Have you tasted our Ethiopian Konga natural Yirgacheffe yet? We think it’s rather special. It’s even been compared to “a hoppy IPA”.  We’re very pleased to say that Eniko Kantor, winner of the Hungarian Barista Championships will be using the Konga at the WBC in Melbourne this week.

It boasts a heavenly fruited dry fragrance with vanilla sweetness. The wet aroma is sweet like honey and the cup has notes of fresh hay with chocolate – the Yirgacheffe district produces some of the most exotic coffee in Africa. This is one of the most distinctive we’ve found, with sweet dried strawberry emerging as the temperature cools.

Where this particular coffee differs from other Yirgacheffe coffees is in the drying, as it’s very simply treated. The natural process is the most rudimentary method of processing: traditional dry-processed coffees are not pre-sorted after picking and tend to be sun-dried in a what could be seen as a haphazard fashion. Having worked with Konga Cooperative since 2003 for our washed Yirgacheffe,  we are very happy to offer this very special “natural” preparation.

At the beginning of the season a small number of farmers are chosen who have the capacity to select and deliver perfectly ripe coffee cherries to see central mill facility at Konga.  The cherries are immediately resorted to remove any imperfections and the whole coffee cherries are carefully dried in the sun on shallow square wooden trays for up to 21 days as they gradually darken and to dry out to resemble a dried cranberry or real cherry. The cherries continue to be hand sorted throughout their drying stage and then hulled in a dry mill to prepare for export.

The sweetness from the cherry fruit is absorbed by the bean which intensifies the syrupy pulpiness and produces a cup that is sweet, full-bodied, distinctive and irresistible.  We think the result is outstanding.

Extremely Extraordinary! RT @thecoffkitch: Lots of Konga Yirgacheffe from @unionroastedto be brewed today. Quite an extraordinary taste

— FreeState Coffee (@FreeStateCoffee) March 1, 2013

How to serve

As an espresso:  tastes of blueberry and tangy sweet lemon sherbet with a milk chocolate base

With milk: presents as a chocolate truffle, a soft centre with strawberry and tea rose

Makes us think about

•  Old-fashioned sweet shops.  Their dark wood shelves are crammed tight with tall glass jars of lemon sherbets, strawberry bonbons and of course, thick slabs of milk chocolate
• A thick slice of Gail’s Bakery’s San Francisco style sourdough bread slathered in David Lebovitz’s Bergamot marmalade
• A classic blueberry muffin to go with your coffee, try Ina Garten’s recipe

Discover the beans

Konga Natural, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. Exclusive Microlot.

Vanilla and honey, fresh hay, chocolate, sweet dried strawberry emerging

Varietal – mixed heirloom cultivars

Process – natural, sun-dried

Photo from TJ Blackwell‘s Flickr stream under a Creative Commons licence

If companies really want to make a difference in the developing world, it’s time to go beyond fair trade and get involved with farmers directly.

When commodity markets crash, smallholder farmers suffer. This is why British consumers participated in Fairtrade fortnight recently, recognising the work the Foundation has done to protect vulnerable groups of farmers and ensure they receive a fair price irrespective of how low the markets may fall.

But is the fair trade model the grandest of them all?

While the benefits are strong, allowing farmers’ co-operatives to attain higher prices and retain access to markets, drawbacks do exist. For example, the minimum price is only guaranteed to the co-operative, and not the small-scale farmer, or their workers at the end of the chain. Prices are fixed without adapting to country context, and costs are often high for producer organisations to become Fairtrade certified. And with coffee, roasters can end up bearing the cost of marketing the Fairtrade brand, through the payment of a licence fee to Fairtrade Foundation as a percentage of sales.

So is a cafe that serves Fairtrade coffee simply asserting they pay producers minimum wage?

Over the last 10 years, artisan coffee roasters such as Intelligentsia and CounterCulture in the USA, and Union in the UK, have pioneered direct trade as an alternative trading model. Ongoing market growth has been increasingly driven by higher quality coffee – so it has been within our interest to engage with farmers able to grow this high quality crop directly and build sustainable, long-term relationships. Prices can be personally agreed that cover the cost of production, and have an additional premium for high quality, with no additional cost to the farmer for certification.

