Level Ground Trading Blog

Coffee is like Wine.

2012-02-15T12:38:00.000-08:00

You likely wouldn't drink a young wine and expect to have an amazing experience. A young wine tastes like little more than sour grape juice. Coffee is no different.

When you drink the brew from a freshly roasted coffee - just a day or two from the roaster - you're getting little more than flat tasting, brown water. Coffee made from fresh roasted beans is only a shadow of itself; an echo of its true potential. Money has been spent to prove this, but little more than tasting needs to be done.

At today's cupping, we focused on the ageing of a coffee that we've recently imported from D.R. Congo.

Repeatedly, we've found that our coffees don't really begin to "wake up" until 5-8 days after they're roasted. When a coffee is ready, delicious acids, sweetness and mouthfeel come alive and play beautifully with its best brew method. Depending on the coffee and the roast level, this amazing flavour will stay or even mature over the next 20 days... even longer if it's stored well and brewed thoughtfully.

We're very excited about this new coffee from D.R. Congo. We're even more excited that we're able to get our coffees to the whole of Canada while they are at the peak of their flavour. That's a beautiful thing.

Mango IS coming!

2012-02-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

Don Israel

This week a few of our staff were on site at the farm of Don Israel.

Don Israel is a small-scale farmer who grows organic mangoes for Fruandes in Colombia.

These mangoes are juicy and massive.

They are roughly double the size of the typical fresh mangoes you would find
in a grocery store in Canada.

Kiette mango growing in Tocaima, Cundinamarca, Colombia, about 3 hours' drive from Bogotá

These mangoes typically weigh in at 500 grams each!

When they are dried they lose approximately 90% of their weight. So, our 150 g package holds 3 of these or the equivalent of 6 'grocery store' mangoes.

Don Israel, Hugo, Graham, Chris, Christina, Eric and Kerri

Here's some of the freshly harvested, tree ripened mangoes being packaged THIS week at Fruandes!

We are currently scheduling 5 incoming freight containers of dried fruit and cane sugar in 2012. Each will be packaged and shipped to Level Ground from Fruandes Ltda in Bogota, Colombia.

Getting hungry?

Kerri and Chris head to Colombia

2012-02-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

Kerri, Hugo and Chris (left to right)

Who gets to go this time?! That's a question we often ask when planning producer trips.

The answer is: Kerri and Chris will join our CEO and co-founder, Hugo Ciro.

Kerri leads our Finance Team and Chris works with Facilities and Events.

Where to? This trip is to Colombia and it's where Hugo was born and raised. He goes several times each year to meet up with many of the farmers with whom we trade.

We've asked Kerri and Chris to send us some of their most notable experiences, along with photos, for us to share with you via our blog and Facebook.

Stay tuned for updates over the next two weeks!

Fresh Ethiopian coffee

2012-01-27T16:42:00.000-08:00

This week we received another SAS (sample to approve sale) from Ethiopia. It consisted of 350 grams of beautiful, little beans with pronounced olive green color that spoke to their freshness and inherent flavor.

Those beans were washed, sun-dried and hand-sorted by the farmers at Fero Co-op in the Sidamo Region.

We visually inspect the beans, put them through a custom roast and 'cup' them to approve the purchase of another container with 40,000 lbs inside.

Thanks for returning your empty packages!

2012-01-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

We appreciate every one of you who has made the effort to help us reclaim our empty coffee packaging. Thank you!

In 2011 we reclaimed the equivalent of approximately 24,000 empty packages (300 gram size).

Today we received a highly anticipated shipment of our upcycled packaging from Work Of Your Hand.

You'll be seeing these bags become our new 'baskets' at silent auctions and fundraisers containing donations of our Direct Fair Trade products.

The roasters receive a thorough cleaning

2012-01-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

We have 3 Sivetz fluid bed roasters.

We have a habit of adding a roaster each time we move to a larger facility!

