to evaluate in the next few days.

Addy, Marilyn, Matt, Andreas and me

The morning alarm clock proved unnecessary as monkeys clambering across the rooftops, cockerels greeting the sun and calls to prayer had me awake, if not widely so, at dawn. This first day of Round 1 presented three tables of eight coffees. Two of the coffees were cut for potato, but a couple of them scored up towards the 90 mark for me and I was pleased about the range of flavours I’d got to see. Apart from being a bit starstruck to be cupping with people like Jason, Tom, Yuko, Addy and Sunalini, I felt able to focus and score sensibly in spite of the heat. The backroom team who do a mountain of work roasting, weighing and grinding were doing a stellar job, and water was being poured with military precision from kettles so big I probably wouldn’t have been able to lift them!

National cuppers and crew

The roasters

Pouring the water

Addy, Marilyn, Susie, Emmertha, Laeticia, Sunalini, Jen, me and Yuko.

Grant and Jon

As exciting as cupping is it’s also exhausting, so we decided to take a quick trip to the Jambo Beach bar & restaurant that evening, and courtesy of Jason we managed to squeeze in a quick game of frizbee before dark.

Tom snapping an image you might have seen in the Dogs of Coffee calendar

I hoped jetlag and exercise would provide me with some good rest before the monkeys kicked off in morning and it must have worked as I woke up rested and early enough for there to still be some hot water left in the shower! A cup of African tea with boiled milk and ginger was just the ticket to set me up for cupping the remaining lots of Round One. There were no outright potatoes on the table on day 2, but fewer outstanding coffees as well, so through to Round 2 (and potentially auction) went 25 coffees out of the initial 45.

After the cupping was over we journeyed to the Rwacof Washing station in the  Akagera region of the Eastern Province. Playing bus-tag with the national jurors the trip took us into stunning countryside, people popping up along the road everywhere and kids smiling and waiving to us as we passed. One of the things that struck me about Rwanda was how clean and tidy everything was, even in busy Kigali. People seemed to take a real pride in their surroundings, and besides their genius ban on plastic bags in the country there is also a mandatory 4 hour clean-up session every 4th Saturday, where even the president takes to the streets to spruce up anything in need of a tidy! Brilliant. Try instating that in the UK!

The Rwacof mill overlooks Lake Mugesera and is run by the Rwanda Milled Coffee Cooperative, with 600 farmers averaging 100-1000kg each bringing their cherries there to be processed. Nearly all coffee in Rwanda is of old Bourbon varietal stock from Reunion, the average farm having about 150 trees. Out of season the mill was quiet but still beautiful, and it’s one of those places I’d have loved to see in full operation during harvest time. Coffee in Rwanda has gone through a huge development in the last 10 years, from having only 2 washing stations in the country in 2003/4 they now have 168, and there are some concerns that that is now too many.

Lake Mugesera from Rwacof Mill

Rwacof drying tables

Washing tanks

Day 3 and Round 2 of cupping had us review the 25 coffees that had scored 84+ in the two first days and were potentially making it through to auction. In the end we lost three coffees that day and only 22 were put through, the top 10 of which were to be cupped again and ranked in Round 3 on the following day. On the way back to the hotel we stopped off in Kayonza for a bit of sightseeing, being sightseen (?) as much by Kayonza ourselves as we saw of them!

Kayonza main street

Wheelbarrow

For those in a hurry

Kayonza bike repair

Kayonza style

Kids appeared everywhere

Welding doors

Taxi

The evening had us return to Lake Jambo for dinner, more frizbee and some dancing, our last night in Rwamagana before returning to Kigali once the top 10 had been cupped in the morning.

Bird in sunset at Lake Jambo

The top 10 left me with two favourite coffees who eventually ranked 3rd and 4th overall in the auction. With Paul Songer as your head judge it’s always going to be ‘fun with statistics’-time one it’s all over and done with, and it was interesting to learn how how we all cupped compared to eachother and the average. As usual for me I cupped with a fairly wide range, not being afraid to score low or high as I saw fit. I think a good jury will have a mix of people who score wide and narrow, both experienced and newer cuppers, and cuppers from world wide markets. Turns out I cupped very similar to Addy from Iceland, Jen from Australia and John from the US, which I can’t be anything other than pleased with!

