Colleen is our Director of Coffee. She is responsible for roasting operations, greens buying, and coffee content development.
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On November 12th we participated in a tasting workshop for the Good Food Awards Roadshow. We received a Good Food Award in 2011 for our Colombia Finca San Luis, and our commitment to producing delicious, transparent and responsibly grown food. This year we are (again) honored to be considered a finalist in the 2012 competition! Fingers crossed!
La Primavera is the new name of our new crop decaf from Colombia and the DESCAFECOL plant in Manizales, Colombia. If you've been enjoying the La Serrania Decaf for the past year, then you can expect to be just as satisfied by the Colombia La Primavera Decaf, which is very similar in flavor profile to La Serrania. In fact, almost everything about the Colombia La Primavera Decaf is the same as La Serrania, except for the raw green coffee. This means that we went through the same sourcing and approval process, using stringent grading protocols, and the coffee went through the same decaffeination process. The green coffee that we approved was sweet and clean, and carefully selected to undergo decaffeination at the DESCAFECOL plant. If you aren't familiar with the process, here's how it works...
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After 3 years of working with the coffee from Fazenda Santo André, it was time to make the trek out to western Minas Gerais, on the cusp of Cerrado, to meet the skilled hands that grow and process the coffee.
When it comes to coffee purchasing,
there exists a horrible affliction called Roast
Profiling, a mental disease that leads to wrongful assumptions about cup
character based on 'roast level'. If your buying decisions have ever been
swayed by the words light, dark, or medium, before even learning what the flavor profile of a coffee is...
well, then I'm afraid you've been diagnosed positive. We're in this together
though, as we have paired our coffees with roast level in such a way, and for so long, that even
our own purchasing behavior has been located deeply within its paradigmatic
grasp... and we never even knew it. 
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El Salvador is nestled just south of Guatemala and west of Honduras. It is the smallest country in Central America. You could take an afternoon drive from the western most municipality of Ahuachapán to the eastern most of La Unión in 4 hours, or visit the Pacific Coast from San Salvador in just about 45 minutes.
Brazil is the world leader in coffee production, and Minas
Gerais is the largest producing region in Brazil. Coffee grown in this region
is typically known for mild fruit acidity, chocolate, nut and brown sugar flavors,
and big body. That is just what you get from our two new Brazil offerings: Brazil Santo Andre and Brazil Santa Clara (organic). Each coffee produces a cup that stays
true to the regional character, but they also hold their own ground
as distinct and unique specialty coffees. This is our second year offering both coffees, and
I anticipate they will be as popular this year as they were in 2009.
Omar Arango is the owner of Finca San Luis,
a 42-hectare farm in El Libano, in the department of Tolima, Colombia.
Finca San Luis is organic and Rainforest Alliance certified, and
located at an altitude of 1600 meters. Predominantly producing coffee
of the caturra varietal, Omar creates a cup profile that has well
structured acidity, and rich flavors that range from ripe stone fruit
to mild, sweet tobacco. While Omar often sells this coffee with the
producer group Cafinorté Orgánico, this year we are working with him to
separate some of his higher quality coffee in order to sell directly to
us as Finca San Luis.
We are proud to offer two Las Mingas lots this year, one from the Department of Cauca and the other from the Department of Huila. Las Mingas Cauca is an organic lot that has bright citrus in the aroma and flavor, and is balanced by a juicy but mellow acidity. Think of it as vibrant yet easy. Las Mingas Huila is incredibly creamy and comforting, like a sweet milk candy that has some ripe cherry smack in the middle.
In November, I had the opportunity to travel around the eastern states of Brazil, tasting coffee and learning about the various micro regions of the world's largest coffee producing country. Spending most of my time in the eastern part of Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's largest coffee producing states, I visited the smaller regions of Matas de Minas and Sul de Minas. Although these two growing areas are part of the same state, the differences in topography from one region to the next lend to the production of coffees with very different flavor profiles. What's more, these two areas, though different among themselves, are an even further departure from the coffees grown in Cerrado Mineiro, located in western Minas Gerais.
This past September I joined a group of roasters and green coffee buyers from the United States and attended the 2nd annual Expo Especiales, a national conference funded by the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC). It's taken me some time to reflect on the conference, a venue that through discussing the current trends in production and consumption in one of the world's leading coffee exporting countries, essentially sets the stage for determining coffee futures globally. Here are some of my thoughts...