While fair trade promotes ‘protection’ of farmers, direct trade offers ‘aspiration’. The fixed price a farmer receives from Fairtrade will not be affected by the quality produced, so farmers are not incentivised to take on the extra labour and input costs needed to grow a better crop. Quality-centric direct trade, however, allows for bespoke pricing agreements and collaboration in the field. A farmer that may be based in a region with outstanding climatic and topographical attributes for producing coffee, could, through a direct trading approach, become enabled to grow a greatly superior crop, and earn more money as a result.

An added benefit of working directly with farmers is the ability to spot the needs that arise within a community that would improve farming practices, and subsequently the quality of a crop.

Pro-active support in agricultural services for members of Esquipulas Co-operative in Guatemala. Demonstrating building a living wall "barrier vivo" to retard soil errosion on steep terrace.

An artisan company such as Union is driven by providing our customers in the UK with high quality coffee. So if we are able to invest our money in a centralised coffee washing station in Rwanda, or on workshop training in Guatemala that will train farmers to evaluate their coffees and not just to remove defects but to select for complex sensory attributes, it benefits business as we are constantly able to raise the standards of our coffee, and simultaneously improves the livelihoods of the farmers as their incomes increase.

Direct trade is not without its challenges. Not only is it another confusing term for consumers, particularly as there is no definition so the term can be freely (mis)used. To take up an authentic programme of direct trade takes a significant commitment from the buyer which requires building trust over a long period of time, and costs can be intensive. The obligation to improving quality needs to be at the heart of the organisation.

The overall objective of direct trade is to eliminate the power imbalances that exist in traditional supply chains. Poor information exchange on quality requirements can lead to farmers getting a lower price than they deserve – this builds distrust towards intermediaries in the supply chain and can induce farmers to tamper with the sacks or to augment weight. To counter this, direct trade is an approach taken to build mutually beneficial and respectful relationships between businesses and producers, by fairly distributing benefits and involving producers in decision making processes.

Interviewing farmers to gather information for our Monitoring and Evaluation study by our academic researcher in origin Pascale.

Above all, buyer and producer work together long-term, to produce a high quality coffee, and the farmer is paid a price linked to the quality of their crop. Just as no business would brag it pays minimum wage – so should any industry reliant on commodities be striving to pay their producers in the developing world above minimum requirements, to incentivise innovation, and improvements in quality. It can only result in a better wage for the farmer and a better coffee for consumers at home.

This blog appears on the Guardian Sustainable Business site.

Most commuters couldn’t claim their station coffee was ‘worth the wait’, however at Queenstown Road in Battersea, London, Coffee Affair believe theirs is. Check into the old waiting room to see for yourself, or read on.

