josumacoffee

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Updated Rankings (Jan 2021): Indian Coffee Varieties

When Dr John  launched Josuma 25+ years ago, he focused our washed Arabica selections on single estate, single variety offerings. While SINGLE ESTATE offerings weren’t unusual at the time, SINGLE VARIETY offerings often were. 

Today, single estate, single variety seems to be the norm for so much of Specialty Coffee. Yet, when it comes to Indian beans, the generalist importers still bring 1990’s-style mixed-cultivar offerings. In part, this may be because India is often a low priority origin for them. Another reason may be that many American roasters wouldn’t even recognize the varieties grown in India. 

Most Indian varieties are unique to the country, which means that having a favorite Latin American or African variety is of little help to a roaster. The S-795, a part-Liberica cultivar known as Jember in Indonesia, is the only major Indian variety found elsewhere. 

For roasters needing a place to start, we share an internal ranking of the varieties that we maintain. Note that these are NOT our opinions on the beans. Rather, they reflect what we’ve observed and the feedback received from cuppings by industry professionals, sampling at the SCA Expo, and tastings by the coffee loving public. Below is where the varieties rank as of January 2021.

Note that we’ve also compiled TWO sets of rankings- one reflecting industry preferences and the other reflecting consumer preferences. We find this helps his given the disconnect between what the Specialty Coffee industry wants to serve and what Specialty Coffee customers want to drink. Some roasters tend to look for profiles that appeal to roasters and baristas; other roasters seek out consumer-friendly profiles.

Links for More Info:

First Look: Josuma’s Washed Arabica Offerings (Fall 2020)

Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Major Indian Coffee Varieties?

Better Know a Coffee Cultivar: S-795

#indiancoffee #greencoffee

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Washed Arabica (2020)

This year, Josuma's spot inventory includes Washed Arabica (all single variety lots) from these featured farms. All lots 20+ bags in size.

Badnekhan Estate: Located high up on Merthi Mountain in the Chikmagalur growing district, Badnekhan is blessed both by altitude and ample shade. In 2018, this farm won Best Arabica at the Flavour of India/Fine Cup cupping competition (i.e. the Indian equivalent to Cup of Excellence) held each year during the European Specialty Coffee Expo. Cupping Notes: caramel, caramelized citrus, chocolate, toasted nuts.

Bettadakhan Estate: Located on the northern slopes of the Baba Budan Giri Hills, this is one of two Mammen family’s farms that supply us with Arabica beans. In 2018, Bettadakhan won regional Best Arabica at the Flavour of India/Fine Cup cupping competition. Cupping Notes: caramel, chocolate, caramelized citrus, orange, lemon.

Kerkeicoondah Estate: The Mammen family has grown coffee on this former British plantation, located in the Chikmagalur growing district, for three generations. Always a solid producer of S-795 variety beans, this farm’s beans have been displaying more distinctive cupping profiles as the family scales up successful washing process experiments from previous harvests. Cupping Notes: citrus w/ berries, red apple, caramel, chocolate, nuts.

NEXT STEPS:

We encourage Commercial Roasters to start with a half pound sample. Visit our Green Coffee Samples page for more details. Please also review our Purchasing Green Coffee FAQs.

Learn more about Josuma’s single-estate, single-variety Washed Arabica offerings>>

#greencoffee #indiancoffee #coffeeroasting #arabica

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COVID’s Impact on Indian Coffee

If, like most roasters, you work with multiple origins, you already know that COVID impacts each country differently. The timing of a country’s harvest is one factor. How the government and people chose to respond to the pandemic can be another as are geography and other structural issues.

In the section that follows, we lay out how India, the seventh-largest grower of coffee beans, has been impacted by the pandemic.

Harvest:

The pandemic had a small impact on India’s coffee harvest which was largely wrapped up by the time India instituted a national lockdown in April. For reference, most farms start picking in November/December and wrap up in February/March with Arabica ripening before Robusta.  

While the farms that we partner with report little/no drop in yields due to COVID, third-party production estimates suggest a 10% hit to India’s Robusta crop (and little/no impact on the Arabica crop).  

Dry-Milling/Exporting:

The pandemic has had more of an impact on dry-milling and container shipping as most Indian coffees ship out between January and June. While some containers were fortunate to sail before the strict national lockdown in April, the rest have been subject to delays. 

Temporary local lockdowns since the national re-opening, along with labor force size restrictions, have also stretched out the time required to prep coffee for transport and to get ships out of port. We’re seeing many containers reaching the US and Europe one or two months later than the equivalent 2019 lots.  

Monsooning:

The monsooning of coffee, a process unique to India, runs from June through September. And while exposure to the moist winds is what transforms the coffee, monsooning is still a labor intensive process. 

