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Posted on November 24 2009
November 24 2009
I have just returned from Brazil where I attended the 10th Brazil Cup of Excellence as one of the international jurors. I am not certain, but it may have also been my 10th Cup of Excellence jury and I must now have participated on 7 or 8 competitions in Brazil, 1 in Nicaragua, and 2
Posted on July 5 2009
July 5 2009
At this time of year (northern summer, southern winter), no trip to Brazil is complete without mention of the weather cropping up in every conversation and this visit was no exception… I was going to visit my farm near Poços de Caldas, and also catch up with many of the good friends that I have
Posted on April 27 2009
April 27 2009
Eleven of us gathered in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for our 7th Coffee Hunter Field trip. Our host was José Ureña from Regiomontano. Mercanta has been working with José for more than 8 years. Our annual purchase of specialty Dominican Republic coffee has been stable at about one container per year. We feel that the
Posted on March 6 2009
March 6 2009
This year’s International Jury competition for the Colombia Cup of Excellence took place in the town of Pereira in the Risaralda region from 9th to 13th of March. In all, 374 lots were submitted in February to the pre-screening process from 12 different regions (Antioquia, Casanare, Cauca, Huila, Meta, Norte de Santander, Quindío, Risaralda, Santander,
Posted on February 13 2009
February 13 2009
The London School of Coffee and Mercanta were very fortunate to be invited to Nicaragua by our good friend Claudia Castellón on behalf of the Jinotega Coffee Project, which supports small and medium-sized producers from the Apanas Lake in the Jinotega region. Claudia has been involved in the specialty coffee scene for many years, having
Posted on November 7 2008
November 7 2008
We arrived in Colombia on Thursday 20th November as part of our annual pre-crop visit with two main objectives: to cup the new season (2009 crop) and to catch up with our friends from Agua Azul (GAQ) in the town of Pitalito in the Departament of Huila. We flew from Bogota to Neiva – the
Posted on September 6 2008
September 6 2008
Camocim is a 300 hectare timber and coffee farm located at some 1,100 metres above sea level in Espírito Santo, Brazil. Henrique Sloper took over Camocim from his grandfather and first planted coffee on the farm in 1999. Following a two year conversion process, Camocim was officially certified as biodynamic in 2008. Why did you
Posted on July 21 2008
July 21 2008
“Shade grown” has become something of a buzzword in the Specialty Coffee business in recent years. As consumer interest in ethically sourced coffee has grown, the issue of shade – or lack of it – on coffee-producing farms is coming under increasing scrutiny Traditionally, coffee is grown in the shade of taller trees but in
Posted on May 12 2008
May 12 2008
I was fortunate enough to secure a place on this year’s El Salvador Cup of Excellence international jury. The hard work had already been done by the national cuppers whittling down all entries to a shortlist of 60 coffees representing the pick of this year’s crop. By the end of a week’s intensive cupping, the
Posted on April 27 2008
April 27 2008
I arrived in Guatemala City on Saturday 3rd May with 2 main objectives; one was to visit and give our gratitude to our Guatemalan growers on behalf of our coffee roasting customers and the team at Mercanta the Coffee Hunters; the second was to take part in the International Jury at the Guatemala Cup of
Posted on April 13 2008
April 13 2008
Of course, I also wanted to catch up with our very good friends Bourbon Specialty Coffee (BSC) in Poços de Caldas and also Raymond Rebetez from Astro Lambari, another estate group with whom we have been working for many years. The size of next Brazil crop is very much in the news – perhaps
Posted on October 25 2007
October 25 2007
I originally visited Sumatra for the first time in Aug 2004, just 4 months before the devastating tsunami hit Aceh. Although the upland coffee areas were not at all affected directly by this disaster, the country as a whole suffered considerably. Strangely enough, the tsunami may have jump started the peace negotiations to end the
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