Burundi Road Trip June 2010

Since we first got involved in Rwanda coffee in 2003, we’ve often been asked about sourcing from its southern neighbour Burundi. After the 1994 regional crisis and civil wars, Burundi remained in a state of turmoil with agreements only signed between the last of the rebel groups and the transitional coalition government as late as 2009. Since 2005 however, with increasing political stability, and the support of the international community, fundamental changes have been made to the coffee sector to enable outside investment and remove state ownership and control of the processing and export facilities. It was against this backdrop of liberalisation (thus allowing Union to develop direct contact with growers), our increasing interest in the unique coffees of the Great Lakes region, and their retained heritage Bourbon varietal (same as Rwanda) that I went to find out the breadth and diversity that Burundi coffee has to offer.

On this trip I was travelling with 6 other curious roasters from the USA and Canada and had been invited to tour a number of the producer cooperatives and meet the principal figures in the Burundi coffee scene from the various sectors; government, private enterprise and cooperatives. Whilst Steven and I don’t often go along on group tours, such an organised week of visits and intensive cupping promised to make the most of my time as I was also due to travel on the following week to spend days cupping lots for our 2010 Rwanda Harvest shipments. When you are getting to know a country’s coffee it’s important to cup as many lots as possible from a variety of areas and producers. This way you build up a picture of who is producing good coffee, who might be able to produce VERY good coffee with a bit of partnership and support, and who is talking the talk but not walking!

Our tour began crossing over the border from Rwanda at Kanyaru Haut crossing, accompanied by plus Ben Lentz (director of the US AID funded BAP Burundi Agricultural Project), Anne Ottaway, representing Michigan State University’s programme and various heads of coffee sector taking a ride in a convoy of 4×4’s. My travelling companion during the following days was mostly Adrien Sibomana, CEO of InterCafé , Burundi’s representative organisation for growers and exporters. Adrien is a tall quiet and thoughtful man, keenly aware of the most pressing issues facing Burundi coffee growers and is moving to get a national dialogue going about how to resolve increasing production of quality, value added coffee with the highly compartmentalised approach to family land ownership which inevitably prevents farmers from benefitting from even minor economies of scale. Over this and many other topics that affect coffee production and community development, Adrien told me more about his background and how he came into public office. What he (or anyone else) didn’t tell me, and what I found out two days into the trip, was that I was riding around with a former prime minister, (1988 – 1993).

Over the four following days of cooperative (washing station) visits and cuppings, it was clear that Burundi’s coffee industry is very much in a state of transition, with a well organised government established infrastructure of washing stations and dry mills that were developed with the single rationale of producing quantity, but not necessarily the quality that might be capable of generating added value for the country’s growers or the breakthrough quality that Union look for. In 2009 however the first stages of liberalisation took place with 13 of the country’s 160 washing stations being taken into either public (cooperative) or private enterprises, and we now have the opportunity to work direct with producers and source coffee traceable coffees.

On the first day, we spent the day touring Kayanza Province, a district to the east of the High mountainous forest area and arrived first at Ruhororo washing station. After being welcomed by enthusiastic Burundi ritual drummers we had opportunity to look at the process for receiving cherries and the washing station operation. One immediately apparent difference between Rwanda and Burundi station practices is that when smallholders bring cherry in, before they put the coffee on the sorting tables to screen out any under ripe (partly green) cherries, they have to put their pick into a basket or net which is then dropped into a water tank and the cherries that float (indicating malformed beans inside, insect damaged beans or over-ripe cherries) are skimmed off. The individual farmers then sort for only remaining perfect red (under-ripes sink as well as ripes) on the dry tables before weighing in and taking a chit or getting paid for the amount of coffee delivered. Ruhororo was one of the first of the stations handed back from the state after a group of 20 farmers decided to group together to take on the station and work as a cooperative taking cherries from local growers. BAP has partnered with this group contributing joint venture funding to add waste water processing capabilities to the station and prevent downstream negative impact while also contributing agricultural and organisational capacity building initiatives. This type of collaborative support is vitally important to us at Union Hand Roasted as we recognise that we are not a development agency but depend very closely on these aspects also being supported as well as our commercial support. Local partners can be highly effective and critical in maintaining what often seem like baby-step advances over the years of involvement.

Our second station visit seemed to be more like a visit to Mumbai train station with hundreds of people if not a thousand or so milling around the cooperative offices and warehouse. Even by African standards of hospitality and greeting this seemed to be an inordinate number of people so it was with relief that we found out that the farmers had turned up for the annual fertiliser handout. At Butegana, also in Kayanza, the station had been taken over in the first wave of liberalisation by a commercial operation known as Webcor Group, a private company active in commodity production in a number of countries around the world. With big resources, the company has made a significant commitment to Burundi coffee taking 13 stations in the first government privatisations and putting in human and financial resources to develop quality initiatives at both station and smallholder level. The principal difference here is that the processing facility is privately owned and as such profits remain within the corporation as opposed to being shared out amongst the community. In reality, coffee producing countries need both public and private producers as the latter can often employ capital to develop resources in an organised manner and if the goal remains that of creating added value coffee that the farmers can really see an improvement in earnings per kilo grown or labour hour employed then it should be seen as a benefit and not just the corporate arm of big business. As this is the first year of this relationship we’ll continue to watch and see how things progress. From the visit it was immediately apparent however that the station’s capacity was huge (500-1500MT) and that even with a central elevation of 1650MASL much work will need to be undertaken to really understand the areas from which their coffee comes, the daily lot sizes that comprise the stations operational capacity and how these can remain segregated to protect and retain the no doubt small parcel sizes where real quality coffee can be found and retained.