Although monsooning is a 12-16 week process, the beans don’t spend all that time laid out, exposed to the moist monsoon winds.  Instead, they’re laid out for perhaps a week, then put back into storage for a few more weeks. This process is repeated 3-4 times throughout the summer.   

Labor therefore plays an important role in the process as workers are need to unbag and bag coffee several times during the season as well as to rake and turn the beans frequently when they’re laid out in the open-sided monsooning warehouses. 

The same labor force size restrictions that impacted dry milling and exporting have necessitate adjustments to monsooning procedures. Throughput therefore both a little slower and little lower compared to prior years.  

Going Foward

With the pandemic still continuing as we write this, we suspect that we could see greater impacts with the 2021 harvest.  While India’s coffee production is projected to benefit from the favorable weather seen during flowering and the fruit set period, having enough labor to pick those beans could be a challenge if the pandemic continues into the Winter. 

#greencoffee #indiancoffee #coffeeimport #coffeeharvest #coffeefarm

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On Tasting Espresso (and Other Food & Drink)

As a coffee professional, you must find yourself regularly tasting- not just coffee, tea, and espresso- but also other foods served in your shop and ingredients used in your products. Sometimes you’re tasting for quality (i.e. Does it taste good?). Other times, you’re tasting for consistency (i.e. Does it taste the same as before?). 

So how do you ensure that your sense of taste and flavor perception is something that your coffee business can rely upon? We suggest this three step approach:

BE INTENTIONAL

BE SYSTEMATIC

BE MINDFUL

Being Intentional: 

The best way to taste is to be focused on what you’re tasting when you’re tasting it, rather than relying on your memory after the fact. The easiest way to develop this skill is to focus on the first one or two sips/bites of almost everything you drink or eat. The goal isn’t to make eating and drinking feel like work but, rather, to make tasting second nature for you.  

Being Systematic: 

The best way to taste, particularly when evaluating food and drink in your store, is to have a routine for tasting. For example, when we taste espresso, we always take a small sip first to let the oils coat our tongues. Then we take a larger second sip which we use to evaluate the sweetness, bitterness, and sourness in the shot. Similarly, when it comes to tasting for buying decisions or for quality control (i.e. tasting for consistency), we have a set time and process to do those evaluations. That way we know that our conclusions are based on the flavor of the product, not some flaw in how or when we chose to taste it.  

Being Mindful: 

Since it’s hard to be systematic with everything you taste, you should be aware of what else might affect your sense of taste at the time. For instance, some people find that their palates are fresher in the morning compared to the afternoon. If that describes you, be sure to take that into account for things you taste in the afternoon. Similarly, what you ate or drank prior to a tasting can impact your ability to perceive certain flavors. At the Coffee Fest trade shows, for instance, attendees who visit a vendor with a sugary product (i.e. syrups, frappe mixes, et al) often find that they can’t perceive nuance or sweetness in any coffee, tea, or espresso tasted soon afterwards. That’s why, in our classes, we also suggest that attendees delay sampling the sweeter products until they’re finished tasting coffee, tea, and other products with more subtle flavors.

---------------

To learn even more about espresso, visit the Espresso Education section of our website>>>

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[Looking for Josuma 2020 line-up? Here’s the link to that post.]

This year, Josuma's spot inventory will Washed Arabica (all single variety lots) from these four featured farms. All lots 20+ bags in size.

Kerkeicoondah Estate: The Mammen family has grown coffee on this former British plantation, located in the Chikmagalur growing district, for three generations. Always a solid producer of S795 variety beans, this farm’s beans have been displaying more distinctive cupping profiles as the family scales successful washing process experiments from previous harvests. Cupping Notes: Orange, caramel. Undercurrent of green and red apple (Plantation-A lot) and Orange, lemon, floral notes, berries, red apple, chocolate (Plantation-AB lot).

Badnekhan Estate: Located high up on Merthi Mountain in the Chikmagalur growing district, Badnekhan is blessed both by altitude and ample shade. In 2018, this farm took won Best Arabica at the Flavour of India/Fine Cup cupping competition (i.e. the Indian equivalent to Cup of Excellence) held each year during the European Specialty Coffee Expo. Cupping Notes: Caramel, chocolate, orange, grapefruit.

(*NEW*) Chinnenahalli Estate: This farm is located in the Baba Budan Giri Hills, the region in India where coffee was first planted back in the 1670’s. The Hulikere family has grown coffee here for three generations, with Shreedev and his wife Sushmita the current stewards. We discovered this farm a few year’s ago when trusted sources suggested we visit this up-and-coming coffee estate. This is the first year that we’ve sourced beans from here. Cupping Notes: Berries, citrus, caramel, milk chocolate.

