This is a natural coffee, another way of saying dry-process. This means whole ripe coffee cherries are picked from the tree and laid out to dry on raised screens (sometimes called African Bed drying). This prolonged contact between the ripe fruit and the seed imparts a fruitier, more complex and wine-like coffee flavor. Then the whole husk and parchment is removed in one step, and all defective coffee seeds are removed by visual sorting. With Ethiopian coffees, where there is no wet-mill equipment to sort coffee, it is all done with the hand and eye.

The Costa Rican coffee from CoopePalmares is a fully pulped natural sun dried coffee. The project to produce an African natural style coffee involved 12 growing districts, approximately 20 coffee growing families per district. Additionally 20 international coffee roasters were invited to Costa Rica to witness the process, cup the coffees, and critique the results.

Fazenda Aurea is located in a region called Serra do Salitre, a high plain in Cerrado Miniero, in the state of Minas Gerais. Minas Gerais is in the west of the southeastern subdivision of Brazil, the second most populous of the 26 states of Brazil, and fourth largest by area in the federation. This is no Micro Lot, it's a big farm that produces a lot of this coffee.

Invariably newcomers to my shop ask for my " favorite coffee" and more often they ask for my "most popular coffee". While the answer to this question has little to do ultimately with what appeals to you personally as a coffee drinker, the answer to this question is soundly irrefutable. Guatemalan coffee is a crowd pleaser, it embodies the essential answer to the question, "What makes a specialty coffee extraordinary?".

Needless to say each year I wait with great anticipation for new crop Guatemalan coffee. When something as bright and floral and complex as San Juan Pixcaya arrives in the shop, it's almost shocking. I recommend that you run, do not walk, and get your hands on some of this immediately. If you're not impressed by the bright, almost iridescent floral quality of this coffee, allow it to cool in your cup. A great deal of this sweet floral essence of this coffee can be attributed to acidity. Keep in mind that when cupping coffee, acidity is what gives coffee it's bright, lively fruit and wine flavors and floral aroma. This is never a bad thing! After careful examination, I would consider this coffee similar in its floral aspect to an African Yirgacheffe, or Sidamo.

Peru is a land of contrast: high mountains, dense jungles, and barren deserts all within close proximity. Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, and to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. Northern Peru is primo coffee growing country, the weather is characterized by high temperatures all year long and heavy rains from October through March.

Peruvian Organic coffees are revered for their delicate acidity and sweet round cup. The finest organically grown coffees are exquisite, especially those from small farms and co-ops. 2009 Peruvian harvest is just beginning to land in the states, and I've passed up some first crop offerings while waiting for the more mature mid-harvest green. This is by far the best to date.

Today I have the pleasure of introducing an outstanding, high-grown (1,500 meters plus) certified organic, Fair Trade coffee from the UDEPOM Co-op. Unión de Ejidos Profesor Otilio Montaño, Mexico (UDEPOM) Co-op is a collective of 608 individual family farmers, each tending a small coffee farm of between 1 – 10 hectares (2 – 20 acres) of ridiculously steep rainforest in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost State which shares a border with Guatemala.

Chiapas is a region that has traditionally suffered from poor infrastructure, unemployment, high illiteracy rates, and low life expectancy. Local coffee farmers from diverse ethnic groups formed UDEPOM to combat these problems by seeking stable, fair prices for their coffee by directly accessing the US market. The co-op pioneered organic agriculture in the area, and the indigenous Mayan co-op members use traditional knowledge as the basis for their organic farming methods.

Sumatran coffees are processed in a unique way. From the point the coffee is picked and the cherry skin pulped off, the process follows the way it is done for most washed coffees produced around the world. As with these other washed coffees, fermentation is complete when the mucilage or fruit surrounding the parchment (or pergamino) has dissolved and the fruit-free parchment rinsed off. At this point, the bean within the parchment still has very high moisture content.

In almost all washed coffee origins throughout the world, before the parchment is hulled, it is dried, either in the sun or in machine dryers, until the moisture content is down to around 15-13% at this point the coffee is ready to ship, store and roast.

So herein lies the difference; in most places, the bean is dried in the parchment and the parchment or pergamino is milled off the beans when they are dry… not in Sumatra.

Received 9/21/2009

Pluma Altura is one of the most renowned classifications of coffee in Mexico. Grown by a group of small Oaxacan farms, Tres Oros (three gold stars) is the mill name given to this coffee. Oaxaca is a beautiful region of Mexico, with a rich heritage of Zapotec, Mixtec, and other native cultures.