Cupping Coffee

Many people have asked me about working with coffee growers in the DR and about coffee quality. I think the zeitgeist of the US is just breaching the existing body of knowledge surrounding how coffee is grown, processed, roasted and measured for quality. I'm continually amazed at the personalities of the growers and the personalities of their farms. To that end, this post is about a recent visit to Julia Alvarez's research farm in Los Dajaos.

Our trainer, Tim Keifer, set up a training day on the farm for the 3-month in-service training (IST) for the environment volunteers who arrived in March 08. There are about 15 of them, and since Ben and I live in Jarabacoa and work in coffee, we were invited to participate in the training. Ben wrote a short training on techniques for simple financial analysis on drying tunnel construction. I was really excited to go and get more involved in coffee plant nursery stuff - germination, greenhouse transfer, in-ground transfer, pruning.

When Ben and I return from Our Big Miami Trip 2008, we're moving to Los Dajaos, a coffee community up the mountain from Jarabacoa and La Yautia (where we live now). The reasons are tri-fold: my primary project with Junta Yaque never emerged, ASCAJA (Ben's primary) is building a water treatment plant for washing coffee, and they'll be needing some assistance organizing the administration there. Lastly, Ben and I would like to try out a more rural location where we'll encounter (here's hoping) a stronger community vibe.

A doctor names Xiomara lives in Los Dajaos. She's young and interested in community health. I think we'll be able to work together on delivering a series of talks on reproduction education. I'm hoping for the opportunity to work on prenatal and toddler nutrition.
After the training on coffee trees, from germination to transplanting, the CoDoCafe people put on a 'cupping.' This is how toasted coffee is finally graded for aroma of the bean, aroma in the cup, and taste.

First, the three coffees to be graded were not labeled with their established qualities. Two were award winners and one was tria, (really low quality junkie coffee). We went around smelling the ground coffee.

Second, boiling water was poured into the grounds and the coffee was allowed to brew a bit. The next step was to really get your nose in there and inhale the brew's aroma.

Third, after the coffee cooled a minute, we each sipped, swished, and spit. You try and get each coffee all over your mouth to receive info on all parts of the tongue.

There are some more technical details, but that's the gist of the cupping experience. Its amazing how different all three coffees were when placed in comparison like so. The most important thing is to prepare all three exactly the same way. For professional cuppings, they usually toast a small amount on the spot for the event, but I would recommend that anyone who wants to have a little fun try it at home with their favorite coffees.