Bettadakhan Estate: Located on the northern slopes of the Baba Budan Giri Hills, this another of the Mammen family’s farms. In 2018, this farm took won regional Best Arabica at the Flavour of India/Fine Cup cupping competition. Cupping Notes: Caramel, chocolate, orange, lemon. Hint of berries.

NEXT STEPS: 

We encourage Commercial Roasters to start with a half pound sample. Visit our Green Coffee Samples page for more details. Please also review our Purchasing Green Coffee FAQs to learn how we handle green coffee transactions.

Learn more about Josuma’s single-estate, single-variety Washed Arabica offerings>>

#greencoffee #indiancoffee #arabica

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Fixing the Sour Espresso Problem

In an earlier post, we discussed what customer complaints about “bitter espresso” tell you about your shop’s espresso beans. While using a lighter roasted bean for espresso may solve the Bitter Espresso Problem, it can sometimes lead to a different complaint: “Sour Espresso.”  

As with the Bitter Espresso Problem, customer complaints about sour espresso also tell you something about your shop’s espresso beans. In this case, complaints about sour espresso tell you that the beans you’re using for espresso are too bright and too acidic.

This often happens with shops serving single origin espresso. Most beans that roasters offer for single origin espresso will be from Africa or Central America. These are regions best known for highly acidic beans and used heavily for drip coffee (where brightness and acidity are typically positive attributes).

But even shops serving an espresso blend can have a Sour Espresso Problem, particularly if the beans in the blend are the same bright, acidic African and Central American beans used for drip coffee.  

Avoiding the Sour Espresso Trap requires a blend that relies on milder, less-acidic beans. If coffee from, say, Brazil, India, or some parts of Indonesia represents half or more of the espresso blend, this will keep acidity and bright, sour notes from overwhelming the natural sweetness of your espresso. 

Even more helpful if these milder beans are natural (i.e. dry-processed) Brazils, monsooned Indians, or wet-hulled (i.e. semi-washed) Sumatrans as many roasters emphasize acidity in selecting washed (i.e. wet-processed) beans from these regions.  

A bean from one of these origins may even work well as a single origin espresso.

When a shop gets its espresso beans right, customers will go from complaining about bitter espresso or sour espresso to raving about… SWEET ESPRESSO that doesn’t need any sugar to make lattes and cappuccinos taste delicious!

To learn even more about espresso, visit the Espresso Education section of our website>>>

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“My Espresso Isn’t Bitter Enough” (Said No Customer Ever)

Customer feedback, whether provided directly or through online review sites, often focuses on aspects that you can’t change. Sometimes it even harps on aspects that were chosen quite intentionally. For example, many coffee houses don’t offer free wi-fi because it enables some customers to tie up a table for the entire day. In those circumstances, an owner won’t sweat criticism about the lack of free wi-fi. 

Criticism of your espresso, on the other hand, are ones to be heeded. Not only is the flavor of your espresso, cappuccinos, and lattes a core aspect for anyone in the business of selling coffee drinks, but it’s also something that can be improved. 

One common complaint is that a shop’s espresso is “too bitter.”

While over-extraction is one possible cause of excessive bitterness, we’ve found that home baristas are the ones most likely to encounter this issue. In our experience, complaints about bitter espresso in a commercial environment more likely reflect an issue with the beans.  

When customers complain about bitter espresso, what they’re telling you is that your espresso beans are roasted too dark. As we teach in our Coffee Fest class “Espresso and Coffee: More Different than You Think,” the espresso process allows for a drink that is inherently sweeter than a cup of brewed coffee made with the same bean. That said, if beans are roasted black and/or oily, it then becomes extremely hard to produce a naturally sweet espresso- even if your baristas are getting every other step correct. The sugars in the beans will have gone from caramelized (i.e. sweet) to burnt (i.e. bitter). Moreover, the coffee oils, which we want to use to create the emulsion that is espresso, will not longer be inside the beans. Instead, they’ll be everywhere else. They’ll also be exposed to air and will, over time, become rancid.

The first step to addressing this problem is to see if your roaster offers an espresso bean that’s not roasted so dark. Beans can be a dark brown in color but should show little or no oil on the outside (particularly during the first week or so following the roast).

If a lighter roasted bean isn’t an option, the moving to a “multi-roaster” set up might be the next best solution. Much like restaurants that have different vendors for meats, seafood, and produce, your coffee house could look for a second roaster to supply you with lighter roasted espresso beans. 

Best to stick with your legacy roaster for your drip coffee beans rather than changing your entire bean line-up.

While using a lighter roasted bean for espresso may solve the bitter espresso problem, it can sometimes lead to a different complaint: “sour espresso.”  We’ll explore this issue in a future post.

