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Posted on April 2 2013
April 2 2013
Mercanta have joined forces with Café Pacas, to reach beyond the coffee plantations and put the proceeds from coffee back into communities in El Salvador. After an initial donation early last year, we decided to continue our support of two schools sponsored by Café Pacas. By donating 10p from the sale of every 1kg of
Posted on April 1 2013
April 1 2013
We sent Jose to spend a hectic three days in Honduras meeting old friends and seeking out new farms all in the name of sourcing exciting additions for our warehouses. Landing in San Pedro Sula, the first stop for him was to visit the impressive facilities at Ihcafe, the Honduran Coffee institute. Ihcafe, which was
Posted on April 1 2013
April 1 2013
Last Friday there was much excitement in the office as we became the proud possessors of ‘Mercanta’ engraved cupping spoons. As eager as we were to test them out straight away, we knew they would benefit in the long run from a little tempering. Although the need to season a roaster is widely accepted in
Posted on March 20 2013
March 20 2013
12th – 14th April will see thousands of people from more than 75 countries descend on Boston to discover the world of specialty coffee. The 25th Annual SCAA Exposition will feature hundreds of exhibitors from the coffee world as well as educational sessions covering a wide array of topics. It promises to be a spectacular
Posted on March 17 2013
March 17 2013
While farmers across Colombia have been blocking roads and causing general disruption in a widespread protest over low prices, Mercanta are getting to know the growers in order to offer them a viable outlet for their specialty product. After establishing a sourcing office in Medellin, Colombia in 2011, Mercanta has spent the past 18 months
Posted on March 2 2013
March 2 2013
There are many steps that go into making great coffee. We recently discovered many of the little ones that go unnoticed on Finca San Antonio. Back in May, Coffee Hunters trundled off to Guatemala to visit some of the farms from our wonderful producers. Along the way he spent time with Antonio Pullin Pivaral of
Posted on February 2 2013
February 2 2013
On Friday 25th and Saturday 26th of January we were invited by the Deutsche Roestergilde (German Roaster’s Guild) and Probat to join them at a roasting workshop and sensory exercise that took place at Probat in Emmerich, Germany. We donated four coffees to the event (Brazil Fazenda Passeio Topazio PN, Rwanda Musasa Red Bourbon, Bolivia
Posted on December 2 2012
December 2 2012
Each Christmas Mercanta sponsors a charitable project in one of the coffee-producing origins we work with. This year we decided to support FUNPRES, a not-for-profit organisation that runs support and prevention programmes for victims of child abuse in El Salvador. We have just received a report back on the project’s progress… FUNPRES (short for ‘Fundación
Posted on November 28 2012
November 28 2012
On Friday 23rd November we held our first off site invitational cupping day at one of the UK’s leading specialist coffee shops, Colonna & Small’s in Bath. We had a great turnout from roasters based in the South West and I’m sure that everyone enjoyed this opportunity to put faces to names and companies. We
Posted on November 13 2012
November 13 2012
On Wednesday 7 November an earthquake measuring 7.2 caused extensive destruction in Guatemala. There are at least 50 people who have lost their lives and thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged. The area of San Marcos – the location of both Finca Platanillo and Culpan – was worst affected by the quake. The
Posted on November 8 2012
November 8 2012
1850km in a 1 litre Fiat Uno; Brazil is nothing if not huge. Starting in Sao Paulo, this trip took me to Pedregulho on the Sao Paulo/Minas Gerais border, then Pocos de Caldas, Santo Antonio do Amparo, Areado in Minas Gerais, then back to Pocos and finally Sao Paulo. Two weeks, dozens of farms, cupping
Posted on November 1 2012
November 1 2012
This year for the first time we have brought in some ‘cascara’ – or dried coffee cherry – to our UK warehouse along with our other lots from Bolivia. We have been having fun experimenting with various brewing methods in our London lab and we’d love to hear from anyone who has come up with
Posted on October 30 2012
October 30 2012
In early September Colombia and the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (FNC) celebrated their 10th Cup of Excellence Anniversary in Popayán, Cauca – and what a privilege it was to be part of the international jury. A record total of 1,043 lots were entered into this year’s competition, from the regions of Cauca, Nariño, North Huila,
Posted on October 17 2012
October 17 2012
This August I had my first chance to take part in the Cup of Excellence programme, an opportunity that I have been very eager to experience. I arrived in Rwanda on the evening of 24th August very excited about getting to know more about this country and its coffees. There is only an open expanse
Posted on September 19 2012
September 19 2012
Thank you to everyone who joined us at our UK lab for a fantastic afternoon of cupping last Friday. We had a great time and really appreciated all the feedback from the group. It was a busy afternoon – a group of over ten of us cupped a total of 36 coffees, across three tables.
Posted on July 8 2012
July 8 2012
This season we have started working with producers in two upcoming growing regions with great potential for specialty lots – Honduras in Central America and Antioquia in Colombia. We are very excited about these new projects and look forward to sharing our latest finds. Honduras isn’t strictly a new origin for us. We have brought
Posted on July 3 2012
July 3 2012
In February I was very lucky to visit one of the world’s oldest, biggest and – arguably – most fascinating coffee producing countries. Ethiopia is East Africa’s coffee giant, a huge country with the world’s third largest Arabica production and a coffee culture that stretches back centuries. After just a few days in Ethiopia I
Posted on June 22 2012
June 22 2012
A big thank you to everyone who came to see us at our stand at the SCAE World of Coffee in Vienna last week. We really enjoyed the show – and the nail-biting WBC, World Brewers Cup and World Cup Tasters finals of course! It was fantastic to see another WBC winner from an origin
Posted on June 22 2012
June 22 2012
This May I was lucky enough to be accepted as part of the International Jury for the Guatemala Cup of Excellence 2012. Needless to say I was very excited to spend a week cupping some of the season’s best coffees from this fantastic origin country. We arrived in Guatemala City on the Sunday evening and
Posted on June 8 2012
June 8 2012
At the end of May I was back in Rwanda to visit our suppliers and do some cupping ahead of this year’s crop. As ever I was blown away by the hospitality of my hosts and the beauty of this fantastically green country. The washing stations that we work with are based in the north,
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