In the News:Carrboro Coffee Roasters popped up in several publications this month. Congrats to our award-winning roasters and Open Eye Cafe for getting so much attention around the world!
*Following up our second place win at the Karnataka Plantation Indian Coffee Challenge, ROAST Magazine profiled CCR. We learned a lot at this contest and are excited to bring the new knowledge back to our community here in Carrboro.
CCR Around the World:CCR is roaming the globe to pick up all the knowledge we can about new coffee sources. We’re participating and judging a couple of contests in the coming months and are excited to share stories from our recent travels.
*CCR headed to Guatemala to check out new coffee sourcing and we built some new relationships along the way.
*In Rwanda, we judged the Cup of Excellence and looked into some potential new coffee sources. Great country, great coffee, and great people.
*We’re heading to Brazil this September for a micro-lot convention and a barista competition. Wish us luck! We can’t wait to share the adventure.
CCR at Home:We may be busy traveling but that doesn’t mean we’re not busy at home. Here are some things you can look forward to this fall.
*Carrboro Coffee Roasters Single origin coffee (La Buena, Nicaragua) as espresso and pour over at Open Eye Cafe.
*Named as one of the “10 Southern Food Festivals You Need to Taste” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the TerraVITA Festival is back for a fourth season and kicks off on October 10th. You can catch us at the festivities! For more details and tickets, visit the TerraVITA website.
* We were just notified that we came in a close 2nd place in the 2013 India Karnataka Coffee Challenge! Credit goes to James Barbour and the staff for making this happen. Nice to have outside proof of good roasting happening! We are looking forward to sharing some of the 2nd place “coffee prize” with everyone!
* We are partnering with local label Yep Roc to offer coffee to those who pre-order the new Mandolin Orange release This Side of Jordan ! Support local music and your local roaster. For more information and to order, click here.
* Some incredible workshops and events this month. Click away for details…
* Open Eye Cafe got a shout out in a recent Fodor’s travel story, Four Perfect Southern Summer Itineraries. Click here to read it.
Steel String Craft Brewery of Carrboro has released a new beer that allows coffee enthusiast to indulge in a new way. Their new beer named Sue, a Black Saison, is infused with none other than our very own PNG & Peruvian blend. The beer is a porter malt bill with saison yeast. The chosen PNG & Peruvian blend for Sue, has a balance of floral & chocolate notes, with spicy, earthy hints of acidity. During the process, coffee is cold pressed three times so the beer’s body is not affected. The beer’s flavors include roasted coffee, chocolate, some tree nut, & some peppery spice, creating earthy & peppery flavors. Be sure to stop by and taste it at Steel String Craft Brewery on South Greensboro Street. More Info
Stop by Open Eye Café next time you’re out for a ride on your bicycle! Open Eye has been recognized by Carrboro Bicycle Coalition as bicycle friendly, recognized for our commitment to bike parking for employees and customers. More Info
Meet one of our growers! Finca Santa Felisa was established in 1904 by Mr. Trinidad E. Cruz. The farm was developed into a Maya Kakchiquel Zone, working with the local families, some of the same families who still work on the farm!
Santa Felisa is located in a micro-climate in the Acatenango Volcano Valley. The optimum weather conditions make for a slow ripening of the bean, capturing all of the nutrients necessary to make the perfect balance of carbonic acids resulting in a good cup profile. This organic coffee is described as having a floral fragrance and tangerine notes and a clean and smooth aroma. It has medium tropical fruit type of acidity, well integrated, with medium body. Crisp hits of apple, caramel and chocolate delight discerning palates, providing them with an extended, delicate and pleasant aftertaste.
Santa Felisa takes great care in raising their crop with high regard for the land. They avoid synthetic agrochemicals, reforest for protection of water sheds & avoid pest & disease via pruning, weeding, de-scukering & avoiding leaving remnant fruits in the field after harvesting. Composting pulp with Elsinea Foetidia (a red worm) serves as fertilizer into plantation. Socially aware as well, Santa Felisa never uses a work force of children and features both a primary education school on the farm as well as a day care center. In addition they offer training courses of Mayas Handicrafts for woman of the farm, as well the nearest towns of the farm, to foment integration of the communities and to continue the richness of the Mayan Culture.