Our 'baby' is known affectionately as 'Roaster A'. It's able to manage a quarter sack (about 39 lbs) of green beans at a time. Our current roasting room is the 3rd location where Roaster A has produced gorgeous roasts for us - day after day!

Here's Roaster A, with the help of Alain (left) and Josh, tackling our first ever roast of Filipino coffee in late September of 2011.

Roasters B and C can each manage a half sack of green (about 80 lbs) at a time.

Our goal, in sticking with small batch roasters, is to maintain the high quality roasting standards that are out of reach for large batch roasters.

Typically, all 3 roasters run simultaneously. Sometimes each roaster is working on the same beans but at other times each is working to prepare a different origin's coffee at its own unique roasting temperature.

So . . . with the 3 roasters we have: small batch quality, flexible output and redundancy.

Like all hard-working roasters, they need regularly scheduled maintenance and today is the day!

Seven of our production staff (Reg, Josh, Justin, Chris, Alain, Paul, Jon) spent some quality time bonding in the roasting room pulling apart, cleaning and re-assembling the roasters and duct work.

Production will be up and running once again on Monday morning.

That was all written Friday afternoon but now . . .

It's Monday! The machines and the production crew are cleaned up and looking shiny again. We're back up and running in the roasting room.

Here's Alain, today, showing off a fresh roast of Colombian beans in Roaster B:

And . . . the nifty action that people touring our facility always love to see - beans from an automated lift dumping into Roaster C:

Mt Matutum!

2012-01-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

FROM OUR TRAVELS IN NOVEMBER 2011 - Mt. Matutum Philippines.

9am and Day 1 of our official visit to the Coffee For Peace crew in the Philippines. Luckily we're starting off in their awesome café in Davao - yay for espresso! (the 4am 4 year old voice saying 'good morning!' is haunting me a bit).

Today we embark to Mt. Matutum with Dann & his son Byron. Mt Matutum is where the coffee we've purchased is grown - a village at high altitude in the jungle, said to be cool. Everyone is surprised to learn we didn't bring our sleeping bags (didn't even occur to me to put that on the packing list!) So, we're making do with Sarongs ('marong' in the Philippines) - thin cotton tube seems sensible to us Canadians as we stand in the blistering heat of the city.

The road trip is punctuated with a lunch stop at an open air restaurant by the sea - beautiful fish are on display. We feast on fresh tuna and rice - I think we surprise Dann with our voracious appetites but he seems delighted that we appreciate the Filipino fare.

Davao to Mt Matutum was scheduled to take 5 hours but it stretched out to 9 somehow. The last hour is a roller coaster type road through the Dole pineapple plantation - staggering in size. Finally we start our assent up the volcano with many men in flip flops pushing the van and the rest of us walking beside. We arrive with about 4 minutes of daylight to take in the view.

We are here as guests of the B'laan tribe and we're staying in Purok 8 (neighbourhood 8). After they prepare and share dinner with us we are treated to stories of the events of the past few years. Shocking retaliation for their taking a stand against logging. They stand for peace and despite the harm they've experienced, they continue to promote peaceful living. I start to comprehend how purchasing coffee can become a tool for promoting peace.

We retire for the night wrapped up in our sarongs, like caterpillars in cocoons. It grows from cool to cold in a hurry and the night is a fitful series of moving kids around, recovering, adding clothing til dawn arrives and I find myself dressed in all my son's clothes. Stace & the oldest two boys have abandoned the idea of sleeping and are sitting outside urging the sun to come up.

Happily coffee is served bright and early. The rain POURS down and we visit while we wait for a break in the weather to begin our trek.

The hike is fantastic, the forest is wet and green and surprisingly similar in feel to rain forests here on Vancouver Island. Many kids come along and feed our kids sour fruits that they pick along the way. After a while we spot some coffee trees growing amidst the giant bamboo and towering trees. These are tended by the B'laan people and the coffee is harvested, depulped and dried in the community and then is taken down to General Santos City for milling... then on to Level Ground in Canada.

