Ethiopia Koke is back!
We did run out of the Koke two weeks ago, and now it is back. The beautiful balance of lemon and sweet red notes can be yours again.
Updates CoE Roast Dates
Hello all. I just noticed that I published the wrong next roast date for our CoE coffees. We will be closed on Monday 2/21/11 for holiday. We will roast all CoE orders on Tuesday 2/22/11. Sorry about that.
Cup of Excellence Coffees available!
We are very proud to introduce a variety of Cup of Excellence coffees! Now available in 12 oz bags and roasted fresh each Monday. We have an array of delicious options to choose from, featuring the El Salvador Lot#: 11 Luis Alonso Araujo Padilla – La Pinera, Honduras Lot#: 8 Ezri Moisés Herrera Urizar – Las Amazonas, Nicaragua Lot#: 8 Gonzalo Adán Castillo Moreno – Las Flores, and Rwanda Lot#: 5 Nzabonimpa Damascene – Kopakama.
For a taste of these remarkable coffees along with Susie Spindler, Executive Director with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence / Cup of Excellence program, stop by Berkli Parc this Thursday at 1:00.
Las Amazonas Honduras CoE #8
Continued advancements in Honduran coffee growing and processing, along with the incentives and recognition offered by the annual Cup of Excellence competition, are the genesis for more and more great coffees coming out of this nation. We’re delighted to offer the #8 selection from the 2010 Honduras Cup of Excellence, a tart lime tweak on a rich, spicy stonefruit base.
While Honduras shares many attributes of good soil, high altitude and temperate climate with its neighbors, coffees from Honduras have often suffered from poor processing and lack of exporting infrastructure. Luckily, these factors have begun to change; events like the Cup of Excellence (CoE), first held in Honduras in 2004, have helped create incentives for producers to pay closer attention to cup quality, which has improved dramatically over the last five years. At the 2010 Honduras CoE, Dallis Bros Coffee had a seat at the judging table and we were happy to see so many unique and truly beautiful coffees.
Las Amazonas ranked 8th in the 2010 competition. When farmer Ezri Moisés Herrera Urizar arrived to the La Paz region of Honduras in 1992, he believed the climate and soil were right to grow excellent coffee. Using his life savings, he purchased some coffee farms that were in need of improvement and some unplanted land, currently he and his wife Marysabel Caballero have about 28 hectares, either in production or still developing. About 90% of it is planted with Catuai, though Urizar has been experimenting with planting Bourbon in shadier sections of his land, which is between 4,750 and 5,500 feet above sea level.
The farm has its own wet mill with a de-pulper, fermentation tanks, washing area, drying patios and mechanical dryers.The mill uses water and gravity channels to help separate coffee cherries by density. The farm also has its own storage area to rest the coffee before its transported to a dry mill for final preparation and sale. All this care and attention at every step along the coffee’s journey from seed to packaging for export really pays off in the cup. Cup of Excellence judges describing it as having notes of rich dark chocolate, with a caramel-y sweetness and a spicy, dried apricot nose. The soft lime acidity is perfectly balanced by a velvety, round body.
New Kenya coming soon. . .
We have a beautiful Kenya that will be offered for sale starting late this week. Look for it online. It comes from a small award winning coffee factory called Tegu. I could tell you how many members they have in the Farmer Society (910) and the exact elevation (1770 mts.), but I will save the bulk of the details for the Farm page here.
Bon Mac 3-Cup Siphon (Hario made)
These are the real deal siphons. The 3-cup size is perfect for making coffee for two over the weekend. We are proud to be one of the few vendors offering the Hario made siphons here in the United States. You might find cheaper imitations out there, but Hario is known as the King of Glass. There are many many different ways to brew a siphon, so here are a few tips on one common method:
Keep the cloth filter wet and in the refrigerator. Add boiling water to the bowl of the siphon. Be sure to clean off any drops of water from the bowl before adding flame and the cloth filter is latched and centered. Place the top part of the siphon in the bowl, but not sealed. Then start the oil lamp or gas burner to heat the water to a rolling boil. Once boiling insert the top and make sure it seals well. Once the water starts to rise, turn the heat down on the burner. As the water rises add the ground coffee and start your timer. Submurge the grounds so they are wet. Wait 53 seconds before pulling the heat source. Then give the coffee three brisk clock-wise stirs. The coffee will take about 90 seconds to return to the bottom bowl.
Once the coffee has filled the bottom bowl. Remove the top and wash it. Then enjoy the hot siphon coffee. These are only rough directions that can get you started. There are dozens of variations on how to brew a siphon.
SUMATRA Fair Trade Organic
Lively and sparked, we love the clean, effervescent dynamics of our coffee from Sumatra. Coffees from this prolific region are known for an intensely rich, often fruity depth, and we’ve sought out the best from Sumatra’s small farming cooperatives to offer you this fully certified Fair Trade Organic coffee.
Sumatra is an interesting island nestled among the thousands of islands that make up Indonesia. Each is massive in size and diverse in profile. Fortunately for the coffee drinker, they all produce wonderful coffee. Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi are each major producers of coffee. One fact unique to Sumatra is that its farms harvest coffee ten months out of the year. This provides a steady flow from a great cash crop – coffee – almost year-round. Most of the coffee from Sumatra comes from small farmers, that means they are delivering small quantities of coffee cherries or parchment year round to collectors, which process the cherries and sell the parchment. This makes tracing coffee back to the individual farmers near impossible.
We chose to work with cooperatives in the northern point of the island to produce our Fair Trade Organic Sumatra Coffee. This region is called Aceh. The 2010-2011 coffee harvest has been plagued with almost every type of adversity: natural disaster, low production because of irregular rains, poor quality, and most recently corruption and fraud in shipping coffee. These recent challenges have pushed us at Dallis Bros. Coffee to find quality Fair Trade Sumatra coffees where we can. This means we will be buying from a few different co-ops until the market stabilizes.
At the cupping table we call this coffee wild but clean. Every cup is fruity with hints of chocolate and a soft buzzing acidity.
Our coffees from Indonesia
Sumatra Fair Trade & Organic
An exemplary Sumatran coffee. Fair Trade and Organic Certified.
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FINCA LA TACITA
A delicate coffee with a beautiful journey to the cup, La Tacita is a longstanding favorite here at Dallis Bros. From the thoughtful and sustainable farming practices behind it to the beautiful dark sweetness and fruity acidity in the cup, this coffee is a love affair worth sustaining.
La Tacita is simply a great farm. From back when David Dallis was buying La Tacita until now, we have had a strong relationship from their family to ours. Some things have changed. Now the La Tacita farm is being brought in by a different importer and David Dallis has moved on to become a CPA. But La Tactia is still known for quality, and its name, “The Little Cup”, still comes from its shape nestled up high on Volcan Acatenango.
In terms of growing practices, La Tacita does a wonderful job managing their land. Only about 20 percent of the land owned by the Falla family is planted with coffee. About 30 percent of the land is a dedicated nature reserve with the rest given to cattle. When establishing new growing areas, the family plants black beans between the rows of new coffee trees. The farm is a major source of employment for local communities. Even pruned coffee trees are put to use as firewood.
This year the crop is down about 16% from their expectations. It tasted as wonderful as ever. Only one container of coffee a year makes it to North America and Dallis Bros. is delighted to share in this delicate, carob-chocolate and tealike cup.
