As of today, we are informed that some milling facilities are operational but are experiencing significant delays. We plan to complete the selection process by the end of February and start milling in March. Our target is to have the coffee in Barcelona by April. However, there may be unforeseen delays, so we suggest you stay informed and caffeinated. Kenyan coffee has always been highly valued by roasters and importers, and international prices serve as a benchmark for the local price on the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. However, the coffee sector is currently struggling and in need of renewal, as more and more farmers abandon coffee farming in favour of better-paying enterprises such as real estate and avocado cultivation. The government is working to halt the decline, as there are concerns that the once-thriving coffee sub-sector has lost its lustre.
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Tensions spilling over from the war in Gaza to merchant ships in the Red Sea escalated on Saturday when media reported that the Israeli military had shot down more than a dozen unmanned attack drones. The Houthis, an armed group that controls much of northern Yemen, have been carrying out drone and missile strikes against Israeli and US targets since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7. They have said they intend to prevent Israeli ships from sailing in the Red Sea until Israel stops its war against Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Every coffee farm in the world, even the most reputable one, will produce good, medium and bad quality beans. Therefore, separating the better, bigger and denser beans from those lighter and defective, is key to maximize the financial result of the producer. In Kenya, after a certain lot has been processed, it will be delivered to the Marketing Agent (MA) in parchment by the producer or cooperative. The MA then, will mill and grade the lot by shape and size, and give this lot an unique "Outturn Number" (ON), before delivering a sample to the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. This ON will be crucial to provide transparency and traceability to the system. 1.- The birth of a new reality.
With this article, we begin a new series of educational content, this time focusing on one of the biggest and probably most controversial topic in the coffee industry: PRICE. All of us who work here know that our industry is in an unprecedented crisis in various fields; Ethical, Environmental, Genetics and Socioeconomic. We know that the prices we pay to coffee growers (with only few exceptions) is well below their production costs. And when we pay excellent prices for quality, for example in Kenya; we know that most of this revenue does not reach farmers, because there are so many hands, so much corruption and so much bureaucracy in the industry, that most of the benefit is lost in the darkness of a network of connections that we do not fully understand. According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word "Heirloom" has the following meanings: 1.- valuable object that older members of a family have given to younger members of the same family for many years. 2.- a fruit, plant or seed of a type, which has existed for many years. From a botanical point of view, the definition of an heirloom variety establishes that this must be open-pollinated. Arabica coffee is a self-pollinated crop, so from the very beginning the definition of heirloom doesn’t apply to Arabica coffee.
The use of fermentation is as old as agriculture itself, which anthropologists estimate began in 8,000 BC. The first experiments that humanity made with fermentation to produce wine date from 7,000 BC in the Middle East. And according to hieroglyphics, the Egyptians in 3,000 BC already used yeast to make bread. In those times the biochemical process of fermentation, responsible for these actions, was seen as something mysterious and even magical. Only two centuries ago, we began to understand this important process, when in 1854 the French chemist Louis Pasteur determined that fermentation is caused by yeast. In very simple terms, yeast is an unicellular microorganism classified as a fungus, which perform the decomposition of sugars by alcoholic fermentation.
Every coffee farm in the world, even the most reputable one, will produce good and bad quality beans. Therefore, separating the bigger, heavier and denser beans from those lighter and defective ones, is key to maximize the benefit of the farmer. In Kenya, after a certain lot has been processed, it will be delivered to the Marketing Agent (MA) in parchment by the farmer or cooperative. The MA will then mill and grade the lot by shape and size, and give this particular lot an unique "Outturn Number" (ON), before delivering it to the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. This ON system will be crucial to provide transparency and traceability to the system.
We live in a world of constant change, everything happens quickly and technological advances make us live in a permanent pursuit of new knowledge. Certainly, the specialty coffee industry has grown exponentially in the last five years. The progress we have seen and experienced in farming, processing, logistics, roasting and brewing are undeniable and certainly admirable. But is this level of growth sustainable in the long term? Are we neglecting quality to privilege the quantity?
SAFARI: is probably the most well-known word in the Swahili language, and it means "journey". SAFARI NJEMA: is an expression used since time immemorial throughout East Africa, and it's used to wish the best to the traveler (s). After crossing three oceans, the Suez and Panama Canal and also the Red and Mediterranean Sea, we finally have totally available in Barcelona and Santiago our new Tanzanian lots and microlots.
Microlot, direct trade, single origin, origin trip, nanolot, among others; are terms that are being repeatedly used in the specialty coffee industry today. A microlot is a term that designates not only a small volume of coffee production, but also designates a selectively hand-picked coffee, from a particular cultivar, in a specific farm or micro-region, within a certain altitude range and processed separately; or at least a combination of some of the above. In summary, it's the result of some concerted effort to separate and carefully prepare a quantity of coffee that will have special characteristics.
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