Head Chef at L’atelier and judge of our recent coffee and dessert matching competition, was so impressed by Saskia’s winning recipe, and the concept of matching coffee with food (in much the same way as we already do with wine), that he decided to let budding chefs attending this one-hour course try the combination for themselves.

In fact, it seems that the concept was a real success, not just among the pupils: “The chefs here also enjoyed tweaking the recipe presentation-wise. By the end of the week Saskia’s dessert had mutated from a tart to a being served in individual glasses with an extra spoonful of the caramelised carrot and chili on top!” he commented.

L’atelier des Chefs was the venue for our live Coffee Matching experiment back on October, where 10 brave bakers fought it out to create an on-the-spot match for one of our four single Origin coffees, with only one bag of ingredients. Read more about that event.

If you are interested in booking one of these 1-hour lunchtime cookery sessions, book online or call L’atelier des Chefs on 0207 499 6580.

Read the recipe

KNCU send us samples of the coffee lots that have been bought through the auction process (for more information on this part of the process, see Paul’s previous blog here). I then evaluate them against some key attributes which fit the award-winning profile that’s been perfected for your cup.

Firstly I look at the appearance of the green beans – prior to roasting. I check the colour, that there’s no defective beans and that they are bold in size, matching the quality grading purchased.

I then roast the samples using our roasting sample machine, which we have nicknamed Roastela! I need to roast the beans quite lightly to assess the real taste profile of the coffee and make sure that I can taste any possible lurking defects.

For each sample I prepare a minimum of 4 cups to ensure that we get a consistent profile across each. The beans are ground and weighed out precisely so that exactly the same amount of coffee is in each sample. Even before I add the water, I first check the dry grounds for Fragrance – in the case of Kilimanjaro coffee, there should be a fruitiness coming through.

Finally the hot water is added (off boiling, so that we don’t burn the coffee) and the grounds left to infuse for 4 minutes forming a “crust” (the technical word!).

The next test is for Aroma. For this I break the crust by stirring 3 times and gently sniff, checking for a berry type of aroma in Kilimanjaro coffee. The crust is removed and then finally it’s time to actually taste the coffee, the noisiest bit of the process!

The brew is sucked vigorously (slurping) into the mouth in such a way as to cover as much of the tongue and upper palate as possible. This is when I rate the Flavour, Aftertaste, Acidity and Body of our Kilimanjaro coffee. The Kilimanjaro samples that win me over are those exhibiting a citreous undertone with plenty of acidity matched by a hint of blackberry and raspberry – a slightly sweeter fruitiness – combined with a light body and a good balance.

As the brew cool down further, sweetness, uniformity and cleanliness are evaluated.

Only once we are happy that the Kilimanjaro coffee bean samples are of the highest quality will we accept the shipment. This isn’t the end of the cupping process as we will need to check the quality once again when the coffee is commercially roasted and again when it’s packed.  That’ll be the subject of my next blog – look out for it!

Once complete, the farmer usually takes the beans to a nearby Primary Cooperative Society. These cooperatives are local organizations where all small-scale farmers gather to create volume and negotiate better prices. When the volume and quality from these societies is sufficient, KNCU will collect the parchment coffee and put it through a ‘milling process’ to remove the yellow external layer and grade the coffee according to its size, density and color.

KNCU has its own cupping room, where this coffee is tasted to be sure that it fulfills their high standards of quality and flavour. This extra care and attention is vital, as it ensures that all of their coffees are of the best  quality, with a perfect balance. For example, our Kilimanjaro Gourmet coffee is medium to strong acidity, with a light to medium body and gentle citrus taste – a beautiful palate, in much the same way as a fine wine.

Before the coffee goes to auction it is cupped again, this time by the Tanzania Coffee Board (TCB), who provide a certification based on its quality. This is a very important process as their certification dictates how much ‘quality premium’ will be paid as part of the price at auction.

In one final quality-testing stage, KNCU sends a pre-auction sample to our office in London, where our Quality Manager, Thierry Akroman (a face you probably know well by now!), roasts, grinds and tastes the beans to ensure they reach our own strict standards and requirements. These beans need to pass a lot of tests if they are to make it into our coffee! After Thierry has confirmed whether or not Cafédirect will buy the coffee it is finally time for the coffee Lots to be taken to auction at the TCB. This is where KNCU will bid on the selected Lots in order to sell them to Cafédirect, as agreed before the auction. This process allows KNCU a greater control over pricing and ensures that we are always buying directly from the growers, and not third parties.

Obtaining a full container of Kilimanjaro Gourmet Coffee may take several auctions to achieve, due to the high demands we place on the quality and volume of beans, but once we have enough to a container (which is 280 bags of coffee) the beans are taken on the next stage of their journey…stay tuned to find out more soon…

Alex and Fatima work in the quality control department of Prodecoop in Nicaragua and are well respected for their ‘cupping’ skills – they have even been finalists in the prestigious ‘Cup of Excellence’ competition! Before coffee is sent over to Cafédirect from Prodecoop each container is tasted by them at least eight times to ensure that it is of the highest quality possible – part of the reason why our decaff blend won a Gold medal in the Great Taste Awards in 2010. The following year we were proud to win the same accolade for our hand-picked decaff tea, whose delicate leaves come from Kenya.

So if, like us, you are feeling a tad jaded after the festive season, you needn’t sacrifice flavour in your quest for health!

If Kilimanjaro coffee is described as the white wine of the coffee world, then Machu Picchu is the red. You will immediately notice the cocoa, nutty aromas as you smell it, leading to a pure, smooth and rich taste. In addition, what I love so much about this coffee is the slight caramel, sweet after-taste which adds extra elements to the chocolate and nut punch. It’s the perfect pleasurable, crowd-pleasing coffee, ideal for entertaining friends and family over Christmas.

