Piatã Bahia

Beans: Piatã Bahia
Roasting degree: City
Roaster: Intelligentsia Coffee
Area of production:  Piatã, estado da Bahia, Brazil
Grade/Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,300m
Processing: Natural, Traditional Brazilian methods
Variety: Red Catuai, Catucai Vermelho


【Impression】
Light body, clear citrus aroma of mixed lemon & lime, black pepper like spice hidden, refreshing, crisp, sheer, clear,light texture, layer of refreshing acidity & sweetness, fruity sweetness of fresh Bartlett & Anjou pear, apricot, white grape, earthiness as African, similar to Ethiopian beans, clear acidity of lemon, a tint of bitterness of cacao hidden, a long lasting juiciness as fresh fruits. 
This refreshing cup suits sunny morning, spring to  summer, w/o milk and sugar.  

 【Note】
Piatã is a Brazilian municipal district of the state of Bahia, Brazil, which is located 1,268 m elevation, the highest municipal district, and occupies the whole Northeast Area.  Piatã has raise its popularity through COE Brazil, representing with many winning farms.  In 2010, as far as I remember,  Piatã represented the prestigious first place with Catuai variety, the high-yield of Mundo Novo and Caturra originated in  Brazilian laboratories.  

There are many micro-farms cultivating high quality cherries in this area.  Some of them produces several hundred sacks of coffee each year.  Most of them are well maintained, hand picked and processed by traditional brazilian methods, which enhances flavor of the beans.  People often think nothing special about Brazilian coffee, but now Piatã elevates the value of Brazil in the market.  And, somewhat, Intelligentsia is taking a part of this dramatic show of Brazilian transformation.   

Sunda Hejo

Beans: Sunda Hejo
Roasting degree: French
Roaster: Beans Tei
Area of production:  Garut and Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Grade/Screen: N/A
Altitude: 1,200 ～ 1,400m
Defects: N/A
Processing: Washed/Sun-dry
Variety: Typica, Timtim

【Flavor chart】 
Bitterness 4
Richness 5
Acidity 2
Aroma 4
Sweetness 2 
Mildness 2
※1 to 5 shcale

【Impression】
Medium to full body, sweet cocoa cented with spices, nutmeg, dried apricot, mellow, clear and clean, transparant, light texture, well-balanced and round cup, sweetness of dried fruits, raisin and dates, honey like milky sweetness detected, thin and light bitterness lay on the bottom, juicy sweetness as a long lasting aftertaste.

【Note】

Kota Bandung, located in West Java, was where the first coffee was planted by Dutch in 16th century.  This area is blessed with rich volcanic soil and surrounded by surrounded by volcanic mountains, Guntur, Papandayan, Kamaojang, Malabar and Masijit.
Sunda Hejo means "Sundanese natural conservation", the idea of which led by recent educational outreach to help with erosion and water quality improvement. Sunda Hejo project encourage farmers to increase yield and harvest high quality coffee cherry through reforestation.
This coffee is grown organically in Forest Reserve of Garut&Bandung area and handcrafted by over 100 micro farmers, who each cultivates only 1-2 acre and works together in village based co-op style groups.  

Rwanda Cotecaga

Name: Rwanda Cotecaga
Roaster:  FourBarrel
Roasting degree: Medium Dark
Area: Macuba, Nyamasheke, Rwanda
Variety:  Bourbon
Grade: N/A
Screen: N/A
Altitude:1,500-1,700m
Defect: N/A
Processing Method: Washed

【Impression】
Light to medium, light smooth texture, fruity, earthy, spice, blackberry, dark cherry, black currents, high passion fruits acidity, refreshing freshness, layer of condensed fruitiness of tropical fruits and dark cherries bottomed with flat stable sweetness, dark sugar, soothing bitterness as a long lasting aftertaste with juicy, clear finish.    

【Note】 Fourbarrel beans at RedRock in Mountain View.  I would say, this may not be as fresh as the one sold in Mission, the main location, but still good enough to sense the roaster.  Although RedRock serves good enough coffee for Mountain View, always wish there are investors to support Fourbarrel to open their own roastery in Silicon Valley.   

Barista Championship Southwest regional

It's time for Barista Championship!!

