unionroasted blog

The first UKBC 2012 heat took place in London last weekend. Congratulations to Sang Ho Park, who was triumphed with Best Espresso, Best Cappuccino and Best Signature Drink. His Tapped and Packed colleague, Matthew Robley-Siemonsma, was second, with third place going to Rummy Keshet, a barista trainer for Darlington’s.

Matthew, Sang Ho, and Rummy

If you’re competing in the upcoming heats – there’s still just about time to enter, particularly if you’re in Northern Ireland – we’ve put together some tips and advice from our expert team of judges and competitors.

COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID

• Not pulling shots/purging the grinder during 15 min stage prep before the competition
• Pouring very short espressos which may disqualify you (required volume is 25ml +/- 5ml)
• Not writing out your script for your 15 minute presentation
• Over-complicated table dressing – over-styled settings will not win extra points and could distract from the performance

DON’T FORGET TO…

• ‘Role play’ to practice effectively: bring two or three people together to act as the judges would, and use all your cups and table settings
• Pack your table setting in boxes ready to pull out and set up quickly
• Adjust your roast profile to required brew temperature
• Make sure that the judges have water poured in their glasses before you start
• During 15 min presentation work with your own grinder if at all possible
• Look into the judges’ eyes, smile, and talk about what you love in coffee
• When introducing the signature drink to the judges, make sure you explain how to drink it

Here at Union we’re very excited to be one of the sponsors of the 2012 UK Barista Championships. Marc Pierre Dietrich from UK Coffee Events spoke to Alan Miller from Union recently about what’s in store this year.

MPD:  UK Coffee Events would like to thank yourself and Union Hand Roasted for getting involved with UK Coffee Events this year.

Additionally we would like to thank you for introducing a brand new prize category for the UK Barista Championships – Best Newcomer (Working Barista) – and for offering a trip to origin for the best newcomer in the UKBC.

What gave you the idea?

AM: Thanks Marc. We are pleased to be associated with UK Coffee Events as Roasted Coffee Supplier, and have been part of the UKBC for several years now, hosting the SouthEast Heat in London last year.

We are hoping to bring a new dynamic to the UKBC with this Origin trip prize. In our day job we support, advise and train many in the coffee industry: baristas, restaurant and bar managers, cafe owners. With the current upward trend in new businesses to the industry, we believe it’s important to support new talent, encourage skills development, as well as bringing our expertise in our ‘Direct Trade’ sourcing model to a wider audience.

Coffee education is pivotal in a barista’s understanding of coffee, from how to recognise quality in coffee to best practice brewing. A true 360 degree knowledge of how to extract the best out of the coffee is really important to arm the barista with knowledge and confidence to showcase the contributions of both producer and roaster.

MPD: This is a very generous offer. With taste being so important, will the baristas be cupping at origin?

AM: Places on trips like this are highly sought after, and are once in a lifetime opportunity for most people. The best newcomer to the UKBC, who is a working barista – who has scored the highest points after the regional heats – could find themselves heading off to a producing country such as Rwanda, Brazil, Guatemala, Costa Rica or El Salvador.

This will not be a 5 star holiday in comfort, but will be 5 star in experience!

During the trip the barista may need to adjust to altitude or put up with extreme weather, and he or she should be prepared to help with a coffee harvest (if one is taking place when they visit), or maybe get their hands dirty sorting or grading coffee. They may participate in a cupping but more importantly he or she will get to meet with farmers who we source from whilst seeing at first hand a working coffee farm and experiencing its environment.

The trip will be led by either Steven Macatonia or Jeremy Torz – both of whom travel regularly to origin to build relationships with existing producers for Union as well as uncovering new coffee gems, as their Direct Trade sourcing model delivers.

MPD: What reaction do you envisage from the barista community?

AM: It is our intention, I hope, that we engage and excite a whole new generation of coffee enthusiasts who are inspired enough to choose coffee as a career as Jeremy and Steven were when they first discovered their love of coffee.

MPD: Why do you work for Union Hand Roasted coffee?

AM: The energy in the coffee industry in the UK currently is exciting. The opportunity to tell our story and meet very talented people, be they baristas, producers (farmers) or suppliers, is a great part of the job that I do. And with such fabulous coffees in our portfolio to enjoy, the challenge in foodservice is maintaining the quality through to serve across a diverse group of customers.