With all of this in mind, Machu Picchu goes hand-in-hand with any combination of nuts and chocolate, making it the perfect companion to chocolate mousse, chocolate and nut sundae, chocolate fondant, truffles and chocolate brownies – you could even try it with a nutty Christmas pudding.

Machu Picchu coffee is a great partner to all sorts of delicious desserts!

The coffee itself is made from hand-picked gourmet Arabica beans grown on the lush foothills of the Peruvian Andes in the famous Machu Picchu area. Situated on a mountain, it is produced at altitudes of 1500-2000m, near the Urubamba valley of the Andes mountain range, deep within the Inca heartland. This unique microclimate in which these coffee beans are produced, combined with expertise and dedication from our producers partners, delivers a delicious and uncomplicated chocolaty taste.

Let us know what you think – and may we take this opportunity to wish you all Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2012. Happy coffee drinking!

If you are feeling creative over the festive period, then why not try matching Machu Picchu to the winning recipe of our coffee match competition? Saskia Rogers’ Cardamom Chocolate Mousse on an Amaretti Biscuit Base with Hazelnuts was voted the perfect match to Machu Picchu coffee by our panel of experts (including Thierry himself!)

Along with Kenny and Sylvia from the Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation (CPF) programmes team, I recently spent some time in Kenya visiting two of our smallholder tea partners, Kiegoi Tea Factory and Michimikuru Tea Company, both in the Meru region of central Kenya.

Whilst in Kenya we also visited some of the projects carried out as part of CPF’s Producer Partnership Programme (PPP – projects funded through Cafédirect sales). Both Kiegoi and Michimikuru chose to focus their projects on climate change, which is having a severe effect on tea farmers in many parts of Kenya, with drought, unpredictable rainfalls and changing temperatures all making life harder for smallholders.

Charles – River bank scout at Michimikuru

As part of their PPP project, Kiegoi created a newsletter and radio show to raise awareness of climate change amongst farmers and share practical tips for coping with a changing climate. Local community meetings or ‘barazas’ were also used as an opportunity for farmers to increase their climate change knowledge.

At Kiegoi, I met Monica (pictured, top) – she’s part of a team of extension workers who play a vital role in supporting farmers to improve their farming methods, including adapting to climate change.

Michimikuru also chose to focus their PPP project on climate change adaptation, but they took a slightly different approach. Following on from AdapCC (Cafédirect’s innovative climate change project), Michimikuru designed a project to increase water available to the community by improving local rivers which had dried up due to a combination of drought and poor farming techniques.

A team of ‘river bank scouts’ including Charles (pictured, above) were trained and given responsibility for protecting local riverbanks. Charles told me how many farmers plant eucalyptus as a cash crop but do not realise that this will cause rivers to dry up due to amount of water eucalyptus trees require. Instead, farmers are given access to a free seedling nursery of tree species which the local environment supports – to date over 5,000 trees have been planted!

A river bank regeneration zone

Charles also helps to ensure that a minimum of ten metres’ distance is kept between tea fields and river banks, rather than planting right up to the river. This helps to prevent soil erosion and to ensure that fertilizer from the fields does not enter the water stream. Thanks to the PPP project, formerly dried up rivers have now begun to flow again and Michimikuru plan to continue their great work on climate change adaptation and improving their local environment, including trialling wind energy as a potential way of powering the factory.

What’s the new buzzword around climate change for the agricultural sector? No, you won’t guess – its ‘Climate-smart agriculture’! That’s what was on everyone’s lips during my days at COP17, the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. The conference was about two things:

•    How to get countries to agree to legally binding emission reductions so our planet doesn’t go up in “flames” due to global warming
•    How to set up and finance a Green Climate Fund that should support developing countries to become greener economies and allow them to better adapt to negative impacts of climate change.

I was on the panel of a learning event with our partner IFAD – the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development – talking about our joint project with cocoa smallholders in São Tomé & Príncipe, a small island state off the West African coast, and makers of the cocoa for our add-water hot chocolate. The lively discussion was part of the Agricultural and Rural Development Day 2011; a side- event of COP17 to get agriculture fully onto the climate change agenda. Agriculture is a huge contributor of greenhouse gas emissions and millions of vulnerable smallholder farmers in developing countries, are already feeling the negative impacts of climate change. You can read more about the discussions  on IFAD’s Social Reporting Blog.

So what is climate-smart agriculture? Simply put, it is to produce food in a way that is good for the climate ie. emits less greenhouse gases, is more resilient, more efficient, and strengthens adaptive capacity. It’s not as complicated as it sounds because a lot of smallholder farmers, especially the coffee and cocoa farmers we work with, already apply many agricultural practices that deliver on climate-smart agriculture. For example, by applying organic farming their greenhouse gas emissions are lower compared to industrial, high input agriculture on plantations. By inter-cropping with other food crops like bananas, beans, cassava etc. and establishing shade trees on their plot of land, its resilience is strengthened. Not to mention the benefits to biodiversity.

Climate change is a very important and strategic issue for us, as it goes across all parts of our business: from securing future supply chains to our principles of doing business in a fairer and pioneering way for grower communities to ensure they have a livelihood in the future.

It is likely that small agreements to keep discussing these issues will be the main outcomes of the COP17 meetings, due to end today, and whilst it is vital to get legally-binding international agreements signed, for us at Cafedirect it’s all about action. From pushing the whole adaptation agenda for smallholder farmers early on in 2007 during our pioneering AdapCC project  to continuous support for initiatives at individual producer organisation level via our Producer Partnership Programme, right up to pre-financing and championing innovative adaptation mechanisms like our project with coffee partner Cepicafe in northern Peru.

Learn more about COP17 in 3 a minute video

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