The bus trip back to Kigali was a blur of red dust, but at the hotel a quick dip in the pool had me feeling refreshed enough to indulge in a bit of market retail therapy with Marilyn, picking up some touristy local crafts (in among those imported from Tanzania and Kenya!). It actually felt a bit like being in London, you go to one stall in Spitalfields and they’re selling the exact same things as three stalls elsewhere in the market, and the stall down on Brick Lane, and the stall at Broadway! Nevertheless I’m a sucker for brightly coloured woven baskets (although not as much as Marilyn is! :p)

At the official OCIR dinner that evening we were treated to some fantastic music and dancing from a local troupe, speeches from Alex Kanyankole the Director General of OCIR, and Agnes Kalibata the Minister of Agriculture. She had visited us in Kayonza on one of the cupping days and was grateful and impressed with how focused and dedicated our work was, to the point that she barely dared say hello in case she interrrupted us. She also spoke of how the 100 million Rwandan Francs that the 2008 COE brought in had been used to improve the situation for the farmers, providing them with livestock, better infrastructure and social developments. There was a real pride coming through from the organizers in how they were the only country in Africa to be represented in the COE, and that the country as a whole were able to use coffee as one of the driving forces to progress away from a difficult history and improve the path ahead for their young population. In fact, out of the 16 national cuppers that initially screened the submitted lots, 7 performed well enough to be considered for a place in the International jury, which has never happened before. They were all young and driven and and I was pleased to see that the majority of them were girls too! In the end, Emmertha and Laeticia were the two selected to cup with us, but the others were all part of the backroom crew running the show during the cupping days, and Agnes encouraged the industry at large to really make use of the fact that their national cuppers are among the best in the world. As the award ceremony took place and we had the prizes from 22nd  to 1st place handed out, the room full of people had an excited energy about it that I’ve never felt in previous COE’s. As the day came to a close I got to shake hands with the Prime Minister of Rwanda (!), and I couldn’t wait to see how the auction was going to pan out for these coffees that I’d got to know over the past few days.

We’ve now finally taken delivery of our 8 boxes of MIG/Buremera, from the Maraba sector of Huye in the South Province. They wet process the Bourbon cherries and dry the parchment on tables in full sun at 1800 masl, and we shared the 37 box lot with friends from Poland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland! It will launch in the webshop soon and be around for a limited time only.

Villa Loyola, Colombia
100% Caturra, Fully Washed (£7.50/350g)

This 100% Caturra lot from Gerardo Arango’s 2008 Cup of Excellence Colombia winning farm, Villa Loyola, brings an abundance of dense fruit sweetness in the guise of raisins, prunes and figs, while a subtle but integral apple-like acidity really brings the cup to life. A well-structured base layer of molasses means the coffee finishes well and lingers pleasantly.

Around 10 hecatres of this 18.5 hectare farm is dedicated to 40% shade-grown coffee production – this lot being exclusively Caturra variety. The farm itself was a gift from Manuel Delgado to the Compania de Jesus church over 100 years ago – Gerardo Arango being the Priest Director of the church – who remain the farm’s owners to this day.

Over the last 20 years, a greater attention to coffee growing has seen quality improve dramatically. With Eduardo Valencia as administrator of the farm, a combination of an elevated focus on technological advancement, as well as seeking help and advice from the Committee of Coffee Growers of Narino, Villa Loyola placed first in the 2008 Cup of Excellence Colombia competition.

Improvements to the salaries and living conditions of Villa Loyola’s permanent and temporary workforce continue, and children are not permitted to work on the farm, having to attend the local school, instead. Around 7 hectares of the farm has been dedicated to growing ‘guadua’ – a large, thorny bamboo – by the Environmental Control Center of Narino, to be used as a construction tool in coffee farms in the region.

For more information, and to order, visit the web shop here: http://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/products/villa-loyola.

Blackburn Estate – Clouds of August 2010 Microlot, Tanzania
Kent & Bourbon Varieties, Fully Washed
(£9.00/350g)

Last year we were delighted to offer a wonderfully vibrant and juicy microlot from the Blackburn Estate in Tanzania, called Shades of September. This year, we’re exceedingly happy to be able to offer another microlot from the same farm – this one being called Clouds of August.

This Blackburn Estate microlot from producer Michael Gehrken brings notes of clove, cashews and toffee in the cup, tied together by a silky raisin, Medjool date and molasses sweetness. Rounded out by a hint of Middle Eastern spices and baker’s chocolate, this coffee is simple, sweet and delicious.

