We at PT’s want to offer our hearty congratulations to the new World Barista Champion, Mike Phillips from Intelligentsia in Chicago! Mike is the first American to ever win the event and we are proud of him! The other finalists were Raul Rodas of Guatemala in 2nd place, Scottie Callaghan of Australia in 3rd place, Colin Harmon of Ireland in 4th,  Soren Stiller Markussen in 5th, and Stefanos Domatiotis of Greece in 6th.

2010 World Barista Champion, Mike Phillips

Starting on Monday, June 30th, you may notice a little change in your normal coffee buying experience. We are updating our website to give you a better shopping experience. We are trying to make the transition as seamless as possible, so hopefully you will not have any difficulties. One of the differences that you may notice is that you will not be taken directly to your shopping cart after adding an item to your cart. We hope that this new feature will help improve the flow of the ordering process. If you would like to go to your cart, there is a link in the top right corner that will always take you directly to your cart. There are also a couple of new features that we will highlight in the near future. If you take time to explore, you may find a little reward. If you have any questions about the update, or if you have any problems with you account, please contact us at 888-678-5282.

At the recent El Salvador Cup Of Excellence Auction, we landed our hands on Lot #11 La Pinera Pacamara. We should have this coffee arriving sometime in July or August.

The La Pinera farm is located in the Cacahuatique mountain range in Ciudad Barrios, a department of San Miguel.  Formerly this mountain range was home to tribes like Lenca and Ulúa that were established due to its geographical advantage. The region has abundant water, fertile land, and dense forests in which animals like deer, tepezcuintles, and lion monkeys still live to this day. Furthermore, many archeological artifacts have been found in this land.

This area has been ideal for growing coffee, which was introduced for the first time at Ciudad Barrios by the General, Captain, and President Gerardo Barrios known as “The Father of Coffee” in El Salvador. The first coffee mill in El Salvador was built in Ciudad Barrios, which was a rustic machine used to triturate (rub, crush, grind, or pound into fine particles or a powder) the coffee grain and remove the coffee parchment.  It still exists today in Ciudad Barrios. The Araujo Guerra Family has been producing coffee for more than a century but in the 1980´s due to the war in El Salvador, which started in Ciudad Barrios, the result was many economic problems, unemployment, and human loss that affected this area for the next ten years.

Since the 1990´s, the Araujo Guerra Family started to rebuild their land and decided to grow Pacamara coffee with the help of Angel Cabrera, (one of the innovators of Pacamara) and the supervision of Procafe.  La Pinera is one of the origins of Pacamara coffee.  Its seeds have been spread through different areas of El Salvador and Central America, giving birth to many other Pacamara coffee farms.  Due to this great achievement, Luis Alonso Araujo received a prize for Coffee Innovator and Producer for the Pacamara Variety in 1996.

Lot La Pinera produces a high quality coffee but we should emphasize that Araujo Guerra family is very committed to helping with social labor, the environment, their employees, and assisting people who have high necessities.

Be the first to try the new crop of Esmeralda Special!  We are now offering PRE-ORDERS for the new crop of geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda.  We bought two lots this year from Hacienda La Esmeralda, and we are excited to offer you the two best coffees (in our opinion) from this year’s auction.  For all PRE-ORDERS, we will roast and ship your coffee within a couple days of its arrival at our roasting facility.  We anticipate the coffee to arrive at the end of June or beginning of July, and we will cover the cost of shipping on your Esmeralda.  If you order other coffees with your PRE-ORDER, we will ship them separately from the PRE-ORDER.  Purchase your PRE-ORDER here!  If you cannot wait until the end of June for your dose of Esmeralda, we have a small amount from last year’s crop left.  Purchase the last of it here!

Mario Carnaval (last year our roast received a 96 from Coffee Review) was harvested during the peak of theharvest season: February.  Out of all of the lots, Mario Carnaval stood out as our clear favorite.  In tasting the samples, Mario Carnaval seemed to jump off the table.  Its beautifully bright acidity and mesmerizing floral notes exceeded our expectations: this is what it is all about.  This experience is why people go to so much trouble just to have one cup of Hacienda La Esmeralda Special.  Purchase your PRE-ORDER here!

Mario San Jose was harvested at the end of the harvest season: March.  On the cupping table, Mario San Jose surprised  us.  Its fragrance and aroma made us think that it was Mario Carnaval.  It was big, it was bright and it was incredibly sweet.  When we tasted it, notes of strawberry and grapefruit filled out mouths.  Its sweet and juicy character made us long for more.  Although it was not Mario Carnaval, Mario San Jose stunned us with it unique and gorgeous profile.  Purchase your PRE-ORDER here!

