SOLD OUT!  More expected in coming weeks. What a great day for Hawaiian coffees!  Our Micro-Lot of Rusty’s Hawaiian just arrived and we plan to launch it next week. We are now accepting pre-orders for this exceptional coffee.

Lorie Obra next to a sign that denotes her family farm. The farm is named in honor of her late husband, Rusty.

For years customers have asked why we don’t carry Kona Coffee on our offering sheet, in our store, or on our website. I’ve always had the same answer. “The samples of Kona coffee that I’ve received  just don’t cup well enough to justify the price that is paid for a coffee carrying the Kona Coffee brand.”

I tell customers that “we make every attempt to offer coffees that are worthy of the price, not just the name.” Kona Coffee has had a tremendous reputation for years. But in recent years the samples I have received and tasted on our cupping table just didn’t measure up. So despite the pressure to offer a Kona Coffee or Kona Coffee Blend, we chose to stay the course and only offer coffees of exceptional quality.

Coffee cherry harvested by Lorie at her family farm in Hawaii.

Today, we are very proud, a coffee we’ve now carried for 2 years from the Hawaiian Islands placed 1st place in a Blind Cupping competition. I noted when we first bought this coffee that we had finally found a coffee worthy of the price from the Hawaiian Islands. Rusty’s Hawaiian Coffee is an outstanding coffee that is grown and harvested by Lorie Obra in the District of Ka’u. Lorie takes incredible pride in the coffee she grows and processes and is always willing to go the extra mile to make it exceptional.

So this blog post is for you Lorie: CONGRATULATIONS from your friends at PTs Coffee Roasting Co.!

Lorie strives to make her late husband proud and produce not just a coffee crop, but one that is exceptional. Today her dream was realized in a blind cupping competition. We are proud to work with you Lorie and look forward to working with you for years to come.
For more info see the local stories about the competition.

Our Micro-Lot of Rusty’s Hawaiian just arrived and we plan to launch it next week. We are now accepting pre-orders for this exceptional coffee.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Jeff Taylor

PTs Coffee Roasting Co.

As part of our Direct Trade program at PTs Coffee Roasting Co. we visit the farms we work with on an annual basis to inspect the farms and learn, build relationships and evaluate the coffee prior to harvest, during harvest or after harvest.

This year, I arrived at Finca Cerro Paldo in Costa Rica just as the harvest had concluded. Although I did miss the actual harvest, I was able to spend a quality afternoon with the Monge Family at Finca Cerro Paldo enjoying lunch and a wonderful cup of coffee with Don Juan Rafael and his sons. We toured the farm and looked at areas of the farm they plan to plant with coffee later in the season. The goal is to double production to meet our needs over the next 5 years.

Finca Cerro Paldo won First Place in the 2007 Cup of Excellence and has been one of our prized Direct Trade partners at origin since. This will be our third year to buy the coffee and I can proudly report this is one of their top quality harvests. I’ll post more pictures from the farm soon.

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FACEBOOK PHOTOS CLICK HERE

These are photos from a recent origin visit to Finca Las Mercedes in El Salvador. I visited producer Lucia Ortiz and her family with staff members Holly Bastin and Morgan Smith. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the visit with our friends.

Jeff

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It is always an exciting moment when you are able to meet with the creator of something you love.  Last Thursday presented us with just such an opportunity.  Lucia Ortiz, from Finca Las Mercedes, flew up to Topeka, Kansas to share her story with PT’s customers and to support PT’s Barista Competition Competitor Robin Seitz, who is using her coffee in the competition.  We had a wonderful morning where customers were able to meet Lucia and listen to her intriguing story.

Lucia Ortiz’s family, like many in El Salvador, was steeped in the traditions of the coffee industry.  This heritage, along with a desire to set an example for her children, led Lucia to jump at the chance to take over her in-laws’ coffee farm.  Her leadership, marketing skills and attention to detail has helped the farm become an exemplary farm within the specialty coffee industry in El Salvador.  Her secret (don’t tell anyone) is that she yells at, and occasionally coddles, the trees.  Well, whatever she does, we want her to keep doing it.  Her El Pepinal 1 is a true eye-opener.  It has the distinct aroma of coriander seed and black currant. In the cup, it combines slight floral notes with a bright spiciness. Its effervescent acidity sparkles with notes of peach.  Try El Pepinal 1 from Finca Las Mercedes here!

