Country: Costa Rica
Region: Tarrazu
Farm/Co-operative: Finca Las Delicias
Altitude: 1800m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Caturra, Catuai
Processing Method: Washed and Sun Dried
Supplier: Cafe Imports

This microlot from Finca Las Delicias produces a coffee that is soft and round with a heavy mouthfeel, caramel sweetness, and citrus acidity presenting in the cup as tart orange and grapefruit.

The Costa Ricans Café Imports are carrying are all sourced directly from micro-mills and producers were paid at the Farm Gate level. They managed local transportation, dry-milling, consolidation, and exportation of the coffees. This experience is extremely valuable as it gives us a better understanding of what it takes to get coffee from cherry to export quality in GrainPro and Yute with its corresponding marks.

Rio Jorco’s operations area is in the municipalities of: Aserri, Acosta, Leon Cortez, Frailes, Desamparados, and Corralillo. These micro-regions of Tarrazu have won multiple Cup of Excellence awards year after year.

Country: Guatemala
Region: Volcan de Agua, Antigua
Farm/Co-operative: Santa Clara
Altitude: 1600-1800m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Bourboncito
Processing Method: Natural
Supplier: Melbourne Coffee Merchants

This very small 10 bag naturally processed micro lot from Santa Clara is 100% “Bourboncito” or Dwarf Bourbon. The Bourboncito is a low yielding high quality mutatation of the Bourbon varietal of arabica that is smaller than normal Bourbon, growing to a maximum 1m in height. This mutation produces a cup with a beautifully clean profile, and intense sweetness.

Finca Santa Clara is located on the fertile southern slopes of the Volcán de Agua in the Antigua Valley at 1,600-1,830 metres above sea level. The farm has been managed since 1988 by Ricardo Zelaya, the 4th generation of the Zelaya family to have produced coffee at Santa Clara.

Santa Clara was originally purchased in 1974 by Ricardos grandfather. Since taking over the farm, Ricardo has increased the size of coffee planted from 17 hectares up to 100 hectares.

Ricardo is passionately committed to both quality and sustainability. His farms are scrupulously well-managed – from the careful selection of varietals planted, to the close supervision of the dry and wet mills – both of which are located on the property and owned by Ricardo, giving him complete control over quality from picking through to export.

Ricardo continuously strives to improve what he is doing and raise the bar of quality. In recent years, Ricardo has been very focused on improving his processing techniques and infrastructure. In his wet mill he has recently installed tiled tanks and channels to process coffee, ensuring that all surfaces can be kept extra clean. He has also (quite remarkably) just built an incredible dry mill on the property that was only just finished in February this year! In addition he has upgraded all of his drying facilities to ensure that the beans can be dried on raised beds.

The coffee on the plantation is shade grown which protects the plants from direct sunlight, maintains soil health, and provides an important habitat for birds and insect life.

This special micro lot has been handpicked by special pickers employed (and paid higher wages) particularly for their skill at selecting only the ripest and most perfect cherries. The method of ‘special’ picking is one that the Zelayas have used to great effect in the lots that they submit to the Cup of Excellence competition. They’ve recently begun to expand their offerings of lots, such as this one, that utilize the same method of picking.

On the same day that they were picked, the fully ripe cherries were washed thoroughly in the receiving tanks and additional water was passed over them to remove any traces of dirt. They were then left in this tank over night. Additionally the cherries were taken through the washing channels to ensure there were no floaters and then transferred directly to the African beds inside the green house where they were turned every 30 minutes initially, and then as the beans dried out this was increased to every 15 minutes to ensure uniform drying. Drying took around 21 days to reach the desired moisture level.

Santa Clara treats their employees like family, and many have been with the farm and the family for generations. For instance, the farm Administrator, Marcos Rompiche, has worked for the Zelayas for 22 years and is the 3rd generation to work the land. The Production Manager, Israel Yool, has 16 years working for the family and is the 2nd generation to do so. Including them, the farm provides work for 25 permanent employees year-round, all of whom help Ricardo manage the processing and production for his farms, Juaja, Santa Clara, Puerta Verde and San Augustin. The family hires an additional 332 additional individuals during the harvest (including 250 for picking alone!)