After a short lunch we made the final visit of the day to a station at Buziraguhindwa (CPC), a much smaller station (capacity 300-500MT) also private but this time owned and operated by a local private organisation. With an exciting altitude location of 1996MASL this station is well located in the higher reaches of Kyanza’s Muruta district and should be capable of producing some good coffee lots although sadly we didn’t see any samples from here on the cupping tables.

Looking at Burundi coffee there are unsurprisingly many similarities in the methods of operation when compared to Rwanda – after all both countries share so many aspects of terrain, population dispersal and density and of course the presence of old Bourbon coffee varietals. Just because of this however, one should not assume that the coffee itself will be the same as Rwanda’s. Now that the quality of Rwanda coffee has been allowed to shine through better agronomy and processing, real regional differences are becoming apparent characterising coffees that may be full bodied with deep brown sugar sweetness to those fleeting cups with floral, citrus and soft honeyed tones. I fully expect that with such a diversity of microclimates and a soil character that is similar but with enough differences to mark it out from other regions, Burundi coffee could provide us with yet more nuances of the region.

On day 2 of the trip, our cupping was due to take place at a regional cupping lab in Ngozi and here for the first time the roaster anoraks came out! When preparing cupping lots, we routinely use very small batch roasting machines known unsurprisingly as sample roasters. These bits of kit are, like any specialist equipment inordinately expensive and are manufactured in different sizes (number of barrels that can simultaneously roast). At Union we have a two barrel machine that covers the majority of our needs, but out here in Ngozi, the full evidence of government commitment (spending) became apparent. It seemed as though whichever door or hallway we looked in, there was yet another SIX Barrel roaster – in brand new pristine condition. In one lab we noted 5, six barrel machines – and by the end of the week our count had climbed up to a total of fifty something barrels!!!! I hope that these machines find their way out into the regions and are well used, its just that when one sees things like this – I hope that the machines do get implemented and don’t just disappear into the system!

Over the following two days we visited another four stations, both private and cooperatively owned and witnessed similar operations trying to tease out the differences between people and their approach to the coffee, subtle things that give you a feel for the people’s relationship to what they produce and how the community is established – their aspirations and willingness to partner with external organisations to improve quality and of course their return. No matter how much people get under your skin, its important as a buyer to remain focussed on the coffee. I’ve thought back over the years about how many people we’ve met each with great stories and how we’ve come away with a desire or a hope that their coffee meets our own requirements but the acid test is of course the cupping room and blind tasting. This trip promised to be a crash course in Burundi coffee and after day 4 we had hit over 240 sample lots and to keep the schedule on track had to resort to some pretty nifty speed cupping – yeah it’s the same as dating just that your partner doesn’t slap you in the face when you say something inappropriate!

On the final day of the trip, we had a long morning cupping session at Arfic – the Burundi National Coffee Regulation Authority with the US Ambassador in attendance and who also participated in the cupping under tutelage of Wendy DeJong, current chair of the US Roasters Guild. The Ambassador had only recently taken up the posting but it was encouraging to see how much time she gave us and the Burundian teams in seeking to understand the opportunity for both sides in this partnering for quality. I know our own government does do some good work in supporting developing countries –mainly in areas of governance and society, but as a coffee guy its frustrating not to be able to hook up with our own nationals in developing these sources of great coffee…..come on DFID?

Overall I have to say that this has been a great trip and I do feel much more aware of the range of possibilities in Burundi coffee. From my cupping notes I have already got my eye on some lots we’d like to try out and get to know Burundi a little better this year. Over the coming months we are going to look at some of the communities where we can, as with Rwanda, form a close relationship and work together to develop sustainable direct trading that yields more exciting coffee from the Great Lakes of Africa.

We had a bad time in Guatemala because of the Tropical Storm Agatha and the erupting activity of the Pacaya volcano last week. Many people died and some others lost their houses and their plantations. The most damage occurred was in the places very close to the coast area (pacific) near the volcano and Guatemala city. Many coffee plantations were lost.
Some people in Huehuetenango also faced some problems like those, specially the people who live in vulnerable places. Fortunately, where we are we didn´t have many problems with the coffee plantations, probably because of the many trees (roots) that protect the soil and prevent this problems. Now, everything is better. The coffee is growing and I think we will have a good harvest. I hope so.

