Upcoming Seasonal Offerings, Micro Lots and Auction Coffees – April 2008
Posted on April 26, 2008
Seasonal Coffee Offerings 2008
Equator Estate Coffees and Teas is bringing in some outstanding “grand cru” coffees over the next few months, so I thought I would give our customers a little peek at what we are working on and when to look for them. By “grand cru” I mean outstanding, special, micro-lot coffees, that are only available for a short time. Some of these coffees are already under contract, meaning that barring any unforseen disaster the coffee will be in our warehouse when predicted, while other coffees are auction coffees, which means that we may in fact be outbid and may not get the coffee. We are not easily outbid, but coffees can go for well over $100/pound these days, which would put the retail price higher yet, so we do have our limits. In any case, we are very excited to offer some new, unique coffees to compliment our well established line of blends and single origins. Below is a list of the coffees we will be featuring over the coming months, including auction, micro lot and relationship coffees. To order any of these coffees visit our website or call 1-800-809-7687.
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Ethiopia Limited Cupping – Boot Coffee – April 2008
Posted on April 10, 2008
Brooke and I recently attended the Ethiopia Limited Auction cupping at Boot Coffee in Mill Valley. It has been two years since such an auction has taken place, due to the terrible harvest last year, and Brooke and I were very eager to see what we would find on the cupping table.
Well, we found some incredible coffees, both washed and natural. One surprise was an Idido natural, exported by Bagersh, that was very similar to our Idido Misty Valley. In fact it was Brooke’s favorite coffee on the table, and it was my runner up. My personal favorite was a coffee from Aleta Wondo, a community we were introduced to last year through Common River, a non-profit out of Mill Valley doing development work in Sidamo, Ethiopia. Both because of our previous introduction to Aleta Wondo, and because I know Willem Boot is doing extensive coffee quality work there, I was delighted to find that my favorite coffee on the table (of 12 coffees) was from that very community.
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Western Regional Barista Championship Berkeley – March 2008
Posted on April 10, 2008
Equator was a bronze sponsor of the 2008 Western Regional Barista Championship (WRBC) this year, held at the Gaia Arts Center in Berkeley CA, March 28-30. This was the third year Equator has been involved in the WRBC and it was the best competition yet.
In addition to sponsoring the event and sending a number of support staff to help run things over the weekend, Equator worked with barista Ashlee Shell, who ended up coming in 15th place (out of 35). This was Ashley’s first WRBC and her performance was truly outstanding. Nugget Markets, Ashley’s employer and one of the country’s top companies according to Fortune Magazine (#12 in the 100 Best Companies to Work for 2008), held its own internal barista competition last fall, from which Ashlee Shell emerged the winner.
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