More often, the B'laan people are in the forest picking up Civet Cat coffee (remember the movie The Bucket List?). The demand for this naturally decaffeinated coffee has changed the status of the Civet Cat from hunted to revered. It becomes apparent that Civet Cat coffee is a better paying venture than exporting coffee once a year to Level Ground.

So, likely our trade will not grow to be container loads but that's ok - the B'laan coffee can be a special small offering. and... since finding out that Civet Cat coffee is often from farmed Civet cats, I'm happy to know there are some happy, wild civet cats out there chomping on coffee too.

The B'laan community ended our visit with a gathering in their church building. Kind words of thanks are exchanged, beautiful guitar music and singing are offered. During our last vibrant, hand-clapping song the rain furiously pours down onto the metal roof drowning us out and making us smile.

LGT sends 6 Mundo bikes to Tanzania!

2012-01-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Christmas!

6 Mundo bikes were shipped from Canada for small-scale coffee farmers to use in Ileje, Tanzania. They arrived for assembly and trial rides by December 22nd :) Here's the first photo which we just received :)

One of the key co-ordinators of the HOPE farmers group in the area, Felix Mtawa, wrote to us:

"Please be informed that on behalf of Ileje community our field staff and farmers of Ileje at large, we are very happy of receiving those bikes and we promise to use them as targeted.

Your assistance has been remarkable to both of us Lima ltd and Ileje community at large. Please keep it up."

Read more about what other people are saying about Level Ground and Yuba Bikes:
examiner.com
bicycletimesmag.com
Here is a video we shot of the first Mundo bike at our office and roasting facility in Victoria:

Ethiopia Update

2011-11-23T11:30:00.001-08:00

Ethiopia is an exotic land of contradictions. Its people live in poverty, yet they drink coffee (buna, as they call it), often pulled from massive espresso machines. Four group espresso machines can be found in corner stores and rodeside cafes. Ethiopians seem satified with growing a small amount of coffee even though improved yeilds would put more birrs into their pockets. The coffee we buy from 3,000 farming families that make up the Fero Coop in Yrgalem in the Sidama region of southern Ethiopia is exotic and rich. The pictures show why: farmers pick only the ripe coffee cherries. The coop washes and sun-dries the coffee in optimal conditions for cup quality. This coffee is as amazing as the Sidama people who grow it.

During our visit we committed to purchase 5 containers of green coffee, the equivalent of 96,000 Kg of coffee. The impact on these farmer's income is so significant that it means kids can go to school, houses can be fixed and a goat, cow or chickens can be added to the family farm.

The result of our Direct Fair Trade relationship with the farmers of Fero Coop is seen in a better coop facilty, from computers in the office to improved washing and sorting infrastructure for processing coffee cherries into consistent, clean parchment. The road to Fero has a new bridge. Water is abundant even during the dry season. Kids are nowhere to be found in the morning, evidence of high levels of school attendance. Since we have begun buying coffee here in 2006, I can see first hand the positive impact our trade is having in the lives of these people.

I am convinced that Direct Fair Trade is the best tool for human development, dignity and a better future for the children of Ethiopia.

Hugo

Esperanza visits LGT!

2011-11-21T17:07:00.001-08:00

Today was a very special day for Level Ground Trading. Esperanza Castillo, from the coffee cooperative in Peru where we purchase our Peruvian green beans (CAC Pangoa), paid a visit to LGT, took a tour of our facility and met the LGT team. Earlier in the day Esperanza, Josh del Sol (LGT’s Roastmaster and QC Specialist) and Chantelle Mussell (LGT’s Creative Design & Multimedia Production) took part in a presentation at the University of Victoria entitled “One Cup at a Time: Tracing Fair Trade Coffee from Peru to Canada.” This presentation effectively communicated the importance and benefits of Direct Fair Trade from origin to cup.

The opportunity to introduce Esperanza to the Level Ground staff in Victoria is an exceptional way to provide our trading partners with insight to the operations of Direct Fair Trade here in North America. We were honoured to host Esperanza today and wish her a safe return home to Peru.

