Coffee Common

In the last few posts, I have run with the idea that every coffee represents a point on a spectrum: I often associate flavor with color (I have a whole idea that this comes from our species’ history as primate fruit-eaters but at the risk of digressing, I’ll leave that for now).

We’ve used the color red already- for a Rwandan coffee.  Here is another red, but it is perhaps a deeper, sweeter red than the shining brightness of the previous red.  This coffee is a Coffee Common favorite, for many reasons, including the producer- Ms. Epiphanie Mukashyaka of Bufundu, Rwanda.  Her Bufcafe- and her story- has been a staple on our bar every day.  You might consider Epiphanie the queen of Rwandan coffee, and it is our honor to brew it on bar today.  This honor is complemented by our delight in welcoming a new roaster to the Coffee Common collaboration- Detour coffee from Ontario, Canada.   Where does Rwanda meet Canada, in a symphony of redness and deliciousness?  In Long Beach at TED, that’s where.

Orange.  That’s the color I choose to represent Zelaya, from Phil and Sebastian roasters in Calgary.  They describe the coffee as having flavors of tangerine, and I have always detected a certain sweet body in Antigua coffee that brings to mind the orange-red, iron rich soils that are common there.  Regardless, this is a beautiful example of what should be considered a true classic of coffee- the Antigua region.  There’s so much to say about Antigua- but it’s a real treat to enjoy one of the true great coffees of the world, from an exciting Canadian roaster.  It’s also a joy to celebrate Phil and Sebastian’s blossoming relationship with the Zelaya family, which made this coffee possible.  That’s the kind of thing TED is about, and Coffee Common celebrates.  Ok, back to the coffee bar….

Before our coffees could be sent to TED2012, the green beans had to be artfully roasted by one of the eight roasters working with us on this event.

Last week I paid a visit to Heart Roasters in Portland, Oregon to watch and talk with Wille (founder/roaster) and Josh Hydeman (roaster) about the Coko and witness the roasting of one of the TED2012 coffees. 

Here Josh is logging times and temperatures as the Coko is roasted to ensure each batch achieves the desired flavor development.

Four temperature probes on the roaster indicate drum temp, air temp, and internal bean temp which is important for proper development.

The coffee in its green stage has almost an aqua-blue color and an amazing green smell.  The green is weighed before it is dropped into the hot roaster. Temperature drops rapidly as soon as the green enters the drum.

Heart is roasting on a Probat roaster modified with temperature probes, gas, airflow and drum rotation mods to help achieve maximum control of the variables.

Once roasting is complete, the hot coffee beans are dropped into a cooling tray which pulls air through the beans while they are rotated to quickly stop the development and cool for packaging.

Roasted Coko is ready to be bagged and shipped to Southern California.

In the spirit of yesterday’s TED Talk by Lior Zoref where the weight of an Ox (actually brought onto the stage) was guessed by over 500 people, our baristas were asked to guess the age of Håkon Kinn - our barista from Norway.

What would you guess if you saw this face?
(results are below) 

With 20 guesses from the Coffee Common barista team, ranging from the low of 20-years-old to high of 47-years-old, they were within 2.3 years of being correct.

Their average guess was 27.3, and Håkon’s actual (unverified) age is 25.

This afternoon, our coffee sessions focus on two more coffees from the spectrum:

El Tanque from Stumptown is a special coffee- from the famous El Injerto farm in Huehuetenango, Guatemala.  When I asked Coffee Commoner Jesse Kahn to describe this coffee to me, the first word that came out of his mouth was “purple” (I didn’t even tell him about the spectrum theme).  Very sweet notes of plum and juicy fruit, in contrast to the more classic Huehuetenango profile of green apple.  One neat thing about this coffee is that it is the Tekisic variety, a sub-variety of Bourbon.  A single-variety microlot from the legendary partnership of El Injerto and Stumptown coffee?  YES PLEASE.

Our representative from the color “Red” on the spectrum is Coko from Heart.  Coffee Commonista Ryan Knapp described this coffee as “big, beautiful cherry”- luscious and oh so red and juicy.  Coko is a relatively new cooperative in Rwandan coffee, and comes from Rwanda’s beautiful north.  From a varietal standpoint, it’s also a Bourbon- this time from the French Mission subvariety.  How can a Tekisic Bourbon from Guatemala taste so different than a French Mission Bourbon from Rwanda?  That’s the magic of coffee, and the wonder of the spectrum.  Have I gone to far with this spectrum thing?  The baristas on the bar don’t think so, and lightbulbs are going off above the heads of TED attendees all over the place.