Carrboro Coffee Roasters is proud to work with Santa Felisa. For more information & photos from the farm, please visit their website http://santafelisacoffee.com.
If you see me sometimes at the Roastery or Open Eye Cafe and I look a step slow or a little tired, there’s a good reason…
It’s called travel. And, I do a lot of it to make sure we are bringing you the best coffee, cutting edge preparation and that our industry is one to be proud of.
In the last couple of months I have been to Seoul, South Korea to judge the World Latte Art & World Coffee In Good Spirits Competition and then to Manila, Philippines, where I certified judges and oversaw their first sanctioned National Barista Competition.
This past weekend I was in Long Beach, CA at the Headquarters of the Specialty Coffee Association of America to be the instructor for World Coffee Events Judges Certification. This is where all judges must apply to be accepted to this workshop in order to be certified for upcoming World Competitions. These include World Barista Championship, but also World Brewers Cup (in Melbourne this year); World Latte Art & World Coffee in Good Spirits ( happening in Nice, France this year), and World Tasters Cup & Roasting Championships. These are events that happen at the National level around the world and then those champions go on the the World Championships – so we want the best judges ready!
From Long Beach I have headed up the California coast to Santa Cruz from March 13-17 for the U.S. Southwest Region Barista Championships ( one of 6 regionals we oversee in the U.S.) where I will train judges to be ready for the competition and serve as Head Judge. In Santa Cruz we will pick this Regions’ Champion, who will go on to our National Competition (USBC) which takes place in Boston, MA April 11-14. I am honored to be Head Judge at this event as well.
What about origin? Well, I am heading to Honduras March 21-25 to meet with farmers that we buy from and discussing this years’ crop. In Honduras I will also teach classes on espresso and roasting during the Copan Region Coffeefest, a regional educational and cultural coffee celebration event! Then it’s on to Guatemala to chat with farmers there and investigate new processing experiments we are engaged in with some farms. While there I will also work with good friend and 2012 World Barista Champion Raul Rodas, both with coffee process experiments and as he coordinates the Guatemala National Barista Championship…more certifications & judging in my future! After the USBC competition in April I will need to schedule more coffee trips to Nicaragua and El Salvador!
In May I will head to Melbourne for the World Barista Championships where I will also serve as Head Judge and help train/calibrate our pool of Judges. Approximately 63 countries will send a Champion to this exciting competition, and this is the first time it has been hosted in Australia! When I finally recover from this trip, I head to Rwanda in August (8/12-16), to judge the Cup of Excellence program there. I am very excited and honored to have been asked to join this group and find the best coffees coming out of that country this year and bring them back to share with our customers!
Check out this video at The Daily Tarheel about one of our Milk Steaming & Latte Art classes and watch our Workshops page for upcoming classes anyone can attend! Next up: The World of Coffee on March 9th & Espresso 101 March 23rd. Thanks to the DTH for coming by!
Coffee Review; the worlds leading coffee buying guide, gave this COE winner, roasted by Carrboro Coffee Roasters, an 89 out of a 100 point scale, verifying that this award winner is an exceptional Specialty Coffee. Coffee Review conducts blind, expert cuppings of coffees and reports the findings in the form of 100-point reviews, much like those that exist in the wine industry. Since being founded in February 1997, it has quickly has become the worlds largest and most respected coffee buying guide. The goal at the Coffee Review is to entertain and educate coffee drinkers, food service professionals, and the coffee trade with a credible and easy-to-use coffee guide based on objective, blind reviews from some of the most experienced individuals in the specialty coffee industry, thus offering a third party validation of the quality coffee experience. Read the review here
Many have drunk Fair-trade coffee, Rainforest Alliance coffee, organic coffee and even estate-direct coffee. Now there’s another way to get the highest quality coffee, the Cup of Excellence (COE).