Level Ground has been trading fairly and directly with CAC Pangoa since 2005. Esperanza’s visit to Canada, the presentation at UVic, and the Level Ground tour, were all organized by Adina Grey, a Fair Trade PhD student at UVic. In January of this year (click here for blog post) Chantelle, along with three other employees, traveled to Pangoa to meet coffee farmers and our partners at the CO-OP to better understand the process of growing and shipping coffee to Victoria. They got to shake the hands that pick the coffee which is exactly what Direct Fair Trade means to us at Level Ground.

Back in Addis

2011-11-15T14:09:00.001-08:00

We are back in Addis afer a long drive back from Fero Coop. It was a very good visit, heart wrenching, emontionally exhausting but successful in all levels of direct fair trade. Showing up is so critical but hard on the heart and body. Ethiopia is so poor, people live with extremely little. Hard to see, but we are making a huge difference in over 3000 farming families lives. That is a fact, thank God. The money we pay for this expensive coffee does get to the farmers and they are doing better than all the times I've been here in the past.

Internet is hard to find here so I will write more later. Full days; great stories to share.

Hugo

-Sent from Africa where I'm visiting coffee farmers who grow the Level Ground coffee you enjoy.

Kids with kids

2011-11-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

We've just returned from a 2 day journey to Mt Matutum where we met with the people of Purok (village) 8. This is the origin of our current Philippines coffee & even more famously the home of Civet Cat coffee.

The community was so warm and hospitable to us. We ate, hiked, sang and shared stories together. Our family slept last night on the floor of a bamboo hut, which had no power or water. Sun is down before 7 pm. It rained most of the night and very hard in the morning on and off. The village is around 1100 meters and we hiked past 1200 today to the coffee trees, which are hidden away in a dense forest. Watching our kids interact with them was gratifying. Playing games and exchanging info about each other was something they took to with ease. We ate much rice and the chicken they served us put whole new meaning to the term “free range chicken”!

Truly I can say that by visiting we've taken the necessary step to cement a direct fair trade relationship. Once again we can say with a full heart and a smile 'we shake the hands that pick the coffee.'

-Stacey

Ready to go. Waiting

2011-11-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

Good morning. We've had breakfast and walked around the neighborhood here in Davao. The 35 or so degree heat is quite a shocker to the kids as they discuss what it must have been like in Haiti when they were little.

We've put all gear into 2 small backpacks and plan to be off the grid the next 2 days. Josiah's greatest goal is to ride a water buffalo - no kidding. He rides the pigs at home and figures it must be about the same!

Bye for now,

-Stacey

In transit to the Philippines

2011-11-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

It's Nov 10 We arrived in Hong Kong 12 hrs ago - after 24 hrs in transit - and we're now back in the airport about to get on the 1st of 2 flights today. B'fast was at the only vendor we could find open in Kowloon at 5:30 am. The 6 of us all woke up magically at the same time in our hostel - which was 3 bunk beds in a 6 ft by 10 ft room. We ate chick pea curry, chapatti and rice. It was excellent and economical. By this evening we should be enjoying dinner in Davao with the Coffee for Peace team!

-Stacey

Heading to the Philippines

2011-11-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

Our bags are packed. All the chores have been meticulously written out to for our house/animal sitters to care for our:

1 dog

2 cats

3 pigs

4 ducks &

44 chickens

There 4 different malaria prescriptions for the 6 of us - nobody has had too adverse of a reaction to their malaria meds during our trials.

Josiah is grappling with the idea of being away from his toys for 2 weeks.

Received news just yesterday that the road to Bukidnon, our second farm destination in the Philippines, is under repair and impassable - we're figuring out how to improvise access via air

My contact for where we will stay overnight in Hong Kong just emailed directions to his place - the essence of it is 'I won't be able to find it' and taxi drivers won't speak English. So . . . take a bus, then take a taxi and then wait on a basketball court under a streetlight until he comes to find me!