Back in 2000 when Jeremy & I first starting giving thoughts to creating Union, it was partly as a reaction to the stories we were hearing following the drop in world coffee prices and how this was causing hardships to producers. In 2002, our first year of roasting, Jeremy participated in the first Cup of Excellence judging in Guatemala. During that trip he visited farms and saw the effect low coffee prices were having on producers. He took photos of the coffee plantations that had been abandoned because farmers couldn’t afford to keep them productive. We heard stories about how these abandoned farms would affect the local communities and cause disruption of rural economies. It compelled us to seek another way to trade, developing the relationship model & buying coffee according to its intrinsic value and quality, & not the vagaries of commodity traders working the markets.

Our approach to direct trade was a simple message but we’ve had to work hard to convince producers that it’s in their interest to plan for the future and agree prices that are sustainable for them. It may take the thrill of the roulette table out of their lives, but it removes the risk.

Now over the years we’ve developed the long term relationships with many producers so it’s been a while since I last talked about the coffee crises of the early 2000’s. This visit to Guatemala brought it right back to me as I was visiting farms that were now in the early days of re-establishing their coffee production again after having been discarded for so long.

Famers like Jose Lopez, who is the legal representative of a co-operative of smallholder farmers in La Libertad, Huehuetenango. His smallholding is 1.5 ha. The first trees we looked at were 2 years old, (farm section called La Fortuna). This farm was abandoned from 2002-5, because of low prices, but 3 years ago he started to reinstate it. It’s taken a long time to get back into condition and won’t be fully productive till 2011. At 1800mASL (5800 ft) it’s very high altitude and within this first section all the shade trees in the farm are indigenous which is unusual as most farmers tend not to use indigenous trees now.

The next section of his farm, also abandoned, is still being worked on to get it back into shape. The trees, a mix of caturra, bourbon, pache, tipica, and Jose explains they are 9 years old, which means they were new when they were abandoned.

The high altitude is a double edge sword; positive impact is no insects and no requirement to use any insecticide spray whatsoever. The negative is the effect of frost burn at this height that causes death to part or complete trees.

I found it disturbing to be continuously reminded about the coffee crises that in my mind was so many years ago. Yet, in the remoter regions of La Liberdad near the Mexico Chiapas border, farmers were talking about an even more complex legacy from that period. Here, abandonment had a more profound impact. Many of the farmers in this region are women, fending for themselves because the men left for the USA. The mounting debts their farms incurred after the crash, forced the men to seek work abroad, and try to send cash home to their families who had nothing. But some of the women hadn’t heard from their husbands in years; the women were abandoned with young families with no option but to learn agronomy and take over the responsibility of coffee farming. I asked the women what help they received, “very little, we employ a hand full of pickers, indigenous mayan, in the season, but we also pick and process our own coffee. Pruning shade trees to ensure the correct amount of sun reaches the coffee is the only task we struggle with and need to get assistance”. Again and again I heard this story, unveiling the legacy of the coffee crises from 2001-2203.

In Todos Santos, Huehuetenango, I was privileged to spend a few days with a small co-operative of 50 Mayan farmers. They only wear traditional hand made clothing and most only spoke their local language, “Mam” so working through 2 translators was tricky but we made good progress explaining the Union code of conduct, and how we seek to improve the working conditions and labour standards of all participants in coffee farming. It seemed to be well appreciated as these farmers are very progressive and work according to the Slow Food philosophy of producing high quality coffee, care for the environment and social development for the farmers. This region of Northern Guatemala was closed to visitors until the end of the1996 civil war, and even after this period travellers did not venture here. The culture of these Maya was not respected by western visitors and this caused tension and problems in the region. The Guatemala government commenced a programme to sensitize the people of this region towards visitors and the outcome is that the Mam are now happy to receive outsiders and enthusiastic to explain their way of life. These farmers told me they were not seeking a buyer, they want a partner, a long term committed relationship. This meeting was like an arranged marriage. The last few years they’d been receiving intensive agronomy training and in 2009 they received funding to construct a new pulping station. Now they produce beautiful coffee so am hopeful this will be a union made in heaven.

Its striking to hear their stories – the oldest member of the co-operative remembers when they first started to grow coffee – nearly 70 years ago. And he stands in front of the coffee tree that he remembers his father planting when he was a 7 year old boy. Back in those days the ground was so fertile, they could just stick seeds into the soil and the trees would grow without any inputs. Nowadays they have to apply organic fertilizer to achieve good production.
We’re looking forward to their coffee arriving at our roastery- during June.

Last month we completed a short internship here in London, with Zacharie from Café de Maraba, Rwanda.

Our relationship with the Rwanda farmers at Maraba & Gashonga, is through Direct Trade in its truest sense and we’re assisted by Rwashoscco (Rwanda Small Holder Specialty Coffee Company) which exports and markets the superb specialty Rwanda coffee grown by the 11 Co-operatives on behalf of the farmers.

Rwashoscco is owned by the Co-operatives and is a for-profit business. It also operates “Cafe de Maraba”, a small coffee roasting company, now in Kigali but previously in Butare, nearby Maraba.

