Hasbean coffee cupping Coffee Aroma
Afternoon coffee cupping at Coffee Aroma with James Andrews of Hasbean.
Coffee cupping is to coffee what wine tasting is to wine.
Freshly ground coffee, hot boiling water, leave four minutes, remove the crust, sample each cup with a cupping spoon and a slurp, cleaning the spoon in water between cups.
A wide range of countries, different processing of the coffee beans, Brazil, Costa Rica, Yemen, Nicaragua.
Nicaragua is a country not often seen, Yemen very rare.
Coffee migrated from Ethiopia to Yemen, then spread across Arab countries, into Europe and then across the world.
Coffee was a valuable crop to Yemen, mansions on the waterfront built on coffee, smuggling out of coffee plants on the pain of death.
In recent years coffee terraces in Yemen have given over to a more profitable crop, a narcotic, the evil sister of coffee.
For more on Yemen read The Devil’s Cup and The Monk of Mokha.
A minor criticism of the coffee cupping, the participants should have sensed the aroma of the ground beans and each participant granted the opportunity to remove the surface crust and experience the aroma that erupts when the crust is removed.
Hasbean has recently been acquired by Ozone. The two operate as separate companies with a holding company. It has enabled more resources for Hasbean to work with estates when buying green beans.
Hasbean source their beans direct from the farm, Direct Trade where the farmer is paid a higher price for quality, long term relations built with the farmers. Not the Fair Trade scam, little more than a marketing tool to make Middle Class feel good, a tiny premium paid over and above commodity price, no incentive for farmers to improve quality, farmers maintained in poverty.
Most of the coffees cupped are available at Coffee Aroma.
The coffee estates Stephen Leighton works with are featured in Coffeeography, on sale in Coffee Aroma.
