At Bald Guy Brew, my wife and I have been working long and hard to make sure you get the best cuppa joe your palate has ever had. How do we do that? Glad you ask…

First we start with really good green coffee. Then we figure out the best roast profile for the varietal. Finally, we make sure that you, the consumer, get it in a timely manner. That is why when you order, we roast and ship your coffee within 24 hours!

Of course, proof is in the pudding…or in the cup if you’re a roaster. Click on the Google Badge to see what others say about our coffee (you might need to login to see the reviews) Cheers!

1. “word” or “solid” for recommendations
2. “in da cup” for a pod cast or video based on coffee cupping results.

need something for the following words:

1. wholesale (that’s the focus of the business, but that word is lame)
2. training (roasting is an art. not sure if training captures the process)
3. shop (wrestling with the word shop. it is a good word, just boring)

of course at the point, i don’t know anything so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wow, I feel better already. Ok, now back to Colombia and coffee…

Thanks to Juan Valdez, the famous fictional character that has appeared in advertisements for the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia since 1959, folks around the world now associate the country of Colombia and Coffee as one. The Juan Valdez character is used as an ingredient brand…coffee beans that are only grown and harvested in Colombia. The goal was to establish an icon that says this coffee is the “best Colombian coffee” grown.

Tell me more about whacha ya got…

This coffee was purchased from Pedro Miguel Echavarría, on the Santa Barbara Estate, located in the Antioqua region of south-western Colombia. Pedro Miguel’s family has been in the coffee business for over four generations, dating from the early 20th century when his second great grandfather, Don Alejandro Angel, became the first major exporter of Colombian coffee. Mr. Echavarría manages the company with the help of his three sons, Nicolas, Camilo and Pedro Miguel.

This lot is 2011/12 crop. It was grown at an altitude of 4000+ feet. Cupping notes include: Caramel sweetness, balanced, juicy, milk chocolate finish and retains flavor as it cools.

Not only a good cup, but a cuppa that is doing good!

The Santa Barbara estate concentrates their social responsibility projects on two key issues: education and individual land ownership.

They work with different primary schools around both estates in order to guarantee that they have the adequate infrastructure and resources to function properly. They also have a strong program to provide financial aid and full scholarships to the sons and daughters of the estate workers that want to get a higher education. In terms of their land-owning program, they help (with low interest loans or subsidies) to workers that desire to have their own plot of land near their estate or in other parts of the region.

In da-cup and on da-brain

This new crop coffee is my go-to-coffee. I love it…the body, taste, finish, acidity, and nuances make this a daily drinker. As one of my buddies off the mountain once said: “it’s good enough to make your tongue slap the back of your brain”. I don’t think I can say it much better!

Get ya some fresh roasted Colombian beans while they are still available: 2010/12 Colombain Coffee

Cheers!

1. This is going to open into a full page.
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3. There will be a box on top. To close window, click on the “X” and that will return you to our site.

Cheers!

For the consumer, the cheaper, off-the-shelf coffees at the grocery store are now at an all time high. For the roaster, purchasing quality coffee is difficult due to the increased monies needed to maintain inventory. For the barista, less people are visiting their local shop as they choose to brew at home. Finally, the green coffee importer wrestles with broken contracts and increased difficulties as banks are hesitant to increase lines of credit.

The good news is that producers are seeing a brighter future in the coffee industry. In the past, many farms had been abandoned as farmers searched for more gainful employment. Now, after talking with two farms in Costa Rica, I hear words of hope. Not that the farmers are making some serious jack, but there is hope of earning a decent wage after years of below market-value pay.

Of course is there is no guarantee that gas, coffee, sugar, wheat, and other commodities will level off. For that matter, there is no guarantee that our current economy will right itself in the near future. However, in light of all that is going on, I’m very thankful to still be in business and that our coffees are still of a very high quality.

As Theodore N. Vail once wrote, “Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable.”

Of course the real issue isn’t a supply – demand issue….but rather day traders driving the price of all commodities through the roof. Why? Because they can. Sugar, Wheat, Coffee, Chocolate, etc. are directly affected by what happens on Wall Street.

According to Howard Schultz, the former CEO who came out of retirement in 2008 to revive Star Bucks, indicates that this trend cannot last. You can listen to the BBC interview (2:04 minutes) here.

So grab yourself a cuppa, sit back, and take a walk through Bald Guy’s world!

What does that mean for the crew at Bald Guy Brew Coffee Roasting Company? First off, it means that the coffee we have on reserve will give us a couple of months to see whether or not the C market will even out. Second, don’t be surprised to see Folgers and friends raising their prices for a fourth time this year.

Finally, the deal breaker will be the Brazilian Harvest. Since Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world, a poor harvest will rock the C market as the demand for coffee from the Americas will drive the price through the roof to make up for the shortage.

So far, prices have not gone down, but rather increased, and for no apparent reason other than day traders speculating on the “C” market. Now that I said that, there are some factors that are definitely driving the price of green coffee to new levels, especially in Kenya.

The first factor is a common issue: weather. Last season, Kenya saw decreased coffee production due to an extended rainfall when it wasn’t needed and not enough rain when it was needed, severely hurting the coffee plant while flowering. This resulted in higher than usual prices for mid-grade Kenyan coffee, with the AA coffees breaking new records due to the shortage.

The second factor is a little more complex. It appears that coffee is the new “cash crop”. More and more coffee is being stolen, either right before harvest, shortly after the processing, or while it is on its way to the pier. This results in farmers and processors defaulting on loans made by the government. This is by no means an isolated event, with reports of organized crime coming from the Americas, Asia, and this report from Kenya.

The third factor, development, is another serious threat. According to the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation, “The development of the real estate sector in Kenya is threatening the existence of the coffee industry. Statistics reveal that the country has lost over 8% of acreage under coffee in the last 10 years to real estate developers.”

John Logan, Kenya Coffee Initiative Director at Technoserve, a non-profit body that helps people in the developing world build businesses, warned that much more was needed to rejuvenate the industry than just high prices. According to Logan, “A coffee buyer will tell you that the best fertiliser for coffee is price, it’s true but it’s not only that… It’s how much the farmer really gets that counts.”

Let’s hope that the prices, which are at a forty year high, make it to the farmer.