1. What do you love most about your job?The challenge and the social aspect.The more we learn, the more we realize how much more there is to know! Coffee is a vast subject which may not be appreciated at the beginning. The chemistry and physics involved in the processing and brewing methods provides challenges and rewards alike. It’s good to be continually tested mentally!Socially, the shop is in a very diverse area not always obvious at first sight. Our customers include classical guitar makers, stone masons, travel writers, designers, architects, location & film crews, many businesses hidden under the railway arches. There is always an interesting discussion to be had or something new to learn.  We love it when customers get to know each other and  have a natter. It’s a great feeling of community.
2. And loathe the most?!Unfortunately, being in a Railway Station people can be very edgy when they have a train to catch, even when there’s another one 5 minutes later. You are doing your best to craft a little masterpiece in a cup whilst some pace up & down looking at their watch! Another challenge is the amount of queries we get from non customers who march into the shop demanding their travel enquiries be answered!
3. Time in the industry, and why coffee?Six and a half years. We fell into coffee. Leaving the office environment behind, we set about a plan including coffee and this unloved local Grade II listed station. We started the adventure together when previous work contracts were completed. I thought a year break and I’ll return to my career….but coffee slowly took over and we’ve upgraded from a Piaggio Ape in the freezing ticket hall  to a cosy coffee shop in the old ticket office.
4. Favourite coffee?It’s not the most exciting answer perhaps, but we love our espresso blend Organic Natural Spirit made of Mexican (Chiapas Highlands), Peruvian (San Ignacio)and Ethiopian (Yirgacheffe) beans. The blend can produce the most wonderful rich espresso with a sweet lemon front, which develops into bitter sweet chocolate. Most recently in terms of drip coffee, we really love a Kenyan we had  from the Karatina Mill.
5. You’re in a very competitive area, how do you attract customers, and then retain them – with the lure of the high street chains ever present?We don’t compete with the high street. We are two stops from Waterloo and one stop from Clapham Junction…which are full of the chains. It would be foolish to compete with a product which is so different from ours. The ingredients and attention to detail going into each cup means our customers appreciate the time it takes to create. Most of our customers are regulars, some who have been with us since the Piaggio days. It’s a nice feeling to ask for ‘my usual please’ and know it will be carefully prepared. For those who don’t care about the difference between the Speciality Coffee Industry and the chains, we can try to engage with them and hope the coffee does the rest. Luckily enough, there are many who do care and given half the chance we will chat coffee as long as they are interested!
6. Biggest business challenge at the moment?Being able to price the product appropriately in a very competitive market, where people often don’t fully appreciate the spectrum of costs involved. To achieve a move away from price focus to quality focus and change the notion that being a barista is just a job rather than a profession is a challenge.  For people whose passion in coffee leads them to a career choice, there needs to be sufficient reward financially for this to be a possible option.
7. Who is your most famous customer? OR who would you most love to serve?With Battersea Park and Battersea Power Station around the corner being used as film locations, we have had a few famous faces coming in for coffee. Michael swears Meryl Streep walked past during the filming of Iron Lady, but if it was her, she passed us by!
8. Filter or espresso? – And why?!We really enjoy a fruity, lush and well balanced citrus filter in summer, but in winter I go for espresso with its’ rich full mouth feel.
9. Is there a particular coffee which sells better than others?In terms of drip coffee, we found Central American coffees such as El Dimante, Huehuetenango, Guatemala and Hacienda La Esperanza, Boquete, Panama received great feedback. We have tried other espresso beans, but none get such enthusiastic feedback as Organic Natural Spirit.
10. What slogan / strapline would be on your advertising campaign?We don’t advertise and in an ideal world we would prefer word of mouth – a more organic journey to growth. Given the newish setup only time will tell if this works, but in the meantime some signage may not be a bad idea with a strap line of ‘worth the wait’!

With the chance of crisp, chilly days still a threat, grab your last chance to enjoy our Winter blend. This medium to full-bodied, harmoniously layered blend is the perfect solution to melt away the last of the winter blues with aromas of plum and candied orange peel, and a lingering vanilla and butterscotch finish.

The elegant sweetness of Liberación from Guatemala is underpinned by the sparkling, citrus acidity provided by Ethiopian Homacho Waeno and complimented by essences of candied fruit from Sumatra’s Gajah Mountain. To finish there’s a creamy butterscotch toffee aftertaste, courtesy of the Bello Horizonte Natural from El Salvador.

How to serve

As an espresso: it’s full and rich and this brewing method will show off the fruity plumlike notes, sweet zesty orange with a nice vanilla butterscotch finish.

With milk: as a flat white or latte, it’s at its best as a small serve of 6-8 ounces to retain the notes.

Enjoy it with

• A thick slice of toasted panettone, a perfect winter breakfast
• Joy the Baker’s Orange Gingerbread with Cream Cheese frosting

Discover the beans

Bello Horizonte, El Salvador

Papaya lemon herbal apple and wine sweet toffee

Varietal – bourbon

Process – natural, sun-dried

Gajah Mountain, Sumatra

Plum, blackberry and sweet candied fruits and a deep rich body

Varietal – typica, bourbon, tim tim

Process – sun-dried

Liberación, Guatemala

refreshingly fruity with notes of floral jasmine

Varietal – bourbon, pache, typica, catuai

Process – washed, sun-dried

Homacho Waeno, Ethiopia

sparkling sweet citrus acidity medium body with a lingering honeyed aftertaste

Varietal – mixed heirloom

Process – washed, sun-dried

Winter Birdhouse photo from Tom Bee’s photostream under a Creative Commons licence