Origin Trip: Part 2

Our adventure in Guatemala started with an overnight in Guatemala City followed by an 8 hour drive the next morning into the hills of Huehutenango. The drive took us almost 10,000ft up in the air at one point and through beautiful, lush landscape. After a long drive over one lane roads, sometimes taken out by landscapes we made our way to El Injerto Estate. From El Injerto Estate we trekked onward to the Lake Atitlan area. This volcanic lake is famous for being surounded by three volcanoes and 12 cities that line the lake and are named or represented by the 12 apostles. The lake Atitlan area was gorgeous and we got to play tourist for a couple days. One of the highlights from this area was visiting Mike of Crossroads cafe in Panajachel. www.panajachel.com/crossroadscafe.htm From Panajachel we moved onward to Antigua to meetup with Luis Pedro Zelaya Zemora.

Trip to Origin: Part 1 Guatemala El Injerto

This past February I made my first trip to origin to continue to build relationships with farmers around the globe. I spent 11 days between Guatemala and El Salvador and visited many estates and mills and cupped over 50 different coffees.
We started the trip by visiting one of our direct trade farms Finca El Injerto. Arturro Aguirre Jr. arranged transportation from Guatemala City to his farm 8 hours away in Huehuetenango. His farm was absolutely gorgeous. It was lush and green, coffee cherries were large and vibrant, pickers were upbeat and tenacious. Arturo must be doing something right! We cupped many coffees grown on the estate. These included 100% bourbon, 100% pacamara, a natural blend, a honey coffee experiment, an estate grown Panama Geisha, an estate grown Ethiopian Geisha and even dwarf mokka plants.
El Injerto estate is named for the thousands of trees on the farm that give the coffee shade. The estate is rain forest alliance certified and nearly 40% of the estate is shade trees and rainforest. El Injerto has also won first place in the Guatemala Cup of Excellence competition 3 out of the past 4 years! It has also won top place in the battle of rain forest alliance certified farms two years straight with near 92pt cupping scores both times! El Injerto is a top notch farm!
We only got to spend about 24hrs on the farm because Arturo's wife was expecting a little girl within the next week and had to get back to the city to be with her for the arrival of their first born child. But we learned so much within those 24hrs, met so many wonderful people, got exposure to over 8 varietals of coffee on one farm and had time to hike throughout the estate and tour the wet and dry mills. This is an estate that I could see spending an entire week on in the future.

Kuma Espresso

One of the common misconceptions of espresso is that it is a constant. My "x" brand of espresso tastes this way or my "y" brand of espresso is best pulled at this temperature. The fact of the matter is that espresso is comprised of changing ingredients. Green coffee is seasonal and ever changing. Most roasters aim for a flavor profile when blending for espresso in order to have their coffee taste similar to what their patrons are used to. One major Seattle roaster last week told me that they've changed their espresso blend 4 times in the last 4 months and that the components that comprised it changed drastically. An Ethiopian Sidamo had been replaced by a Nicaraguan coffee.

Kuma Coffee is also constantly reformulating our espresso. Standing still in the world of coffee is boring. I would even go beyond that and say that standing still in business, especially this business means that your heart isn't in it. I am trying out new espresso blends. The blend that is just starting to make its way around town is a 50% Brazil, 25% El Salvador, 25% Guatemala blend. But blink and we might be onto something new. Give our new espresso a try and give me feedback if you get the chance.

Slacking

Well let's just come out and say it. I've been terrible with updating this blog. Now with that out of the way let me share about what's been happening at Kuma Coffee.

Kuma is at about 200lbs a week of roasted coffee now. We are continually growing a fan base of people who love our single origin coffees and espresso. Kuma has stepped up as on of Seattle's only microroasters to offer high end single origin coffee in grocery stores. Some of our "regular" coffees consist of past Cup of Excellence award winning farms such as Guatemala's El Injerto Estate and Panama's Carmen Estate.

The list of venues that serve Kuma Coffee continues to expand. Kuma Coffee can now be found in most neighborhoods across Seattle. In the next couple of months Two Beers Brewing Co. will once again be featuring Kuma Coffee's espresso in their Winter Seasonal Espresso Stout.

Jolie Guillebeau

For a limited time only, local Wallingford artist Jolie Guillebeau's paintings will still be on Kuma Coffee's walls. Please contact Jolie for more information or to inquire about her work. Thanks, Jolie! We have received so many compliments on your pictures.

http://www.jolieguillebeau.com/

Grocery Store Offerings

Kuma Coffee is now available at Magnolia Thriftway, Queen Anne Ken's Market, and Ballard Town & Country. We want to say thank you to these grocery stores for carrying Kuma beans and believing in buying local, organic, fair trade goods.

Espresso Stout with Two Beers

Kuma Coffee is now available in Two Beers Espresso Stout, which won 3rd place at the 21st Annual Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Association Beer Taste. Congratulations to our master microbrewer Joel. It's a delicious combination. Contact Two Beers if you'd like some for the holidays.

http://www.twobeersbrewery.com/textpattern/home

http://www.phinneycenter.org/events/beer.shtml