Here is a preview of our seasonal Holiday Blends, available only in November & December!
Holiday Blend –
Holiday Blend Midnight (Dark Roast) –
Holiday Blend Swiss Water Process Decaf –
Club Members: Because this is a seasonal coffee, we aren’t allowing you to add it to your club order from the website. It is available to add to your club, however! Just call or email our customer service department and we can take care of it for you!
It’s that time again! We’re releasing our highly anticipated “Holiday Blend” coffees into the wild yet again. Now is your chance to grab our most popular coffees! Need a gift? Need coffee for yourself? Here at the “Roastery”, we don’t have the opportunity to talk too much about our Holiday Blend coffees before one of our prosumers take over and let everyone know how much they love them and why. It’s always fun to have such passionate support and these coffees ALWAYS instill that passion.
Well, enough chat… let’s get down to the nitty-gritty:
Holiday Blend:
Papua New Guinea – Light/Medium/Dark Blend
Our Papua New Guinea is such a popular coffee throughout the year. Around 6 years ago, Cristy came up with a great idea: “Since Papua New Guinea is so popular, we should do a special coffee for the Holidays that has a light, a medium, and a dark profile blended together. It’d be a great Holiday Brew!” Well, Cristy was right… and it’s been overwhelmingly popular from year to year!
Our Blog and Website both describe the Papua New Guinea bean as follows:
Sweet and medium-bodied, Papua New Guinea coffee is prized for its richness and crisp, clean finish. Subtle, yet distinct chocolaty tones make this light roast organic coffee a favorite among our customers. The Papua New Guinea coffee bean is versatile and makes a distinguished cup of morning coffee, as well as a smooth after dinner coffee served with dessert.
Holiday Blend Midnight
Brazil Dark Special Roast
Just a year after we first introduced our “Holiday Blend”, we decided to add another yummy coffee to our Holiday Lineup. We’d received a lot of feedback from customer requesting something a little darker for their Holiday Coffee. We cupped, tested, drank coffee, didn’t sleep at night, drank more coffee… Finally, after weeks of too much coffee and no sleep (only slightly joking…), we developed a special Brazil Dark Roast profile specifically for our Holiday Blend Midnight.
Our Blog and Website both describe the Brazil bean as follows:
Our Brazil is perhaps one of our most complex coffees. Its well defined caramel tones coupled with a finishing hint of spice give it a unique and addictive flavor. Rounding out the undertones of the coffee are nutty hints. Brazilian weather conditions are very unique and produce excellent Arabica naturals.
Holiday Blend SWP Decaf
Honduras Dark Roast SWP Decaf
Now two years after the birth of our Holiday Blend, we came to one big conclusion: Decaf drinkers were feeling left out! Of course we had two regular Holiday coffees, and it seemed natural we needed a decaf to add to the lineup. The original Holiday decaf was a Sumatra Dark Roast. A couple years later we introduced our new Honduras Dark Roast Decaf and instantly knew we had found the perfect fit for our Holiday lineup.
Our Blog and Website both describe the Honduras bean as follows:
Although Honduras is relatively new to high-end Arabica coffee, its soil, climate, and altitude are all perfect for coffee growing. Dark roast organic coffee from Honduras offers the perfect blend of rich molasses tones with slight hints of caramel and spice. This sustainable organic coffee has a pleasant brightness and a medium to heavy body to compliment the sweeter molasses and caramel tones.
So, there you have it. 3 great coffees for 2 fun-filled, eventful months!
I hope you enjoy them all!
Dan
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
Well, we decided CICR’s coffee roaster was getting lonely.
No we aren’t talking about Glenn, our Roast Master. Cristy would have words to say about that (she’s his wife). We’re talking about our actual Coffee Roasting Machine.
Our current machine had been working long, hard days to keep up with the demand of our Coffee Lover’s Club members, retail purchases and our wholesale accounts. Finally, after much research and careful planning, our coffee roaster has found its mate!
For those who haven’t been able to visit us on Camano, here is a quick explanation of what you’ll be looking at.
The fun thing is that the new roaster uses the
exact same technology and setup
as our old roaster. If you took our old roaster and just added a bit more metal (and adjusted the airflow and flame controls… and all that technical stuff), you’d have the same machine.
