Hey Folks,
I just got back from a week-long camping excursion throughout the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. There was too much to describe about that place, but I digress …
Just before heading out Andy (fellow PRC roaster) and I had the privilege of attending the 9th Annual Roasters Guild Retreat at Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Wash. The retreat is a four-day intensive with coffee cuppings, educational courses and seminars, a Roaster competition (the Sasquatch Challenge!) and a whole lot of networking and camaraderie among fellow craftsmen and women.
I arrived early in the day to take an introductory round of Q courses being held by the Coffee Quality Institute. These courses certify people in the industry from origin to importer to roaster as Q Graders. This title is a critical piece of the complex coffee world puzzle because it creates a body of coffee experts around the world who share a common language of practice and measuring standard for the quality of green coffee. Their aim is to shift more power into the hands of growers to obtain knowledge of their coffees and attain better prices based on the quality of their coffee.
The tests I took were only one part of the 23 tests certifying a Q Grader, of which there are only about 650 in the world. I took a series of tests on my ability to identify aromas typically found in coffees, a number of tests dealing with organic acids in coffee (malic, phospohoric, and citric), and performed a set of triangulation cuppings. Triangulations exercise your ability to identify the odd coffee out in a set of three cups. Each test gets harder as you go, with subtler differences. I managed to pass all but one section of the aromatic tests, bringing me halfway to Q certification.
I shook off all the stress and met other roasters, importers and equipment folks wandering the lobbies and halls. After a quick introduction, we formed teams for our classes and the Sasquatch Challenge! Throughout the weekend I had the opportunity to roast on different machines including a Deidrich, a Probatino and a US Roaster Corp. They all worked on the same principles but included some vastly different approaches to roasting. One advantage (although my team didn’t win) was having Stephan Deidrich on our team as we roasted the notorious Panama Finca Esmerelda in one of his machines. It was great to see the different roasting philosophies and play around and share. There was even a time when we tasted each others’ coffees from our respective roasteries. We got good reviews for both our Papua New Guinea Peaberry and our Sumatra Organic Bonkawan.
All of the class information I gained was applicable and priceless though intricate and mathematical. Emissions on roasters and their relation to new technology and “offsetting” (180 trees, about $20 per ton of roasted coffee can make roasting “carbon -neutral” according to the Probat expert/scientist), the effects of water quality on the cup (remember, water is a formula!), Brewing guidelines and the Gold Cup Standard (mananging extraction to get 18-22% out of the 36% possbile extraction from your coffee), and the handful of odds and ends picked up from talking to the brokers from importing companies and roasters from all over the country — including a guy all the way from Kenya! Unforgettable.
We also cupped the varietal said to be the “mother” of Coffea Arabica, the species from which specialty coffee derives. Eugenoides, was a bit musty but fruity — interesting. I liked Sudan Rume more, it was said to be the Eden of coffee near the Sudan Ethiopia border. Sweet and vegetal, like veggie soup or creamy tomato — MMMMMM…..
Each night ended with serious rabble-rousing that only roasters and coffee folks must be able to attain. All in all it was awesome.
I want to say hey to the SCAA staff, especially Mansi, and to Cafe Imports and Zephyr, Josh at Sweet Maria’s and Rich at Stauf’s in Ohio. You guys made it that much better. I can’t wait for next year and hope to get our staff to the next Roasters Guild event, Origin Trip 2010 in Guatemala! I’m off to roast and finish up getting my passport.
Cheers- Ryan
For more information, go to SCAA, Coffee Institute, and Roasters Guild.
