Now Roasting Colombia, Los Naranjos

Spring is in full bloom in Kentuckiana, and we're excited to introduce a fresh coffee to our line up, one which will be familiar to long time Quills drinkers. The Los Naranjos cooperative in the Huila region of Colombia is known for growing some of the best coffees in the world. The cooperative is made up of 97 small producers, with an average farm size of 1.5 hectares. The cooperative is known for their meticulous commitment to quality, as demonstrate by their sweet, juicy coffees. 

This lot is made up of Caturra and Colombia varieties, grown between 1600 and 1900 MASL. In the cup we encounter juicy pear, caramel, and sweet plantain. It's a sweet, immensely drinkable cup of coffee we're sure you'll love.  We'll be offering Los Naranjos on batch brew, single origin espresso, and of course our pour-over menu for the rest of April and May. Whole bean is available in our cafés and webstore. 

Come See us at SCAA

We're excited to be leaving for the annual meeting of the Specialty Coffee Association of America in Atlanta this week. In addition to be the largest coffee trade show in the world, it's a great opportunity to connect with old friends and make some new ones.  We will be competing in the Roasters Choice competition and brewing our coffee at the Prima Coffee booth (#1728). If you're going to be at SCAA we would love to connect. Feel free to reach out to us on Twitter or email us at mbutterworth at quillscoffee.com   

Now Roasting Peru, El Laurel

Last September we traveled 3,300 miles to Northern Peru to bring you the best coffees from the region. After sampling 40 different microlots, two coffees stood out from the pack. One of those coffees was from Finca El Laurel, the farm of Wilson Olivera. After tasting Wilson's coffee on the cupping table,  we knew we had to meet the man who produced it. 

 Situated at 1850 MASL, El Laurel is a difficult journey from the nearest city, Jaen.  But the high elevation, cool evenings, and ample rainfall at El Laurel produce a complex coffee with an acidity rarely seen in Peruvian coffee. But it's not just the perfect climate that accounts for Wilson's fantastic quality. Wilson exclusively grows caturra and typica varieties, two coffee varieties known for their superior cup characteristics. Rather than the strip-picking common in the region, Wilson and his farmhands go over each lot on the farm four times, only picking the ripest cherries each time. Although it's more labor intensive, the result is a tastier cup of coffee. 

Coffee cherries at El Laurel, at varying degrees of ripeness. 

We just receive our shipment of Wilson's coffee. We were pleased to discover it didn't diminish in quality in transit. In the cup we encounter a rich butterscotch and honeyed sweetness, balanced by a crisp peach acidity. It's already become a barista favorite, and we're confident you'll love it too.

We're extremely grateful for the hospitality that Wilson showed us when we visited his farm. We hope we can pay it forward by brewing a cup for you in one of our cafés.  

Our Prices Are Going Up, But it's a Good Thing

It’s been three years since we last had to talk about prices with you. We’re happy it’s been that long, because we want our coffee to be affordable. We love coffee, and we want as many people as possible to enjoy it. 

The truth is though, the world of coffee continues to change and grow. Over the last three years demand for specialty coffee has risen at an astounding rate. More and more people all over Louisville, Indianapolis, and beyond continue to discover this rich world of exciting tastes and delightful experiences.

But it’s changing in challenging ways as well. Changes in global weather patterns threaten the future of specialty coffee in many countries. Although demand is up, production is down as many farmers choose to plant other crops that are less susceptible to disease. In the States,  barista salaries have not kept up with the ever-growing costs of living or the increased demand for skilled employees. 

At Quills, we’re excited to be right in the thick of these trends, even the challenging ones. We believe specialty coffee can thrive right here in our communities. We believe we can continue to make choices in our purchases of coffee that will make the future more stable for coffee producers everywhere. We believe we can keep pace not only with federal and local minimum wage increases, but pay our staff a living wage in accord with the time and effort they put into making every day special for you, our customers. And we believe we can only get better at sourcing, roasting, brewing and serving delicious coffee. It’s because we believe these things, that we’re confident in raising our prices accordingly. Most of our drink prices will be increasing by only $0.10-0.25 -  some more, some less. We know it may mean an adjustment, but we are confident you will see the value. 

We're committed to constantly improving the quality of our coffee sourcing and production because quite simply, we want to serve you the best cup of coffee you've ever had. We believe good coffee is worth it, and we also think you agree. 

Yours in the pursuit of great coffee,

Quills

Back and Better than Ever: Papua New Guinea, Kunjin and Congo, Sopacdi

We have two fresh crop coffees hitting shelves this week, neither of which need any introduction for long time Quills drinkers. This is the second straight year we've bought coffee from both Papua New Guinea, Kunjin and Congo, Sopacdi, and we're pleased to find they're tasting better than ever. 

 With over 800 languages spoken in this Island nation, Papua New Guinea remains one of the most remote and least explored countries on earth. Coffee production began in the 1920s. Today the large majority of coffee production comes from small "coffee gardens" tended by subsistence farmers. This coffee comes to us from the Kunjin Mill in the Waghi Valley of the Western Highlands. Farmers deliver their coffee cherries to this mill to be processed. Each lot is sampled and better lots, such as our selection, are separated according to quality. Thanks to new processing equipment, coffees from Kunjin are tasting cleaner than ever, with lots of cane sugar, caramel, and lemony flavors. 

