We discovered Verve Coffee Roasters during our recent trip to San Francisco. We had one day to spend in town, and decided to conduct our own little gastronomic tour. First stop on our itinerary was breakfast at farm:table, a great little coffee shop/breakfast spot just outside of the downtown area. We ordered up some excellent pastries and quiche, and a carafe of coffee.

Right away, the coffee came across as significant. Instead of a french press, farm:table made our coffee in an Eva Solo coffee maker. This was our first time having coffee made this way, and I’m in love! It was great how the coffee was somewhere between a melitta filter and a french press, well-balanced between body, texture, and light, fresh flavors from the beans. After we finished our breakfast, I inquired about the coffee, and learned a few things about Verve. They’re located in Santa Cruz, CA and were founded in 2007 by friends Ryan O’Donovan and Colby Barr. They say all the “right” things about their approach to sourcing and roasting coffee, but just taking a look at their offerings, and having gotten to taste a couple of them, I’d say they’re backing up their words with very good coffees.

They offer a range of coffees from Latin America, Africa, and Indonesia, and after some hemming and hawing I chose to go with the Kenya Karumandi Peaberry. After a string of Latin American coffees recently, I was hankering to have a Kenyan coffee at home once again. This Karumandi coffee is produced by the Baragwi Farmers Cooperative Society, in the Kirinyaga district. The coop numbers 1200 members, and all of the coffee is grown between 1700-2100 meters. This specific coffee was harvested in April and May of 2010, and includes the SL28 and SL34 varietals. This is washed coffee, so you can expect some bright, sweet flavors.

Tasting Notes

I served this up from a french press, still my preferred way of brewing coffee. Although I’m pretty amped to look into an Eva Solo, and a Chemex using Coava Coffee’s new Kone filter.

The coffee pours a deep, dark black with crimson highlights. The nose is smoky, sweet, and earthy, leading to a palate rich with dark fruit flavors, plums, black cherries, carob, turbinado sugar, mint. The texture is deft, supple, and mouth-filling. The coffee finishes with notes of sweet syrup and soft fruits.

All in all, a nice coffee that displays the classic Kenyan character in a soft, supple frame. I’d gladly give some other Verve coffees a whirl, and have heard that they’re even served at a spot or two in Portland. So I’ll have to keep my eyes open. Of course, there’s no dearth of good/great coffee places in Portland (OR), so the challenge may be to not let a good roaster like Verve get lost in the shuffle!

Lately I haven’t been enjoying coffee at home as much as I’m used to. I’m not sure whether it’s the arrival of summer and with it warmer temperatures that make that hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning a bit less comforting. Or maybe I’ve just forgotten how to brew coffee, my measurements of water and grounds all awry. Or maybe my palate has moved on to different tastes for the time being, and I just can’t appreciate coffee right now.

Maybe I should start drinking tea…

…

Let’s not get crazy now. Fortunately, as an antidote to this coffee-malaise that I am in, I’ve opened up a new bag of Barrington Coffee Roasters Kenya AA Nyeri Kirimara Estate. I don’t think I’ve had any coffee from these folks in a while, and I was looking forward to giving their current Kenya offering a whirl. At any one time, BCR typically has just one offering from a particular country, with the current exception being their two offerings from Ethiopia Yirgacheffe. But that pair doesn’t really count, since one of them is their unique offering of the Beloya Selection Eight, a coffee produced by the Ninety Plus Coffee program and shipped directly to BCR’s offices. Generally, I appreciate their decision to not offer a boatload of coffees because that way you know the coffee will be both carefully chosen and very fresh.

This Kenyan AA is produced similar to most Kenyan coffees. The coffee cherries are first cleaned, before being wet-fermented, and then sun dried on raised beds. The coffee itself was grown on the Kirimara Estate in Nyeri and located at the foot of Mount Kenya, at an altitude of 5000+ feet. The varietals grown on this 250-acre estate include SL28 (90% of the crop) and Ruiru (10% of the crop).

The nose displays notes of carob, candied almonds, and bright red fruits. The palate has flavors of almonds, milk chocolate, and fresh currants. The coffee’s texture is soft and supple, supported by a gentle, brightening acidity. The finish is very long-lasting, with nutty, sweet flavors and textures opening up in layers.

While I still don’t think I hit the spot when making this coffee, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The flavors were warm and enticing, and the coffee was somehow very relaxing and easy to enjoy.