Ricardo, with his daughter Isabel (who is affectionately called Bel by her family) also have several social initiatives in place to support their temporary and full time workers to improve their quality of life and their happiness and engagement with work. These include providing women workers with other skills such as jewelry, sandal and candy making workshops so that they can have a source of income outside of the coffee harvest.

In addition they have a school onsite for the 50 children of the permanent workers, which has 3 permanent teachers to support it. For children that show potential, Bel, who has a degree in Special Education, has started up the Santa Clara Scholarship Fund, which is focused on supporting the kids through school and/or university with funds provided to support their tuition fees, uniform and books. Currently there are 21 kids that are part of this programme (2 which have been sponsored by MCM). In addition to financial support, every month, specific workshops are run for these children that focus on important skills such as positivity and leadership. Bel and Ricardo’s dream is for the project to achieve formal non-profit status and expand to include not only all the children whose parents work on the farm but also those from surrounding communities.

Country: Colombia
Region: Cundinamarca Department
Farm/Co-operative: Macheta
Altitude: 1400-2000m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Castillo, Colombia, Caturra, Typica
Processing Method: Washed
Supplier: Cofinet

Machetá in the chibcha language means “our honorable tillage”. This village is located in the northeastern region of the eastern mountain range in the department of Cundinamarca.

This municipality is also known as the Golden Gate of the Valle de Tenza, this is because the town is the first one in the Valley, this provides it a strategic location on the road leading to the rest of the Valley.

This is an elegant coffee with a fresh herbal aroma, malic acidity, notes of rasberries and roasted almond, creamy body and a lingering dark chocolate aftertaste. Great as an espresso, it also melds well with milk, making it a versatile single origin coffee.

Country: Costa Rica
Region: San Isidro de Leon Cortes
Farm/Co-operative: Juan Rafael Montero
Altitude: 1900m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Caturra
Processing Method: Natural, dried on raised beds
Supplier: Cafe Imports

The story of Don Cesar Urena and Café Imports is one that honestly sounds like we made it up.

Piero, our green buyer, was doing some field work in Tarrazu when the Land Cruiser he was renting blew a tire in the microregion of San Isidro de Leon Cortes. Piero was at a loss of how to get himself out of the situation without a spare tire, when a man with incredibly kind eyes and an impressive mustache pulled alongside him and said, “¿Necesita ayuda?” (“Do you need some help?”)

That man was Don Cesar Urena, the owner and operator of Don Pepe micromill. Don Cesar took Piero back to his home and helped him fix his tire. By chance, Piero looked outside and saw raised beds with incredibly impressive looking cherry selection on them, and he knew that this car malfunction was no accident.

Holding in his excitement and disbelief that this was happening, Piero told Don Cesar that he was a coffee buyer, and the rest was history. Café Imports now imports nearly all of Don Cesar’s coffee, from the several farms that deliver cherry to Don Pepe micromill. Don Cesar is a genius with Naturals and Honeys, and his ability to train his partner farms in cherry selection is honestly some of the best we have ever seen. They called their receiving tanks with only deep red cherry sangre de toro,or “bull’s blood.”

San Isidro de Leon Cortes is truly like paradise. The perfect microclimate and natural water sources make this area an incredibly lush tropical setting. Don Cesar has been producing coffee his entire life. “The natural environment we have here…no one can take that away,” he says. We are so proud to call Don Cesar a partner and friend in Costa Rica.

Country: Ethiopia
Region: Gedeo Zone
Farm/Co-operative: Selected smallholders
Altitude: 2000-2350m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Various heirloom varietals
Processing Method: Fully washed, dried on raised beds
Supplier: Cafe Imports

Tasting Notes: Vibrant stone fruits, caramel and white grape. Syrupy mouthfeel, tangy acidity and a long clean finish.