You can also read Topeka’s Food+Flicks coverage of the visit here!

Join us this Thursday, October 29th at our Barrington Village shop for casual coffee with Lucia Ortiz from Finca Las Mercedes in El Salvador.  She will be available to meet and chat between 8:00 and 10:00 am.  Come to enjoy her spectacular coffee, El Pepinal 1, and great conversation.  We are brewing up her coffee all week, so if you cannot make it on Thursday, stop by another time for a cup or two!

Finca Las Mercedes - El Pepinal 1 won 1st place in the 2006 El Salvador Cup of Excellence with a record-breaking score of 94.  Our relationship with the producers of El Pepinal 1, the Oritz family, began in 2008.  From their history with the Cup of Excellence, we knew they had great coffee, but it was not until we tasted it for ourselves that we realized how fortunate we were to roast and sell this spectacular coffee.  El Pepinal 1 is a very complex coffee. It has the distinct aroma of coriander seed and black currant. In the cup, it combines slight floral notes with a bright spiciness. Its effervescent acidity sparkles with notes of peach.  You can purchase Lucia’s coffee at our Barrington Village Store or online here!

PTs Coffee Roasting Co. and the Gombe Coffee Project, along with travels to Burundi and El Salvador, are featured in the Fall 2009 TKBiz Magazine. Click through the pages and check out the “postcards from coffees origin.”

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If you were not able to make it to last Thursday’s Gombe Coffee Project Video Launch Party, Channel 49 News is here to the rescue!  You can check out Ben Bauman’s coverage of the Party on their website here, and you can view the full Gombe Coffee Project Video in our Media Room here.  And you can always support these hardworking farmers by purchasing their coffee here!

You are invited to join PT’s Coffee Roasting Co and Gizmo Pictures to celebrate The Gombe Coffee Project Video release!  Gizmo Picture’s David Kitchner traveled with PT’s Jeff Taylor on a coffee sourcing trip to Tanzania, documenting the lives and work of these hardworking farmers.  That night will be the first viewing of this incredible documentary!  Join us at 6:00 pm on Thursday, October 15th at the Blind Tiger Brewery for great food, coffee and discounted Java Porter!

During the peak of new harvest arrivals, it is difficult to choose between so many great new coffees.  We have heard the questions time and time again…  “Which coffee from Los Planes should I try?  Which Panamanian coffee should I try first?  How can I choose?”  To help alleviate this conundrum, we are creating a new Celebration of Harvest Box that will highlight our new harvests and help you choose.  Each of these boxes includes one 12oz bag of two of our new harvests.  This week’s Celebration of Harvest offering hails from the Salvador coffee harvest.

Celebration of Harvest Box - Finca Los Planes

You no longer have to choose between the two wonderful coffees from our Direct Trade partner at Finca Los Planes!  The Finca Los Planes Celebration of Harvest Box gives you the chance to try both coffees, one right after the other or you can have the chance to give them both as the ultimate coffee gift.  In this box we include one 12 oz bag of Finca Los Planes Pacamara variety and one 12 oz bag of Finca Los Planes Lote la Lagunita. Purchase the Finca Los Planes Celebration of Harvest Box here!

Celebration of Harvest Box - Cup of Excellence

With so many spectacular accolades attached to our coffees, such as Finca Kilimanjaro and Finca Las Mercedes’ 1st  Place Cup of Excellence finishes, it can be hard to choose which award winning coffee to purchase.  Therefore, we have bundled two 1st Place Cup of Excellence Award winners for the Cup of Excellence Celebration of Harvest Box.  You will enjoy one 12 oz bag of Finca Las Mercedes’ El Pepinal 1 and one 12 oz bag of Finca Kilimanjaro’s spectacular Kenyan variety coffee.  This is one coffee box that will be too good to give away; so buy two so you can give one to your closest friend!  Purchase the Cup of Excellence Celebration of Harvest Box here!