Want to learn more about espresso? Visit the Espresso Education section of our website>>>

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The Two Malabars

Monsooned Malabar-AA (left) and SUPER GRADE Malabar (right).

Why do some roasters swear by Monsooned Malabar for espresso and others deem it inconsistent? It may be because they’re comparing TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS of Monsooned Malabar.

If you’ve only tried Monsooned Malabar once, odds are it was the standard AA grade bean.This is the grade that Josuma initially brought 20+ years ago and is still available through many other importers. While the AA Malabar supplies heavy body and abundant crema in espresso, the flavor can sometimes be inconsistent- particularly since the espresso extraction process magnifies everything that’s good AND bad about a bean. With consistency being the sine qua non of quality, that can be frustrating for a roaster wanting to offer the highest quality espresso.

Roasters that swear by Monsooned Malabar are typically working with a different bean: A higher grade of Malabar, usually called Super Grade. This bean, in contrast to the lower grade AA bean, is specifically formulated with espresso in mind. The rare monsooner in India that produces this higher quality version takes additional steps designed expressly to enhance the consistency and uniformity of this bean. These steps preserve the good elements found in all Malabars (i.e. sweetness, body, crema) while eliminating any bad attributes of the lower grade AA bean.

THE END RESULT: WHAT MAY ARGUABLY BE THE IDEAL BEAN FOR ESPRESSO.

THREE steps are instrumental to creating Super Grade Malabar:

1. Starting with Better Quality Beans.  

At the typical Indian coffee farm, ripe cherries end up as premium washed coffee and the rest (unripes, over-ripes, and floats) end up as dry processed coffee which is usually labelled “Arabica Cherry.” By paying a higher price, Super Grade monsooners can get farms to dry process Arabica cherries that would normally end up as premium washed coffee. This gets the ripe cherries into the mix.

2. Starting with Large Lots from Just One Estate.  

A common problem with lower grade AA Malabar is that the monsooner will create a single 250-300 bag container lot by cobbling together small lots from multiple growers. Because beans vary so much from farm to farm, this makes a truly uniform bean that much harder to achieve. To create a Super Grade lot, however, those monsooners will source beans from a single estate. This makes consistency and uniformity that much easier to achieve.

3. Removing the Partially Monsooned Beans: 

With monsooned coffee, any undesirable flavor note is typically due to the presence of partially-monsooned beans. Super Grade monsooners can create a cleaner Malabar by using color sorters and extensive hand garbling to identify and toss out any partially-monsooned beans. The price differential between the Super Grade and the lower grade AA bean occurs because partially monsooned beans are often 25-40% of the typical AA grade lot. 

In other words, it often takes 400-500 bags of AA Malabar to create 300 bags of Super Grade Malabar (along with 100-200 bags of partially-monsooned beans that fetch a very low price).  

While several importers offer the lower grade AA bean, Josuma may still be the only US importer offering Super Grade Malabar.  

Learn More about Super Grade Malabar>>

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Origin Trip 2019: Three Takeaways

Our first gaur (”bison”) sighting in five years!

Earlier this month, we traveled to India for our annual buying trip. We use this to meet with our existing partners, to visit new farms, and to see this year’s coffee as it’s being harvested and processed.

On this year’s trip, a roaster from Oklahoma accompanied us for the first half of the trip during which we visited Aspinwall (our monsooning partner) and seven different coffee farms.

THREE TAKEAWAYS (Bullet Point Version):

1. Summer Monsoon Challenges (Again!)

2. Coming Soon: Specialty Grade Naturals

3. Continuous Improvement: Drying Experiments

Want to see photos from the trip?  We’ve already posted the first photos to the Josuma Coffee Instagram page. Look for even more posts in the months to come.

THREE TAKEAWAYS (Longer Discussion)

Takeaway #1:  The Summer Monsoon (Again!)

Although most roasters assume the summer monsoons are important only for monsooned coffees (i.e. Monsooned Malabar and Monsooned Robusta), they play a HUGE role in the cultivation of coffee and other crops. Called “The Most Important Forecast in the World,” the summer monsoon rains provide 70%+ of the rainfall needed to feed a country with more than a billion people.

Below-average level of monsoon rains in 2017 were followed by super heavy levels of rain in 2018. Not only was total rainfall 50% above typical levels in 2018, but many areas also experienced 60+ consecutive days of rain during the summer.  The irony of the light 2017 monsoon and the heavy 2018 monsoon: the average of the two monsoons was in-line with historical averages.

While the farms we know didn’t experience major permanent damage, all are seeing 2019 harvest volumes impacted by the heavy monsoon. Best case has volumes flat with last year. More common, though, are harvests that will down 20%+ compared to last year.

