Wednesday, November 21, 2007

private cupping

all i know is that today i had the distinct pleasure of cupping with this guy.

pretty rad.

the chef from my favorite restaurant in dc makes a fine guest at my cupping table any day. oh, go here, too.

Friday, November 16, 2007

costa rica, long overdue

So, I went to Costa Rica for a week about a month ago. It was a whirlwind tour of some farms that we (CCC) work with in Tarrazu, many different locations in San Jose, two different television shows and a latte art demonstration in a shopping mall. The story likely isn't as interesting as the pictures and a few videos.


Shade-grown coffee is supremely neato. Counter Culture buys coffee from AFAORCA, an organic coop of farmers in Tarrazu. Kim and I were able to visit four of the farms as well as a beneficio and were impressed with the biodiversity and shade. I saw bananas, lemon and orange trees, hocote, avocados and much more. I just wanted to eat all the fruit all the time.

This swingset was outside the house we stayed in one night.


We did manage to find some ripes even though we were probably six weeks or so from the main harvest. These were at a lower elevation than most of the coffee in that area. I was grateful, though, as I was able to eat my first coffee cherry.

And we went to see these ruinas in the orosi valley. We had a day where we did more tourist-type things, like visit a couple of historic churches and rent bikes to ride around near the coffee plantations in the orosi valley.

This was my class for the latte art workshop, one of the primary reasons for the visit. iCafe, the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, flew me down to spend a couple days teaching latte art to some of their certified baristas and give a demonstration at a shopping mall where they had a number of displays to increase awareness of Costa Rican coffee in the country as well as increase specialty consumption.

And this was part of my appearance on "buen dia" a live morning show in San Jose. I had the pleasure of making an espresso-based cocktail, an espresso mojito--better than it sounds--and also poured a very satisfactory rosetta on live TV. The next day, we did a taped segment for another show, Cocina Alternativa, with some famous model, but I won't know for a while if my segment will be used.

All in all, an amazing trip for which I am indebted to iCAFE and the farmers of the AFAORCA coop.

Hooray, coffee.