I'm out of time - need to cook dinner - 3 of us are quite sick and it's unlikely health will improve by tomorrow as we anticipate waking up at 4 a.m. and then spending 20 of the following 24 hours on an airplane.

Direct Fair Trade here we come!

-Stacey

How to make a french press

2011-10-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Roastmaster and QC specialist Joshua Del Sol explains step by step how to make a delicious french press using our organic coffee from Bolivia.

How about Q?

2011-10-17T17:31:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of a 5 day course held here at the Cooperative Coffees lab in Montreal. I'm joined by an incredibly diverse group of professionals and am reminded of how diverse this industry is. The personalities in my course include tasters and trainers from large beverage companies, language translators for overseas coffee buyers, cafe owners, micro roasters, and even an agronomist from Italy.

Today's course tests included (yes, you're tested on the first day) multi-origin testing and triangulation (picking out one different coffee in a group of three). Training included some specifics on origin tastes and, the monster of all tests: determining taste three cascading levels of sweet, sour, and saltiness in water. The tasting samples are tested out individually and then mixed in two or three different components at a time (e.g. Sweet Level 1 and Sour Level 3 together). Needless to say, a bit of taste sensory overload can happen, but the tests are exciting and the amount of information available for absorption is incredible.

I loved it! What a tremendous opportunity for professional growth.

This was day one, tomorrow will bring even more.

-j

Picking coffee & changing a flat tire

2011-10-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Buenos Dias!

Not surprisingly we had another great day – I’m starting to see a trend here. Today was all about understanding what goes into making a cup of coffee, and we only got through half of it! We kind of worked our way backwards, starting the day with a cupping session at the Co-op here in Jardin.

We met Liliana, a former FamiCafe student (now university grad), working as a technical/logistics engineer for Nespresso. Her picture is on the package of our Decaf Ten Thousand Villages private label coffee. We gave her a bag of it that we had brought from home – really cool to see her next to it. I get so excited when I get to meet the people whose faces I see every day on our packaging. They must think I’m nuts, because I can’t quite contain my excitement and greet them like I’ve known them for years (and essentially, I kind of have by hearing Hugo’s stories and updates about them at Huddle). I almost feel a little star-struck, like I’m meeting a celebrity.

After the cupping, nine of us got in a jeep (most standing). We got down the road a little ways and the clutch decided to break. A few minutes later we had a new driver and an SUV/truck type of vehicle with benches facing each other in the back. I get motion sickness sitting like that, and the side roads we went on were bumpy and rocky so I stood on the back of the truck, with Hugo and Jaime, holding onto the roof rack (again, sorry Mom).

We made our way up to a coffee farmer’s plot and the plan was to pick some coffee cherries. Spiders and I really don’t get along (well, they do nothing and I freak out), and these coffee trees were not lacking in the spider department, so I didn’t really pick much. The family who lived there had a little girl, about three years old, who loved our mini-brochure. It’s colourful and there’s pictures of coffee, so I flipped through it with her while she sat on my lap. It was really cool, there are pictures of both Hugo and Jaime Marin in the brochure, and both of them were right there with us in person.

Then we went into town, grabbed some lunch and drove up a different hill outside Jardin to have a little picnic. Nice break, but on the way back into town we realized we had a flat tire. The driver made it to the Co-op, where it was one of the only flat places in the town, and I grabbed the tire iron and changed the tire. My second tire I’ve ever changed and it was on a truck in Colombia, I was a sight for sure. I can’t really explain it, but I like changing tires. I feel accomplished at the end. Didn’t even break a nail! I’m like a Colombian Roadside Assistance Plan – I can make parking tickets disappear and change tires.