Our Adado Coffees are from the Gedeo zone, and are named after the local tribe “Adado”. The region iscomprised of 7000 farmers, contributing to 8 Mills and exports 20-30 containers annually.

Adado is my favorite micro region of Yirga Cheffe. Stone fruit, and lots of it, is the predominant flavour profile of this area. Apricots and peaches with supportive citrus and floral higher tones come together in a delightful cup. The natural process of these lots really complement the typical profile of the washed coffee beautifully.

One of the great things about Ethiopian coffees is the complete mix of varietals. It is estimated that somewhere between six thousand and ten thousand varietals exist naturally in these highlands, the origin of coffee – The cross pollination of genetics is totally amazing.

Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX)

The ECX was started in 2008 to help protect farmers from market forces that might prevent them from making a living. Most of the coffee in Ethiopia is produced by small-holders who own 0.7 hectares, bumper crops often lead to big price drops, which can make it unprofitable for farmers to harvest their coffee. What the ECX does is commoditize grains- including sesame, beans, maize, wheat, and most importantly, coffee. This ensures prompt payment to farmers. It also integrates all parts of the “eco-system” involved in a grains market, including warehousing, grading, trading, and payment. Access to information is emphasized, as farmers can obtain information about trading prices and local delivery points easily through dedicated telephone lines.

Here is a general rundown of how the ECX chain works in Ethiopia:

• Farmers deliver cherry to local wet mills. Some wet mills pay a premium for better quality cherry, some do not.
• The wet mill then delivers parchment coffee to a delivery station warehouse. In Yirgacheffe, this delivery station is in Dila.
• Coffees are labeled with a region and then are graded based both on physical qualities as well as cup quality. Higher quality coffee fetches a higher price.
• Coffee is categorized into 81 generic grades of coffee at the ECX: Processing: Washed, Un-washed, Region: Yirgacheffe, Sidama, Limu, etc. Flavor: A (Representative of region’s cup characteristics) B (Less so), Grade: 1-9 (defect count)
• Tracibility on the coffee an exporter purchases coffee through the ECX will, at most, be labelled as “Yirgacheffe: Konga” or “Sidama: Borena.”
• Once a specific lot is purchased, it is then shipped to the buyer (typically an exporter in Ethiopia).
• Full lots come divided in 30 bag chop sub-lots (parchment). Exporters who are buying and selling many containers will cup through the sub-lots to select the top lots and build a full container from these.

While this system does ensure prompt payment and streamlines supply chain issues, it removes essentially all traceability from the coffee. This is problematic in the specialty world, where traceability is paramount.

The ECX does not allow for complete traceability, but coffee cooperatives in Ethiopia do have the ability to go around the ECX and export the coffee themselves. Coffees that are exported by a cooperative can have traceability, possibly even to a single farmer.

Country: El Salvador
Region: Palo de Campana, Santa Ana
Farm/Co-operative: Finca Miravelle
Altitude: 1800m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Bourbon, SL28, Pacas, Bourboncito
Processing Method: Fully washed
Supplier: Melbourne Coffee Merchants

Tasting Notes: Fruit-driven, complex and elegant, with rich winey acidity, and notes of cherry, honey, berries and dark chocolate.

Finca Miravalle is located in the fertile foothills of the Santa Ana volcano, at an altitude of 1700 – 1800m above sea level, on the Ilamatec mountain range in El Salvador. The farm is owned by Dr. Jaime Menendez, whose family have been producing coffee in El Salvador for several generations. Although Jaime has a full time job as a doctor, he still maintains the love of coffee farming that runs deep in his family. His legacy, in turn, is some stunning coffees produced on Miravalle’s high slopes and a passion for farming coffee that he has been passed on to his son, Jaime, as well.

Dr. Menedez’s father, Amadeo Riera y Solsona, purchased this farm in 1980, naming it Miravalle (Look at the Valley or Overlooking the Valley) for its spectacular view. The farm is located along the same ridge as some very high profile coffee farms, including Las Delicias, Suiza, and Aida Battle’s farms, all of which are renown for their high quality and unique cup profiles.

