Friday, July 01, 2005


the ethiopian internet auction:success!

"coffee offered in the first web auction by [ethiopia] sold for an average US$3.22 per pound, said [willem boot]."

you can find a nice summation of this wildly successful internet coffee auction here or go to the scaa auction website for details.

please note that the "c" market price for september 2005 -- the posted price -- is just US$1.08. and remember that the basic fair-trade price is just US$1.26.

long-time bccy pal oren estimates that this coffee without the auction -- "regular ethiopian prices" as he termed it -- would have been US$1.75-2.00. since this money goes to the farmers and co-ops more directly, they are perhaps realizing 4 times more money than they would through the traditional sales chain, he told me.

oren himself bid in the 4-1/2-hour-long auction. he bought the finchwa co-op's dry process (unwashed, natural) sidamo grade 3, which he will be offering to customers in his stores and by mail order as soon as it arrives from rotterdam.

how did the awesome genevieve felix, the renowned cupper, describe this coffee? sweet, solid stucture, blueberry, raspberry & apricot, some cups lemony plus blueberry.

oren's own cupping notes? "nice fruit, berry (undefined), beautiful clean fruit, lots of fruit, clean, crisp, terrific difinition."

he gives it a solid 93 on the cupping sheet. i'm getting a feeling there might be some fruit in this delicious cup, hmm, gentle readers?

long-time readers know i love strong apricot and blueberry coffees from ethiopia. so i'm looking forward to this limited-edition, rare coffee with great anticipation: there are only 18 bags of it.

this could very well be one of the best coffees of the year!

plus, i know that the farmer was justly rewarded in a fair, open, and transparent way. another interesting bit to this coffee: you may remember oren and genevieve travelled to ethiopia earlier this year.

on that trip they met the manager of this co-op and are now awaiting more info on the exact farm from which these 18 bags were grown. and genevieve also worked with a european group to get a grant for the research station in awada, yrgacheffe.

isn't genevieve just the best? but overall, i think it's clear that this is exactly the way the future of specialty coffee should go.

posted by fortune | 7:24 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments