I made a decision to move to Puerto Rico to help Hacienda Pomarrosa to improve the quality of its wonderful coffees they produce. Mostly here are typical, caturra and some paca varietals. Elevation is 3,000 feet above sea level with great climatic condition to grow arabica here. Coffees here are mostly shade grown and birds friendly. The coffee farm is beautiful and most amazing place in this area, has nice European touch to it taking into consideration the owner who originally is from Germany. To add some European touch to the farm there are plenty of pine trees around the farm which adds some unique flavor profile to the coffee being piney in some instances. Coffees from Puerto Rico previously never been taken seriously by specialty coffee market. There are some ups and downs here. First of all the coffee production in Puerto Rico is very high which reflects on cost of coffees and labor involved. Take into consideration the fact that Puerto RIco is still part of the United States where minimum wage applies and that raises the cost of production. Manual labor is another factor. The problematic issue here is to convince workers to meet the specialty coffee market demand which means convincing them to pick only ripe cherries, properly monitor processing methods and apply precise and meticulous sorting to remove broken, damaged and defected beans as cause of berry borer away before roasting. This is one I found as a challenge but I personally monitoring everything myself and trying to improve all aspects of coffee production and quality involved to raise the level of Puerto Rican coffee to the highest it could be to sustain the beautiful cup quality it could offer. When I harvest I am being very selective in getting only ripe red cherries which is labor intensive and takes time. Two days ago I decided on getting into an experiment of introducing Kenya washed process method to the farmer. I harvested 65lbs of coffee by myself (only red) which took me from 8am to 430pm to do so. You have to be very careful as not all trees produce ripe cherries at once and you have to move from one to another, looking up and down the branches, and deep inside. Pickers position on the island is to be paid less but collect all cherries at once, stripping the whole branch no matter if its red, yellow or green rather then getting paid a bit more but select only red. The mentality is mind blowing but I am trying to change that a bit even if it takes hard time. Sorting is another hard task to do when it involves manual labor. It could take up to 12 hours to sort proper beans and remove defects because you have to do this one by one. I am part of it for my experiment with Kenya washed and honey process we are trying to apply in order to improve the quality and flavor profile. Some folks in specialty coffee market used to look at Puerto Rican coffees as boring, less attractive, kind of earthy and not so interesting. The reason behind that is the practice methods farmers used which did not qualify for the great standards of specialty as we perceive. But that is wrong. Coffee in Puerto Rico can be very attractive, lovely and interesting at the same time. While experimenting with honey process coffee at the farm, spending hours and hours to sort them properly, I finally cupped and brewed the coffee using Chemex and the result was outstanding. We had typical and caturra varietal mixed in honey process. The coffee immediately changed my mind of what it could be done in local farms to raise the stars above the grounds in order to improve quality if necessary measure taken in spite of hardship to create something unique and attractive rather then boring and unattractive. It had medium body with velvety mouthfeel, warm and hugging, lovely and challenging in complexity by taking all your sense in your power to find hidden treasures of this island coffee. It had very mild acidity with prune notes as strong dominant factor slowly melting down with notes of dark raisins and swiss milk chocolate. By taking the nature of the farm around and the factor of pine trees as abundance in this farm, the flavor changes when cup cools down by bringing more pine tree notes with some hint of macadamia nuts. Friend of mine in Los Angeles who is roaster was able to detect walnuts and lemongrass in the cup when I sent him green beans to roast and get the feedback. The farm is gorgeous and located in the most secluded and peaceful surrounding. I decided to move away from LA and step into the shoes of farmer and bust my ass to understand what exactly means to produce great coffee. I work long hours and I love what I do. My goal is to add high quality level to coffee in Puerto Rico and make this coffee to be recognized and respected not only in the United States but in Europe and Asia. Last night we had some 9 students from the local University to come and help us to harvest as a part of their educational program. I have instructed them to concentrate only on red ripe cherries, not yellow, not green, not half red and half pink, only red. The result was outstanding. We got 98% selection of great and amazing red cherries that I personally soaked them in the water to remove floaters (good beans sink to the bottom and bad ones float on the top). When that was done I had to manually sort them again. The issue here is when you soak them in the water to remove floaters it does not really accomplish the goal of getting rid of bad and leaving good one at the bottom. I have noticed that some green beans, some half red and half yellow sunk to the bottom, so to improve the quality and make sure I am chasing what is on my mind I had to manually sort them as well. After that cherries were de-pulped to remove the skin and went on drying.The drying process here is a bit different, most of the time it involves machine drying rather than patio or bed drying due to unpredictable climate and unexpected rain that could damage beans or cherries if left on open air raised beds to dry. This is the reason that I am facing when trying to experiment with natural process. First attempt was failure but I do not give up. Never say never. My next step after adding some great dimensions to coffee grown at Hacienda Pomarrosa is to be evaluated by other professionals in the US and Europe. I will be sending samples of green beans to make sure I met the quality standard needed for coffee to be recognized as great potential and valuable in specialty coffee market. I have noticed that it is hard for specialty coffee shops in Puerto Rico to increase prices for the coffees. The market here is very tricky. Puerto Ricans consume a lot of coffees but not willing to spend a lot. Their palate is not so sophisticated to understand the differences of coffees and how coffee could shine through comparing to Ethiopian or Kenyan in this instance, since they only consume local coffees. Puerto Rico does not allow to import coffees from other countries so local coffee shops have to work with what they have, local coffees which can be great and fabulous if proper practice is implemented to highlight the quality rather than quantity. Prices on coffees very low, espresso is $1.00, cappuccino is 2.00 and filter coffee can go from $2 to 3. The other issue here is Coca-Cola company that bought Puerto Rican coffee market (stayed away from specialty which is great) and roast and sells very cheap, low quality, under-developed coffee to consumers which makes it hard to compete on this small island. The local government on the other hand understands that consumption of coffee does not meet the demand and therefore imports low quality coffees from Guatemala and other Central American countries mixing them with local low quality coffees and sell them to Coca-Cola. Basically Coca-Cola in Puerto Rico is like another Folger or Maxwell that most specialty coffee people here staying away from. The great and specialty Puerto Rican coffee can only and truly be recognized by the hard work of local farmers who pay attention to specialty market and willing to go extra mile to improve the reputation of what Puerto Rico could offer to the world of coffee besides beautiful beaches and lovely people living on this island. I am doing everything I can, everything in my power, working long hours to bring the quality and high profile of Puerto Rican coffee to the specialty market and that started with few experiments I working on. I know I will be able to do and I know those of you who have never tried and tasted coffee from Puerto Rico will be really surprised. Love you all.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 02:29:42 +0000
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