Archive for the ‘Coffee of the Month’ Category
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1
Mar
2010
March’s Coffee of the Month – Papua New Guinea Medium Roast and Sumatra Medium Roast
Our fun blend of Sumatra Medium Roast and Papua New Guinea Medium Roast has been a yearly favorite by many. Just typing this, I can think of a dozen customers that get excited every time we bring this special blend back. At the Roaster, we’ve lovingly dubbed this coffee as “PapuaMatra”.
Usually we are a straight “Varietal Roaster”, meaning that we sell coffees that are only from a single country of origin (with the exception of our Varietal Supremo espresso). One of the reasons I enjoy our “Coffee of the Month” is for the shear joy of exploring great coffee pairings. As usual, we only try to make very easily replicated blends so our customers can enjoy this at home.
The profile of this coffee is an interesting, yet perfect blend of flavors and nuances that make this coffee as unique as it is interesting. Both Papua New Guinea and Sumatra are Indonesian countries and enjoy similar weather systems. This lends towards the compatibility of the two beans. The Sumatra coffee brings a full, rich, nutty base with a subtle dried fruit tone into the mix with a rich chocolate overtone found in our ever-popular Papua New Guinea. The result is this heavenly blend!
On a fun side note, the artwork on this Month’s coffee label is a new painting HOT off the press by a local artist out here, John Ebner. He’s actually a pretty well known artist and his work is amazing. This is the 4th label made from his artwork that we’ve done. I encourage you to check out his other paintings. His website is www.johnebner.com.
For those who’ve been waiting, it’s finally back! For those that haven’t tried this yet, you’re in for a treat! I know you’ll enjoy our “PapuaMatra” coffee immensely!
Dan – CICR
4
Feb
2010
February’s Coffee of the Month – Brazil Medium Roast
Last month’s coffee of the month (Guatemala Light/Medium) was a big hit with many of our customers. For some it’s a great coffee to drink once in a while for a treat and for others (like myself) it’s the coffee they usually turn to when they think of coffee in general.
This month’s coffee is another one of my personal favorites. Our Brazil coffee is the fastest growing in popularity of our coffees. We introduced it a couple years ago and ever since it’s been on a steady incline towards the #1 coffee at CICR (the only coffee it has left to take over is our ever-so-popular Papua New Guinea Medium Roast). This medium roasted coffee is perhaps our most complex bean offering a bright caramel overtone with a soft, nutty base. Its awesome flavor is rounded off with a hint of spice creating an extremely enjoyable brew.
Coupled with the Aeropress (below in Cristy’s gift selection), this makes a superb cup of coffee (of course it’s awesome no matter how you brew it). Cristy and I both enjoyed many Aeropress-ed americano’s and lattes with the Brazil Medium Roast bean.
Regardless of how you brew it, enjoy one of the finest organic beans to come out of Brazil for the month of February!
Dan – CICR
2
Jan
2010
January’s Coffee of the Month – Medium Roast Guatemala and Light Roast
The Holiday Blend coffees are gone until November 2010….
Are you upset you won’t be able to get them? Don’t worry about it! This month is the chance for something different, yet unique and delicious. We’re bringing you a very special blend of Guatemala coffee for January that is sure to keep you wanting more.
Our “Coffee of the Month” is a wonderful Agros coffee. It’s my personal favorite actually. From the village of Trapichitos in Guatemala, comes this wonderfully rich, full flavored, original Guatemala coffee bean. We carry Guatemala all year but for the Month of January, we’re blending the light and medium roasts of this exquisite bean. The result is a mellow, yet medium/full bodied coffee with a slight citrus highlight.
Agros’ website gives us a little more insight:
Trapichitos
“Place of the Sugar Mills”
Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala
Size: 635 acres
Population: 61 families
Founded: 2000Also known as La Trinidad (the Trinity), Trapichitos is an Ixil community that has persevered through great challenges. Squeezed together for many years on just 25 acres of land, the original 85 families organized themselves to purchase land 25 minutes from their homes. After five frustrating years and many fruitless attempts to acquire land, the community approached Agros for assistance in April 2000. Agros had never worked with previously organized groups in the Ixil, thereby, presenting a new opportunity. With Agros’ support, local leaders finally had the financial backing to approach the landowner. The 635-acre tract of Trapichitos was purchased in November 2000
Read More: http://www.agros.org/ag/our-villages/guatemala/trapichitos/
I hope you enjoy what is my personal favorite of our coffee beans!
Dan – CICR
4
Nov
2009
November’s Coffee of the Month – Peru Light and Dark
It’s a busy time of year for us at Camano Island Coffee and I’m a few days late on this post (please forgive me!). November marks the first month of the availability of our Holiday Blend and Holiday Blend Midnight coffees. Of course, what is often lost in the shadow of those coffees, is a great coffee that many don’t usually get a chance to try.
If you venture over to our coffee page here on the blog, you’ll see that it’s described as:
“One of the highest in elevation in the region, this Peru bean has sweet, fruity tones that lend towards a naturally sweet cup. Our Peru is our lightest bodied coffee which makes it a great choice for the coffee drinker that enjoys drinking lots of coffee yet doesn’t want to sacrifice in the flavor of the cup. This coffee is great anytime of the day and compliments many meals.”
