My father is a modern day Indiana Jones.  He has the travel bug that I am happy to have inherited.  In November of last year, he spent a month traveling between Belize and Guatemala in Central America.  And lucky me, he brought me Guatemalan coffee from the source.

I’ve had many different great coffees, but Guatemalan coffee is one of my consistent favorites.  I had concerns about whether the coffee that my father bought would be up to standard.  Ironically, because of Guatemala’s economy, their best coffee is generally exported.  Imagine, you could have a better cup of Guatemalan coffee at Starbucks than you could in Guatemala.

I am about halfway through the two pounds of this coffee that he brought back, and it’s great.  There’s also a romantic quality to drinking it, since it comes from the source.  My father bought it from Cafe Toliman – don’t try to find information online, I already tried.  Toliman is one of three volcanoes between which Lake Atitlan formed.  Yes, a lake held together by three volcanoes – my father says it’s breathtaking.  The soil is volcanic ash, rich in organic matter, a perfect altitude, climate, and soil for growing coffee.

You don’t need to fly to Guatemala to enjoy their amazing coffee.  Peets sells a special blend from the Guatemalan province of Antigua, its Guatemala San Sebastian.  I have included this variety in every “coffee tour” I’ve bought from Peets – it’s an amazing coffee.  Click here and enter “Guatemala” in the search field to learn more.

Alternatively, your local roaster definitely carries a Guatemalan coffee, and is a great source for fresh coffee.

It’s always fun for me when a bunch of coincidental things happen at once.  Earlier last week, I was e-mailing back and forth with Shreerag Plakazhi of India.  I had misunderstood that he was asking me if I’d ever tried coffees from India.  There is coffee production out of India, most of it from small growers, and responsible for about 5% of the world’s coffee production.  Shreerag was actually referring to a unique coffee brewing method called Indian filter coffee or South Indian coffee.

True Indian filter coffee is made with a unique two-cup metal contraption, and I don’t have one.  It’s also made with a combination of dark-roasted coffee and chicory.  A week later, I received an email from a visitor to the site named Makeda Queen, asking me if I had any advice on adding chicory to coffee.  Last but not least, this week, a new book entitled “The Romance of Indian Coffee” was released, and I knew the stars must be aligned for me to experiment with something new.

• Ask Marc: Got a question about coffee?  Any question?

Here’s the best that I figured I could make my own Indian filter coffee at home:

- It’s made with roughly a 80% / 20% mix of dark-roasted coffee and chicory.
- I don’t have any dark-roasted coffee at home, but I did just receive my home roasting equipment.  If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve been having lots of fun home roasting again.  I took the last of my unroasted Nicaragua Maragogype beans that I bought from Toronto’s Green Beanery and roasted them as dark as I could without burning them, or setting off the fire alarms.
- On my last trip to the grocery store, I bought some chicory from the baking aisle.  I’m not the culinary type, so I confess I don’t quite know what exactly chicory is.
- I’ve decided the method I will use to brew in absence of the true equipment is by Chemex pourover.

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• Read: Profile – Toronto’s Green Beanery

The magic all happens tomorrow.  I don’t know what to expect, but the only way to truly appreciate the wide world of coffee is to try as much of it as you can.  You don’t need to roast your own beans and buy chicory from the grocery store, but if you love coffee, experiment with it.  Try one you’ve never tried before.  And when you visit your local roaster, take the time (and theirs) to learn what they have to offer that you would enjoy and haven’t tried.

I have friends that just returned from Ecuador.  Like any good friends, they brought me back coffee fresh from the source.  I was excited to get it home and try it, as I’ve never tried coffee from Ecuador.  Coffee is very much like wine, in that it takes a sample of the world’s offering to fully appreciate every flavor and variety.

Coffees of Ecuador

Ecuador is one of the top 20 producers of coffee in the world.  Although the country itself is small, its varied ecology makes it possible to cultivate all of the varieties of coffee within its borders, including premium Arabica beans and less-expensive Robusta beans.

Coffee cultivation and export is a significant portion of the country’s economy.  While they presently export to the US as well as all over the world, it is not very prevalent in the US.  As a result, very little is written about its unique qualities, and to the best of my knowledge, this would be my first cup of coffee from Ecuador.

