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Posted on February 2 2013
On Friday 25th and Saturday 26th of January we were invited by the Deutsche Roestergilde (German Roaster’s Guild) and Probat to join them at a roasting workshop and sensory exercise that took place at Probat in Emmerich, Germany. We donated four coffees to the event (Brazil Fazenda Passeio Topazio PN, Rwanda Musasa Red Bourbon, Bolivia
Posted on December 2 2012
December 2 2012
Each Christmas Mercanta sponsors a charitable project in one of the coffee-producing origins we work with. This year we decided to support FUNPRES, a not-for-profit organisation that runs support and prevention programmes for victims of child abuse in El Salvador. We have just received a report back on the project’s progress… FUNPRES (short for ‘Fundación
Posted on November 28 2012
November 28 2012
On Friday 23rd November we held our first off site invitational cupping day at one of the UK’s leading specialist coffee shops, Colonna & Small’s in Bath. We had a great turnout from roasters based in the South West and I’m sure that everyone enjoyed this opportunity to put faces to names and companies. We
Posted on November 13 2012
November 13 2012
On Wednesday 7 November an earthquake measuring 7.2 caused extensive destruction in Guatemala. There are at least 50 people who have lost their lives and thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged. The area of San Marcos – the location of both Finca Platanillo and Culpan – was worst affected by the quake. The
Posted on November 8 2012
November 8 2012
1850km in a 1 litre Fiat Uno; Brazil is nothing if not huge. Starting in Sao Paulo, this trip took me to Pedregulho on the Sao Paulo/Minas Gerais border, then Pocos de Caldas, Santo Antonio do Amparo, Areado in Minas Gerais, then back to Pocos and finally Sao Paulo. Two weeks, dozens of farms, cupping
Posted on November 1 2012
November 1 2012
This year for the first time we have brought in some ‘cascara’ – or dried coffee cherry – to our UK warehouse along with our other lots from Bolivia. We have been having fun experimenting with various brewing methods in our London lab and we’d love to hear from anyone who has come up with
Posted on October 30 2012
October 30 2012
In early September Colombia and the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (FNC) celebrated their 10th Cup of Excellence Anniversary in Popayán, Cauca – and what a privilege it was to be part of the international jury. A record total of 1,043 lots were entered into this year’s competition, from the regions of Cauca, Nariño, North Huila,
Posted on October 17 2012
October 17 2012
This August I had my first chance to take part in the Cup of Excellence programme, an opportunity that I have been very eager to experience. I arrived in Rwanda on the evening of 24th August very excited about getting to know more about this country and its coffees. There is only an open expanse
Posted on September 19 2012
September 19 2012
Thank you to everyone who joined us at our UK lab for a fantastic afternoon of cupping last Friday. We had a great time and really appreciated all the feedback from the group. It was a busy afternoon – a group of over ten of us cupped a total of 36 coffees, across three tables.
Posted on July 8 2012
July 8 2012
This season we have started working with producers in two upcoming growing regions with great potential for specialty lots – Honduras in Central America and Antioquia in Colombia. We are very excited about these new projects and look forward to sharing our latest finds. Honduras isn’t strictly a new origin for us. We have brought
Posted on July 3 2012
July 3 2012
In February I was very lucky to visit one of the world’s oldest, biggest and – arguably – most fascinating coffee producing countries. Ethiopia is East Africa’s coffee giant, a huge country with the world’s third largest Arabica production and a coffee culture that stretches back centuries. After just a few days in Ethiopia I
Posted on June 22 2012
June 22 2012
A big thank you to everyone who came to see us at our stand at the SCAE World of Coffee in Vienna last week. We really enjoyed the show – and the nail-biting WBC, World Brewers Cup and World Cup Tasters finals of course! It was fantastic to see another WBC winner from an origin
Posted on June 22 2012
June 22 2012
This May I was lucky enough to be accepted as part of the International Jury for the Guatemala Cup of Excellence 2012. Needless to say I was very excited to spend a week cupping some of the season’s best coffees from this fantastic origin country. We arrived in Guatemala City on the Sunday evening and
Posted on June 8 2012
June 8 2012
At the end of May I was back in Rwanda to visit our suppliers and do some cupping ahead of this year’s crop. As ever I was blown away by the hospitality of my hosts and the beauty of this fantastically green country. The washing stations that we work with are based in the north,
Posted on April 26 2012
April 26 2012
Mercanta was delighted to attend the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) event in Portland last week. This was our first time exhibiting at the show and we had an excellent few days meeting friends old and new. Our booth was staffed by our Mercanta North America team of Leah and Katherine (Hartline), who are
Posted on March 14 2012
March 14 2012
At the beginning of March I travelled more than 2500km around Brazil’s coffee heartlands of South Minas and the Cerrado – an excellent reminder of how huge Brazil is! Many of the Brazilian states (such as Minas Gerais) are the size of entire European countrie. First, some facts and figures… Brazil anticipated crop 2012 harvest
Posted on March 8 2012
March 8 2012
Although Mercanta is not in the commodity business, we, and everyone involved in the green unroasted coffee business, are in some way affected by/connected to the ”commodity price” as quoted on the New York and London exchanges. The commodity price for coffee is a topic of endless debate, frequently misunderstood, and dare I say it,
Posted on December 2 2011
December 2 2011
Despite having de-commoditised the specialty coffee business many years ago, Mercanta does not exist in a vacuum. Events in the wider commodity coffee world are coming to visit the specialty coffee world, and they are coming quickly. Commodity coffee prices at $2.50/lb are the highest in 13 years. This, in itself, is a newsworthy item.
Posted on October 28 2011
October 28 2011
We have just been sent some photos of the damage caused in Guatemala by weeks of heavy rain, as a series of tropical storms batter Central America. Meanwhile El Salvador is forecasting losses of between 7 and 20% of its national coffee production in 2011/12. According to the Red Cross, in Guatemala more than 470,000
Posted on October 25 2011
October 25 2011
More than a million people have been affected by devastating tropical storms in Central America and Mexico in recent weeks. Over twelve days of torrential rain have caused landslides and serious floods, with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua hit particularly hard. Needless to say many coffee producers have been affected – damage caused by
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