Tag: Medium Roast

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March’s Coffee of the Month – Papua New Guinea Medium Roast and Sumatra Medium Roast

Our fun blend of Sumatra Medium Roast and Papua New Guinea Medium Roast has been a yearly favorite by many. Just typing this, I can think of a dozen customers that get excited every time we bring this special blend back. At the Roaster, we’ve lovingly dubbed this coffee as “PapuaMatra”.

Usually we are a straight “Varietal Roaster”, meaning that we sell coffees that are only from a single country of origin (with the exception of our Varietal Supremo espresso). One of the reasons I enjoy our “Coffee of the Month” is for the shear joy of exploring great coffee pairings. As usual, we only try to make very easily replicated blends so our customers can enjoy this at home.

The profile of this coffee is an interesting, yet perfect blend of flavors and nuances that make this coffee as unique as it is interesting. Both Papua New Guinea and Sumatra are Indonesian countries and enjoy similar weather systems. This lends towards the compatibility of the two beans. The Sumatra coffee brings a full, rich, nutty base with a subtle dried fruit tone into the mix with a rich chocolate overtone found in our ever-popular Papua New Guinea. The result is this heavenly blend!

On a fun side note, the artwork on this Month’s coffee label is a new painting HOT off the press by a local artist out here, John Ebner. He’s actually a pretty well known artist and his work is amazing. This is the 4th label made from his artwork that we’ve done. I encourage you to check out his other paintings. His website is www.johnebner.com.

For those who’ve been waiting, it’s finally back! For those that haven’t tried this yet, you’re in for a treat! I know you’ll enjoy our “PapuaMatra” coffee immensely!

Dan – CICR

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February’s Coffee of the Month – Brazil coffee

brazil coffee

Last month’s coffee of the month (Guatemala Light/Medium) was a big hit with many of our customers. For some it’s a great coffee to drink once in a while for a treat and for others (like myself) it’s the coffee they usually turn to when they think of coffee in general.

brazil coffeeThis month’s coffee is another one of my personal favorites. Our Brazil coffee is the fastest growing in popularity of our coffees. We introduced it a couple years ago and ever since it’s been on a steady incline towards the #1 coffee at CICR (the only coffee it has left to take over is our ever-so-popular Papua New Guinea coffee). This medium roast coffee is perhaps our most complex bean offering a bright caramel overtone with a soft, nutty base. Its awesome flavor is rounded off with a hint of spice creating an extremely enjoyable brew.

Coupled with the Aeropress (below in Cristy’s gift selection), this makes a superb cup of coffee (of course it’s awesome no matter how you brew it). Cristy and I both enjoyed many Aeropress-ed americano’s and lattes with the Brazil Medium Roast bean.

Regardless of how you brew it, enjoy one of the finest organic beans to come out of Brazil for the month of February!

Dan – CICR

 

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January’s Coffee of the Month – Medium Roast Guatemala and Light Roast

The Holiday Blend coffees are gone until November 2010….
Are you upset you won’t be able to get them? Don’t worry about it! This month is the chance for something different, yet unique and delicious. We’re bringing you a very special blend of Guatemala coffee for January that is sure to keep you wanting more.

Our “Coffee of the Month” 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. We carry Guatemala all year but for the Month of January, we’re blending the light and medium roasts of this exquisite bean. The result is a mellow, yet medium/full bodied coffee with a slight citrus highlight.

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 – CICR

 

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Coffee of the Month – August

Papua New Guinea coffee

Papua New Guinea – Medium Roast

In case you haven’t been around long enough, or haven’t figured it out from reading posts and our website, Papua New Guinea coffee is a very popular coffee. We sell more Papua New Guinea coffee than any other. There is good reason for that! Many of our coffees have characteristics are that require one’s taste to enjoy it. I, for example, really enjoy the flavor of our Guatemala coffee. It has some vivid lemon notes giving it a very nice citrus tone. Some people would rather enjoy a different tone in their brew.

