In 2010 75% of our coffees coming from Four Barrel were bought via a Direct Trade relationship. Of coffees ordered so far for delivery in 2012 98% are Direct Trade. This allows our roaster to work directly with the farmers who are growing the coffee, helping them improve the quality of their product. Since they pay the producer more for a better coffee, all the workers in source countries receive better pay for their effort to get you a sweeter, more fantastic cup.
Our current selection is the product of such effort. San Agustin in Colombia results in some real sweetheart microlots every Spring when we take shipment of the Colombian main harvest. Some of these farmers contribute their best toward this Reserve lot from the smaller "Fly Crop" harvest that arrives earlier every Winter.
The Colombia San Agustin Reserve drinks like many Colombian coffees in one sense. Acidity, sweetness, and body are all moderate and harmonize well together. However, this Reserve offering is a cut above the rest. The sweetness and acidity are more crisp, reminiscent of lemonade. The body carries hints of bittersweet chocolate but is a very well composed demonstration of this flavor. Overall, the balance is decidedly elegant throughout.

The Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Dumerso is a sweet powerhouse of ripe fruit flavors. Laden with peach, apricot, and lemon zest this coffees balanced acidity is by far one of the best Africans in recent years. Here at Red Rock we LOVE us some Yirgacheffee. Year after year these coffees develop into the leaders in our African selection for their distinct richness, while still maintaining a gentile profile.
The Dumerso Cooperative was established in 1975 and became one of the 23 coops represented by the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in 2002. Dumerso has a membership of 669 members farming an average of 0.25-1.5 hectares - 675 hectares of farmland altogether. Like most Ethiopian coffee farmers, these small-scale producers cultivate a diverse blend of varietals around their houses, alongside other food crops and vegetation, in a traditionally sustainable manner.

When coffee as good as this gets delivered to your door, let it remind you how good we have it.

Happy New Year!

2002 was a dark time for the coffee industry in Colombia. Most coffee farmers had switched to growing cocaine, a slightly more profitable crop. It was against this backdrop that Helio Rico founded the Andino Association of Coffee Producers, made up of 100 farmers just outside of Bruselas, Huila.
Most recently, the Andino Association has taken a large step in the direction of quality with the implementation of a cupping lab at the Bruselas buying station run by Four Barrel's exporter Virmax. All coffees delivered are scored and approved accordingly. If a lot of coffee is not approved for the minimum grade A, farmers receive feedback as to what inhibited their coffee from yielding better cup scores. Lots receiving grade A, AA, or AAA are paid on an increasing scale, directly proportional to quality, at rates higher than any other exporter in the region. With Virmax's cupping lab in place, the potential for an understanding and achievement of quality is sustainable over the short and long term.
This offering is a blend of high-grade lots from four farmers in the Andino group: Helio Rico, David Burbano, Norbey Macias, and Robiro Munoz. In the cup an acidic menagerie is presented in every sip - a rarity for Colombian coffee. Each of the three elements of a balanced coffee - sweetness, acidity, and body - demonstrate cherry in a unique, interesting, and delicious way. Presented on an excellent structure, this cup is sure to please.

Did you like the Las Palomas? We did. This week we will send you the coffee grown by the brother of the man who grew that coffee before their father gifted coffee farm to his first son, making the second son jealous. So jealous in fact that he built his own farm - right next to his brother. Because of this Family Feud... Survey Says: Great Coffee IS BORN!

This coffee of the jealous brother is the Costa Rica Aserri Las Pavas. It has a flavor profile that all can enjoy. A beautiful strawberry aroma is very recognizable atop the cup. This gives way to a bright clementine flavor before leading into its thick, syrupy chocolate heavy body. This an exceptional coffee.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and still home to some of the best beans in the whole wide world. As the tale goes, the Ethiopian farmer Kaldi noticed that his goats who ate from certain shrubs were prone to dancing around from all of the energy the shrub provided. Early preparations of the coffee fruit have included eating the fruit raw, eating the roasted seed, and preparing tea from the dried fruit. In its current roasted, ground, and brewed form, a melody of fruit flavors, appropriate tinges of bitterness, and a happy helping of caffeine combine to tingle the taste buds and the heartbeat.

A group of 68 active farmers that contribute to The Suke Quto Association are dedicated to maintaining at least four of the native varietals of Ethiopia to provide genetic diversity within the crop. Tesfaye Bekele is the owner of the processing station that these farms use to wash each lot. This year he has produced a remarkable coffee. Grown at approx. 2000 meters the Ethiopian Suke Quto is an intense cup, bursting with citrus and floral aroma, while remaining exceptionally clean.

Where once stood a wheat mill nestled in a valley divided by the Guacalate River, Luis Pedro and his father managed a farm named after Don Chuito, who previously maintained the wheat mill. An homage to their agricultural predecessor, the father and son team are famous for a high level of meticulous pruning and shaping of their crop, shaded by Gravilia trees; the farm has season after season produced a crop of impeccable taste the GUATEMALA ANTIUGA CHUITO.

This is a coffee lover's coffee. Reminiscent of times of old, this coffee is high in body and laden with notes deeply rooted in chocolate and earth.
"Carmel and molasses with a raisin twist" someone once said here at the shop as they sipped the Chuito.
As it has has quickly become one of our favorites here, I am sure that you too will find great times at the bottom of this cup.