People shouldn’t have to settle for a dud cup of coffee in the UK these days. Being part of the team that aims to bring great tasting coffee to all who want it, direct from origin in an honest and transparent manner is satisfying and fun!

MPD: What trends are you noticing in the UK at the moment?

AM: Tea menus are a common sight. Many cafes are now thinking about offering multiple coffees on their menus. We are excited that operators are beginning to realise that coffee drinkers want choice as well, so there is the start of offering a menu coffees with diverse taste profiles, or perhaps brew methods, will in turn showcase a good barista’s knowledge in understanding the large variety of wonderful coffees now available.

MPD: If you were entering the UKBC what coffee would you use this year and why?

AM: (without hesitation) I would use the Genesis Microlot, West Valley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ8Iz1nwXdQ from Costa Rica.

The taste is wonderful, allowing the opportunity to create a superb signature drink marrying up with the flavours of red berries, toasted hazelnut and dried apricot.

This coffee is grown by Oscar Mendez who is almost theological about coffee. His approach is very inspirational, as he grows for quality not quantity and his focus and commitment to great coffee grown in harmony with the land on his farm is just brilliant.

In my last post about visiting farmers in Rwanda during the current season, I discussed how high market prices can bring difficulties to the farmers. In this post we’ll look at how prices can affect quality.

Quality is not an Accident

The second negative effect of high coffee market prices shows its hand in the overall quality of coffee reaching consumers.  In years of low market price, farmers  producing high quality specialty coffee know they have to maximise that quality to attract best prices. They achieve this by careful and selective picking which is more labour intensive, and careful post-harvest processing of the cherries.  This year, not only in Rwanda but as we have seen in many countries, farmers understandably take the view that they will be receiving more than last year without the extra effort – so why bother!  Again we have taken a great deal of time – including Steven visiting them earlier this year – to encourage them to work carefully and reinforcing to farmers that our agreement to buy, at a premium to market value, is linked to producing high scoring speciality grades.

If all of this market turbulence was not enough to cope with, the weather also added its own challenge.  Usually, the cherries ripen and are harvested over a period of around twelve weeks.  This year however, due to lots of rain and warm sunshine, the full crop came in over just six weeks and the Coffee Washing Stations, where the cherries are processed, were inundated by huge volumes of coffee cherries which need to be pulped really quickly. The beans must be separated from the pulp in a timely manner. If this is not done, fermentation in the bean can occur, or insects are attracted and damage the cherries, both of which can cause unpleasant taste effects in the finished coffee.  As we are in regular contact with producers that UNION buy from, we were aware of the problem and knew that there would be issues in the harvest quality so careful selection was needed more than ever.

Each individual lot has to be sampled

It’s this last matter that really drove me to spend a chunk of July in the cupping Lab in Kigali, working with Leatitia, a cupper I had helped to train some five years ago and who helped select our lots last year.  Together we cupped and scored hundreds of individual production lots from three Cooperatives and to get the coffee Union requires this year, we discounted just over 50% of the lots as not being up to our standard, and that was after Leatitia had pre-screened the lots to offer me a choice of those she considered the best.

To make the selections, a sample of green coffee is taken from each lot passing through the stations on any given day and labelled with the district and control reference number and is sent to the cupping lab in Kigali.

First the lots are sample roasted

300g of the coffee is prepared and roasted the day before we cup the lot; first we assess the roasted fragrance of the dry grounds and then pour the water, steep before evaluating the wet aroma, and then tasting the coffee brewed simply in a glass. We evaluate for a range of characteristics to produce a final score and description for that coffee that enables me to make a selection and construct the overall quantity, quality and flavour profile when the lots are put together.

In each cooperative there are districts that each have their own terroir and hence character.  My job was to select the best lots and bring them together (blend them) to achieve an overall standard for the cooperative that reflects the style of the district.  Maraba for example produces a rich full bodied and smooth coffee with an
elegant orange/citrus acidity to balance the cup; we offer this as our Single Estate coffee, Rwanda Maraba Bourbon.  COCAGI cooperative in Gashonga yields a coffee that is sweet, fuller bodied and has more red fruit flavour notes which we’ve also selected as a core component for our Revelation espresso.  Karaba Co-operative was new to us this year and being out in the cupping lab to taste tens of lots from the district was fascinating and wholly informative.  I’m looking forward to UNION being able to offer this coffee, which is distinct from the others having a lighter body with clean fresh apricot and white fruit, almost floral notes and a silky milk chocolate mouthfeel.