It’s not easy being a coffee farmer...

Takeaway #2:  Specialty Grade Naturals

In India, Specialty Grade coffee is nearly 100% washed coffee with the occasional honey coffee lot as the one exception to the rule. Whatever dry-processed coffees other importers and exporters offer (i.e. “Arabica Cherry” and “Robusta Cherry”) start with the unripes and floats that get rejected in the washing process. 

We have yet to encounter a true Specialty Grade Naturals (i.e. ones that start with ripe cherries)... until this year.

Helped by a growing number of local micro-roasters, many of the farms we visited have begun experimenting with what they call “Whole Crop Cherry”- in other words, dry-processed coffee that starts with RIPE cherries. While still a work in progress, we cupped a few lots that can hold their own with counterparts from other origins currently offered by American and Canadian roasters.

Consistency isn’t quite at the point where we’re inclined to bring natural coffees to the US in 2019 but there’s a good chance that you’ll see one or two lots included in next year’s Microlot Program.

Takeaway #3:  Drying Experiments

Last year, we mentioned that one of the most encouraging aspects of these trips is seeing farms that already produce fabulous coffee looking for even more ways to improve the quality and consistency of their beans.

While most tinkering still focuses on improving pulping, fermentation, and washing, several estates have launched new experiments focused on drying. While raised beds are widely deployed, a few estates are now also exploring ways to slow down the drying process. These include steps to mitigate the speed of drying during the hottest parts of the afternoon and also to stretch out total drying time.

#green coffee #indian coffee #origintrip

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Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Major Indian Coffee Varieties?

When we started Josuma 25+ years ago, we found that way to offer roasters superior lots of washed Arabica was to source only green coffee that had been segregated both by estate and by cultivar.

While unusual at the time, single-estate coffee is ubiquitous today. Single-variety lots, while not yet the norm, are also increasingly common. Despite these advances in sourcing, we still find that many roasters struggle to recognize the cultivars produced by Indian farms. 

Unlike much of Latin America or Africa, where many Arabica varieties grown in one country are also found in other origins, most of the Indian Arabica cultivars are unique to India. That said, they all trace back to Arabica varieties that most roasters would recognize (such as those in the word cloud above).

Coffee Variety Quiz: For the Indian coffee varieties listed below, name the major Arabica branch (Bourbon, Typica, Mundo Novo, Ethiopian) to which each traces its lineage:

Cauvery

Chandragiri

Kent

S-795

Selection 9

Bonus Question:  Which of the Indian varieties listed above also traces its lineage to the C. Liberica species?

The Answers:

Cauvery:  This variety traces its lineage back to the Bourbon branch, specifically the Caturra bean.

Chandragiri:  This variety traces its lineage back to the Bourbon branch, specifically the Villa Sarchi bean.

Kent:  This cultivar traces its lineage back to the Typica branch.

S-795:  This cultivar traces its lineage back to both the Typica branch (specifically the Kent variety discussed above) and the C. Liberica species. The S-795 also grows in Indonesia where it is called Jember. We spotlighted this bean last year in our “Better Know a Coffee Cultivar” email series (archive link).

Selection 9:  This cultivar traces its lineage to the Ethiopian branch, specifically the Tafarikela variety.  We spotlighted this bean last year in our “Better Know a Coffee Cultivar” email series (archive link).

Learn more about Josuma’s Washed Arabica offerings>>>

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Reverse Engineering the Italian Espresso Blend

Although few, if any, Italian roasters disclose the recipes for their espresso blends, there is a way to reverse engineer the typical Italian espresso blend. Since Italians consume very little brewed coffee, all green coffee imported into Italy is effectively going into espresso blends. 

Using this data. we’ve compiled the mix of origins that the typical Italian roaster uses. While many US roasters may know that Brazil supplies a lot of beans to Italy, most may be surprised to learn that India is the #2 origin for Arabica beans.  

This is one reason that Josuma focuses so much on espresso.  

#espresso #espresso blend

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Here's Why We're Supporting the UC-Davis Coffee Center

Josuma Coffee is proud to announce our support for the UC Davis Coffee Center. We’re joining with other industry mainstays including Behmor, La Marzocco, Peet’s and Wilbur Curtis, to bring additional teaching and research resources to the Specialty Coffee industry. 

While Specialty Coffee has grown tremendously since Josuma launched over 25 years ago, our industry still remains immature compared to other food and beverage sectors. Independent importers, roasters, and cafes base too many decisions on anecdotes or truthiness. While some do conduct experiments, few seem rigorous enough to be instructive. Too often, flawed or ambiguous data get touted as conclusive proof. And while Big Coffee does conduct meaningful research, the rest of us see little of it beyond the selective glimpses they occasionally provide at Re:co Symposium talks.