From time to time some very unique and beautiful coffees slip through the cracks of a competition as large as Cup of Excellence (CoE) because of variance in roast degree or other such factors. Finca Trinidad is one such coffee that did not make the final jury selection for the Guatemalan CoE auction this past July. The first axiom of sensory analysis (taste, smell, etc.) is that it is subjective and highly influenced by environmental conditions. Even as trained and calibrated coffee tasters, there is no certainty that compelling coffees will not be glanced over and forgotten. Luckily, we were able to restore Finca Trinidad from anonymity and, hopefully, create a legacy.
September's secret password is Amaro. However, we will also accept: "WOW! It's like blueberry donuts" and "Yum Yum Yum". Photos
In September of 2008, I traveled to Colombia in order to congratulate the coffee growers involved in the Las Mingas program.
Two East African coffees, and two Centrals. We've been working since February to bring in these
coffees, which means the producers have been working for many months prior to
that. The process can be cumbersome, but the effort can yield unimagined results. This month's arrivals are proof that coffee is personal, coffee is political, and best of all, coffee tastes darn good.
Mid summer marks the arrivals of new crop coffees from Central and South America and Africa. If you don't see your favorite coffees on our offering sheet this month, keep in mind that there are plenty more on their way to the Gimme Roastery - like the Costa Rica Las Lajas organic, Ethiopia Amaro and Honduras Linda Vista Cup of Excellence lot! But that's getting ahead of the game... this month we're releasing two new Colombian coffees, and giving a little extra attention to some old favorites.
Just outside of Volcan, Panama is Finca Hartmann, a beautiful 90 hectare (220 acre) estate, in which 12 of those hecares are set aside for coffee cultivation, and the remainder are dedicated to old-growth rainforest. Alex Hartmann is one of five Hartmann siblings who work together to run the family estate. Alex is the manager of the coffee nursery, and assists in the management of all coffee harvesting between the months of September and February. When I visited Finca Hartmann in late May, I met with Alex in the nursery and got a glimpse into his philosophy of producing and selling coffee, that is, why it is so important for coffee producers and consumers to communicate with one another.
... there is so much going on behind the scenes!
Tiborcito is a third generation Ratibor Hartmann. He is 4 years old and has won at least 3 trophies in Moto riding. On my first day on Finca Hartmann, Tiborcito led his mother, sister, uncle, and two visitors on an hour long tour through the nearly 30
acres coffee fields and 150 acres of lush virgin rainforest. Watch the video and read on for more of the story!
Gabe, Janet, Anne-Marie and I are on our merry way to Atlanta for the annual Specialty Coffee Association of America Exposition. Right now we are just outside of Blacksburgh, VA and I need a little pick-me-up. 
Yesterday we unveiled the new labels for our coffees! All of
the coffee labels have been updated with accurate data, and we have
tweaked the label design to represent that new data. We've worked in-house to develop a solution to provide specific information about our unique coffees. It's been a long time coming! 
From time to time I am forwarded emails from the feedback page of our website. I mainly receive inquiries from the 'Our Coffee Beans' option on that page, though I sometimes get 'Other' responses involving general roasting or greens buying practices. Basically, all questions with the common denominator of Greens and Roasting get fielded by my department. Pretty nice, huh? Chat it up with the minds behind the beans.
Don't let the end of winter get you down. Lift that shroud of cold and gray with a fresh spot of Rwanda! 
It's a veritable bargain buying bonanza! All you have to do is:
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The Las Mingas Program is one of the most responsible and direct source models available to specialty coffee roasters throughout the world. Still, it only represents 0.025% of Colombia's annual coffee production.
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I am the official Gimme! cupping spoon. I am instrumental in the daily decisions that are made at the Gimme! roasting headquarters. Let me take you through my typical routine. I like to wake nice and early.
Shootin' hoops at an organic coffee finca in Cauca, Colombia. When you are 1,600 ft. above sea level on the cordillera central, you really don't want to be the one to chase the ball down the hill. Hence, the only shot I took... was with this camera. Latest PhotosThe Gimme blog is a collaboration that gives voice to people across our company. Opinions expressed by our authors are uncensored, and are not necessarily the opinions of Gimme! Coffee. If you need a company statement, or any other type of response, please contact us.
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