Clouds of August was picked from August 3 – 13, 2010 by around 65 of Michael’s 138 staff, who were supervised by experienced pickers Christian Burra and Amsi Demay. Trained to pick only the ripest cherries, the pickers collected a total of 2,228 ‘tins’ of coffee, weighing 54kg each, over the 11 days.

With their own wet mill on site, the day’s cherries were pulped each afternoon, then fermented for 14 hours before grading and washing in spring water from Mount Oldeani. The harvested cherries were then carried to raised African drying beds, and sun dried to 11.5% humidity, before being conditioned in bins, and finally transported to Moshi for dry milling

Production roasts of this coffee begin Monday, February 7th, and will roast every subsequent Monday and Thursday from then. For more information, and to order, visit the web shop here: Blackburn Estate – Clouds of August.

Toarco Jaya, Sulawesi
Jember S-795, S-33 Washed Peaberry
(£7.50 / 350g)

We’re very pleased to welcome this most recent addition to our range. An unusual coffee given it’s provenance, this Toarco Jaya peaberry selection contradicts a great many of the stereotypes surrounding Indonesian coffee. While outstanding in its own right, this coffee took us somewhat by surprise, and it’s on very high rotation in the Square Mile morning brewing rota.

Wonderfully clean and complex, in the cup this Sulawesi peaberry has the dense, sweet, citrus quality of Sicilian blood orange, while on the nose expect fresh-baked butter croissants and just a hint of milk chocolate. Combine this with the Toarco Jaya’s marshmallow mouthfeel, and the resulting cup is layered, balanced and complete.

This coffee constitutes something of a rarity, in that it’s a fully washed coffee from Sulawesi, where the more traditional wet hulling process is nearly ubiquitous. With this coffee, we see the results of a partnership between a Japanese coffee company and local investors to establish a wet mill in Sulawesi, resulting in coffees with greater complexity and more clarity of flavour than is usually seen from Indonesia.

Coupled with this processing, this coffee benefits from being grown at significant altitude. While the Toarco Jaya wet mill is at around 1000masl, a great amount of the contributing smallholder farmers have their farms between 1250 and 1750masl, making them some of the highest growing coffee trees in Sulawesi.

Toarco Jaya also provides on-going education and training to their smallholder farmers, assisting them in maintaining their trees through good farming practice, and helping train their pickers to select the ripest cherries from the tree. We think that the combination of altitude, education, and exemplary growing and processing practices really strips away the negative characteristics people have come to associate with coffees from Indonesia.

More information. (pdf)

Available now in the web shop: http://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/products/toarco-jaya

The idea was to blend for a different reason – to see how far we could go, to see how much sweet delicious fruit we can cram into a cup.  Some may say there is too much in here – for us there’s never enough!

The blend takes three of our favourite coffees – each capable of a different range of vibrant sweet flavours – and blended them together in equal parts.  Some may be nervous about the acidity in the espresso but these coffees are roasted very careful to showcase their sweetness above all else.  (Though if you prefer low acidity espressos then this probably isn’t for you.)

The recipe is:

1 part Kangocho AA (Kenya)

1 part Tegu AA (Kenya)

1 part Yirgacheffe (Ethiopia)

In the cup look for notes of:

Refreshers, pear drops, cola cubes, blackcurrant fruitella, cherry lips and sherbert lemons. This is an intensely fruity espresso blend, very sweet and with a balanced and pleasing acidity.

(click for full size  -  and you can expect a t-shirt of this very soon too!  Artwork courtesy of David “El Grifo” Gibbons)

A few very important things – please read before ordering:

We are roasting a limited amount of this on 31st of August only.  If you place an order for Sweet Shop that has other items the whole order will be held until that date, then fulfilled.

As we say above – this is a limited run.  We expect to sell out of it in the next week, as it has been available to pre-order already to our newsletter subscribers and over 70% has already gone.  (We like to say thank you however we can!)