Like many in Specialty Coffee, we were enthusiastic upon hearing that the University of California at Davis was launching a coffee research center. UC-Davis is well-known for its research centers for wine and beer. The research and teaching there have been instrumental in moving those industries forward. Josuma believes that bringing a similar concentration of resources to coffee, with faculty-led research and coursework, will help advance the craft of coffee and espresso. 

Learn More about the UC-Davis Coffee Center.

Do you share our belief that the Specialty Coffee industry would benefit from from a research center like this? If so, then please consider lending your support as well.

Here's How to Support

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An Espresso Blending Exercise at Coffee Fest Denver

When we exhibit at food and coffee shows, the espresso we typically serve will be a Malabar-based blend (i.e. Monsooned Malabar, plus other beans). At Coffee Fest Denver, however, we dedicated the last day of the show to serving Monsooned Malabar-AA Super Grade as a stand-alone bean. We launched our version of Single Origin Sunday after seeing the response one legendary Seattle roaster got when he served Monsooned Malabar as a single origin espresso during this year’s SCA Expo.

For roasters that visited the booth, this gave them the rare opportunity to taste Monsooned Malabar-AA Super Grade in its purest form. We also walked each roaster through the following Iterative Espresso Blending Exercise.  

Step #1: Taste the Espresso. Ask Yourself If You Like the “Salted Caramel” Flavor?

If NO, then there’s nothing further to be done. This isn’t the bean for you or your customers.

If an UNQUALIFIED YES, then roasting and offering Super Grade Monsooned Malabar as a single origin espresso may be the obvious next step.

If a QUALIFIED YES, the proceed to Step #2.

Step #2: Select ONE Flavor Note that Would Improve the Espresso.

Some roasters suggested adding a Berry note. Others offered Nut or Chocolate. A few thought that the espresso could benefit from the inclusion of Citrus notes. In each case, we asked the roaster to identify the origin whose bean would likely provide the suggested flavor note. The answer, which in most cases, was easy to name would be the obvious companion to Monsooned Malabar Super Grade in a two-bean espresso blend.

Step #3: Roast and Create Two Espresso Test Blends.

Roasters left our booth with the following take-home project.  First, roast both Monsooned Malabar and the second bean. Then try them in a few two-bean espresso test blends. 

We suggested that Test Blend #1 be two-thirds Monsooned Malabar (and one-third the other bean) and that Test Blend #2 be the opposite (i.e. one-third Monsooned Malabar and two thirds the other bean).

Step 4:  Taste Each Blend. Iterate Further.

The final step is to taste each blend and decide which of the two blends tastes best. If you prefer something that’s lighter than Test Blend #1 but heavier than Test Blend #2, try again with a 50/50 blend. 

By repeating this part of the exercise, a roaster should be able to settle on an espresso blend recipe.

Interested in learning more about espresso blending? Visit the Espresso Blending section of our website.  

#espresso #espresso blending #monsoonedmalabar

[josumacoffee]

Deciphering Bean Taxonomy

Buying green coffee is complicated enough as it is. Adding to the complexity are the varying naming conventions that each country adopts to identify different grades and categories of beans.

With Indian beans, most roasters are familiar with the two most popular grades of specialty coffee: Mysore Nuggets Extra Bold (for washed Arabica) and Kaapi Royale (for premium washed Robusta). 

Judging by the questions we got at April’s SCA Expo in Seattle, it seems that few roasters know what distinguishes these two grades from the other major specialty grade for washed Arabica and premium washed Robusta. 

Think you know the differences?

Does the distinction between the MNEB (Mysore Nuggets Extra Bold) and Mysore Plantation-A, the two major grades of washed Arabica, turn on:

Cup Score

Minor Defect Count

Region Where Grown

Screen Size

Selective Picking vs Stripping

Does the distinction between Kaapi Royale and Parchment-AB, the two major two grades of premium washed Robusta, turn on:

Altitude Where Grown

Cup Score

Minor Defect Count

Screen Size

Selective Picking vs Stripping

The Answer:  

In both cases, the difference in grades turns on bean size. In fact, each coffee typically comes from the same processing lot with the separation into MNEB and Plantation-A (or Kaapi Royale and Parchment-AB) not occuring until the dry mill stage. That’s when beans get sorted by screen size with larger beans labeled as MNEB (or Kaapi Royale) and the next largest beans as Plantation-A (or Parchment-AB).  

For washed Arabica, 19+ screen beans (and some 17/18 screen beans) end up labeled as MNEB with 16/17 screen beans being sold as Mysore Plantation-A. Since each coffee started from the same blocks and harvest/processing lots, cup scores, tasting notes, and defect percentages will typically vary little. 

