June 2009

• Bolivia Cup of Excellence Video

  Mon 22 June, 2009
  Bolivia Cup of Excellence 2008

  Whilst having a quick look around the Cup of Excellence website for some information on our new Cup of Excellence coffees (Las Delicias from Colombia and La Pira from Costa Rica) I stumbled across a section with some videos on it, which I hadn’t spotted before.
  
  Having been at last year’s Bolivia Cup of Excellence competition, you’d think I might have realized that a short documentary was being made, but I must have been too focused on the sublime coffees and the amazing scenery. Thankfully I don’t really feature – apart from as a real life extra - but it’s great to watch if you want to understand a little bit more about the program and how it’s of benefit to both farmers and coffee producer origins in general.
  
  Please click on the following link Bolivia Cup of Excellence video and you'll find it at the bottom of the page.

• Portraits from Ethiopia

  Tue 16 June, 2009
  Garedew from OCC and Bruce Crowther

  On Sunday I was invited to a presentation of Richard Human’s “Portraits of Ethiopia” photographic exhibition in Keswick. Many of these striking portraits were of the residents of Choche, a coffee growing community with a direct friendship link to the Keswick Fair Trade campaign and the community there.
  
  It also gave me chance to chat to Joe Human, who has been integral to the efforts of the Keswick Fair Trade campaign – and organising this excellent event - along with his wife Jill. I was also lucky enough to have an in depth conversation with Bruce Crowther, who established the world’s very first Fairtrade town in Garstang back in 2000 after years of fair trade campaigning. The UK alone now has over 400 Fairtrade towns.
  
  Guests to the event enjoyed Fairtrade wines, local cheeses and a choice of Harar or Yirgacheffe coffee from the Oromo Coffee Company. It was a genuinely fine afternoon. (Oh and thanks to Christina from the Lorna Young Foundation for the photo!)

• Oromo Coffee Company in the News

  Fri 12 June, 2009
  Oromo Coffee Company

  Here’s a little piece about our friends at the Oromo Coffee Company in today's Manchester Evening News.
  
  The OCC is owned and run by members of the North West Oromo Community in the UK and source really great Fairtrade certified coffees from smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. the OCC is a not-for-profit social enterprise owned and managed by UK Oromos, originally from Ethiopia.
  
  Please click on the link above to see the article.

• Costa Rica Cup of Excellence 2009

  Fri 12 June, 2009
  Lot 11, La Pira

  Some good prices fetched at yesterday's Costa Rica Cup of Excellence auction, where all of the 24 lots on offer sold for over $5/lb, showing that the world recession doesn't stop roasters and retailers dipping their hands in their pockets for some world beating coffees.
  
  Many of the Top 10 lots were last seen heading towards Japan or Norway (the latter always deserves credit for being one of the leading lights in Europe for high quality, specialty coffees.) So, with the help of the good people at Mercanta "The Coffee Hunters" we managed to share some of Lot 11 - from Carlos Ureña Ceciliano and his La Píra farm. This farm itself is situated near the city of Santa Maria de Dota in the famous Tarrazú region of Costa Rica.
  
  Once shipped, we hope to see this coffee at the Roastery in the next month or so.

• Tanzania Blackburn Estate - Water

  Wed 10 June, 2009
  Blackburn Estate Reservoir

  Michael from the Blackburn Estate in Tanzania has just sent us some nice shots of their new water reservoirs on the farm. One of their annual challenges is having sufficient water resources for both irrigation of the coffee trees and for the wet processing of the coffee - and Michael reports very low rains this year. This has been countered through the development of bigger reservoirs to catch this vital water when it is available, and ensure the best quality of processing at harvest time.
  
  Traditional methods of washing coffee - in essence done to separate the coffee beans from the rest of the fruit - can use significant amounts of water and act as a drain on local resources, but on the Blackburn Estate they use water as sparingly as possible and carefully monitor it. Modern processing equipment like that used here can operate on much less water than was traditionally required and by also investing in larger reservoirs, they are doing all they can on the Estate to minimise the impact on local water resources.