So why does Topeka, Kansas rank as the 10th best city in the country? In part, because of PT’s Coffee of course! In the July issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, they chose Topeka, Kansas as the 10th best city in the United States. In addition to Topeka’s growing economy and low cost of living, being the home of PT’s Coffee is listed as one of the reasons why Topeka is such a great place to live. Can’t really argue with that! You can check out the article here, and taste why PT’s makes the difference here!

We are proud to announce that two of our favorite coffees just received 90+ ratings from Coffee Review!  Our Burundi Mwurire received an outstanding 93 (buy here)and our Colombia Los Naranjos San Agustin received an admirable 91 (buy here).  Here are the review for these two outstanding coffees!

Burundi Mwurire

OVERALL RATING: 93

Notes: Burundi is a small, landlocked country in Central Africa. Most coffee is grown in the mountains of the north, bordering Rwanda. Benefiting from ideal growing conditions and large plantings of the heirloom Bourbon variety of Arabica, Burundi coffee has an excellent reputation, though it is better known in Europe than in the United States. This particular Burundi was produced from trees of the Bourbon variety. Roasted at PT’s Coffee, where the motto is “without the love, it’s just coffee.” Visit www.ptscoffee.com or call 888-678-JAVA for more information.

Blind assessment: Delicate floral and honeyed fruit-like aroma. In the cup, bright-toned acidity and syrupy flavors reminiscent of orange and apricot fruit nectar with continued floral and honeyed complication. Long, almost sugary sweet, flavor-saturated finish.

Who should drink it: Sweet fruit and flowers from a lesser known but distinguished African origin.  Purchase Burundi Mwurire here!

Colombia Los Naranjos San Agustin

Saturday, May 8th, come check out the Gombe Coffee Project Video at the Lawrence Arts Center’s Short Film Festival.  This video was a collaborative effort between PT’s Coffee and Gizmo Pictures.  Gizmo’s David Kitchner traveled with PT’s coffee buyer, Jeff Taylor, on a coffee sourcing trip to Tanzania.  If you cannot make it to the film festival, you can always watch this gripping video here!

Given the announcement yesterday of our change in leadership at PT’s Barrington Village, some of you are probably wondering what’s going on with the previous manager, Robin Seitz. No worries- only good things! Robin has accepted the role of Account Manager for our US accounts west of Kansas City. Starting June 1, 2010, he will be busy getting to know our wholesale clients, answering their questions and helping them find the coffees and products that best fit their tastes and concept.

In the nearly 8 years that he has worked for us Robin has shown a perpetually growing interest in coffee, in all its forms and flavor nuances (prior to his employment with PT’s he had been a daily die-hard regular for another 7 years). His continuous curiosity has led him to pursue a variety of activities and opportunities such as retail management, coffee catering, trade show barista, barista competitor, barista champion, coffee trainer…and the list could go on. Needless to say, he has had a lot of exposure to different perspectives and ideas, and we feel that this experience will translate well to helping our retail partners. Keep on the look out for a Robin sighting near you!

Our May Espresso of the Month comes from one of our favorite Direct Trade farms, Finca Los Planes. Their Pacamara variety of coffee has been a mainstay of our offerings since it won 2nd place in the 2006 El Salvador Cup of Excellence. 

In developing the espresso roast, we knew that we didn’t want to put too much roast on it. We wanted to keep its delicate floral and nice, round cherry notes. But, we also wanted to bring out the lush, chocolaty body that is occasionally lost when it is brewed as a drip. The result of the espresso roast is a delightful single origin espresso that pops out of a demi with notes of light lemon, supple red fruit and a rich, chocolaty body. Be the first to taste our May Espresso of the Month - Finca Los Planes Pacamara.

Variety is the spice of life!

One of our favorite aspects of coffee is the great variety of tastes and flavors. The variety of flavors ranges from distinctly fruity to distinctly spicy to smooth and chocolaty. So why should espresso lovers be limited to only one or two options for espresso? PT’s Coffee is committed to rectifying this injustice. For the next 12 months, we are committed to pooling our creative juices and compiling our coffee resources to produce a new espresso offering every month.

Since their inception, barista competitions have always been an important part of life at PT’s Coffee. As the last step in the seed to cup voyage, the hard work of the farmer, coffee buyer and roaster rests upon the shoulders of the barista. Beautiful things can happen when baristas know their craft and their coffee, but it requires a lot of hard work. During competition season, the baristas are given free range to explore our coffee offerings in pursuit of their perfect coffee. This year, one of our baristas wanted to try one of her favorite drip coffees for her competition espresso. She thought that Finca Cerro Paldo’s beautiful balance and lush sweetness might do wonderful things for espresso at a little darker roast. Now we get to reap the rewards of her hard work. We liked it so much that we have made it our April Espresso of the Month!

In the cup, our April Espresso of the Month from Finca Cerro Paldo in Costa Rica is juicy, with high floral and red fruit notes. It is sweet throughout and is a remarkably complete single origin espresso!  Purchase Finca Cerro Paldo Espresso Roast here!