A similar sorting occurs with the premium washed Robusta. The 17+ screen beans end up as Kaapi Royale, and 15/16 screen beans get labeled as Parchment-AB. As with their Arabica counterparts, cup scores, tasting notes, and defect percentages are typically comparable since both coffees started from the same blocks and harvest/processing lots. 

Visit Our Website to Learn More about Josuma Select Green Coffee from India

#green coffee #indian coffee

[josumacoffee]

Preview of Our 2018 Microlots

At the SCA Expo, we provided visitors to our booth with a preview of Josuma’s 2018 Microlot offerings.  This year’s program will include FOURTEEN different lots, each lot TEN bags or less, SEVEN different varieties, SIX different farms, FOUR lots smaller than five bags, TWO honey sun-dried lots (pictured above), and ONE peaberry.

LIST OF CULTIVARS:

Avanthi

Catuai Hybrid

Caturra Hybrid (”Station Selection”)

Cauvery

Chandragiri

S-795

Selection 9

LIST OF PLANTATIONS:

Badnekhan Estate (Chikmagalur district)

Bettadakhan Estate (Baba Budangiri district)

Harley Estate (Manjarabad district)

Kalledevarapura Estate (Baba Budangiri district)

Kerkeicoondah Estate (Chikmagalur district)

Merthi Subbangudigy (”M.S.”) Estate (Chikmagalur district)

Expected NEW OFFERINGS include a Chandragiri lot from Kalledevarapura, a Cauvery Special Prep lot from M.S. Estate, an organically farmed S-795 from Kalledevarapura, and a Station Selection lot from Bettadakhan.  

We’ll provide specifics about each lot as they reach the US in the summer.  More info available on our website’s Microlot Page.

#indian coffee #green coffee #microlots

[josumacoffee]

Origin Trip 2018: Three Takeaways

Photo: Bettadakhan Estate in the Bababudangiris growing region.

Earlier this month, we traveled to India for our annual buying trip. We use this to meet with our existing partners, to visit new estates, and to see this year’s coffee as it’s being harvested and processed. The tally from this year’s trip: 12 estates visited in 16 days.  

THREE TAKEAWAYS (Bullet Point Version):

1. Continuous Improvement

2. Chandragiri

3. Ongoing Challenges

Want to see photos from the trip?  We’ve already posted the first photos to the Josuma Coffee Instagram page. Look for even more posts in the months to come.

THREE TAKEAWAYS (Longer Discussion)

Takeaway #1. Continuous Improvement

One of the most encouraging aspects of the trip was seeing estates that already produce fabulous coffee looking for even more ways to improve the quality and consistency of their beans.

Among the estates we visited, we saw numerous efforts to improve the harvesting and processing of beans. Notable initiatives include:

Changes to the bags used during picking

More efficient use of water during de-pulping

Experiments and adjustments to the fermentation time and process

Upgrading of the machine used to wash coffee (post-fermentation)

Drying honey sun dried beans differently than wet processed beans

More scrupulous “raking” of beans in raised drying beds

Re-tiling of the drying yard surface to get more even heat

Takeaway #2. Chandragiri

While replanting is a regular part of coffee cultivation, it’s unusual for an estate to replant an entire block. When they do, the question we ask: What cultivar are you planting? Is it the same one as before- or something new?  

Estates that planted a new cultivar most often mentioned this one: Chandragiri.

We first encountered the Chandragiri bean, a strain of the Villa Sarchi bean, a few years ago. We’ve brought one small lot as part of Josuma’s 2016 Microlot Program and another as part of the 2017 Program. Given the enthusiasm our partners have shown for this bean, look for additional lots as part of Josuma’s 2018 Microlot Program.

Our “Better Know a Cultivar” series has previously reviewed the S-795 and Selection 9 bean. Look for a new segment on the Chandragiri later this year.

Takeaway #3. Ongoing Challenges

Growing coffee is not without its challenges. In Central America, for instance, disease (particularly Coffee Leaf Rust) seems to be the current challenge. Growers in India, in contrast, face very different struggles. In their case, the two big ongoing challenges are (a) labor costs and (b) reliable supply of water.

Labor cost comes into play because selective picking (i.e. picking only ripe cherries) remains the norm in India. The estates with which we work do a minimum of two rounds of picking and will often add a third (and sometimes a fourth) round. This year, for instance, the slower ripening of Arabica plants meant that most of our partner estates expected to do three rounds.  This makes an already labor-intensive harvest even more so.  

While some origins have been able to implement mechanized harvesting, that seems difficult to implement in India. First, there are far too many shade trees. Second, planting is often on very steep slopes and not always in neat rows.