We’re excited to share images from our remodeled roasting room with you all!
This month, for the month of September only, we decided to pull out all the stops and feature a coffee that we haven’t featured in a couple years. — our Colombian Reserve! Our Colombian Reserve has many flavor characteristics and contains a subtle, fruit-like sweetness with a peanut-y tone in the finish. The coffee itself contains a perfectly balanced, medium body and we roast it to a milk chocolate color at a medium roast level.
Region Information:
Our Colombian Reserve comes from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains (Snowy Mountain Range of Saint Martha) which is an isolated mountain range separated from the Andes that runs through Colombia’s Northern region, along the coast. At it’s highest point, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains reach 5,700 meters above sea level. These mountains are the highest coastal mountain range in the world.
People:
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains are home to the remnants of the native American Tairona Culture. The Arhuacos, one of four groups of the remnants left from the native American Tairona Culture, grow our Colombia Reserve coffee. As a people, their main economic activity is subsistence agriculture. Most of the Arhuacos people haven’t even had a chance to enjoy their coffee as it is grown specifically to be an export to bring money into their economy. In spite of an ever changing environment and many new projects in the area by the Colombian government, the Arhuacos resist modernizing and live life the way they have for many years.
Thanks for reading!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
The fair has ended and once again, we had a great time. While the fair suffered a little in attendance because of the crazy weather (ie. the torrential downpour on Saturday evening), we stayed busy the whole time giving warmth to the few that braved the fair and the rain.
We went through 180 gallons of water (which equates to about 396 airpots full or about 7,920 sample sized cups of coffee) in making thousands of samples, hundreds of 12oz cups and hundreds of refills for anyone that purchased one (or in some cases, many) of our cool stainless commuter mugs! We also sold over a thousand pounds of coffee bringing a nice sum for Agros and their work.
For the 10th consecutive year, we enjoyed seeing many of you, our customers, both new and “long-term” alike. We gained many new club members to add to the rest of our great prosumers. In the beginning, our company was carried through its infancy by doing local tastings and fairs. It’s fun for me to reminisce about the days when I’d set up a Schuh Farms and sell a few pounds a day to interested visitors.
Thank you to all who came and for those that couldn’t but still support us and our vision with each purchase of our healthy coffee. We’re here and growing because of you!
Jeff Ericson
President
CICR
Beach Brew is back! This time, we’re showcasing our Sumatra Medium Roast as our coffee of the month. This medium roast brings a richness of flavor unlike any other coffee. Sumatra coffees (as a general rule) tend to have a heavy, buttery body. Sumatra is easy to find, although high quality Sumatra coffees are harder to come by. Even so, many regard Sumatra coffee in general as a great dessert coffee due its natural richness.
Here’s the low down on this Coffee of the Month
Most people only get to drink dark roasted Sumatra coffee. While Dark Sumatra coffee is awesome — particularly our Organic dark roast Sumatra coffee — many would love the slightly lighter roast of a Sumatra Medium even more.
The common thought is: Darker = Richer, and that has a truth to it. However, Lighter = Richer is also a true statement.
Let me explain:
Here’s the best way to describe it. Roasting coffee to a darker degree does two things:
Many people really like one more than the other… or enjoy a balance of one to the other. I personally drift more towards lighter roasts because I just really enjoy tasting the flavor of the coffee bean. Many others like the darkness introduced in the roasting process and really enjoy having that added flavor characteristic. I always say “That’s what makes coffee so great! It appeals to everyones taste buds in some way.”
I find the Sumatra Medium Roast to be perfect for lighter roasted coffee drinkers like me… as well as people that enjoy the depth of darker roasts. The natural Sumatran richness coupled with a good, medium roasting level provides all the flavor necessary to thoroughly enjoy this wonderful dessert coffee – even if you can’t relegate it strictly to dessert!
Update: Are you reading this after August 2012? You can still get this coffee fresh! Just click one of the links below!
Click here for our Sumatra Medium Roast
Click here for our Sumatra Dark Roast
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
Art by the Bay is officially over for the year and we’re sad to see it go. Camano Island Coffee Roasters was started by using local events and places as a platform to tell others about our coffee and our focus. Art by the Bay, was one of the first events we took part in and it only gets better and better with each passing year!