Sweet Shop Espresso – £9.00 (350g)

Fazenda Capao – £7.00 (350g)

Finca Mauritania is run by Aida Batlle – many of you may remember her coffee we had last year from Finca Kilimanjaro, easily one of our highlight coffees from last year.  Aida runs three farms in total – Kilimanjaro, Mauritania and Los Alpes. I had the pleasure if visiting these farms earlier this year while in El Salvador for the Cup of Excellence. We cupped all the farms coffees while viewing the mill where they are processed, and the Mauritania and Kilimanjaro lots stood out for me as coffees I’d really like to introduce to you guys! We bought all three processes from both, as well as Cascara from all three farms. Stored in vacuum sealed bags the greens smell amazing when you open them up, and we’re so excited to be launching the different lots between now and Christmas.

We’re starting by introducing you to three selections from Finca Mauritania – all the same 100% Bourbon coffee, but processed three different ways:  Natural Process, Pulped Natural and Fully Washed.  Big thanks to Peter Giuliano and Counter Culture Coffee for giving up a little of what they normally buy from Mauritania, we’re now able to present to you this unique and fascinating opportunity to taste and learn a little more about how processing affects the flavour profile of a bean.

On to the coffees, and a little explanation of the processes.

After coffee is picked, our ultimate goal is to get the seeds from middle, and to dry them down ready to store and then ship.  There are three main ways used around the world to do this:

Natural Process: Here the cherry is dried whole in the sun, until it is a shriveled husk that can be hulled off.  This is commonly used in regions with very little access to water.  It is very easy for the natural process to go wrong – drying fruit in the sun can easily lead to fermentation or, even worse, mould.  However, when done correctly the natural process is capable of giving the coffee incredible fruit notes and a lovely sweetness.

Pulped Natural: Here the cherry is squeezed until the beans pop out, and then they are dried down.  Most of the fruit is removed but a sticky layer of fruit meat (called mucilage) still coats the seeds.  Again popular in areas with limited access to water, and much lower risk of defects compared to the natural process.  Coffees produced this way tend to have great body and sweetness and are often very popular in traditional espresso blends.

Washed Process: Here the cherry is squeezed until the beans pop out, and then the beans are soaked in fresh water until the sticky, sugary outer layer dissolves.  The beans are then dried, often in the sun.  This process results in the lowest incidence of defects, and as such is the most popular within speciality coffee.  Why work hard to craft and grow amazing coffee, only to take the risk when processing it.  The natural acidity in the coffee is really highlighted by the washed process, and the fruit and floral notes often given room to breathe.

With the Finca Mauritania lots the same Bourbon variety has been processed each of these ways.  Aida and her team are incredibly skilled, and as such these are great examples of the possibilities of each process.  The Natural has amazing tropical and strawberry notes, the Pulped Natural is comfortingly sweet, rich and full bodied while the Fully Washed lot has a lovely honeydew melon juiciness and soft caramel and fruit notes.  You can read more about each of them by clicking the links.

This year Aida has once again produced Cascara from the dried coffee fruit left behind after the beans are removed from the cherry.  This is used to make one the oldest coffee drink in history – Qishr, a tea made from steeping the fruit in hot water, often adding sugar and other spices as well. (Although we love it on it’s own, or as a highly caffeinated ice tea!)

This is a rare opportunity – to be able to taste the effects of processing so clearly by using the same coffee from the same farm.  We really want people to try this so we’ve created the Mauritania Collection.  A bag of each of the processes, with a free 200g bag of the Cascara.  Hold a cupping, share it with friends to help explain why you are so obsessed with coffee,  try them individually or buy the collection and just keep it all for yourself!  This is fascinating and delicious!  We really look forward to hearing what you think.

Just straight up delicious coffee, drinkable and satisfying.  We have a little under a bag of this so don’t expect it to be around for too long.

Progresso (350g) – £7.00

Juice is a one-off roast – we will be roasting and shipping it on the 1st of September only.  If you order before that date, and if you order any other items, then the entire order will be held til that date.  There will only be a small quantity of it roasted, due to the scarcity of some of the coffees we plan to use.

Onto the fun stuff – this espresso blend is all about big juicy fruit flavours.  This won’t be a tolerant, chocolatey espresso blend – it will be the polar opposite.  It will still be sweet and tasty, but expect and crisp and bright acidity and tonnes and tonnes of fruit aromatics and flavours.

This isn’t for everyone, but if it appeals to you then we hope you’ll try it.

When you get the coffee there will be loads of information about the blend, the brew recipe and some other bits and pieces.  For now though – it remains a secret.

Juice (350g) – £8.00