Occasionally during the cupping process, a lot comes up on the table that has a really outstanding flavour, with clarity and balance coupled with unique flavour notes and which also receives a high score.  In these cases, I have requested that these small lots are segregated all the way through and are delivered to us as our micro-lot selections.  We will release information on these as and when we get closer to them arriving in London and have checked and approved the arrival samples ensuring nothing untoward has happened during shipping.

Samples cooling before cupped

It’s only by getting out to the farms that we can know what has occurred during the harvest each year and I have no doubt that there may, sadly be a lot of very variable quality Rwanda coffee reaching the international market.  But it’s through our Union Direct Trade relationships and putting the miles
and work in, also personally a very enjoyable process that UNION Hand-Roasted Coffee will again be able to represent the very best of Rwanda’s speciality coffee
harvest for 2011-2012.

Working out the final scores

The complexity of sourcing coffee in Ethiopia has always given us an edge of excitement, one mixed with a healthy tinge of anxiety that arises from the fiercely independent spirit of the Ethiopians and their determination to do things in their own ways.  From our first visit back in 2002, where it felt like we’d stepped back into the bible, on every subsequent visit the country has held a fascination for us and a desire to get inside their heads to figure out how it works.  I realise I’ll probably never achieve that understanding, but during this trip I got to know the country a little better. 

As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia rightly commands it’s place on the pedestal of specialty coffee, but in the last couple of years the changes created in the mechanism for bringing Ethiopia coffee to the market has changed radically.

Those of you who have followed our adventures in sourcing over the last ten years will know that at Union Hand Roasted, our goal is to find identifiable groups of small farmers who we feel have already some great coffee in cultivation and with whom we can work to tease out the very best of what can be produced in a truly sustainable manner for both the crop and community.  In Ethiopia (as with many areas we source from), the coffee is grown in small garden plots and the community cooperatives rely on large numbers of farmer members often over a relatively wide geographical area, altitude and terrain. This structure allows us to target resources on those micro-areas where not only a great quality coffee (clean cup, natural sweetness and balance) can be produced, but also ones with distinct character and regional flavour profiles that we enjoy as diversity of style (think French wine – big full bodied Burgundy or light floral Beaujolais from the south).  Two coffees may be assessed  in cupping to have top quality scores yet still exhibit dramatically different flavour profiles – our approach is to find systems where each of these special lots can be kept separate and traceable (se we know who produces it and who receives special premium payments) and bring these direct to you for unadulterated enjoyment.

The recent creation of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECM), where specific lots of particular quality (but not necessarily flavour profile) are sold to licenced exporters only permits the sale of coffee of a specific designated grade and quality, and does NOT permit isolation of traceable lots. Some exporters have devised ways around this restriction, to give a level of provenance but this is not easy to verify.   The process for the Commodity Exchange requires farmers to deliver their coffee cherries to designated Exchange Warehouses, which are out in the rural areas. Here producers are paid the current market price for their coffee. The cherries are then processed through to exportable grade but there is no segregation or separation to produce traceable lots. Equivalent grades from all farmers are mixed to create consistency and homogeneity, but with no recognition or reward to individual farmers for truly exceptional lots. This coffee is sold through the Commodity Exchange (ECX).  Coffee not deemed of sufficient quality to achieve export status is destined for the local market.  Indeed, it is not legal to sell export quality for local consumption; it has to be exported to bring maximum revenue to Ethiopia. 

The Direct Specialty Exchange (DSM)  introduced last year allowed buyers- roasters and importers- the shortest route to gain access to selected Q Graded lots  of highest quality Ethiopia certified (organic and or Fairtrade) coffees.   At the inaugural auction back in February 2010, we were able to acquire four different lots all produced from the Yirga Cheffe Farmers Cooperative Union  (YCFCU).  The Union is a regional organisation that represents and is owned by the cooperatives, and it is the Union that has the licence and capability to export the coffee produced at co-operative level for example the individual co-operatives  like, Konga, Haforsa, Koke, and Sigigia- the coffees we bought.