El Tostador

The packaging of my friends’ coffee is entirely in Spanish and I am definitely not smarter than a fifth grader yet in Spanish.  But, I know key words so I gave “reading” about the coffee my best shot.  Naturally, I could see that it was produced by El Tostador, Cafe Tostado y Molido, where my friends bought it in Ecuador.

The first thing I noticed is that the words Arabica or Robusta were not printed anywhere on the package.  My rule of thumb when I see this is that it is probably cheaper Robusta beans.  After all, you would promote that you are selling Arabica beans, so if nothing is said, I assume it’s Robusta.  However, I was able to identify from the packaging, the region where the coffee was grown…the province of Loja.  The variety of coffee grown in Loja is Arabica – great news. 

The frest-roasted coffee was ground to order for my friends who brought back a pound for themselves, and brought back a pound for me.  It was ground fine, so I’ve been preparing it by pourover moreso than by press pot, since you would generally use a coarse ground coffee in the press pot to avoid overextraction (sludge).

Read: Pour-Over Brewing Method
Read: Fresh Press Brewing Method

In the end, I couldn’t help but take some of the Spanish from the packaging to a translation website, which told me:
“From the quality coffee plantations of the highlands of the province of Loja, a tradition of flavor and natural fragrance is born.”

Challenges

Ecuador has a couple challenges in order to have its coffee included in the list of Specialty Coffee origins.  First, it hasn’t actively promoted itself as a source of fine coffee to the US market, and promotes itself in the European market mainly on price.  The climate of Ecuador is similar in characteristics to other countries who produce well-recognized coffee.  This leads to the second challenge, that the country’s harvesting and processing standards are not as tightly regulated by the state since other exports, such as bananas, have increased in importance.

I was happy for the opportunity to try a new coffee I hadn’t tried before.  The only way to truly appreciate the world of coffee is to try coffees from around the world.

  At a recent coffee tasting at the Fire Roasted Coffee Company (FRCC) in London, Canada, I learned something VERY cool about coffee.  I was complaining to head roaster Patrick Dunham and owner David Cook about how I have a hard time describing what exactly I like about certain coffees.  I’ve yet to buy a coffee from FRCC that I didn’t like, but without a culinary background or a terribly sophistocated sense of taste, I have a hard time pinpointing or describing what I like. 

One guest to the website suggested that I develop a scoring system, similar to Coffee Review’s score out of 100.  But I’m still at the point of finding the right words, let alone as sophistocated a system as that.

Then Patrick showed me what you see in this image, a set of 36 small numbered  bottles with a legend to match each number to a corresponding flavor accent.  The set is called Le Nez du Cafe, French for “the nose (or scent) of coffee”.  A whiff from any of the 36 bottles provides an overpowering emphasis on that one particular flavor characteristic. Each bottle is identified by number so that you have to take in the aroma before referring to the legned in the guide to determine its identity. At the bottom of this post, I’ve listed the 36 different aromas in Le Nez du Cafe.

It begged the question, where do all of these flavors come from?  David explained to me that throughout the cultivation and handling of coffee, it picks up accents from its environment.  During cultivation, the coffee will pick up accents from the different product grown in that same source.  And so, coffees of a certain source might contain hints of certain fruits like lemon.  Or depending on care at the source, could contain earthy tones that are not enjoyed by everybody.  I was surprised that one of the 36 scents was rubber, an unenviable flavor that could be picked up in handling, tarnishing the coffee.

Le Nez du Cafe set costs $300-400.  I have no doubt that given enough practice both with this set, and using a newfound sense of taste applied to the coffees I drink, that I would learn to accurately identify flavor characteristics in coffee.  It’s a little out of my coffee budget however, so I’ve committed to the following instead and I suggest that you do as well:

Any good roaster will describe the flavor characteristics that you should be looking for in their coffee.  I am going to pay close attention to these descriptions from now on, and look for these characteristics in the coffee I drink.  It may take me longer than if I invested in the set but doing it this way means learning by enjoying coffee, and taking the time to enjoy what makes that coffee unique and great.  Pay attention to the roaster’s description before drinking the coffee, and attempt to capture what they describe.

