We are proud to announce that the coffee from the Gombe Coffee Project is finally available. All of Sustainable Harvest’s and the Tanzanian farmers’ labor has certainly paid off. They have gone from producing a coffee that could not be considered “Specialty Coffee” to producing a coffee that we cupped at an 89! In the aroma, we got some nice, fleeting floral notes, and a combination of caramel and butter. While it was hot, we got a sweet spiciness that resembled thyme, and as it cooled the sweetness was accentuated with notes of blackberries and syrupy honey. It also had a dominant tangy-wininess to it. You will not only enjoy the sweet and pungent taste, but you will also enjoy knowing that you are helping coffee farmers in Tanzania break out of the shackles of poverty. Read more about this coffee here. You will not want to miss out on this wonderful coffee experience.

Sergio and Isabel have gone to great lengths to bring you one of the sweetest cups of coffee you will ever taste! This peaberry from Finca Los Planes in El Salvador is a real treat. It has an aroma that is dominated by sweet cherries. The cherry notes carry into the cup and are combined with a wonderful clove-like complexity and a touch of lemon. A peaberry is a coffee cherry that only develops one whole bean instead of two separate beans. Many people believe that this anomaly creates a much sweeter cup of coffee because the tree puts all of its energy into developing one seed instead of two. We have roasted it lightly to ensure that all of its sweetness comes through in the cup. If you have enjoyed the Pacamara from Finca Los Planes, be sure not to miss out on this peaberry.

Minneapolis, MN, May 6, 2008 PT’s Coffee Roasting Co.’s Pete Licata, of Overland Park, Kan., placed 2nd in the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 7^th Annual United States Barista Championship. The competition was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minn. Competitors from across the nation fought for the industry-wide acclaimed title of 2008 SCAA United States Barista Champion.During the contest, competitors are judged by coffee experts on the preparation of espresso shots, cappuccino, and a unique signature drink of their own design; adding a host of new recipes to the industry in the process. During the intense 15 minutes of performance each competitor must make four of each type of beverage, serve them with poise, and explain their coffees and processes to a panel of seven judges. In addition to style and taste, the technical aspects of the work, such as how well they know their equipment and how consistently they prepare their espresso, are heavily weighted into the final scores. Sixty baristas vied for the title. Among the competitors were 10 current regional competition winners, two former winners, and the previous United States champion. Licata, as well as all four of his teammates, chose to feature PT’s La Bella Vita espresso blend in all of their courses. La Bella Vita helped Pete Licata win 2^nd place in the 2007 United States Barista Competition and is used in all of PT’s retail stores.Pete Licata is currently a barista at PT’s Coffee Co.’s Jayhawk Central retail location at 125^th and Quivira in Overland Park. He has been a barista for five years and is the reigning 2008 SCAA Midwest Regional Barista Champion as well as former champion in 2005. See Pete’s Semi-final performance! 

The entry rounds of the United States Barista Championship are now concluded. Following the performance of 59 top notch Baristas from around the United States the top 6 are slated for the finals on Monday.PTs very own Pete Licata has done it again. On Monday it will be five Baristas from California and one from Kansas competing for the opportunity to represent the United States in the World Barista Championship held in Denmark in June.Kansas vs. California…..follow all the action live on the Specialty Coffee Association of America conference web page.Good luck Pete!

Well, most of the staff have now departed for the Specialty Coffee Association of America tradeshow and conference in Minneapolis. For those of you who will not be able to attend, please stay up to date with the USBC and much more by going to the following link. This is the largest coffee gathering of the year and many things will be happening besides the USBC. There will also be the Coffee of The Year competition taking place to pick the Coffee of the Year. This is the first year for this competition.   FOLLOW THE HAPPENINGS 

This rare and unique coffee is now available for you to enjoy. Daterra Coffee in Brazil has specially bred Opus 1 to have 30% less caffeine than your traditional variety of Arabica. In the cup, it is perfectly balanced with hints of vanilla and chocolate. There were only 50 boxes of this coffee produced, and we are fortunate to be able to roast 5 of those boxes. Do not miss this chance to be a part of this great innovation in the coffee industry.

