MadCap sent out an exciting Brasil this month.  Here are some details…

Chapadão de Ferro, Brasil

Region: Patrocinio, Minas Gerais

Producer: Rualdo DelaRisse

Processing Method: Natural Processed

Altitude: 1,250 meters

Varietals: Mundo Novo and Caturra

Harvested July-September 2009

Chapadão de Ferro translates to “plateau of iron” as the farm is located in the center of an extinct volcano providing soil very rich in iron.  Ruvaldo farms with the help of his wife and children. The rich soil gives lots of clarity to the cup as you can also expect a smooth (but large body), clean flavor, with black cherry on the finish.

If you would like to get in on next months shipment join the club!

When we started the The Direct Trade Coffee Club, we found a wide range of different definitions for Direct Trade existed in the marketplace.  We believe those different definitions are confusing consumers so we created a survey to collect thoughts on what direct trade is and what impact it has on the coffee industry.

The primary goal of the survey is to establish a common working definition of direct trade for our club members.  We want to ensure we are communicating clearly with our customers so that when we say the coffee is 'direct trade' they know what that means.

While it is too early to disclose the preliminary results, we have found a couple of interesting things so far:

• There is a tremendous desire to establish a common definition of direct trade
• There is more agreement on the definition than we previously thought

While there is still a lot of work to do, we think positive progress towards a common definition is possible.

We would love your input, please Click here to take survey.

Intelligentsia will ship their single origin El Machete from Finca Santa Teresa in Panama to Direct Trade Coffee Club members for the May shipment.

The El Machete is produced by an innovative farmer named Juan Pablo Berard. His dedication to coffee quality and social and environmental sustainability are obvious in all endeavors at the farm, from funding Casa Esperanza (a school for his workers’ children) to separating individual lots of coffee to preserving forest on his property.

Tasting notes:

Forest blackberries, concord grape and a pleasant winyness dominate the nose. The body is full, dense and silky in texture; reminiscent of Black Forest cake. The lime acidity underscores notes of St. Germain and muscat grape as the finish tapers into cocoa and nutmeg spice.

Specs:

Producer: Juan Pablo Berard and Maria Louisa Berard

Farm: Finca Santa Teresa

Region: Santa Clara

Varietal: Catuai, Caturra, Typica

Altitude: 1,400 – 1,500 meters

Harvest: December – February 2010

The Direct Trade Coffee Club shipment for April 2010 will be from Madcap.  They are shipping a Catuai, Pache, Arabigo varietal from Ellen Prentice and the Finca de Dios in the Fraijanes region of Guatemala.  The coffee comes from Ellen Prentice

Finca de Dios is at an altitude of 1,700 meters above sea level and was processed using a wet mill process and sun dried on concrete patios.  The beans were harvested between January and March of 2009.

Additional Information:  Finca de Dios (Farm of God) is more than just a name for Ellen and her workers, it's a mind-set that all of their practices are based off of.  Ellen, one of very few female coffee farmers in Guatemala inherited the farm from her father.  She feels a deep responsibility to ecological awareness in her practices and diligently works with her producers to pay a good wage.  In 2008, the farms excellence was awarded 13th place in the Cup of Excellence auction.  MadCap wants you to keep your eyes open as they strongly believe Finca de Dios will be one of the most sought after farms in Guatemala in the next decade.

Madcap will also be serving this coffee during the upcoming Symposium at the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference this week.

If you would like to receive coffee from the Direct Trade Coffee Club in the future, join the club! 

Direct Trade Coffee Club Roasters, Intelligentsia Coffee and MadCap Coffee both had successful showings at country’s two most competitive regional barista competitions. 

In the Western Regional Barista Competition on February 26^th-28^th, Intelligentsia LA barista’s Ryan Wilbur took 2^nd place while Devin Pedde placed 5th.  

Two weeks later on March 12^th-14^th Intelligentsia Chicago and MadCap Coffee of Grand Rapids combined to make up the first 4 places of the Great Lakes Regional Barista Competition.

1. Mike Phillips, Intelligentsia
2. Trevor Corlett, MadCap
3. Charles Babinski, Intelligentsia
4. Ryan Knapp, MadCap

 Congratulations to all of the competitors and best of luck as all six of these individuals will advance to the Unites States Barista Competition in Anaheim, CA May 15^th-18^th with the chance to win a spot and represent the US in the World Barista Competition in London.

What is a barista competition?

A competitor has 15minutes to prepare and serve 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos and 4 signature drinks of the baristas creation to a panel of sensory judges.  The barista has the opportunity to showcase the coffee they choose being judged on taste, presentation, cleanliness and consistency.  Essentially this is the iron chef for baristas.    

To find out more visit www.usbaristachampionship.org.

Join the club and get coffee from Intelligentsia, Madcap and Barefoot.