  This past weekend, I enjoyed yet another awesome coffee tasting at the Fire Roasted Coffee Company (FRCC) in London, Canada.  For $10, anybody could walk in and sample seven different exotic coffees from around the world.  The FRCC is one of my favorite spots in the city to hit on a regular basis.  You shouldn’t have too much stock of coffee in your house at any time, so a weekly or bi-weekly trip to your local roaster ensures you have fresh coffee all the time.

Read: My First Coffee Tasting Experience
Read: Profile Fire Roasted Coffee Company (my first of many trips)

This past Saturday, the subject of the tasting was Peaberry Coffee.

What is Peaberry Coffee

  The pit of a coffee cherry is made up of two coffee beans.  That is, about 95% of the time.  Both sides of the seed in the other 4-5% of coffee cherry do not both fertilize and as a result, the cherry only yields a single rounded oval-shaped coffee bean.  This is called the Peaberry.  Once separated from the rest as defects, it was only a matter of time before somebody realized that no only does the peaberry bean make a great coffee, but one with a flavor slightly different than the regular bean from the same source.

Fire Roasted’s Peaberry Coffee Tasting

  The tasting was hosted by FRCC’s head roaster Patrick Dunham and owner David Cook.  There were seven coffees to be sampled:

- Tanzanian Peaberry: I’ve bought this one from FRCC before and have always enjoyed it.  It is one of Patrick’s picks.  Bright and crisp, Tanzanian Peaberry is intentionally cultivated, as opposed to other sources that treat it as an afterthought.  For that, the Tanzanian variety has a strong following.

- Cameroon Peaberry: A wilder coffee than the Tanzanian.  The sample of green unroasted beans in front of the pot showed an inconsistent color throughout, with some of that inconsistency translating to the coffee itself.  Still delicious, it had an earthy taste like an Ethiopian Harrar.  This is the only one that I didn’t love – a tasting novice, I described it as “paper-y”, which Patrick and David pointed out would be terrible coffee marketing .

- Rwandan Peaberry: A tangier coffee than the previous two.

- Jamaican Blue Mountain: Not a peaberry, but Patrick wanted guests to compare the following coffee to this one.  As I’ve heard more than once, for a coffee that fetches a premium, the Jamaican is no longer the prized coffee it once was.

- Jamaican Blue Mountain Peaberry: Roasted darker than the regular variety, it had a slightly different taste but hard to justify the premium, roughly the same as Hawaii Kona coffee, triple the price of regular coffee.

- Papua New Guinea Peaberry: Patrick’s pick of the bunch.  Bright and clean.

- Papua New Guinea: Same roast and source as the previous, Patrick wanted guests to appreciate two great coffees.

What Makes Peaberry Different?

Patrick had some great insight into what makes peaberry coffee taste different:

- The rounded shape of the bean without a flat side makes for more even and consistent roasting.
- The same flavor characteristics are concentrated into the bean, capturing the “terroir” of the source.  I won’t lie to you, I had to look up the word when I got home – often used to describe flavor in wine, terroir denotes the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestows upon the coffee.
- Finally, peaberries have to be individually hand-picked, meaning a tighter selection and more consistent quality.

Try a Peaberry coffee.  I don’t find them commonly sold by the cup, but any good roaster sells pounds or half-pounds to take home. 

Read: Make Good Coffee’s articles on Peaberry coffee

Recently, my friend Julie visited Australia and came back with a half-pound of local coffee.  I love when friends lay these kinds of gifts on me and am all too happy to try them out.

The coffee comes from the Byron Bay Coffee Company of Newrybar, New South Wales, Australia.  At first, I was skeptical, we just don’t see that much Australian coffee in North America and there’s usually a reason for that.  As it turns out, there isn’t large-scale roasting in Australia and it’s restricted to northern Queensland and northern NSW.


If you pull out your atlas, you’ll see that this corresponds to neither a tropical part of the world nor high elevations, the two characteristics of quality coffee.  And yet, virtually all coffee grown in Australia is of the high-quality Arabica species of coffee.  Having said that, total production out of Australia is not even high enough to be listed in the International Coffee Organization’s ranking of coffee producers, and half of what is grown never leaves the continent.