Cafe de Maraba sells to the local restaurants, hotels and grocery in Rwanda. It is the best known coffee in Rwanda, and when I’m in Rwanda and ask a waiter in a restaurant “what coffee am I drinking?” they always tell me “Café de Maraba”. But ask to see the package, and it can be another story. Sometimes its one of the competitors, and you can tell because they don’t taste as good.  So Zacharie, the Manager of Café de Maraba, was with us in London to pick up some ideas on how he can grow and develop Café de Maraba and market it successfully.

The coffee which Café de Maraba roasts and sells creates additional revenue stream for the co-operatives.  So, the strategy is for the farmers to participate in a business which provides value added “roasted coffee” as well as earn income from their crops through selling to the co-operative.

The team at Café de Maraba is very small; they are very good and committed to what they do, but the barriers which they face – high taxes, low internal coffee consumption, constant power failures and delivery issues make managing a business incredibly difficult.  Despite the challenges, they are selling roasted coffee in a market which is leading the continent in business growth. With the interest in tourism, there are many new hotels, and restaurants are busy and new openings too.

Zacharie had the opportunity to observe how we navigate Union on a daily basis. We visited clients (thank you to Giraffe, Canteen, Taylor Street Baristas and Royal Festival Hall).  He has to wear many hats; managing the Roasting Facility, Sales & Marketing, Administration, Distribution. We know exactly how that feels when you only have a couple or three people in the team so hopefully he picked up a few tips.  I think the more people Rwashoscco is able to have with the passion and enthusiasm that Zacharie expressed, the greater the chances are for them to be successful as a company and of course that will bring success for the individuals too.
So if you are fortunate enough to visit Rwanda, perhaps drinking coffee in a restaurant, check that it’s Café de Maraba, & pick up a pack at Kigali Airport before you leave.

In early February 2010 I visited a new producer group in south of Costa Rica that we’re working with this year for the first time. But more about that in a place. So whilst down near the Panama border I took the opportunity to travel to one of the remotest areas of Costa Rica called, Bioally, to visit Gonzalo Hernandez Solis at his Finca Coffea diversa. The concept of his farm is a coffee varietal botanical garden (Jardín de Variedades) which is in the midst of creation.

Generally coffee farms are limited-varietal plantations, where just one or two of the most common botanical cultivars, Caturra, Catuai, Catimor, Typica, or Bourbon are planted.
Almost all of the planted arabica coffee varieties grown in the world today are derived from the C. arabica Typica and C. arabica Bourbon. So, for that reason the genetic composition of almost all of the arabica coffee grown all over the world has low level of heterogeneity.
Therefore, Gonzalo suggests the main differences in cup profiles are generated by the microclimates and geographic conditions where the coffee is grown, with less influence from genetic heterogeneity of the coffee plant. The homogeneity within these populations is further enhanced by the predominantly self-pollinating nature of Coffea arabica.
Gonzalo at Coffea diversa has acquired the largest private collection in the world of rare cultivars from seed banks throughout the world, and has a project to test the source of diverse cup profiles offered through genetic heterogeneity. These rare and exotic varietals have not been commercially available, mostly because of extremely low yield and susceptibility to disease.
So, the question he is asking is what is the effect of genetics on cup quality? It’s answered through working with an extensive range of different cultivars, giving genetic heterogeneity, under controlled planting conditions and with the potential to create an enormous source of different taste profiles. Gonzalo has created an astonishing and beautiful coffee farm laboratory to examine possibly the most overlooked and under-researched factor influencing taste profile.

Garden Setting:
As I approached within reach of the farm gate entrance, I could see why Gonzalo describes this as a botanical garden. It was delightfully planted, with a large range of flowering shrub and tree species bordering the rows of young coffee trees. This first section of the farm is separated into different plots for each species, each plot contains up to 25 different identical coffee trees; many are rare botanical varietals. When these trees have matured to produce sufficient beans to sample roast and determine cup quality, then if the coffee is deemed worthy, a micro-lot sized plantation is created in a different section of the farm.

Gonzalo first bought the land more than 20 years ago; geographically it is difficult to reach so just a few have tried to grow coffee there. Although only 1200-1350 mASL, Gonzalo is enthusiastic about the extremely good micro-climate and soils which he believes have the capacity to grow excellent coffee. The farm is close to La Amistad International Park, the largest forest reserve in Central America with about 500,000 hectares of protected primary tropical rainforests. The farm extends to around 150h; nearly 30% remains as forestland and the natural streams are protected by 50m boundary of wooded area.

It is hugely impressive and the results of an obsessive and visionary Gonzalo Hernandez Solis. Through the next few years as his results emerge, it will be interesting to discover which of the many varietals produced under the growing conditions at Finca Diversa, has the potential to reveal excellence in the cup. Coffea diversa will make these rare coffee species and cultivars available, maybe even for the first time, so coffee devotees can discover these cup profiles.

The Mother of Arabica
Genetic studies suggest that Coffea arabica originated about one million years ago, somewhere in the vicinity of southwest Ethiopia, southern Sudan or northern Kenya as a result of a spontaneous cross between Coffea eugenioides (maternal) and Coffea canephora (robusta) that gave birth to Coffea arabica. There is still some debate about which was the paternal progenitor as some scientists say that it was not Robusta but Coffea congensis. There is unanimous consensus as to the maternal progenitor, Coffea eugenioides. This is supported by means of molecular markers, gene sequencing and genomic in situ hybridization.