The pressure on labor costs, moreover, comes from two sources. First, the price of labor, generally, continues to increase each year. That is nothing new for most growers, but it does become more problematic when coffee prices don’t grow in-line with input costs. Second, as India industrializes and becomes wealthier, finding labor becomes more of a struggle. Many farms are seeing the local labor pool (or at least those willing to work as seasonal pickers) shrink. Many estates find themselves needing to import at least some of their seasonal workers from other parts of India. We’re also aware of farms in other growing regions needing to import ALL of their seasonal pickers.    

The second ongoing challenge revolves around having a reliable supply of water- both in terms of timely rainfall as well as sufficient rainfall to provide water at other times of the year. On this year’s trip, we learned that our estate partners encountered several water-related issues over the past year. This included lack of rainfall during coffee blossom season, government restriction on drawing river water for irrigation, and less predictable monsoons over the summer.  

#green coffee #indian coffee

[josumacoffee]

First Consistency. Then Quality.

“One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong.”

We’ve taught “Espresso and Coffee: More Different than You Think” at Coffee Fest for more than 15 years. The underlying premise of this class has always been that a coffee house’s espresso program should emphasize quality as that is the best way to stand out in a very crowded coffee market.  We argue this not only because so few cafes produce high quality espresso and espresso drinks but also because high quality espresso is naturally sweeter and more delicious than what 90% of cafes produce.

In recent years, though, we’ve updated the way we teach the class.  We now incorporate an observation about the success of the coffee house chains: Consumers will prefer consistently mediocre coffee and espresso over inconsistently high quality coffee and espresso.

In light of this, coffee houses that want to emphasize the quality of their espresso FIRST need to establish their ability to produce drinks with little/no variability. Only once a coffee house establishes that consistency should it work to raise the quality of its espresso program. In other words:  Learn to walk before trying to run.  

In our experience, a coffee house that aspires to serve quality espresso can struggle with consistency for one (or more) of the following FOUR reasons:

Insufficient Barista Training- Part 1

Consistency invariably requires heavy investment in barista training. The first goal of training is for an individual barista’s first espresso shot of the shift to be just as good as the ones in the middle of the shift and also the ones at the end of the shift. Achieving this type of consistency requires a lot of practice- roughly 250-500 shots by our estimate- so that every step in the espresso making process becomes second nature and can be performed regardless of whether the store is slow or busy.     

Insufficient Barista Training- Part 2

The second goal of barista training is to ensure that every drink produced by the team of baristas taste the same. It shouldn’t matter who is on bar. Achieving this type of consistency requires running every new hire- even those with previous coffee experience- through the full training program. Given the challenge “untraining” experienced baristas, we know of some shops will only hire candidates with no coffee experience.

Choice of Espresso Machine Configuration

Having invested heavily in training their baristas, many quality-focused cafes opt to showcase the “craft” of espresso by using manual (i.e. semi-automatic) or lever espresso machines. Unfortunately, few of us- not even our highly trained baristas- are as good at multitasking as we think, particularly in the middle of the morning rush.

The challenge with manual machines is that keeping the espresso within desired extraction parameters requires juggling multiple espresso variables- not just the grind setting but also input water volume, output espresso volume, and/or shot extraction time.  And cafes that opt for machines with pressure profiling capability are putting even more variables into play.  With most baristas charged not just with pulling espresso but also with steaming and texturing milk, having them monitor multiple espresso extraction (rather than just one) becomes challenging and helps produce inconsistency.

Our recommendation is that shops use auto-volumetric (i.e. fully-automatic) machines. Not to be confused with the super-automatics deployed at the chains, these machines require the barista to grind the beans, prep the portafilter, and start the espresso shot. The auto-volumetric machine, however, automatically end the shot once they’ve dispensed a pre-programmed amount of water (hence the name “auto-volumetric”). This leaves the barista with only one variable to adjust (grind setting) with all other extraction variables be locked down. That leaves extraction time as the one dependent variable to monitor. Shorter (or longer) than targeted extraction times will indicate when a barista should adjust the grind setting.

Constantly Changing Espresso Bean

Although coffee is a seasonal crop, this doesn’t mean that the taste of your espresso (and espresso drinks) should change over the course of the year. Having a seasonally changing espresso blend (or a rotating single-origin espresso) violates a Cardinal Rule of Business: Letting your problem become your customer’s problem. Achieving consistency in an espresso profile requires you (or your roaster) to create an espresso blend in such a way that components can easily be switched out as beans change (or are no longer available).  [To learn more about espresso blending: Start with this article we published in Roast Magazine.]

To Learn More about Espresso:  Visit the Espresso Education section of our website.

#espresso