I was treated to Byron Bay’s Nero Espresso, blended of different international coffees, likely for a greater acidity or pop of coffee flavor, mellowed out with the Australian coffee grown locally, together for a nice espresso blend.  It was already ground for me (too bad) and was ground to suit espresso brewing, so very fine versus the regular grind I would brew in my drip brewer or the coarse grind I would brew in my french press.  If your grind is too fine for the brewing method, you overextract flavor from the coffee and will not enjoy the taste in your cup.  I didn’t feel like dusting off the espresso maker so I took my chances with this grind style in the drip brewer.  If I had have used the french press, I would have overextracted for sure.

The result was definitely a full-bodied coffee, which I like and a semi-rich flavor that was much bolder than what I was expecting of Australian coffee.  I liked it as a rich and full coffee, and something different than what I’m getting used to from the three or so roasters I keep going to.  Before this half-pound is done, I will make at least a couple shots of espresso with it and expect even more from that since the coffee was ground for this brewing method.  Where the coffee lacked aroma and an even richer flavor, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and blame myself for not brewing it sooner, as my friend has been back from Australia for at least a few weeks now.  That means the coffee is not as fresh as it was when she got back.

This coffee has won the Byron Bay Coffee Company a gold, a silver, and three bronzes in the Australia Fine Foods Competitions as recently as the silver in 2007.  Proceeds from the coffee go to supporting Organic and Rainforest Alliance Certifications on coffee, so you make a small donation to the cause just by buying this coffee.

Family owned and operated since 1989, the Ivancich creed: “After all, isn’t a great cup of coffee at the heart of life”.

Check out the website for the Byron Bay Coffee Company.

I am a member of the Peetniks Coffee Club.  This is a recurring coffee delivery program where I get a pound of coffee delivered to me in intervals of my choosing – in my case one pound every four weeks.  The coffees I get are also up to me, or I can leave it to the experts to decide what I get.  Each pound arrives with the date that the coffee was roasted by Peet’s so I know I’m getting it fresh.

The Peetniks Club is offered by Peet’s Coffee and Tea.  I have my favorite coffees but leave the selection up to one of their Coffee Tours.  This week, I received a pound of their Ethiopian Fancy.  I have yet to receive a coffee from Peet’s I didn’t like and this one is no exception.


As far back as we can trace, all coffee originates from Ethiopia, exported from the Arab world to the rest of the world through ports in neighboring Yemen.  For many, Ethiopian coffee is still the finest coffee in the world and certainly there’s the intrigue of drinking coffee from its origin.  For a time, internal strife in Ethiopia had an effect on the consistency and quality of coffee out of that region but that has changed greatly over time.

Ethiopian coffee has a medium body, so neither too thick nor too thin.  It’s fully of very “bright” flavor, with high tones and sometimes described as the world’s most distinct.  The beans used by Peet’s in this coffee are meant to deliver a floral almost perfumed aroma common to coffees from this region.

While not formally certified, Peet’s Ethiopian Fancy coffee is also organically grown.

Click here to learn more about Ethiopian coffees.

Coffee was introduced to Colombia in the early 1800s.  It is grown today all along the Andes Mountains that cross Colombia from north to south.  There is a misconception that Colombia is the world’s largest producer of coffee, which is to be expected given the success of their marketing that dates back to 1959.  That was the year that Colombia introduced the world to the fictitious character known as Juan Valdez.


Go back 32 years further still to 1927 when Colombian coffee growers founded the FNC, or the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia.  The group was formed for common purpose, including the maintenance of quality from that region, which benefits all of its growers.  Also, an opportunity for growers to collaborate in improving the quality of life and development of coffee growing areas, and ensure an organized economy for exporting it worldwide.  Today, the FNC represents something in the order of half a million Colombian coffee farmers.

It was in 1959 that the FNC partnered with DDB Worldwide, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, in order to launch a North American ad campaign that first featured iconic Juan Valdez.  The intent was to give a face to the Colombian coffee grower for consumers.  While Brazil produces more coffee, this campaign made Colombian coffee perhaps the most famous coffee among North American consumers.  The campaign lives to this day and Juan Valdez remains the familiar face of Colombia coffee.