Interestingly, Coffea eugenioides has a low caffeine content; Coffea arabica has an average caffeine content of 1.2%, Coffea canephora has a caffeine content range of 1.5-3.3%, Coffea eugenioides has only 0.3.-0.6% caffeine content.

Coffea eugenioides is now native to the highlands of East Africa, where it occurs in the eastern part of the DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and western Tanzania.

One of the defining characteristics we talk about in fine quality coffee is sweetness. In the case of Brazil, a country often accused of exporting the largest quantities of basic neutral commodity coffee, we have been lucky enough to work for the last eight years with one of the sweetest producers I have known. Raymond Rebetez, owner of the Fazenda Lambari is genuinely one of the nicest people I have come across in the coffee industry, and his coffee matches his personality in its integrity and manner completely.

Although we have met at conferences and coffee trade exhibitions many times over the last few years, I last visited Raymond in June 2003 whilst touring the region looking at the various methods of coffee production that have been pioneered in Brazil. Spending a day with him at Lambari, a farm that at that time we had already been sourcing from for two years, he took me to the nearby Fazenda Irarema; a place that he said was truly special. The farm had been under the same family since its inception in the late 1890’s and the farm house, a beautiful villa is on this visit my base for he week as Raymond finally agreed to purchase the farm when the elderly couple retired and wanted to move to the city.

On this visit I was joined by Mariusz Mistewicz who last year started a company called Fair Coffee in Poland and who are distributing Union Hand Roasted to a new and growing café sector out there. Along with Mariusz and his wife Hannah, we are accompanied by Radoslaw Darnowski a talented Barista from the Coffee Heaven chain who is the current Polish WBC latte Art Champion, and winning competitor in our first Polish Barista Championships. Visiting origins and seeing producers at first hand is an excellent opportunity for a Barista to really get to understand what makes some of the rich flavour tones in a great espresso blend; for this style of coffee Brazil really has some tricks up its sleeve.

In just about every aspect of its coffee, Brazil is truly unique. The amount of land under coffee cultivation produces the worlds largest single country crop, and it’s this aspect that has generated the very best as well as the worst for the country’s reputation. Most of the country’s farms average around 10 hectares with the coffee being picked and sold on to commoditised exporters that bulk the coffee without regard for regionality and sell it as Brazil Santos, a generic trade name for standard Arabica coffee (Santos is the name of the port out of which the coffee is shipped). A very small percentage operate larger concerns, and Lambari with its sister Fazenda Irarema are examples at the mid-size range each with around 250 hectares under coffee. Talking this week with people at the higher quality end of the industry, I understand that there are around 300,000 growers in Brazil, but possibly only around as small a number as 200 are producing the sort of quality that Union is interested in.

So what is it that distinguishes this outstanding cup from the millions of others produced? As I have seen this week, it often comes down to true passion and commitment. First of all, you have to have good land in the right place. Compared to the mountainous Central American countries with high growing areas of around 1,200-1,650M (4,000 – 5,500ft) altitude, Brazil is a relatively low lying country, and even with its traditional Bourbon derived style of low acidity and smooth chocolate in the cup, the coffees grown at 600m (2000ft) are flat and uninspiring in the cup.

Fazenda Lambari sits in the cooler climes at around 1,100M ((3,600ft) so the trees produce smaller yields of slower maturing cherries with depth, clarity of flavours and a delicate balancing acidity that is drawn out and complemented by outstanding natural sweetness.

The real ‘trick’ that brings out this sweet character is the unique approach to harvesting and the subsequent sorting and processing methods developed by Brazil producers known as Natural, and Pulped Natural preparations. These methods have arisen both in response to optimising the character of the coffees in the cup, but also as a strategy for managing the large volumes of cherries that can arrive at the milling stations daily during the three months of the harvest season.

Whereas in most countries, we work with farmers to religiously only pick the perfect ripe red cherries, in Brazil, the trees when ready for harvest appear as if they have been forgotten or abandoned with red – ripe and over ripe black shrivelled cherries still hanging from the branches.

Normal wisdom would suggest that the crop would be ruined, but when picked and sorted using controlled water flows through the mill equipment, two streams of well separated fruit emerges –the perfect ripe coffee which sink in the flows and are collected for pulping, and a channel that is skimmed from the floating over-ripe fruit that is then taken direct to the drying patios where the whole fruit is dried around the bean.

This latter group is referred to as the natural process, and the act of drying whole concentrates the sugars and develops the body in the coffee making it an excellent base for certain Espresso blends but these coffees have to be handled carefully as when fresh from the farm are very wild in flavour – gamey, woody, earthy notes can all predominate yet after resting for up to three months, all of these weird characters seem to meld into a smooth chocolate like base and the gentle acidity and soft nutty flavours really start to show in an elegant yet rich style.