23 full days…552 hours…33,120 minutes. I don’t even want to know what that is in seconds (ok, I did the math and it was just shy of 2 million). But, it is a lot of time. It is approximately the amount of time that each of our barista competitors has spent practicing for the 2008 SCAA United States Barista Competition this week. Between the 5 of us that is a combined 2,760 hours. It is roughly 13% of the last 6 months for each of us, and that doesn’t even include sleep. Every Saturday and Sunday (with the occasional Friday thrown in) has been spent in each other’s company, refining technique, tweaking performances, and really getting to know one another. In an effort to decompress and have a little fun together after all the time we have invested, we decided to have a little party this past Saturday night. Robin brought a grill to the PT’s roasting facility and we grilled meats and vegetables after a day of performance run throughs. We even used some of the ingredients from different signature drinks for seasoning on the meat (well marbled steak and thick cut pork chops), including our espresso blend, La Bella Vita (in ground and liquid form). I have to say, it was some of the best barbeque that I have had the pleasure of tasting. Once everyone had their plates full we ate at the ‘judges table’ in the PT’s training room and plugged in the PlayStation2 for a little Guitar Hero. All in all it was a great way to unite the team before the big competition.
The team consists of 2 PT’s Baristas- Pete Licata (2008 SCAA Midwest Regional Barista Champion, as well as runner up in the 2007 United States competition) and Robin Seitz (2007 SCAA Midwest Regional Barista Champion). We have two other competitors- Chris Berola and Caitlin Corcoran from LatteLand Espresso and Tea in Kansas City. I (Holly) have primarily played the role of coach in our endeavors and no matter what happens this weekend, I will be very proud of their accomplishments. Awards aside, all four of them have improved drastically in the last 6 months and are huge assets to the coffee industry in technique and skill. Anyone would be honored to have them be the last set of hands to touch their coffee.
We will be updating the blog as the competition progresses, so stay tuned for more information!

Friday, April 25th at noon, PT’s Coffee is holding a free public cupping at our roasting facility. In this week’s public cupping, we will explore coffees from Central America. If you can make it, just let us know so that we can plan appropriately. Hope to see you this Friday, and feel free to call if you have any questions!

This week’s coffees:

Panama Carmen Estate 1750 Reserve

Panama Elida Estate

Costa Rica La Minita

El Salvador Finca Los Planes - Pacamara

Guatemala Maya Ixil

So there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the competition circuit this season regarding a newer grinder on the scene.  The Anfim.
Wanting to at least understand it better, if not use it ourselves, Jeff was nice enough to buy one for our team of baristi to experiment with and evaluate.  Here’s what we’ve found out.

1.  Its huge titanium burrs and high rpms actually grind coffee faster than our typical Robur conical.

2. Though it is a step adjustment grinder (not an infinite adjustable) the Search Modification allows for minute adjustments to dosing to compensate for the tiniest amount of changing needed.

3. The doser (doser star) sweeps remarkably clean.

4. When used properly, you can reduce your waste to nearly nothing and get a VERY consistent result.  It is the most consistent timed doser I’ve ever played with.

5.  It takes some serious barista skill to use this grinder properly.  This is not a cheap trick.  It is a serious professional skill level tool.

Dialing in the grind can be a little tricky because of how the Search modification works.  It grinds for a set time (adjusted by an exceptionally touchy little knob).  If you need to change your grind, you need to compensate by changing your grind time to make sure you still end up with the same amount of coffee. Its just the basic physics of the beast.  It takes longer to grind the same amount of coffee finer than it does to grind it coarser…
So, say you need to fine up your grind 1 notch.  You need to adjust you grind, run a purge, and then increase your grind time a tiny bit to make up for the extra time needed to hit your dose.
Likewise to coarsen you grind; adjust your grind, purge, and the DECREASE your grind time to compensate.
The finer control you exert over the grind time, the less waste you will be producing per shot.  In a retail setting this grinder could save you a LOT of money.  It is less expensive than a lot of high level grinders out there as well.

All of the writing I have seen out there about the Anfim has stated that you don’t need to, or want to level your coffee after dosing it into the portafilter.  I can’t explain the whys, but it seems to be true.  I tried several leveling techniques, settling the grounds (by tapping on the grinder tines) and then leveling, just settling, and not settling or leveling.
My experience found that whenever I tried to level off, I got channeling and inconsistent shots.  But just settling carefully, or not at all, got me very consistent shots.  It was blowing my mind, but it worked.  I’ll have to dive into a scientific conversation with someone to figure out just why because it is really intriguing me.