Since launching the icon, FNC has taken protection of its brand very seriously.  There have been two recent and well known instances of lawsuits by the FNC.  One of the most well known was its action in 2006 against the “Juan Valdez drinks Costa Rican coffee” slogan.  Cafe Britt in Costa Rica was to launch a t-shirt displaying the slogan.  The original meaning of the slogan that also appears on bumper stickers in Costa Rica, is in reference to the original actor that played Juan Valdez in the commercials, Jose Duval, and his love of Costa Rican coffee.  Given the popularity of the name “Juan Valdez”, Cafe Britt was able to produce a Costa Rican by the same name to justify the campaign.

More recently in January 2009, the FNC brought action against cartoonist Mike Peters, creator of the Mother Goose and Grim comic strip.  The lawsuit contends that Peters made unauthorized reference to Juan Valdez and Colombian coffee.  The suit was filed for $20 million in damages.

Hand it to the FNC, they have surpassed the world’s largest coffee producer in recognition on the strength of a marketing campaign.  This has meant an increase in quality of life for this coffee producing country.  They have created an instantly recognizable icon that many people attach to coffee in general, much less that specifically from Colombia.  And like any good marketer, they keep a tight grip on the brand’s integrity which is now over 50 years strong.

Check out my profile of the Ueshida Coffee Company (UCC) in Kona Hawaii.  It was more than just an excellent tour of a coffee farm in one of the coffee world’s most esteemed places.  It was a lesson in where coffee comes from.

While it was a great lesson from the UCC, there is more to the origin of coffee than this.  For example, it’s not everybody that realizes that all coffee originates from Ethiopia and Yemen.


The tale goes that farmers couldn’t figure out what was getting their goats so excited.  They called them “dancing goats” and realized it was because they were eating what we know today as the coffee cherry.  The farmers consulted with Sufi mystics to get advice.  These mystics found a beverage made with the leaves and cherries of this tree kept them alert for hours of prayer, but not didn’t intoxicate them.  Coffee was born, and our first example of people using it to carry out their long duties while staying alert.

For centuries, Arabia controlled the trade of coffee.  They would only sell it roasted or else treated in water so that it wasn’t fertile and couldn’t be planted elsewhere.  Coffee was largely made available to the world through the Mokha Port in Yemen (identified below).  Rumor has it that a pilgrim from mecca and a Dutch importer separately smuggled raw coffee beans to India and Amsterdam respectively, and Arabia could not stop experimental growing in regions around the world.  The coffee cat was out of the bag.

In the 17th century, it found its way to Europe and led to the popularity of coffee houses.  The drink was advertised as a way to sharpen the senses, rather than dull them like alcohol does.  This appealed to the studious, and coffee houses became meeting places for academics and the educated of all types.

Strangely, the biggest detractor to the growth of coffee were women who were employed in ale houses and noticed the drop in business.  In 1674, the Women’s Petition Against Coffee was drafted, warning men that coffee would make them “as barren as the desert out of which this unlucky berry has been imported”.  The best part is that by this point, there were prostitutes in the coffee houses so if the men couldn’t perform at home because they’d just come back from a coffee house, they’d tell the wives it was the coffee affecting them.  Supposedly, this is how the rumor began that coffee leads to impotence!

Coffee did not successfully grow just anywhere that farmers tried to plant it, but today, is grown in 70 different countries whose climate meets growing requirements.   Today, it is the world’s second most traded commodity after oil!  My opinion (maybe somebody’s said it before): ironic that oil and coffee are the world’s two most traded commodities, one fuels our technology, the other fuels our people.

For fans of the movie Bucket List, the most expensive coffee in the world comes from the excretion of the Asian palm civet, a small feline animal that loves to eat coffee cherries.  The civet’s system does not completely digest the cherry but apparently, adds a musky flavor that is a perfect complement to coffee.  It just means cleaning up after the civets and unfortunately, I assume the guy who has that job does not see very much of the price that this coffee fetches.  I don’t even want to know who discovered this coffee and why.

From tree to cup…how coffee is grown and roasted!

The Ueshima Coffee Corporation (UCC) in Kona, Hawaii.