We went to another farm after that and met Diego. Our coffee doesn’t come from his farm, but it was an interesting visit. His father passed away and he inherited the farm from him about a year and a half ago. He has a hillside of beautiful coffee plants and he also grows bananas and other fruits that he sells. This is where we really got to do some coffee picking. These trees were spider-free, so I got right in there. Hugo, Carol and I picked coffee in the beating sun on the side of the hill for about an hour. It was very therapeutic in a way, but MAN is it a lot of work! The coffee cherries don’t all ripen at the same time so every two weeks every plant needs to be picked again, as it always has some ripe and many green. As Hugo said today, this is both a blessing and a curse: a curse because of all the work that needs to be done to pick the coffee so often, but a blessing, because this means there will be an opportunity for income every couple of weeks during harvest. After an hour of labour, we pooled our cherries that we had picked, which made one full picking bucket. Then we were off to the wet-mill to take the cherries for sale for Diego.

We arrived at the wet mill and learned how things are done there. Some farmers have the set-up to wet mill on their farms themselves, but for Diego it makes more sense financially and time-wise to just pick the cherries, letting the mill about 15 minutes away process them.

At the wet mill, the coffee cherries are weighed first. Then a plastic tube, about the size of my arm, is filled with a sample of the cherries. This sample is dumped into a bucket of water and the ‘bad’ cherries float to the top and are skimmed out and put back in the tube. The rest of the sample is poured out onto a screen and any green cherries (unripe) are also put in the tube. This tube is marked with measurements, which determines the percentage of defects in the whole harvest brought in by that farmer. In total, we had 8 kilos and a 4% defect rating. We were aiming for 3%, which is pretty good, but we’re new at this so maybe next time.

When we told the other coffee farmers that were there that we picked these cherries in an hour, they were shocked at how long it took and they asked which one of us picked them. When we told them that was the work of three of us combined they got a pretty good laugh – apparently we should keep our day jobs and leave the coffee picking to the farmers and pickers. For the whole lot that we brought in, we made Diego about $5. All that work for $5! In the hot sun! On a hillside! Wowee….
Ciao!

Terra

Philippine taste spread

2011-09-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

I have really enjoyed working with this new coffee. It's interesting for me on so many levels. The unique circumstances that have brought this coffee to us have left an indelible mark on the cup profile. The milling and washing methods have imparted a unique character that will forever be "Philippine" in my mind.

With that said, here's what I've found:

French Press: tingling kumquat (or orangey-lemon-like) acidity, heavy dark chocolate, roasted peanut smoothness, smokey finish with a black pepper bite that doesn't linger too long.
Hand drip (Melitta, Chemex, Hario, blah blah): juicy lemon rind acidity, milker dark chocolate, with roasted almond nuttiness and the same black pepper and smokey tickle at the end.
Auto drip, flat bottom filter (good ol' cuppa joe): zippy citrus again, rich chocolate, light body and a delicious nutty central impression that was almondy... yet again. Central smoothness was enhanced... but so was the chomp of the black pepper at the end. Quite fun!

All of these cups had these same temperature behaviours:

Hot: A "pow" of the peppery "dark coffee" notes really overpowers. A bit aggressive!
Warm: Deliciously and delicately sweet, acids sparkle and the chocolate sings. The smokiness comes through playfully without being quite so mean to the other taste notes.
Cool: Holds onto the lemony tones, loses the chocolate, but maintains some pepper notes that are pretty tasty. Very quaffable.

I strongly recommend that everyone who tries this coffee allows themselves the time to taste it in all temperature ranges in the very least, if not a variety of extraction methods.

Dosage and water info:

French Press: 1 litre press, 55g coffee, coarse grind, 200ºF (93ºC) water, 4 minute steep time, immediate stir, top pressed just below surface.
Hand drip: 20g coffee, medium fine grind, of 203º-200ºF (95º-93ºC) water 300g (to finish at 250mL, or 1 cup), ~3.5 minute total extraction time
Automatic drip: 30g for a 4 cupper, or 60g for a 10 cupper... I didn't measure the temperature on either machine... I just put the coffee and water in and pressed "play"... like regular people do... not coffee nerds who feel the need to weight and measure every little thing (but I did weigh my coffee! Just remember: 1 level tbsp = ~6g!)

All in all, I am pretty darn happy with the way that this coffee is tasting. It's exciting to be part of a developing region and to see that they are producing an interesting, high quality coffee.