So it is notable that this is Stumptown’s first ever East African Direct Trade coffee. Their website explains that “to be able to guarantee such a phenomenal price to the association members of Gaturiri…is the first step towards transparent coffee business in Kenya.” This direct relationship is the result of the opening of what is called the “Second Window”. In November of 2006 the Kenyan government authorized legislation which allowed farmers to pursue relationships with agents outside of the auction system. While this “Second Window” legislation has raised many questions about its efficacy in improving farmers’ options for selling their coffee, roasters such as Stumptown and Intelligentsia have begun introducing new Kenyan coffees that are indeed the result of more direct relationships with farmers than they had been able to before. As part of these relationships the roasters are guaranteeing premium prices to the cooperatives and farmers they are working with, striving to achieve optimal financial transparency and to ensure that the farmers receive their due share of the prices paid, and working closely with both farmers and cooperatives to promote and enable ideal and sustainable agriculture and processing methods. Two years after the passing of the new legislation, these relationships forged by prominent roasters may be the first steps in improving both the quality of Kenyan coffee (which was already very good) and the economic life of the farmers who produce it.

Check out this article for more information on the “Second Window” legislation.

This Gaturiri Reserve was produced in East Africa by the members of the Gaturiri washing station that is part of the Barichu Cooperative in the Central Kenyan Highlands. The coffee was raised at an altitude of 1700-1800 meters, and features the two common Kenyan varietals SL28 and SL34. The “SL” stands for Scot Laboratories where the varietals were first developed. In the 1930′s this lab conducted cross-breeding of a number of different varieties in search of high-quality, high-yield, and disease resistant strains. SL28 and SL34 were both results of this work. SL28 is known for high-quality but fairly small yields, and producing an intensely citric, sweet, and balanced cup. SL34 is best known for producing high-quality coffee at medium-to-high altitudes, complex citric acidity, heavy mouthfeel and clean, sweet finish. The coffee is wet-processed, and after being washed the beans are transferred to drying tables.

The roast is fairly light, yet again disproving the persistent myth that all West coast coffees are darkly roasted. The nose gives off scents of milk chocolate, hazelnuts, and salted caramel. The palate has pine nuts, malted milk balls, ancho peppers, caramel, cedar, and blackberries. The texture is plush and rich with an easy-drinking soft acidity. The finish is dry, minty and nutty and medium-length.

A very nice coffee from Stumptown. Not as compelling as the Ethiopian coffee that I had from them recently, or some of the other Kenyan coffees, but very enjoyable and easy to drink. The lush texture and low acidity make this a good cup of coffee for anytime of day, and I suspect that it’d be appealing to a broad range of palates.

This is my most distinct fascination with the specialty-coffee market, and the small handful of roasters that I pay attention to. Not only are they roasting great coffee, but they are making a distinct effort to find and offer the best coffees from around the world, and paying homage to the people who grow those coffees. Terroir, Intelligentsia, and Counter Culture are especially good at this. If you peruse their websites you can learn so much about the stories and the people behind the coffees that they are offering, and I firmly believe that this enhances the experience of your morning coffee. Instead of your coffee lacking personality and a background, you can now know that the coffee you’re drinking was grown by a person or a cooperative in a specific place in a specific country, growing certain varietals using very specific methods. While this is not guaranteed to make your coffee taste better (although it should be a better tasting coffee), it educates you about the coffee that you’re drinking and puts front-and-center the stories of the people who are producing coffee throughout the world.

In order to raise the value associated with coffee and to thereby enable the farmers growing it to earn a living wage, this kind of consumer-education is very important. And from my perspective as someone interested in learning more about coffee and its unique expressions, this kind of information is priceless.

The case of this microlot from Counter Culture is a perfect example.If you look at their webpage about the coffee you have a chance to learn about the Kenyan coffee auction system which previously made it nearly impossible for coffee buyers to single out small lots of coffee such as this, but that a few years ago the Kenyan government passed a law allowing farmers to sell their coffee directly to buyers, circumventing the auction system. After a few years of diligent work by buyers such as Counter Culture, they have now forged relationships with growers in Kenya and are bringing in certain microlots such as this one.

This coffee was produced by the Ndaroini collective located in Nyeri Kenya. At an altitude of 1600 meters they are growing the SL-28 and SL-34 varietals (I should research and write a page about Kenyan varietals, all of which have these codes for names). The coffee is harvested from October-December, and I believe this coffee was harvested in 2008, although I am not certain. As a result of their relationships with the cooperative, Counter Culture was not only able to source this coffee, but to have it vacuum-sealed at origin, so that it retained as much of its freshness as possible before arriving at their roastery in North Carolina.

After my very first sip I was convinced that this was a very good coffee. The nose has citrus fruits, hot peppers, scents of dark hot chocolate and a notable woodiness. The palate starts with a light-berry sweetness laced with a very bright acidity underscored by flavors of cocoa. The finish is driven by a pleasant acidity that gives way to an unsweetened cocoa flavor and a hint of butterscotch. From start-to-finish this coffee is bright with a good acidity, and is simply packed with flavor.

I’ll be sad when this is gone, but fortunately Counter Culture is currently offering another microlot of Kenyan coffee, this one from the Tegu cooperative, which I may decide to give a whirl. If it’s anything like this coffee, it will be very satisfying, to drink and to learn about!