Contents
Maksim roasts on Mondays and Thursdays and never on a Friday. He made an exception, and half the regulars watched through the glass wall. Henk brought a chair.
This is the longest thing I have written for the journal, because this coffee has the longest story. Skip to the part you came for: the route, the price, the taste, or how to get a bag.
From Pitalito to the back room
Four months and about nine thousand kilometres sit between a cherry on a tree near Pitalito and a cup on our bar. Here is how this year's harvest covered them.
On the farms, in June
The cherries were picked in June, while we were there. At Finca La Esperanza they went through the wet mill the same evening, and then dried on raised beds for three weeks. Yuli turned them by hand four times a day and covered them every time the sky went grey.
El Mirador and Los Naranjos did the same on their own beds. By the middle of July all three farms had their parchment coffee bagged and on its way down the mountain.
Across the ocean
Every step after the farm is somebody else's job, and every step can go wrong. This year none of them did. In order:
- June: picked, washed and dried on raised beds at the three farms.
- July: milled and bagged in Neiva.
- August: driven to the port of Buenaventura and shipped to Rotterdam.
- Tuesday 22 September: released by customs.
- Thursday 24 September: forty sacks on two pallets at our door.
- Friday 25 September: the first roast, at 7:00.
- Saturday 26 September: the first cupping, and a video call to Huila.
The last hundred metres
On Thursday a lorry squeezed down our street with three farms' coffee on two pallets. It could not reach the back door, so Maksim and Rui carried every sack through the café by hand, past the window bench and Bulba, who did not move.
The price on the bag
We paid 4.40 US dollars a pound for this coffee, the price we agreed on Don Hernando's veranda and wrote about in July. All three farms are paid the same. It is the price of green coffee at the farm, before shipping, importing and roasting. It is printed on every bag, as it was last year at 4.10.
What 4.40 dollars a pound means
A pound is not a unit anyone in Amsterdam buys coffee in, so here is the same number in the units you know:
| Measure | What the farm is paid |
|---|---|
| Per pound of green coffee | 4.40 US dollars |
| Per kilo of green coffee | about 8.30 euros |
| Per 250 g bag on our shelf | about 2.50 euros |
Last year the same table started at 4.10. The difference is small on one bag and real on a whole harvest, and it went to the people who grew it.
Why we print it
We publish it so you can check us. Most bags tell you nothing about what the people who grew the coffee were paid. Saying our number out loud is the simplest way we know to change that. Next year's number will be on the bag too.
The story only ends well if the farm is still there next year.
First roast, first cup
On Saturday morning Maksim, Rui and I cupped the first roast from all three farms. We cup every roast the morning after, but this one we had been waiting for since June.
Three farms, side by side
| Farm | Who grows it | In the cup |
|---|---|---|
| Finca La Esperanza | Don Hernando Rojas and Yuli | Pink Bourbon: red grape and panela, with a juicy finish that lasts as it cools |
| Finca El Mirador | Doña Esperanza Muñoz | The softest of the three: caramel and orange |
| Finca Los Naranjos | The Calderón brothers | The brightest of the three |
Rui wrote one word on his sheet, which was "finally".
On the video call
In the afternoon we called Don Hernando and Yuli on WhatsApp video and held a cup up to the camera. Don Hernando said it was the best coffee they had grown, and then asked why Maksim looked so tired.
I translated the first half of that for Maksim and kept the second half for this article.
Come and taste it
There are two ways to drink this harvest without coming to the bar every morning, though you are welcome to do that too.
The harvest cupping
Many of you asked for a weekday cupping, so this one is on a Wednesday:
- Wednesday 14 October, at 18:30.
- Twelve places at the table.
- All three farms, cupped side by side.
- Book at the bar.
In your subscription
From October, the new Huila goes into the subscription. Add it to yours, or start one: one 250 g bag every two weeks, 13.50 euros with Dutch postage, and we ship across the EU. The first bag is roasted on a Monday and posted on the Tuesday.
Inés, behind the bar
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