What we look for before purchasing great coffee / Kenya Grapefruit Champagne Drop
Who’s had a coffee-changing experience with an African coffee? We know we sure have! Along with most coffee people we know!
There are many reasons why African coffees are favored above other producing countries on a cupping table. Africa has rich volcanic soil across the continent’s coffee-growing regions. It’s a porous soil structure that retains the “right” amount of water without washing away soil nutrients that consists of a substantial amount of ancient minerals from deep inside the earths crust. Furthermore, its mountainous terrain made industrialized farming practices difficult for previous generations. Which means there are (ideally) more minerals/nutrients available in their soil, which have been linked to a higher cup quality.
There are many, many other factors as to why African coffees are consistently amazing. We could simply say “It’s the birthplace of coffee”, but that does nothing to inform you why its great! Another contributing reason why we all love African coffees is because of the period of time all coffee beans and/or cherries (depending on the processing technique) are laid out on a bed to dry. African coffees have a decently dry period compared to other countries for a few months after their harvest. This means that fresh harvest beans can dry much more efficiently as opposed to other countries like Sumatra and “Gulf Coast” bordering countries and ones near the ocean. Countries that have problems with too much rain and humidity directly after harvest (when the seeds need to dry) will not dry coffee effectively before being packaged and exported. Some coffee roasters associate some of these sought-after countries with being “too risky” and will decide not to purchase or even sample them entirely because of this reason alone.
When we think about what makes a coffee truly great, we must think of the hundreds of variables at origin. Paying pickers and sorters well is a big one. We, along with many others, saw a quality dip last year because of this issue. With a lack of staff, less gets done as well as less efficiently. The pickers need to pick only ripe cherries while ignoring over and under ripe ones and sort out the defects that can potentially ruin a cup.The drying must be done evenly and efficiently with hopes that the origins weather patterns will work in its favor if there are no mechanical dryers involved (even when these are used, it is known that many do not use them very well to maintain a high cup quality) before the rainy wet season begins (some countries high precipitation comes quicker than others post harvest). We hope that the freshly packaged green coffee will be leaving origin quickly and not sitting in hot humid storage for weeks or even months (and definitely not over a year - this can sometimes happen with exporters that have too much supply and can blend in the previous harvests crop with a fresh harvest. It pays to have excellent importers who have boots on the ground at origin during harvest and post harvest) before being exported. We also hope that the container of coffee being transported on a ship over an open ocean won’t get too hot (it can get to 135 degrees Fahrenheit!) and we certainly hope that container full of green coffee is stacked below and between other containers and not at the top or the side of the ship where it gets way too hot being blasted by sun for a few months.
This is just a small sliver of the “quality-pie” that accounts for great un-rosted coffee. Though we still know very little about green coffee production, we bring this up because we believe consumers need to realize a few things:
How hard it can be to find great coffee - Our industry is known for putting a value on brewing and processing methods above the part that matters most…the actual coffee! This means the way you brew should be the “cherry on top” and not the all-deciding factor if your coffee tastes good or not. I know many people that struggle with this when consumers, influencers or coffee professionals hype up a coffee, making others that have different tasting experiences think their brewing is off, when in fact the green coffee could have just been sub-par and it was just over-hyped from the start.
Valuing roasters that put an emphasis on souring high-quality green coffee (while offering some, or a lot, of pricing transparency) - This lets consumers know if the roaster is truly after what they are preaching about, or if a roaster chooses to avoid a more quality-focused market in place of something more affordable and approachable to a wider audience. But without knowing anything about how much a roaster paid (or has previously paid) for their green coffee is personally a big red flag to us. I will very often just assume the coffee is below 86-87 points if a roaster chooses to not talk about pricing transparency.
Harvest dates are essential to our industry - We know many consumers who are buying 1-2+ year old harvests (and coffees we know taste aged) for the price of a fresh harvest or well cared for coffee they could buy from another roaster that would have tasted miles better. It’s unfortunate so many in our industry purchase coffee with so much excitement, unknowing how old the green coffee is, and get let down when they taste it (mostly thinking it’s them/their brewing or gear, and not the coffee that has been treated poorly that made it taste bad).
We hope this puts a few things in perspective for you all. We should appreciate coffee, because it’s incredibly hard to do well. At the same time, we should inform ourselves and others about the importance of purchasing a bag of coffee because we value the story and the transparency the roaster has laid out for us. How did the rain impact the flavor this year? What did the importer do to ensure quality, and did they do anything unique to the rest of the industry? When was the coffee picked (beginning of harvest, or towards the end?) and how will that impact cup quality? If the roaster or importer paid a specific price for the beans, what does that ensure for you in terms of how well the coffee scored? Does that meet you standard, expectations, and values? These are all questions we aim to answer and tell the story of your coffee on a much deeper level than what we are used to hearing about today.
We hope you enjoy this Immersive Experience of our newest coffee, Kenya Grapefruit Champaign!