Today I got an update on our eCafé auction coffee. The export preparations on the coffee are complete and the coffee is at port waiting for a boat. As mentioned before, once the coffee is afloat it will take four to six weeks to arrive in the States, another week by truck, and then I'll need a few days to figure out the best way to roast this wonderful coffee. I have also roasted the first batch from our last bag of the Hama. It's selling fast, so if you haven't tried this coffee yet, the opportunity to try it will be over soon.
Last week I got a few samples of Kenyan coffee from BD Imports. I had asked them to keep an eye out for something nice to send with the Ethiopian. One sample was a Kenya AA that is very similar to what we currently have and there were also two samples of Kenya PB (peaberry), one of which was, in my opinion, better than what we currently have. It isn't as tart, but has a lot of sweetness and a fruity character. I've ordered about a quarter of the lot and it will come here on the same truck as the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Konga Natural.
Tomorrow morning we should be getting a truck with our latest order from Hacienda La Minita. It will have a few bags of La Minita and I'll be opening that up right away to figure out how I'll be roasting a medium and a dark roast version of that. I have enough of the previous lot for one more batch of something. It will probably be the medium roast as I roasted a batch of dark roast today.
I haven't heard of any changes concerning the Java. The coffee will be from Blawan Estate and should be similar to other Java coffee we've offered.
Finally, I've been thinking about what to do with Holiday Blend this year. Holiday Blend is a little special in the sense that it does not have a fixed flavor profile from year to year. I try to make something delicious and interesting, but beyond that it could be anything. I will be switching to new lots of two of the coffees that I might use in Holiday Blend soon. I had a small cupping session recently with the current and next lots of these coffees to see what work would be needed before I can continue work on developing this blend. Guatemala Antigua La Flor del Cafe, as expected, was very similar to what I have now. I may even be able to use the same roast profiles with the new lot. El Salvador Cerro de las Ranas has similar flavor descriptors, but the two coffees cupped very differently. They may not be so different once I have developed a production roast profile for the next lot, but they are different enough that it would be pointless to work on Holiday Blend with the current lot on the assumption that it can be easily modified to work with the next lot. Right now I think I'd like to try developing a Holiday Blend that uses El Salvador and Sulawesi coffees. These are very interesting coffees and I think there must be some way to produce a spectacular blend with them.