When Amadeo first purchased the small 12-hectare farm it was only planted out with two hectares of wild Bourbon trees, many which were more than 2.5m high. He set about pruning back the trees and renovating, establishing a great foundation for quality coffee that has benefited the farm today. Dr. Menendez inherited the farm from his mother after his father passed away. Today he manages the cultivation of its 12 hectares with the help of his son, Jaime Menendez Junior, and the farm field manager, Luis Flores, and his son (also Jaime). Luis has worked on the farm for 7 years and managed it for the last 4, and his meticulous execution of Dr. Menendez’s farming plan has resulted in a farm that not only has won the Cup of Excellence 3 years running but is also nearly untouched by the rust that has ravaged other areas of El Salvador.

Today Miravalle is planted out with a wide range of varieties. Around 85% of the coffee planted is Red and Orange Bourbon, while the remaining 15% of varieties planted include Yellow and Pink Bourbon, Pacas, Bourboncito (Dwarf Bourbon) and SL28. These varieties are dispersed in between the Bourbon trees, and this lot (like every lot from Miravalle) is made up of a mix of all of these varieties. Jamie likes to experiment and believes that variety diversity strengthens the plants as well as the coffee. Jaime makes a point of not separating the lots by variety, attributing this unique variety mix, along with the farm’s location and altitude, as the key to what makes it unique. He explainied, ‘This is what makes the cup profile of Miravalle so special’. According to Dr. Menendez, when they’ve separated individual varieties out for cupping in the past, the coffee loses its magic. And indeed, the coffee is special, a fact that has been recognised in the Cup of Excellence competition. For the last seven years, Miravalle been an award winner in the Cup of Excellence competition (most recently placing 13th in the 2015 competition). Their winning strategy is simple. They simply enter the same coffee that they produce ‘every day’ rather than selecting out a special or unique lot. Their COE lot & sample is representative of their entire production.

Coffee on the farm is grown in the shade of native Ingas, Cypress and Gravileo species. Under the watchful eye of Luis, the very ripest cherries are selectively hand-picked. On our recent visit to Miravalle we were interested to note that the cherries they select are super ripe, and in the case of the Red Bourbon, they wait until the beans have reached almost a rich purple colour, which may explain the very fruit-driven cup that Miravalle produces. Typically they do three to four passes of picking throughout the season to ensure only the very ripest cherries are selected.

The harvest at Miravalle is slightly later than other farms in El Salvador (typically running from mid Feb to late April). This is due to the high altitude, which means that the coffee cherries tend to ripen slowly, allowing a higher concentration of sugars to develop, and resulting in a sweet and complex coffee. After picking, the coffee is pulped and fermented and then dried on clay patios in the sun.

During harvest Finca Miravalle employs around 35 selected pickers from the surrounding areas. Finding workers around this area is very difficult because many people migrated to the lower plains after Santa Ana’s eruption in 2005. As a result Miravalle pay their pickers almost 40% above the minimum wage.

Jaime is highly motivated to keep up with the high standards he has set and to continue to improve the quality each year. He thinks the key to this is motivating the people that work on the farm, teaching them the importance of their role, and improving and sharing the benefits to everyone involved.

Fleur and the team at Melbourne Coffee Merchants have visited the farm numerous times and have this to say: “From our perspective, there’s very little room for improvement! We have been lucky enough to have been purchasing Miravalle for the last six years. Every year we fall in love with this coffee all over again. It is always incredibly complex, fruit-driven and elegant, with enough weight for espresso and enough elegance for filter.”

Come and experience some delicious Brazilian Specialty Coffees, in a cupping session curated by Marcelo Brussi from Minas Hill Coffee. Brazil has long been known for its mass production as the worlds largest exporter of coffee, but it has a growing specialty coffee market experimenting with different varietals and processing methods.