First thing’s first.  Why is Hawaii Kona coffee so revered by coffee lovers from around the world?  First, the climate for optimal growing conditions.  The mountainous nature of Hawaii’s Big Island means high peaks and the cloud cover means a natural shade and consistent rain.  Second, you’re in the United States.  You can expect the same quality control and respect for reputation from Hawaii’s government as you would from any developed country in the world.

We were excited to take a personalized tour of the UCC, a tour of the plantation and lesson in how coffee is roasted before you buy it.

Our guide was Peggy Stevens, Assistant Manager of UCC's Sales and Production.

Here, Peggy is walking us through the plantation to show us how the “coffee cherry” grows.  After the coffee cherry is harvested, there is little the farmer can do to improve quality.  This means timing of when the cherries are picked is paramount.  The branch in the picture above shows a good example of cherries at different stages.  The only example missing is if the cherry is overripe and a brown color.  The cherries you see here range in color and ripeness from yellow (underripe) to dark red (fully ripe).  Before that, the cherries ripen from yellow to green to a light red.

Inside each coffee cherry is a seed, what we call the coffee bean. The seed is in two parts, or two coffee beans. One coffee cherry = two coffee beans.

Coffee cherries are picked en masse and processed so that the coffee cherry is “washed” off of the coffee beans inside.  The cherry skins are not wasted, but rather reworked into a natural fertilizer.  The dried seeds, green coffee beans, are sorted for inspection by Hawaii’s coffee 5-0 and those that make the grade are moved to be roasted.

Peggy drives us through rows and rows of coffee trees en route to the roasting station.

These old-fashioned roasters are not the UCC's official coffee roasters. These only roast up to a couple pounds at a time.

But innovation in coffee roasting is to suit volume, not quality of the roast.  The technology is actually very simple: keep the beans moving while over heat.  The wheel inside each of these maintains a steady turn.

This isn't the UCC's official way of measuring roast style, but I loved the poster. It shows ten different intensities of roast and their standardized names.

For our purposes in this small-batch roasting, this is a more realistic roast guide in that there are actual beans divided by roast style. I still love that poster though!

For a more thorough explanation of roast style and how it affects the flavor in your cup, visit our page on Roast Style and Flavor.  Obviously very familiar with their own bean, the UCC has profiled it as best between a High and a City style roast.  Alot of Kona coffee is roasted to Medium.  I personally favor a darker roast but I didn’t want to leave the UCC’s own recommendations for their coffee, so I chose to roast mine at City, the dark end of their range.

Back to the coffee. I have a dish of unroasted green coffee beans, harvested from the plantation and dried out prior to roasting. The beans are emptied into a roaster.

As David Cook explained to me at the Fire Roasted Coffee Company, Peggy reiterated it.  For those “efficient” coffee roasters that profile a bean and then roast it automatically without supervision, there are cues for all five senses that go unobserved.  The bean itself and the environment in which it’s roasted can change and only the human senses can judge when a bean is optimally roasted.

In the above picture, we’ve heard the “first crack”, that point where gas trapped inside the bean has escaped in a snapping sound, expanding the size of the bean.  At that point, you can be sure of a Medium style roast or you can leave the beans to roast further.  Imagine the sound of popcorn starting to pop after it’s been exposed to heat.  Once you hear the “second crack”, you are now burning the coffee’s natural oil to the surface of the bean for the darker roasts from Full City to Italian.  Somewhere in between, I stop mine at City.

Once the bean is removed from the heat, it needs to be immediately cooled as heat on the interior of the bean will continue to roast it from the inside. Here for this small batch, we use a fan and stir the beans until sense of touch indicates that they are fully cooled and no longer roasting themselves. Hard to tell here, but house rules dictate that you must hula-dance while stirring the beans.

Not a bad City roast. By sense of taste, we chewed a bean from the batch to get a sense of how it will taste in the cup.

There you have it, it's official! I've graduated into the ranks of Peggy's roastmasters.

As an amateur home roaster and all-around coffee enthusiast, I had lots of questions and Peggy did a great job answering them. This picture is taken in their retail store, overlooking one of UCC's three plantations.

The tour was very informative.  If you’re in Kona, I recommend contacting the Ueshima Coffee Corporation.  Check out their website to order a pound of their coffee, and I recommend their Island Select Estate Reserve – what I’m sampling in the picture above.  For a coffee lover, it was great education.