Beautiful Beloya Box

The naturally processed Ethiopian Beloyas have made a name for themselves in the world of specialty coffee, and you  can now purchase both selections, Beloya Selection 8 and Beloya Selection 1, in one beautiful box.   Both of these coffees are the quintessential representation of naturally processed Ethiopian Yergacheffes.  Selection 8 bursts with strawberry and blueberry goodness, and Selection 1 has a sweet lemony goodness with a hint of blueberry.  Purchase this beautiful Beloya package here!

We have a little confession to make. When we are searching for great coffee at origin, we don’t always just fly to the country, get off the airplane and follow our super-sensitive noses up the mountainside to the best coffee farm in the country. Don’t tell anyone, but oftentimes we have help. One of our best guides in sourcing great coffee is the Cup of Excellence program. If you are not familiar with this program, here is its story.

The Cup of Excellence began in 1999 out of a desire to help reward coffee farmers for producing exceptional coffees. A group of industry professionals decided that one of the best ways to do this was to hold a national competition that would bring in coffee cuppers from across the world to find the best coffees in that particular country. After the competition, the winning coffees would be sold to roasters all over the world at an Internet auction.

After holding the first couple of competitions in Brazil, the coffee world started to catch on to the fact that this competition was doing an incredible amount of good for everyone involved. It was helping impoverished coffee farmers receive a sustainable price for their coffee. It was helping roasters connect with farmers who truly cared about producing exceptional coffee. And it was helping consumers realize the huge potential of this small bean. Now the Cup of Excellence program has been running for 10 years and has spread to 9 different coffee producing countries.

This week we are celebrating the launch of two new 1st Place Cup of Excellence Award Winners from El Salvador. The first of these coffees is El Pepinal 1, a mircrolot from Finca Las Mercedes in El Salvador.

Finca Las Mercedes won 1^st place in the 2006 El Salvador Cup of Excellence with a record-breaking score of 94. Our relationship with the producers of El Pepinal 1, the Oritz family, began back in 2008. From their history with the Cup of Excellence, we knew they had great coffee, but it was not until we tasted it for ourselves that we realized how fortunate we were to roast and sell this spectacular coffee. Finca Las Mercedes is a very complex coffee. It has the distinct aroma of coriander seed and black currant. In the cup, it combines slight floral notes with a bright spiciness. Its effervescent acidity sparkles with notes of peach.

In addition to producing great coffee, Finca Las Mercedes has everything else that we look for in a Direct Trade farm. Obviously, the quality of their coffee is outstanding. They go to great lengths to insure that their coffee is as pure and clean as possible by processing the coffee on their farm. Their dedication to sustainable practices, both environmental and social, aligns well with our own commitment to sustainability. They do this by continually giving back to their community, constructing and supplying a school, providing food for a nursing home and supporting the local soccer team. PT’s Coffee has pitched in with their efforts to help the community by providing medicines for a local clinic and soccer balls for the local team.

The second coffee for this week’s celebration is a rock star in the world of specialty coffee. In 2003, Finca Kilimanjaro astounded the judges at the first El Salvador Cup of Excellence with its complex sweetness and exquisite aftertaste and mouthfeel. Aida Batlle, the producer of Finca Kilimanjaro, is growing a Kenyan variety in the volcanic highlands of El Salvador that is an absolute pleasure to drink.

Finca Kilimanjaro’s quality is a testament to the hard work and attention to detail of Aida Batlle and her workers. On visits to Finca Kilimanjaro, it is clear that she is intimately involved in every aspect of coffee production. She is not one cut corners or to skimp on quality. She also recognizes that imperative to producing quality coffee is paying her workers a sustainable wage. In fact, she pays her workers almost twice the normal wage.

Because of all of this hard work, this coffee knocks your socks off! Its aroma has exquisite floral and fruity notes that balance very well with its supple sweetness. It has a lingering aftertaste that is so clean and so smooth that it leaves you with a sense of wonder. We have a very limited supply of this great coffee, so buy a bag before it runs out! This coffee is in our Passport lineup, so be sure to check on the next roast date before ordering!

In addition to Finca Kilimanjaro, we will also receive a very small lot of Peaberry from Aida named Aida’s Grand Reserve. She sorts out only the best Peaberry from her three coffee farms to create this exquisite coffee. We will launch this coffee closer to the holiday season, so be sure to be on the lookout for it before it sells out!