That description still holds true with this special blend of roasts. The only addition I would make to that description is the added amount of complexity from the combination of a Light Roasted coffee and a Dark Roasted coffee.
At CICR, we get so caught up in coffees that have a “strength” in flavor or provide the drinker with a “rich” cup of coffee, that the Peru often gets overlooked. Peru, while not having that super heavy flavor, has a wonderfully mellow tone. We always market it as our “guzzling” coffee but it’s also a wonderful compliment to food. When I’m eating a meal, I want my coffee to taste great, but not compete with what I’m enjoying. This Peru’s natural sweetness only goes to compliment the meal rather than combat it.
If you’d like to read a little more on our Peru blend for the month, check out our Newsletter.
That’s it for this one! Thanks for reading and come grab a cup at the Roaster if you’re out here! We always have FREE cups of our fresh roasted organic coffee for you to try!
Dan – CICR
PS – Don’t forget, we still do have our Holiday Blends Available now!
1
Sep
2009
Coffee of the Month – September
September’s Coffee of the Month is Ugandan “White Nile” Dark Roast!
We’re pleased to be able to offer our “White Nile” Uganda Dark Roast coffee for the first time in over 3 years. Uganda was a popular reserve coffee of ours when we last had it. It only lasted us a few months and then has been gone… until now! This is the perfect time to enjoy a great African reserve coffee at our standard Coffee Lover’s Club price. After September, the Ugandan will be priced at its normal price of $18.95/lb.
Our Ugandan coffee offers a very pleasing flavor with hints of fruit in the tones and a nutty, full body. “White Nile” Ugandan beans are known for their extreme smoothness coupled with subtle fruit notes. Our roast introduces a nice, smoky hint that really completes the flavor of the overall cup. While it does have a distinctively different flavor, the Sumatra coffee lovers out there will really appreciate the characteristics of this Ugandan bean.
“White Nile” coffee was the frontrunner in organic coffees in Uganda. The coffee grows at elevations exceeding 4,500 feet in an area that gets the perfect amount of rainfall. The exporters of this coffee describe their coffee this way: “As well as being the original source of coffee, Uganda is also the source of the Nile. The mighty Nile begins its journey from the sun-drenched shores of Lake Victoria and meanders across Uganda before heading north to Egypt. The fine White Nile Organic Coffee (Okoro Washed Arabica) grows in Uganda’s West Nile province, an area rich in wildlife and natural beauty. The coffee grows under the sprawling arms of the Ficus or Banyan Tree, whose bark is occasionally harvested to make the ceremonial bark cloth of the tribal kings. White Nile Organic Coffee has a moderate to bold appearance. It has a rich, mellow flavour with slight fruity hints backed by a very full body and smooth finish.”
Uganda’s population is predominantly rural with its highest concentration of people in the southern region. Its economy has great potential as Uganda has many natural resources at its disposal. Political instability has kept it from ever seeing that potential. Coffee growing is one of the ways many farmers are trying to achieve economic stability.
We hope you enjoy our “White Nile” Uganda coffee. We’re pretty excited to offer it once again!
Dan – CICR
1
Aug
2009
Coffee of the Month – August
Papua New Guinea – Medium Roast
In case you haven’t been around long enough, or haven’t figured it out from reading posts and our website, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a very popular coffee. We sell more PNG coffee than any other bean. There is good reason for that! Many of our coffees have characteristics are that require one’s taste to enjoy it. I, for example, really enjoy the flavor of our Guatemala. It has some vivid lemon notes giving it a very nice citrus tone. Some people would rather enjoy a different tone in their brew.
Our PNG coffee has a very subtle, yet flavor completing chocolaty tone. Many can’t place it as “chocolate” from a candy bar or mocha, yet the characteristics of the coffee coincide with those found in chocolate. It has a semi-sweet tone that starts to taste more and more like chocolate as the coffee cools off. For that reason, this coffee makes a GREAT summer brew. Just brew it up (double strength if it’s hot and being poured over ice) and chill it. It’s the perfect bean for the season!
PNG has a medium to full body and is considered by many to be among the finest coffees in the world. Most of PNG’s arabica coffee comes from trees that were uprooted in Jamaica (Blue Mountain) and replanted in PNG.
Here’s some information on Papua New Guinea:
According to the Department of State’s website (click the link if you’d like to read all the in depth details on PNG), PNG is roughly the size of the state of California and has around 6.3 million people. It has three official languages (English, Tok Pisin, and Motu) as well as close to 860 other languages which plays a huge part in the overall fragmentation of the country and it’s people. Another topic of note is that PNG only has 49.3% literacy.
PNG is known as a country ripped in pieces by civil war, lawlessness and poverty. Yet in the last few years, thanks to many factors including sustainable coffee purchasing, Papua New Guinea has started down the road to recovering it’s economy and government corruption. It’s a long road ahead, but we have helped immensely and can continue to help just through responsible purchasing.
Hope your summer is going well and you’re staying warm. Here on Camano Island we’re having a nice heat wave. It’s a bit tough in places without air conditioning but it’s sure nice to live in a beautiful area with definite seasons!
Happy coffee drinking!
Dan – CICR