We're happy to announce that Barefoot Coffee will send their Daterra Redcab to the DTCC members for the March 2010 shipment. Redcab is one of the Relationship Coffees offered by Barefoot.  This is a special single farm custom blend offered by Barefoot. Cupping notes: Beguiling fruit sweetness opens for thick and sticky lava cake with almond brittle. Hints of marzipan layered with stone fruit marmalade in the middle. Deep bass power chords resound in the gooey, chocolatey, brownie and cream finish. The slightest kiss of dried strawberries and citrus tickles your palette. A world exclusive coffee created for Barefoot Coffee. Three lots, two varietals and two processing methods. Awesome sweet. The DTCC team tasted this coffee the other day and it's fantastic!  Should be a tasty treat for members.

Anyone that followed the link to Sarah Kluths tasting notes within our recent post about Intelligentsia coffee announcing their shipment of  Ikirezi, Burundi coffee for the club shipment in February, will understand Sarah’s passion and commitment to Direct Trade.  What you may not get is “the rest of the story”, so we asked Sarah what was special about her recent trip to Burundi, here is what she had to say:

Hmmm… Burundi

A highlight of mine was interacting with the spirit of the Burundi people. I did some work for USAID, providing a one-week course for cuppers.  Their passion for learning was undeniable and their willingness to understand and embrace the specialty coffee movement was inspiring.  So often, you run into people who’ve been working in an industry for ages and their experience and tenure results in a resistance to change rather than a proclivity for innovation.  These cuppers expressed nothing but sheer pleasure at learning more about the intimate details of cupping, roasting and production as well as ways in which they could provide improvements in their own cooperatives, washing stations or Sogestals.  Although the Burundian government may be in the beginning stages of cultivating an environment suitable for specialty coffee, its producers aren’t.  They are as passionate as ever and are ready to do what it takes.

Today we are proud to announce that Barefoot Coffee Roasters has joined the Direct Trade Coffee Club as a roaster.  They will help us spread the word about Direct Trade and supply our members with the finest Direct Trade coffees.

Barefoot will be the roaster of the month for March.  In the upcoming week we will announce the coffee they will ship to members in March.

Here is a little information about Barefoot – read on and I think you will be as excited as we are to have them aboard!

Barefoot Coffee is all about relationships. It is the hand that crafts the coffee that makes the biggest impact on both the flavor of the coffee and the positive impact that it has around the world. Coffee has a dramatic effect on many thousands of lives in its journey from the finca to the french press. Barefoot is committed to making the impact a positive one. Positive environmentally, socially, financially and personally. We believe in doing business by shaking hands and working on a win-win solution for everyone. The best products are always reserved for friends. Coffee is no different.

The Barefoot Coffee Way:

• Great coffee is the result of the many hands that craft it from the seed on the farm to the cup in your hand.
• Making great tasting coffee takes a lot of hard work, training and commitment.
• You must have the best coffee equipment that is well maintained and clean.
• Every espresso and coffee you make should be the best it can be to honor all of the hard work that went before it.
• Customers deserve and expect the best tasting coffee made by skilled, caring people.

The Partnership:

• Barefoot Coffee is deeply committed to developing long term relationships with our coffee producers at origin and our coffee partners here at home.
• Barefoot practices sustainability in every area. We buy sustainably grown coffee from conscientious growers including Relationship Coffees, Shade Grown, Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and many other certifications. We recycle, reduce and reuse as much as we can.
• Barefoot takes coffee very seriously. We work very hard to apply leading edge techniques, science, equipment, theories and passion to hand craft the best cup of coffee or espresso. It is hard work pursuing perfection. It’s worth it.
• Barefoot makes the entire connection from farmer to cup transparent and open. Our wholesale customers and their consumers know in detail exactly who grew the coffee, where and how it was grown, the varietals and elevation and all of the flavor nuances.
• Barefoot uses only the best quality, industry leading equipment to roast and prepare our coffee. That means Probat roasters, LaMarzocco, Nuova Simonelli Aurelia and Della Corte espresso machines and grinders, Fetco brewers, Mazzer and Mahlkoenig grinders and Everpure and Cirqua water filtration.

Please join us in welcoming Barefoot Roasters to the club by following them on Twitter and joining their Facebook Fanpage.

Thanks to Deborah Johnson Wood for taking the time to write about the coffee business in Western Michigan and the Direct Trade Coffee Club.

The Direct Trade Coffee Club is a collection of roasters and we believe it’s important to clear up one point made in the article regarding the Direct Trade model.  The notion of the Direct Trade model ‘cutting out the middle men’ is is a common misconception.  It is this idea of “cutting out the middlemen” and using this “saved” money to pay the farmer more.   We would like to respond by stating that this is not our roasters goal, wish, or practice.  We believe each link in the value chain plays a very important role in supplying your everyday fix of liquid gold.  Our roasters use experts on the ground at origin, they use importers and exporters and they use freight companies.  There are many hands that touch the coffee, and we value each one.  The process of direct trade, is about getting the finest coffee to the consumer while recognizing each link of the value chain in a respectful manner, which starts by paying the farmers more.  Direct trade is expensive, but its the best way to obtain the best coffee in the world, procured in the most economically sustainable manner.

Please comment on this post if you think the way we do.  We would love to hear your thoughts.