The political situation in the Republic of Congo, unfortunately, remains tense. In spite of political instability, the 5,600 farmers of the Sopacdi cooperative are improving their livelihood by growing high quality, organic coffee. The potential for specialty coffee in the Lake Kivu region has yet to be fully realized, but this wonderfully complex coffee offers us a glimpse of what the future might hold. We taste oranges, dates, and tropical fruits with rich, floral aromatics in this coffee.

We think this coffee is a wonderful example of how specialty coffee not only offers a better product for our customers, but has the potential to make a positive impact on every step of the supply chain. These words from the Sopacdi cooperative sum it up well:

We have lived through civil war and in great poverty for many years, but since forming our cooperative Sopacdi, despite our challenges, we also feel full of hope. For the first time we have good buyers for our coffee, who buy from us directly. Our homes are basic, without electricity, running water and other amenities. But our families are back together and we are re-building our communities. 

Now Roasting: Burundi, Matongo

Coffee, like any other fruit, is a seasonal product. Within a year of harvesting, we see a considerable drop in quality. Bright, fruity notes give way to dry, woody ones as the green coffee begins to lose organic material. Thankfully, there are enough different coffee producing countries around the world there is always something tasting fresh and vibrant. The winter months tend to be a little less exciting for coffee enthusiasts, but there are a few notable exceptions. One of those is Burundi.

Our Burundi, Matongo comes to us from the Bwayi Washing Station and our partners at Cafe Imports. Like many East African countries, most farmers in Burundi don't have the infrastructure to process the coffee themselves, so groups of small farmers organize into cooperatives, usually centered around a washing station. The farmers who grew this coffee received a premium for the exceptional quality, which has a impact on every step of the supply chain. 

In the cup we taste honey crisp apples and grapefruit with floral aromatics. This coffee also has an herbaceous quality common to Burundian coffees. It's a dynamic, complex cup of coffee that is bound to be a favorite of any fan of East African coffees. Burundi, Matongo is available in our webstore and all of our cafés. 

Peru, La Flor: The Coffee We Traveled 3,300 Miles for

Back in September we travel 3,300 miles to Jaen, Peru with one mission: to find the best coffees in the region. After a week of sampling microlots, visiting farms, and touring production facilities, we were scheduled to cup one more table of microlots before heading home to Kentucky. One coffee on that table set itself apart with its great sweetness, body, and acidity. As it turned out, that coffee was from the farm La Flor de Cafe. We're excited to announce it's available in all of our cafés and on our webstore. 

This blend of caturra and pache varieties features a rich, caramel sweetness with flavor notes of lemon meringue and green grape. A silky body holds it all together in what makes for a rich, complex cup of coffee. Peru, La Flor is available as whole bean, a pour-over, and occasionally will be featured on batch brew in our cafés. We're sure you're going to love this coffee as much as we do. 

Want Tastier Coffee? Use Better Water

Filter Coffee is more than 98% water, so it is not surprising that water quality has an enormous impact on flavor. In fact, the chemical composition of water has both an impact on the brewing process and how we experience the flavors of the brewed coffee. 

Pure water is composed of two hydrogen molecules bonded with one oxygen molecule. But water, being a tremendously effective solvent, picks up any number of soluble compounds before it reaches us. On the bright side, pure water is not actually desirable for brewing. A small amount of dissolved solids aids extraction by creating agitation and improves flavor and body. On the other hand, overly hard water interferes with extraction. The high levels of dissolved compounds make the water a less effective solvent. Compounds such as bicarbonate act as a buffer, neutralizing the acids. This causes the coffee to taste dull, flat, and bitter. High calcium and magnesium levels have the additional problem of creating scale in our equipment.

All four Quills cafés are in cities with water that is too hard for coffee brewing purposes. As a result, our best option for water quality is reverse osmosis filtration. Reverse osmosis filtration uses a membrane and pressure to reverse the osmosis process, thus stripping the water of any dissolvable solids. Our system then reintroduces a small amount of minerals to the stripped water. This allows us to control the exact composition of our water and have consistency across all of our cafés. This also helps us fix a problem identified by three-time UK Barista Champion Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood:

“Coffee is roasted to water. For example in a soft water area, a coffee will be tweaked during the roasting process to create the most positive results. If you were to then take this coffee and brew it with water in the ideal water range, it may well produce a worse result. However there are definitely waters that will produce negative results even with compensated roasting.”

Rather than roasting our coffee to match our local water supply, we rather start with an ideal, repeatable water recipe, and adjust our roast profile accordingly.

So what does this mean for making coffee in a city like Louisville or Indianapolis? Unless you want to install a reverse osmosis system in your house, the best solution is to buy filtered water from your local grocery store. Avoid distilled water as it does not have any minerals. Although making coffee with filtered water might seem extravagant, it's one of the easiest ways to improve the quality of your home brews. Trust us, your taste buds will thank you later. 

For further reading on water and its impact on coffee brewing see:

Water For Coffee – Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood and Chris Hendon

Water Quality – The Specialty Coffee Association of America