There are a couple of down sides to the Anfim with the mod.
1. There is no good or consistent way to pulse grind.

2. It is lighter than the Robur, so if you are a quick/hard doser, you will be moving the grinder all over the place.  You need to learn to calm down or put something under the base that will not allow the grinder to shift around.

3. A lot of coffee hangs up at the opening of the chute coming down from the burrs.  If you clean it out really good for, say, a competition, you need to prime the grinder by purging a good amount to fill this chute back up to get your consistent dose you so desire.

4. Its grind adjustment is super smooth, almost to a fault.  Its really easy to move two notches instead of just one if you’re not careful and paying close attention.  And I guess I really wish there was an infinitely adjustable dial model.

All in all though.  I find the Anfim grinder to be an excellent piece of equipment.  I am already begging Jeff to get one for our Barrington Village retail location.  I’m totally sold on its retail application.
And for those worried about the automation of our field, and those worried that this is one step removing the skill of the true professional barista from the equation (the “Manos” of the 4 M’s in espresso), you should know that I was in that camp too…Until I used this grinder.  To use it properly, you MUST be a barista of high skill and understanding of your coffee and how the physics of you tools work.  The barista is still the key element of the equation.  Instead of doing your dose adjustments on the fly though, you do the calibration of your tool up front.

I have used the Anfim, and I am now a believer.

Robin Seitz

As I sit here at terminal - gate 68 - in KCI airport, I am remembering my last trip to El Salvador.  This will be my second trip there since the first of the year.The first trip, in January, was to examine the crops and the damage caused by a horrible wind storm at Finca Los Planes and Finca La Montana. Finca Los Planes  is one of our favorite Relationship Coffee farms. It’s in the Chalentenango region of Salvador very close to the Honduras border. When I visited in January I got a small sampling of what the storm that caused so much damage must have been like to live through. We stayed at the farm in a brand new cottage that Sergio and Isabel established to host us on our visits to the farm. It’s a small home but very warm with the personalities of the owners every where. The view is breath taking. But late in the night, as the winds picked up, it felt as though the tin roof were going to lift right off of the small structure. Sleeping was difficult, if not nerve racking. But as morning came and aroma of coffee came from the front room, I knew one of my favorite coffees, Los Planes Pacamara was soon at hand and everything seemed normal again.Finca La Montana was not as lucky as finca Los Planes. Los Planes suffered only mild damage during that December storm. La Montana was completely destroyed. His entire crop was ruined by the high winds. Finca owner Beto Ochoa was at home that night when the storm came and destroyed his farm. He tells the story on our website (he speaks in spanish) if you visit this link. Many coffee roasters around the world have rallied to help Ochoa, last years Cup of Excellence winner,  get back on his feet and survive this year and possibly next with out an income from coffee. So I’m sitting here in the airport awaiting my flight that will take me back to San Salvador to be on the international jury for the El Salvador Cup of Excellence. Its a very exciting time for the farmers who hope to win the competition and make a windfall for there hard work.Finca Los Planes received second place in the 2006 Cup of Excellence and we have purchased their coffee every since. In fact this year we will purchase up to 80% of their crop. Including a substantial amount of Bourbon variety and Reserva del Mandador Peaberry to compliment the Pacamara variety that we already purchase from the Ticas. We have made wonderful friends in Sergio and Isabel and look forward to visiting the farm again this Tuesday with the other international cuppers who will be attending the Cup of Excellence this year.  In addition to Los Planes we are also bringing in a number of other coffees from El Salvador this year. Including the coffee that finished first in the 2006 Cup of Excellence, Finca Las Mercedes. More on this coffee later. But I’m sure you will love this coffee. It’s a very special coffee, family and farm that we look forward to introducing to you later this summer.Of course we will also have our Orange Bourbon again this year and a small amount of Aida’s Grand Reserve and coffee from Finca Kilimanjaro.  It’s going to be an outstanding offering from El Salvador this year. And this trip is to take part in the Cup of Excellence and celebrate a wonderful harvest. A toast to the great coffees from the 2007/2008 Salavdoran farmers who produce the outstanding crops.Jeff Taylor, Coffee Buyer for PTs Coffee Roasting Co.