The carefully separated ripe cherries, after pulping then also go to the patios where the still attached mucilage (which in central American coffees is fermented and removed) is allowed to dry around the bean yielding a lighter cup than the Naturals, still having wonderfully sweet tones but ones that are balanced with more developed acidity that characterises the Brazilian Pulped Natural style. This lighter but smooth and flavourful coffee always reminds me of Californian Chardonnay wines – slightly nutty Oaky nuances but with a seductive note of clarified butter that really caresses the palate making it seem fresh but indulgent all at the same time. Its an elegant coffee that we roast unblended as our Fazenda Lambari Estate coffee whilst the Lambari Naturals provide a rich complement to our Bright Note Espresso Blend.

Having also tasted on my visit a number of commercial coffees from the region I urge anyone exploring coffees of Brazil to try Union’s Roasting of Raymond’s Fazenda Lambari – it genuinely is different – just as I used the wine analogy above, Fazenda Lambari would be a prince amongst Chateaux and not your average party wine. The happy fact is that we don’t charge fine wine prices for it – so try it and enjoy along with your favourite weekend breakfast, its fantastic with croissants and pastries – the more butter the better! Enjoy.

Farm notes July 2009

FAZENDA IRAREMA

This farm, about four hours drive from Sao Paolo is where I am staying on my visit. Its located on the slopes of a valley called Vale Da Grama in the Serra Da Mantiqueira mountain range, reputed to be the oldest range in the Americas – formed from volcanic action, the nearby spa town and regional holiday resort, Pocos de Caldos is nestled within the bowl of one of these.

The mountains name means ‘the mountain that cries’, and is the old Brazilian Tupi Indian name, the most prominent indigenous group.

Varietals grown: Red and Yelllow Bourbon and Mundo Nouvo.

Irarema is one of the oldest farms in the region, the valley first being settled for farming by the Carvhalos Dias Family, a forebear of whom after being widowed, moved to the valley for the health benefits of the spring waters in 1850. The first farm, Fazenda Recreio, was established with coffee trees in 1890, and it is this farm that according to Brazilian custom was progressively divided amongst subsequent generations giving rise to the small group of eight that exist in the valley today. Fazenda Irarema, established two years later in 1892 along with neighbours Sao Manoel Dos Brejoes and Santa Alina are stunningly beautiful farms each around 250 hectares of well tended trees arranged in elegant rows on the sunny North facing slopes (southern hemisphere remember!) of the valley.

During my visit this time, a surprise discovery was that on the Santa Alina farm, a small area of around 2 hectares of original planting from the 1890’s still exists. These 120 year old trees amazingly are still producing coffee, although a very small amount per tree. The present owners were about to tear these out and replant, but thanks to Raymond’s persistence (owner of Irarema and Lambari farms), they have retained these and are tending them carefully as a special project. After some extensive research, it seems that nowhere in the coffee producing world can trees of this age be found, and they are exactly what was planted back in the pioneering days of the brazil coffee ‘industry’.

The trees we see are very tightly packed masses of wild branches and stems – apparently in the old days, in case trees did not take, the farmers would plant 4 seeds in a hole wheras today, seedlings are brought on in nurseries and then are planted out in to the fields in separated pairs. On inspection it was apparent that in this highly fertile area, all the seeds in a hole not only survived germination but have thrived for the last 100 years!

I’ve managed to get the owners to give me a sample of this coffee and Steven and I will sample-roast and cup the coffee back in London next week – if its as good as I’m told, we have a handshake agreement that Union will buy about five 60Kg sacks of this (they give all the rest to special friends) so keep an eye on our blog and website for the cupping results.

The Bourbon varietal grown in this valley is now a scarcely found in Brazil, as the original plantations are refreshed with modern cultivars that grow more successfully in the lower latitudes. Bourbon was first brought to Brazil in the 1880’s from Asencion Island as a red cherry variety which locally mutated into a yellow that is often seen on the trees today. Also commonly found are red and yellow catuai, the latter being a very sweet fruit and excitingly this forms a part of the wonderful Lambari crop that we have been working with since 2001.

Aside from the great tasting varietals here in the valley the other aspect that is responsible for the elegant yet gentle acidity in the coffee is the altitude. Good arabicas do need the cooler slower maturation afforded by the higher elevations yet Brazil’s cultivation is mainly at lower levels compared to the great Central American regions. Our happy family of farms here in the Mantiqueira’s peak out at between 1,100 and 1,300M however; the highest to be found in the country. This exceptional location along with the care and attention given to the trees and harvest processing is why our Brazil selections are so much clearer, sweeter and more elegant when compared to the majority of Brazil coffee to be found on the shelves. If it was not for Raymond and his passion and dedication, I don’t think Union Coffee would be offering Brazi coffees today.

LAMBARI

Varietals grown: Acaia and Catuai plus small amount of Mondo Nuovo.

The first Brazil farm that Union sourced coffee from in 2001; before this our feelings were that the generally recognised ‘mild brazils’ did not have enough character to develop in our demanding roast style. My experience here year after year has proved that a few producers in this vast country are deserving of our attention. OK the coffees do not show the ‘high drama’ of our Santa Ana La Huerta Guatemala or the lighthouse beacon of a vibrant Rianjagi Kenya, but the elegant, comforting sweetness of the pulped natural coffees; the velvet smooth full bodied natural processed provide a sublime pleasure in easy all day drinking in filter or cafetiere brews and a rich base for lighter espresso styles.