This is a unique opportunity for roasters, baristas and coffee enthusiasts to taste some of these exciting coffees. You will also be able to enjoy a tour of the Genovese roasting facility, and meet with some members of our team…

Spots are limited, so please RSVP to ben@genovese.com.au to secure your place at the cupping table!

Country: Bolivia
Region: Irupana, South Yungas
Farm/Co-operative: Fazenda Shangri La
Altitude: 1850-2100m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Caturra, Typica
Processing Method: Fully washed and sun dried on African beds
Supplier: Melbourne Coffee Merchants

Tasting Notes: Bright, sweet and clean with a raspberry acidity and notes of chocolate, blackcurrant and honey.

Gerardo was born in La Paz, where he lived until moving to Caranavi to study agronomy at university. During his studies Gerardo helped his father with his farm in the Calama colony in the Caranavi region, where they grew coffee and citrus fruits.

When Gerardo finished university in 2001 he joined the USAID-funded Mojsa project, which was focused on promoting specialty coffee production in Bolivia. In 2008 Gerardo was hired as a technician with the Inquisivi Cooperative, where he worked for three years. During this time he provided the producers with technical assistance, assisted with quality control and helped many of the producers achieve organic certification.

Gerardo now works with a small group of quality-focused producers to improve their product and ensure that they are receiving the best prices for their hard work.

This is a special selection from Gerardo, selected from his very best producers in the South Yungas region. The cherries were selected from the very highest parts of their farms (1,850-2,100m above sea level!), and picked in December 2014. Thanks to the high altitude at which this coffees was grown, it is incredibly sweet, clean and complex.

The cherries were processed at the very professionally operated Vista mill. After delivery the coffee was pulped and then put into a fermentation tank (without water) to ferment for about 16 hours. After fermentation it was dried on raised beds for 9 days in an open greenhouse, the walls of which can be raised to allow maximum ventilation. The shade of the greenhouse provides protection against the sun and ensures the parchment does not break.

While drying, the coffee was carefully inspected for any defects (often more visible in wet parchment) and turned constantly to ensure that it dried evenly and slowly. Once dry, the coffee was transported to La Paz where it was rested and, when ready for export, milled. At the mill the coffee was carefully screened again by machine and also by hand.

From the Global Coffee Report

At its best, coffee and the industry that is built around it combines the richness of tradition with the excitement and innovation of modern technology.

As a family business that has been manufacturing industrial food machinery for the past 70 years, Brambati is familiar with the challenges – and rewards – associated with combining these two characteristics.

The Italian machinery manufacturer has watched the global coffee industry grow in reach and popularity over the past few decades, and has learned a thing or two about the need for constant innovation along the way.

With the pursuit for perfection in coffee around the world now at unprecedented levels, automation and flexibility have been the main themes underpinning the evolution of technology in this sector, as Fabrizio Brambati explains.

“Over the years we have had an enormous and continuous evolution in roasting profiles,” Brambati says. “They have changed from a manual roast controlled by a single operator to a highly automated procedure with a lot of flexibility and repeatability over the entire process in each of the different phases.”

Brambati’s team, which has its origins close to the northern Italian city of Milan, has moved with the times, making machines that give operators a high degree of control over almost every function.

“Our roasters provide the possibility to change the speed of every motor in a variety of combinations, as well as precise management of air flow which allows us to roast whether by conduction or convection so that we can satisfy the wide variety of demands that world markets require,” he says.

While Brambati’s roots are firmly set in the home of espresso culture, Italy, the worldwide nature of the modern coffee industry – and the regional variations in taste and style that it brings – means the company has to accommodate a large variety of requests for the capabilities of their roasters.

According to Brambati, this means working with clients who require a broad range of roasting profiles and types of coffee, each seeking a different result from their roast.

“Clients today are always searching for more so that they can obtain the most from their coffee, both in terms of quality and aromas, creating special profiles for every origin.”

This level of customisation is only achievable through the use of sophisticated technology, the likes of which was unimaginable just a couple of decades ago. As the technology has improved, so too has the machines’ energy efficiency, Brambati says.