Sometimes called the “Coffee Oscars” by the specialty coffee industry, COE is gaining ground in the U.S. as a way of guaranteeing quality in the cup and appropriately fair prices for farmers.
The US-based, decade plus-old program is an international system of grading and selling the best beans from participating coffee-growing countries each year.
Once selected by a National & International panel, the beans are sold online to the highest bidders.
Scott Conary not only sells COE coffee from his Roasting operation – Carrboro Coffee Roasters, and at his café’s – Open Eye Café & Caffe Driade; he is one of a handful of American Judges honored to be asked to judge these coffees in various Countries around the world. He has sat on the 25 to 30-member international panels in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and in August will head to Rwanda, to assess the coffee for those country’s auctions.
About 40 lots of top-scoring coffees are often on the table for the International panel to review; picked by a national panel from hundreds of lots submitted by farmers from all over the prospective country.
There is keen competition among the growers to have their beans selected because auction bids come from as far away as Japan and Australia. In 2010, 21 first-class Colombian coffees reached record prices at the COE auction with an average of $US12 a pound. “The farmers receive 85 per cent of the purchase price and got twice as much as they did last year,” Mr. Conary said, “And I’m getting a quality coffee and paying a more than fair price, with the idea of continuing this ‘quality & price connection’ beyond the competition.”
Fair-trade guarantees farmers a minimum of $1.25 per pound plus premiums, according to figures released by the organization in March 2010.
“Fair-trade and Organic certification is a lot like having a minimum wage for farmers,” Mr. Conary said, “There’s very little incentive for them to produce greater quality coffee, as long as they meet the certification criteria, which makes it a good safety net, but not a good way to galvanize a farmer to grow better quality – COE quality coffee. Besides the fact that the emphasis on other certifications largely ignores cup quality, which is necessary for the system to be truly sustainable and provide for higher prices.”
Over the past several years, Mr. Conary has won, lots from Honduras, Rwanda, Colombia, Brasil and Costa Rica COE. These rare & one-of-a-kind coffees have been displayed & sold using the COE trademark in his espresso bars and at the many quality focused clients of his Roastery.
“I think COE is a great model. It matches quality with price and allows roasters a chance to meet and become more intimate with the farmers that grow their coffee, with the hope of forging long term relationships based on common goals and the best tasting specialty coffee!”
We’re pleased to welcome 2012 World Barista Champion Raul Rodas to Open Eye and the Roastery in February. Raul will be a Guest Barista on Wednesday, February 6: 9am-Noon and lead a demo and talk on Saturday, February 9th at 3pm.
Raul is the owner and founder of Paradigma Coffee Roasters in Guatemala. A four-time Guatemalan Barista Champ, he won the prestigious World Barista Championship in Vienna Austria last June. The Saturday talk and demo is a must see for local industry and coffee lovers. Raul will demonstrate his chops and talk about his travels, Paradigma, and his six years in the coffee world.
We are honored to have him in town and in our shop for these two events!
UPDATE:
If you missed the event, click here for a great recap story in the Daily Tar Heel.
Raul Rodas at Open Eye sponsored by Carrboro Coffee Roasters, Open Eye Cafe, Caffe Driade, and Mahlkonig.
Thanks to Jordan Carmichael at Chapel Hill Magazine’s blog for featuring our upcoming workshops and our free Coffee Cupping Classes! For details on how to join us for any of our educational events, have a look here!
* We were just notified that we came in a close 2nd place in the 2013 India Karnataka Coffee Challenge! Credit goes to James Barbour and the staff for making this happen. Nice to have outside proof of good roasting happening! We are looking forward to sharing some of the 2nd place “coffee prize” with everyone!
Sometimes called the “Coffee Oscars” by the specialty coffee industry, COE is gaining ground in the U.S. as a way of guaranteeing quality in the cup and appropriately fair prices for farmers.