Lambari today has around 270 Hectares of coffee cultivation with another 120 hectares dedicated to preservation of natural forest and wildlife habitat. Since 1995, Raymond has retained naturalist and agronomist Lina de Souza to survey and maintain the biodiversity on the farm.

Around 30,000 trees have been planted around the farm area where pockets of natural forest are maintained so as to provide continuous corridors of non farmed land for animals to pass through the area whilst remaining within their natural habitats. Recent surveys have documented around 160 species of birdlife and this in an area where the coffee is not grown under a shade canopy. In fact in Minas Gerais, where our farms are located, no coffee is shade grown as the latitude does not give strong enough sun to require this and the experiments with such growing have only produced spindly trees with low yields of cherries that do not ripen sufficiently. Not all coffee growing suits this methodology as some of the ‘environmentalists’ would suggest.

In past years, Fazenda Lambari has processed its own coffee in a mill and on drying patios right on the farm itself. This year however, as we are in a low harvest year (Brazil crop volumes alternate between full output and a ‘recovery’ year when the trees yield is naturally lower) the crop is being processed at Irarema where the larger and more modern mill unit, handles Lambari’s cherries still in separate batches for complete traceability. This partnership between the two farms allows cost to be managed and the best technical resources to be focussed on really optimising quality in the crop. Next year as volumes will be double this, each farm will manage its own coffee so neither is overwhelmed with quantity over quality.

Walking around the patios and mill area at Lambari with Raymond, we both notice how it does seem strange for the mill here not to be running at the harvest time, and indeed many of the farm workers were very dubious about sending the coffee over to their neighbour for processing – they are rightly proud of what they produce, but when it was explained that with a low volume crop, Raymond could not afford to run two mills with each only operating at about 30% of their capacity. and that this partnership with Irarema would mean long term stability and a future for both farms their support and understanding was assured.

ANORAK FACTS

Originally, planting was done by placing coffee seeds (beans) in small holes in the fields as opposed to the modern practice of germinating and bringing on in nursery beds before planting out into the fields.

Four seeds per hole were commonly planted (in case some didn’t make it) and in the old planting area we found at Santa Alina, four stems can clearly be seen at the bases.

Each ‘tree’ (sometimes with up to 4 stems) were planted out at about 1M intervals and rows spaced at 2M. Traditional planting such as this produced around 1200 – 1500 trees per hectare, whereas today 2 seedlings are planted together at 60-90cm spacing which generates 5000 trees per hectare.

Coffee is shipped from Brazil in 60Kg Jute sacks

Each sack contains 500,000 beans

Due to loss of weight from pulping, washing and final milling of the parchment skin from the final coffee bean, it takes 450Kg of harvested cherries to produce one 60Kg sack of exportable coffee.

The region receives around 2500mm rain per year so good ground cover pants are essential to bind the light mountain soils and prevent erosion

Terracing also used to reduce water flow down the valleys and retain nutrients in the soils around the plants.

Getting our hands dirty to produce organic compost material for coffee trees, at Finca Santa Ana La Huerta, Guatemala. These California worms are one of the magic ingredients that produce the rich nutrients for the coffee trees.

Coffee Pulp: Organic Composting by Wiggly Worms from Steven Macatonia on Vimeo.

Steven at Finca Santa Ana La Huerta, Guatemala. May 09

Over the eight years we’ve been sourcing Santa Ana coffee we’ve managed to get out to the farm every few years. It’s amazing to be out here again, and see how the farm has evolved and matured. Driving from Guatemala City to Sierra de las Minas, Rony and I were talking about the early days of the farm.

The story of how Rony Asensio started his farm really demonstrates his motivation. He bought the land back in the mid 90’s—married with two young children he believed he was finally in a place to begin to fulfil his dream to start a coffee farm.

Rony’s family comes from “Genuine Antigua coffee rootstock”. His father had a coffee farm near the colonial city of Antigua; but when Rony was a young boy, his father died and his mother was unable to continue to look after the farm so it was sold.

Rony vowed that one day he would follow in has fathers’ footsteps and start his own coffee farm. But when he decided to take the first step, the land prices in Antigua (the most famous coffee growing region in Guatemala) was too expensive and Rony spent two years searching for the perfect location. He needed somewhere that he could afford and would give high altitude, rainfall and that magic soil to support the cultivation of high quality coffee trees.

Eventually he found land in the Sierra de las Minas mountain range in Morazan. He had to be persuasive to get the owner to sell the land to him; but after long negotiations, the deal was done and Rony began to create his coffee farm. He took advice from the legendary Luis Pedro Zelaya Senior, whose family has farmed coffee in Guatemala for generations, and who happens to be Rony’s father-in-law. It took meticulous planning to decide which varietals to plant at different sections around the farm, owing to the delicate microclimate. We reflected now, 15 years later, how this has ensured the coffee cherries ripen at a gradual rate through the harvest. This was critical in controlling the pace of coffee cherry delivery at the farms beneficio pulpers so that processing is never delayed and quality is not lost.