Our relationship with YCFCU goes back to our first visit in 2002, and we’ve been buying their coffee every year, but for a short blip. For a period of time, YCFC experienced numerous challenges around management and governance issues, and the result was a turbulent relationship between the farmer members and their board of directors with the consequence that support for the group and participation was greatly reduced. Unfortunately, this is nothing new in the complex world of coffee, particularly when dealing with so many farmers- each co-operative can have up around 2000 farmers each working 0.5 ha of land.

Conflict within cooperatives often occurs when there is lack of transparency. Farmers forget or just fail to appreciate that they own their Union, and a long process of education is all too often necessary give them the skills and confidence just to ask for, or get access to the information that belongs to them.

Ensuring there is transparent two–way transfer of information is therefore critical to a strong Union and this had been missing from the equation.  However, the impact that Takele, the new General Manager of YCFCU has had on their performance cannot be overstated.  It was encouraging to observe his strong leadership skills distilled to confidence at farm level.  In addition, our visits and continuing relationship with the group demonstrated the support of a committed buyer and has helped to provide the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for the producers.  The second payment (distribution of the cooperative’s profits fund) given to farmers from last season signalled a new re-energised level of activity at Konga and has attracted an increase in membership this year. We are delighted to see that they are back on track. The board of directors of a Union has to be accountable to their farmers at the level of the primary cooperative. What was now apparent to me at YCFCU office was how the farmers have direct access to what the YCFC Union does, every day.   

Back at the cooperative level, in the office of Konga co-operative, it was enriching to see the activity at their cupping laboratory; they are currently the only farmer group within YCFU that has this facility, and it undoubtedly goes a long way to explaining their high quality.  The Secretary of Konga, Sisay Daka told me how aware the cooperative is that the cupping lab is the instrument that enables Konga to improve their quality and to increase the selling price of their coffee. This is their “only income source and the current farmgate price is shining towards a bright future”. Maintaining and crafting the quality at Konga is enabled by the activity of the cupping lab which gives direct feedback to the manager of the pulping station, advising when protocols have been effective or in the event of problems, they are immediately detected and can rectified before they adversely impact quality and therefore price received.

In addition to the quality of this coffee, the second strength is the traceability through to each primary producer group.  They and I consider this the strength of the certification system, whether Fairtrade or Organic – both reveal the producer cooperative and gives visibility and hence added value to the producer.  It reinforces my schizophrenic approach on the benefit or demonization of Fairtrade.

After my visit to Konga, I travelled on to another group in the YCFU, Dama Cooperative who we are just about to begin a relationship with, and from whom I received a massively hospitable welcome.  I wanted to visit this particular group because aside from having cupped some amazing coffee from them this year, they are new recipients of a training grant to develop their governance and management skills. This programme is funded by Progreso Network, an NGO who is providing vital pre-financing* for our coffee from YCFCU this season. At Dama I saw the preparation of some special natural process coffees that we are seeking.  This was a special 2010-11 preparation that commenced with advising a democratically selected group of farmers to deliver perfect red ripe coffee cherries to the pulping station. These whole coffee cherries are carefully dried on shallow square wooden trays for up to 21 days as they gradually darken and dry out to resemble dried a dried black cranberry (or real cherry).   This process intensifies the sweet, syrupy pulpiness and makes this preparation so distinctive and irresistible.

This lot, along with our new season harvest of Konga Cooperative and a few other interesting Ethiopian coffees will be arriving at our Roastery in the next few weeks and it’s your chance (amongst our other origin micro-lot offers!) to get to really understand how much magic and diversity can be contributed by different micro-climates and the diligence of small committed farmers . 

 *Pre-financing refers to a buyer providing the cooperative with working capital with which they can fund the purchase of coffee from individual farmers during the harvest season.  In the absence of this, cooperatives have to secure commercial loans at high local interest rates which are repayed some months later when all the coffee has been collected, processed and sold.  Union Hand Roasted’s participation in this pre-finance has enabled us to build deep relationships with many communities and has been largely responsible for the consistent cup quality we are able to provide through the year.