Barista Championship Southwest regional is held in Santa Cruz hosted by Verve coffee from Mar.15th to 17th.  There are the finalist:
Charles Babinski, G&B Coffee, L.A
Eden-Marie Abramowicz, Intelligentsia, L.A
Truman Severson, Portola Coffee Lab, Costa Mesa
John Martin, Intelligentsia, Pasadena
Stacey Kock, Verve Coffee Roasters, Santa Cruz
Kevin “Tex” Bohlin, St. Frank Coffee, SF

Needless to say, this competition is pre-competition of USBC, The United States Barista Championship, prior known as NABC,  the North American Barista Competition.  USBC has been organized in 2003, honored Heather Perry of Klatch Coffee as the first champion .
USBC has grown rapidly together with SCAA, Specialty Coffee Association of America, as the third waver overtake the market.  Barista does not mean an expert in "espresso" but an expert in coffee with several serving skills.  Nowadays, there are variety of serving skills to compete.   

In Southwest regional, there are two categories; espresso and pourover.  As usual, there are barista from notable cafes/roasters such as counter culture,  Intelligentsia, Klatch and, certainly, Verve.  
USBC is not only the path to WBC, The World Barista Championship, but the premier competition in the States.  Now the USBC regulation has becoming more and more comprehensive and unified to measure barista's brewing skills to knowledge of coffee in general.  Certainly.  This competition, - maybe these competitions since Barista championship is the world wide phenomena, - is the tool to spread the gospel of specialty coffee, and  had worked as it designed.  A national coffee roasters/cafes is more advantageous than a local to be recognized having an champion or the final stage nominees.  I assume this is the one of the reason has caused temperature difference toward USBC in the industry.  There are issues behind the curtain, which nothing to do with competitors.
USBC has raised the bar of the barista profession and brought fantastic/high quality/accessible coffee market to the States.  If good flavor and high quality coffee became more and more available, that benefits our coffee life in general.  
      

Bolivia

Beans:  Bolivia
Roaster: Anada Coffee 
Varietal: 100% Typica

【Impression】
Medium dark to dark body, citric, high lemony aroma with jasmine, a tint of roasted almonds, silky, smooth texture, deep soothing bitterness, flavor of FORASTERO cacao beans, bottomed with sweetness of raw cashew nuts mixed with pistachio nuts, matured red wine like rich flavor, light acidity of lemon and yellow grapefruits on top, juicy sweetness and growing rich bitterness as a long lasting aftertaste.

【Note】
 There are no information given the origin of this beans, but this might be Copacabana Estate, Bolivia.  Flavor of this beans given less acidity and mellow sweetness/bitterness produced through processing methods.  Bolivia has developed processing methods and Copacabana Estate has blessing of nature both to cultivate rich cherries and to process clean coffee beans.

Anada Coffee is known as Tanpopo, means "Dandelion" in Japanese, located very coutry side of Kobe city.  This coffee shop & cafe, closes on Sundays and Holidays, always show something new with every visit.  

Tanpopo
６０８−４ Kandecho Hirotani, KobeNishi Ward, 
Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Brumas Del Zurqui Honey

Beans: Brumas Del Zurqui Honey
Roaster: Akai-mi coffee
Roasting Degree: City
Area: San Francisco de Heredia, Central Valley,  
         Costa Rica
Altitude: 1,300～1,600m
Varieties: Caturra
Processinng Method: Honey Methods
Screen: N/A
Grade: N/A

【Impression】
Light to medium body, clean and pure, lemony soothing aroma with dark cacao, sweet and mellow, slight lemony acidity as a top,  milk chocolate like bitterness, maple syrup like juicy sweetness as the core, a long lasting aftertaste with juicy sweetness.

【Note】

Brumas Del Zurqui is the Micromill established  in 2004 which adds and guarantees an excellent quality of coffee.  Due to the poor value of the coffee, this area decided to contracts a boutique coffee mill enables to promise sustainable production, environmental conscience and so on.  The mill contributes to elevate quality of Costa Rica, through developing honey process.  Their effort has been proved in COE.       

Finca Santa Sofia

Beans: Finca Santa Sofia
Roaster: Akai-mi Coffee
Area: Santa Ana, Apaneca, El Salvador

Altitude: 1,488m
Screen: N/A
Grade: SHG
Processing methods: Semi-wash
Varietal: Burbon, etc

【Impression】
Light to medium, light texture, citric aroma, fresh fruits, grapefruits, orange, lemon and lime as top note, citric soft and mellow acidity, clean bitterness, dutch cocoa, white grape, a short lasting clear aftertaste with mellow fruity sweetness.