Rony planted the coffee trees and shade trees, and over the years we’ve seen the farm double in size. But it has been far from easy and has taken great tenacity. During the late 90s; when world coffee prices started to crash, Rony almost lost the farm. His brother-in-law, Luis Pedro Zelaya Jnr, put in an investment which saved him, and It was around this time Jeremy and I first started to source coffee from Santa Ana la Huerta. And now, so many years later, we can see how this long-term relationship has been an important factor: supporting Rony to keep his farm in production, and instead of abandoning it as was happening with so many farms in Central America at that time, actually seeing the quality increase!

Patience: I’m privileged to have seen how the farm has matured and expanded and to have seen the quality improvements that Rony has implemented. On this trip I’m impressed how Rony had upgraded and increased the number of electric pulpers so that now the coffee cherries are pulped without any delay. He’s greatly enlarged the drying patios to increase the amount and control of sun-drying. We think these have been integral in how the quality and complexity in the coffee has developed and is preserved.

The farm’s social compliance has also evolved to a new level that we’re really delighted to be associated with. Rony first talked with me about his plan to build high quality housing and amenities for the farm workers over five years ago, but he had to get the farm into profit first.

New cooking stove and workers refectory. A couple of blistering hot, hand-made corn tortilla for breakfast set me up for the day. The farm provides three full meals a day for the workers, and also has small plots to grow fresh produce.

Then, three years ago, he showed me the blue prints, but it wasn’t until this trip that I saw the construction with my own eyes. It was amazing to think that through our ethical sourcing, focusing on paying a sustainable price for Santa Ana La Huerta, we’ve contributed towards improving the labour conditions on the farm. The payoff is that the good workers and expert pickers have come back to the farm though the season because they can appreciate what the farm provides them. The time spent training workers means that the knowledge is retained on the farm and has created a really good feeling among the workers.

After the harvest has been picked is an interesting time to visit the farm. The trees are in a state of exhaustion and need time to recover from yielding their crop. Hard systematic pruning—part of a 3 year cycle—is nearly completed for this year, and in some areas of the farm signs of new growth are starting to emerge. But Rony talks about how the timing of each task is critical. The weather has such a huge influence, and each task has to be undertaken with a patience and discipline, waiting for the rhythm of the season. Delay, and you lose the moment and the effect ripples through the season and can take year to get back into the cadence again. There’s still a significant workforce on the farm, mostly now involved in planting new young trees with Catuai and Bourbon varietals. Some workers only speak Q’eqchi’, a native language, and no Spanish! Fortunately for us, the farm managers speak Spanish & Q’eqchi’ which allows us to talk to each other. They tell me the auxiliary verbs are the same as English but I had to check wikepedia to learn what they are.

The first phase of the completed workers’ dormitories. Once dusk starts it gets pitch black really fast and the only thing to do is sleep. Rony’s next project is to bring electricity to these building and with a really generous amount raised from the 1960’s themed party night organized by the Tolly family at Taylor Street Baristas and a donation from Union, we were able to give Rony USD$ 5000 to get this work underway. The farm workers said the installation of electricity will let them sit and talk with their families and friends in the evenings.

I trundle with Rony & Edin on our quad bikes to the western side of the farm where Rony wants to show me his newest stewardship project now reaching its second year. The local Environmental agency permitted Rony to grow coffee in exchange for undertaking a re-forestation project. He planted 6000 cedar trees which I tell Rony are looking rather spindly. So he then wants to show me his first re-forestation project—this one 12 years old. It takes us about one hour to reach, and it’s a great blast practising my wheelie skills on the quad bike. Lightening is flashing in the far distance but we’re relaxed as it seems to be moving further away. We get to the massive cedar trees, creating impressive dense, thick woodland. The birds are piercingly shrill, and then the next moment lightening is on top of us. Rony calls to run back to the quad bikes and we go at full throttle. The rain starts violently, and I pull out my GAP pak-a-mac, amazed that in the 8 years of coffee travels that its been sitting in my holdall, this is the first time ever I’ve remembered to take it and hook it to my belt. Edin and Rony pull on plastic ponchos and we hurtle down the tracks with ponchos billowing out behind. The rain is getting torrential! It takes me back 6 years to the time I got caught in a hammering downpour crossing the centre of Lake Kivu, with Tim Schilling (PEARL) and Paul De Lucca (ACDI/ VOCA), in a tiny open motor launch. That day had started in brilliant sunshine and we’d gone to visit Copac co-operative on the north of the lake. On our return trip, the heavens opened and we had no waterproofs. In Rwanda I had learned my lesson the hard way.

Fortunately here in Guatemala the rain didn’t last and we got back to the farm mostly intact, apart from drenched 501’s.

In the near future, Rony’s son will be ready to take up the mantel and get involved in the stewardship of Santa Ana La Huerta. If there’s one thing Rony’s story teaches us, it’s that it takes a generation to create a coffee farm.

More images can be seen at the Santa Ana flickr set.