The Coffee Tasting Diaries

Today I have been mostly sad.... I don't mean sad unhappy, I mean sad/anal.
Bought a big map of the U.K and under the pretext of educating my 8 year old where places are in the U.K, have started to stick bits of paper over the places where we have customers. Domination far from anywhere really, but we have someone as far north as Stornoway and someone as far south as Liskeard.
Having looked at my blog stats today, I realised I am not the only sad one out there...if I am reading it rigth, somebody has looked at my blog 37 times today....ONE PERSON THIRTY SEVEN TIMES...they deserve free coffee!!!!!!!

This month we will be tasting two different single estate coffees from El Salvador. As part of the club, I research as much as possible about the coffees we are supplying. Here is an insight into the plight of coffee from El Salvador, once a great coffee producing nation.

The coffee grown in El Salvador is of a great quality, but the industry is struggling. During the civil war (1980 – 1992) the country lost vital infrastructure. More recently, the coffee industry is trying to reverse years of pollution and faces scarcity of water and labour. Low prices forced hundreds of thousands of farmers into bankruptcy – yet, in the late 1950’S, El Salvador was the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world. Today, the industry is in such a poor shape that it produces just two percent of gross domestic product. One fourth of El Salvadorans live in the U.S.A. and send back $3 billion each year. El Salvador has lost 98% of its forests. Coffee groves provide much of the trees that are left. Unfortunately, American and local developers are destroying the coffee groves to build shopping malls and houses. Development and the loss of trees have led to erosion and a water crisis. Some El Salvadorans see coffee as something that can help save El Salvador…but it is an uphill battle.

I meant to write more earlier, but was wallowing in self pity with a heavy cold...interestingly enough, when I was feeling totally bunged up, a quick shot of coffee made me feel better...more than max strength lemsip. Actually, although this is not widely known, some pain killers have up to 120 milligrams of caffeine in them..as much as a strong coffee!
Back to the facts and figures...at least six studies have shown that people who regulary drink coffee are 80% less likely to develop Parkinson's Disease, with three studies showing the more you drink the lower the risk. Parkinson's drugs are now being developed that contain a derivative of caffeine based on this evidence.
I don't know..I'm not a scientist, but coffee has been around for a thousand of year (as a hot drink since A.D. 1000), all over the world.

Started researching July's coffees for the club...not a Brazilian in sight this month!!!

A short up date on the effects of caffeine on my dog (see previous entry).No ill effects in the end, although it did take a while for the dog to relax...when she did, she was out cold and in a deep sleep all night. Will write more about the research into the effect of caffeine on humans soon ...

Having children around meant the inevitable...loads of coffee beans scattered liberally across the kitchin floor...add one 3 month old Brittany Spaniel and what do you get???

O.k, the dog is mad and will eat anything that falls on the floor, as fast as possible, before it gets removed from her mouth. Therefore some coffee beans were quickly snaffled and I have watched the effect of the caffeine on her ever since.
Quite a hard study, because she is a spaniel and therefore generally loopy, however, she has not sat still since and this happened about 5 hours ago now. She is buzzing!!!!!

Is drinking coffee bad for you???

No, no, no, no!

Latest research shows drinking coffee reduces the risk of Parkinson's Disease, cancer of the colon and Type Two Diabetes.

I won't bore you with too many figures, but drinking six cups of coffee a day reduces the risk of Diabetes by 54% in men and 30% in women, as opposed to those who don't drink it.

I'm off to boil the kettle!!!

One of the best coffees I have tasted for a long time is from Fazenda Camocim, which is a bio-dynamic farm in Brazil. I tried it last week and it really blew me away. The coffee is unusual in as much it is dry-pupled, without using water. Once dried it rests (reposo) for three months...much longer than the usual 20-30 days at other farms. This method leaves much of the sugary-fruit coating (mucilage) on the bean. Therefore this is a naturally sweet, simple coffee...maybe that is why I like it Lovely chocolaty coffee and I am drinking loads as it is so easy drinking. Will add it to the shop now!

O.K, here goes...
I am totally new to blogging and find the prospect of starting a blog terrifying..what do you write to introduce yourself and what if no one is interested in what you want to say?
There is only one way to find out...
For the past year I have been tasting as many different coffees as I can find. I don't mean coffee from supermarkets, I mean the real thing.
The first thing that struck me was that I didn't want to buy 250g bags of the different coffees on the Internet..what if I didn't like it? So, after some thought, I decided to start a coffee tasting club, so that other like minded people could come on the journey with me. And that, in a nutshell, is what I have been doing for the past year. Each month, we try four different single estate coffees. The coffees are sent out in smallish quantities with a newsleter I write, having found out as much as possible about the estates the coffees come from.
It has been truely amazing... we have tried coffees from over 23 countries...you can't get that in a supermarket! One of my favourites came from Nepal and I would never have realised coffee even grew in Nepal! Perhaps the most suprising thing about all of this is that until two years ago, I never drank coffee...didn't like it at all. I know why now...I was drinking such dross that I had never tasted coffee as it should be and that is what I want to share with people...proper, real, fresh and totally amazing coffee!!!!!!
Of course, coffee comes at a huge price to the people that pick it. I will write more about that another time, but I buy coffee from some fantastic micro roasters, who in turn buy their coffee from an ethical importer (more later). I also send a percentage of all profits to Coffee Kids, a hugely worthwhile Charity, that helps the families that are involved in the production of coffee in many different ways.
Anyway, I will add more soon, but will nervously wait and see if anyone has read this..as I said, I am a total novice. Thank you, if you have got this far.