This year, we gave thousands of samples of coffee and sold hundreds of pounds. More importantly to us, we get to connect with many, many of our prosumers and we get to talk about the future of our business and the work being accomplished in many countries around the world.
Next year, make sure you go out to Art by the Bay – it’s a destination worth checking out!
It’s back! Our acclaimed Guatemala Coffee Medium Roast is featured this month for all to enjoy! We do, of course, carry it year-round but many wait to enjoy it for those special months that we offer it as our Coffee of the Month!
Sweet and tangy citrus accents set this Guatemala coffee bean apart from the others. With distinct and distinguished flavor and aroma, this medium roast pleases the coffee lover with its complexity and colorful aromatic qualities.
Of course, most of our customers already know there is much more to our Guatemala coffee than the great flavor. Our Guatemala Medium Roast is a wonderful Agros coffee. It’s my personal favorite, actually. From the village of Trapichitos in Guatemala, comes this wonderfully rich, full flavored, original Guatemala coffee bean.
Agros’ website gives us a little more insight:
Trapichitos
“Place of the Sugar Mills”
Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala
Size: 635 acres
Population: 61 families
Founded: 2000
Also known as La Trinidad (the Trinity), Trapichitos is an Ixil community that has persevered through great challenges. Squeezed together for many years on just 25 acres of land, the original 85 families organized themselves to purchase land 25 minutes from their homes. After five frustrating years and many fruitless attempts to acquire land, the community approached Agros for assistance in April 2000. Agros had never worked with previously organized groups in the Ixil, thereby, presenting a new opportunity. With Agros’ support, local leaders finally had the financial backing to approach the landowner. The 635-acre tract of Trapichitos was purchased in November 2000
Read More: http://www.agros.org/ag/our-villages/guatemala/trapichitos/
I hope you enjoy what is my personal favorite of our coffee beans!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
We realize that visiting the blog hasn’t been the most fun, happening place as of late! We do typically try to put something informative or interesting about our company, great coffee, or Agros every 1-2 weeks.
Please bear with us through our growing pains, heavy work-loads, and some new babies. We guarantee we will be updating our blog at a more rapid rate shortly!
Alternatively, if you haven’t found our Facebook page, it’s definitely a more exciting spot at the moment as our customers fuel the energy directly there! Check it out!
Sincerely,
The Coffee Guys and Gals at CICR
Coffee is great all year long whether it’s hot or cold outside. The problem, however, is that sometimes you don’t want a hot cup of coffee when it is over 90 degrees outside. As an Arizona guy (grew up there), I find that hot weather makes iced drinks SO much better! That same hot weather also seems to make hot drinks harder to enjoy. Well, I’ve got the solution for you — our Peru coffee.
Our Peru coffee — dark roasted is here to the rescue. The Peru coffee is literally the perfect summer coffee. It’s light bodied and refreshing yet packs a delicious flavor. Complete with subtle, gentle fruit tones and a slight smokiness, our Peru coffee makes a great hot beverage in the morning and will continue to be your perfect companion throughout the day by pouring it over ice!
If you venture over to our coffee page, you’ll see that our Peru coffee is described as: “One of the highest in elevation in the region, this Peru bean has sweet, fruity tones that lend towards a naturally sweet cup. Our Peru coffee is our lightest bodied coffee which makes it a great choice for the coffee drinker that enjoys drinking lots of coffee yet doesn’t want to sacrifice in the flavor of the cup. This coffee is great anytime of the day and compliments many meals.”
At CICR, we get so caught up in coffees that have a “strength” in flavor or provide the drinker with a “rich” cup of coffee, that the Peru often gets overlooked. The Peru coffee, while not having that super heavy flavor, has a wonderfully mellow tone. We always market it as our “guzzling” coffee but it’s also a wonderful compliment to food. When I’m eating a meal, I want my coffee to taste great, but not compete with what I’m enjoying. This Peru’s natural sweetness only goes to compliment the meal rather than combat it.
Enjoy this wonderful summer coffee!
Dan Ericson
“Coffee Guru”
CICR