“The modulation of the burner heat output, the automatic adjustment of the volume of air circulating, timing of individual steps, and modulating control valves for air are managed by a focused software that ensures perfect repeatability, consistency and quality control during roasting,” he says. “Besides, having the possibility to re-circulate the hot air, it is possible to have savings in terms of energy.”

Their range of roasters includes machines capable of roasting 5 kilograms of beans per batch at the bottom end, up to 600 kilograms per batch for their largest machine.

Recent years have also seen a much greater understanding of the role of the roasting  process for the following stages of grinding and degassing. Now it is possible to tailor the degassing of the beans according to the origin of the coffee, its roast profile and the particle size of the desired grind.

“It is possible to create an ideal environment for the degassing process not only due to the particle size but also the quality of the coffee and the method of roasting used,” Brambati says.

Brambati does not just make roasters, however. The company also manufactures machinery to take the coffee right through the process from green bean to ground product on an industrial scale. This includes equipment to clean, store and weigh the green beans, then load them in for roasting, followed by destoning and weighing again, then blending, or grinding through to storage and packaging.

With such a complete offer for roasters, it is hardly surprising that Brambati has a strong interest from many different segments of the coffee industry.

As well as their roasters, Brambati has long been involved in the process for the manufacturing of coffee capsules that, in light of the rise and rise of single serve coffee among consumers around the world, has become an increasingly important part of the company’s business. “Brambati was involved in the introduction of plants for the production of coffee capsules from the beginning,” Brambati says.

This side of the business has seen Brambati develop adequate systems for coffee capsule production, from the roasting profile, catering to a variety of coffee qualities. The company, also thanks to its own mills, allows the roaster to customise the grind in order to get the best result out of their individual bean or blend, providing all kinds of grinder in terms of granulometry and dust control, as well as a customised system of transport and storage in an atmospherically controlled environment so that the specific aromatic qualities can be maintained.

“Our mills have developed over the years in terms of the level of control and management of the product with the goal of keeping consistency of the grain size and to avoid the increase in temperature during the grinding process,” Brambati says. “These combined functions along with electronic control allow real time monitoring so that the processing conditions are always constant regardless of the number of hours they are operating for.”

Once again, Brambati says, the most important aspect of this process is ensuring that the system is tailored at each stage to ensure that the individual requirements of each client are met.

“As our tools are very flexible, it is possible to meet everyone’s requirements. [Our equipment] allows you to set and memorise an infinite variety of profiles.” GCR

Country: Brazil
Region: Borda Da Marta, Minas Gerais
Farm/Co-operative: Fazenda Shangri La
Altitude: 1000m above sea level
Species: Arabica
Varietal: Yellow Catuai
Processing Method: Natural
Supplier: Melbourne Coffee Merchants

Tasting Notes: Rich, sweet and balanced, with a heavy body and notes of toffee, cocoa and hazlenut.

In 1946, Paulo Vianna de Andrade, a Brazilian Air Force pilot, gave up flying and came to work with his father, Porfirio Ribeiro de Andrade, on the family’s dairy farm near the city of Pouso Alegre, southern Minas Gerais.

By the beginning of the 1950s, after recognising the potential of the fertile land around Pouso Alegre, Senhor Paulo founded the Fazenda Shangri-lá, and on its hillsides (which sit at 1000m above sea level) began cultivating varieties of Mundo Novo and Red and Yellow Catuaí.

Today, Fazenda Shangri-lá is run by Senhor Paulo’s grandson, Eduardo Carneiro Vianna de Andrade, who has confronted the difficulties presented by this mountainous terrain (and its high cost of maintenance), with innovation. Not only has he implemented cutting-edge agricultural techniques in his farming practices, but he has also diligently renovated his plantations, searching incessantly for the perfect balance between quality and sustainability.

This commitment to quality is readily apparent in this naturally processed Yellow Catuaí. This coffee is incredibly sweet, rich and balanced, with notes of toffee, cocoa and hazelnut.