Papua New Guinea coffee

Our Papua New Guinea coffee has a very subtle — yet flavor completing — chocolaty tone. Many can’t place it as “chocolate” from a candy bar or mocha, yet the characteristics of the coffee coincide with those found in chocolate. It has a semi-sweet tone that starts to taste more and more like chocolate as the coffee cools off. For that reason, this coffee makes a GREAT summer brew. Just brew it up (double strength if it’s hot and being poured over ice) and chill it. It’s the perfect bean for the season!

Our Papua New Guinea coffee has a medium to full body and is considered by many to be among the finest and best coffee in the world. Most Papua New Guinea coffee comes from trees that were uprooted in Jamaica (Blue Mountain) and replanted in Papua New Guinea.

Here’s some information on Papua New Guinea:

According to the Department of State’s website (click the link if you’d like to read all the in depth details on PNG), PNG is roughly the size of the state of California and has around 6.3 million people. It has three official languages (English, Tok Pisin, and Motu) as well as close to 860 other languages which plays a huge part in the overall fragmentation of the country and it’s people. Another topic of note is that PNG only has 49.3% literacy.

PNG is known as a country ripped in pieces by civil war, lawlessness and poverty. Yet in the last few years, thanks to many factors including sustainable coffee purchasing, Papua New Guinea has started down the road to recovering it’s economy and government corruption. It’s a long road ahead, but we have helped immensely and can continue to help just through responsible purchasing.

Hope your summer is going well and you’re staying warm. Here on Camano Island we’re having a nice heat wave. It’s a bit tough in places without air conditioning but it’s sure nice to live in a beautiful area with definite seasons!

Happy coffee drinking!

Dan – CICR

 

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Coffee of the Month – July

Honduras Coffee and Brazil Coffee

Brazil has long been a popular morning coffee with its crisp caramel tones and its hints of nut and spice. Couple those characteristics with the rich Honduran coffee Molasses tones and you have quite the experience in a cup. This coffee has combinations of medium and dark roasts and brings a wonderful aromatic quality to the table as well as enjoyable flavor in each cup!

Our sister company, Espresso Americano is doing well in Honduras. We have over 150 espresso locations around Central America and they are all centered around our Tegucigalpa, Honduras headquarters. These honduras coffee shops give us a way to make a real connection with the people down there. We can use this to our advantage to help improve coffee growing, which in turn, helps the farmers grow a better product and make more in return.

Agros International currently has 3 villages in Honduras: Nuevo Amanecer, Brisas del Volcán, and Achotales. These villages, founded in 2004, 2006, and 2008 respectively, show Agros’ commitment to the areas it works in. In Nuevo Amanecer, Agros has moved into leadership development programs and adult literacy programs (among others). Agros works to further strengthen its existing partnership there. We’re proud that our honduras coffee is ethical coffee

Check out Wikipedia’s Honduras Page for more information.

Brazil has long been known for the best coffees around. While being the largest coffee exporter in the world, it is still a long ways off from being an ethical coffee growing country. Coffee, which is not a native plant of Brazil, has been responsible for much of Brazil’s deforestation. Yet in that devastation, many farmers are starting to turn to responsible growing. That’s why shade grown coffee is so important in coffee in brazil. We’re proud to have been supporting those farmers in producing ethical coffee for many years now.

Due to the depletion of the Rainforest in Brazil, many species of birds and other animals have become extinct or are facing extinction. “Bird Friendly” coffees have shown up with certifications by major US organizations. CICR is committed to only offering shade-grown coffees. These coffees sustain the delicate ecosystem that provides homes and food for many species of birds and animals. Another reason why shade grown coffee is so important.

For more information on Brazil, visit Wikipedia’s Brazil page.

This is a new blend for us and we hope you love it. It’s complex but has a distinctive sweetness from the blend of caramel and molasses tones. Indulge Yourself!

Dan – CICR

Want to try some free coffee? Click below!