A couple new coffees were ordered today and we'll be ordering several more coffees soon. We presently buy green coffee through three different suppliers and today I was speaking with Phyllis Johnson of BD Imports. We first met Phyllis at the SCAA convention in Long Beach. Once we got back from that convention, I roasted some samples she sent and found one that was the best Kenyan coffees I'd had in a number of years. She has been supplying us with wonderful Kenyan coffees ever since.
BD Imports has been expanding into other African coffees. In addition to some Kenya AA, I've ordered some Ethiopian Harrar. We will also be getting a sample of coffee from Rwanda.
I've been hearing quite a bit of buzz about Rwanda lately, and none of it has come from the trade journals. This is another bit of evidence in favor of a concern I have been having for the past few years. It seems to me that coffee industry trade journals are becomming less useful and increasingly irrelevant. Articles seem to be written less with the intent of being useful for people in the specialty coffee business and more to provide credibility to the practices of whatever company employs the author. In other cases, the articles report on new ideas that we have been using for years or supposedly lost origins that you have regularly seen on our shelves. We may or may not be adding Rwanda to our current selection. In any event, I expect to be seeing some screwy article about Rwanda being either new or lost in the trades a few years from now.