Bottoms up! Have fun!
-j

from Terra: a day jam-packed with awesome

2011-09-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Wow – WHAT a day! This morning feels like it was days ago and the day was jam-packed with awesome.

We started the day in Andes to see the Boarding House that Level Ground and FamiCafe supports. It was nice to see Nidia again, the house mother for the boarding house. She’s such a wonderful person, and it’s very evident that she is well loved by those she has devoted her time to caring for. This boarding house is new to them, having only moved to this location about two weeks ago. A wealthy man bought the last location recently to tear down the house and build a
high-rise, so a new location needed to be found. This boarding house currently houses students in their mid-teens to early twenties and has a capacity of ten students at a time. There are currently six students housed there with a seventh on her way. In Colombia it is very common for children to only get primary education. Often high school and university is not an option for a child who does not have a relative to board with in the town of the school they need to attend. This is where Nidia and the boarding house comes in, giving accommodations to students who would otherwise have no means of obtaining it. I realized today that education is something I’ve taken for granted in Canada. I always knew I would get both a high school and university education, and the greatest challenge was simply choosing the program I wanted to study in, never having to question if that education would be available to me. Pretty amazing.

We met up with Ovidio in Andes, who spent the rest of the day with us – he’s part of the Federation of Coffee in Andes, has a coffee farm, and was Mayor for a four year term, really nice man. He drove us around in his SUV today and was a great tour guide. When we got to his vehicle after the boarding house, he had just been given a parking ticket. Going out on a limb, I figured maybe I could get him out of it. I approached the police officer and said a few times in my very poor Spanish “Please, no ticket?” then Hugo took a picture of me with him, and showed it to him. Just like that, the ticket was gone! Too bad that doesn’t work in Canada.

Then we were off to visit a school that FamiCafe supports, that Hugo has never been to before. Nelson, the man who runs the school and essentially teaches all the children himself, has dedicated his life to educating children in the surrounding rural area and has been eager for Hugo and Level Ground to visit.

We drove for a long while up a rocky dirt road. Finally, Ovidio stopped the vehicle and got out, and everyone followed suit. For a few moments I couldn’t really figure out why we had stopped there, as there was nothing on or near the road, just a cliff drop off on the left, and the mountain on the right. Then I heard it. The clapping of dozens of little hands, and a unison chorus of “welcome to our community!” and “how are you?” I looked up and there were all the children of the school, standing in a tight group waving and clapping for several minutes solid while we made our way up the steep path to greet them. This is the second school that we’ve visited while here, both have been supported by Level Ground and FamiCafe, and it is absolutely incredible the kind of welcomes we’ve been given. These children and their families are so truly thankful for the support that has been given to them in the form of education, and we’re treated like honored guests because of it. The best part was being greeted individually by each child with a “how are you?” that they had practiced very hard, and a kiss on the cheek. A few of them surrounded me to touch my hair, enthralled by the fact that it is blonde. We were given gifts of fruit, dance performances, songs and speeches. It was an incredible time. Nelson works very hard to educate these kids and evidently he’s doing a wonderful job.

We went to a few coffee farms after spending some time at the school, where a few of the children from the school live with their families. At one of the farms their father was down the mountainside picking coffee, so we trekked down there to see him in action. The harvest is just beginning, so there are only a small portion of the coffee cherries on each tree that are ripe and ready for picking, and it looks like an awful lot of work. The sun is hot and the terrain is challenging in the best of weather, so even picking the coffee is quite the feat. SO much work goes into creating even one kilogram of coffee beans, it’s incredible.

We also visited Ovidio’s coffee seedling farm, where he has thousands of tiny coffee plants individually planted with the dirt wrapped in plastic and ready for sale. One of these seedlings sells for about $0.20. To put that into perspective, the first coffee plot we visited had 11,000 coffee plants on it, which would bring in about $2500 Canadian a month, and after coffee-related expenses the farmer was left with about $1000 CAD to use to support himself and his 9 family members that live with him (kids and grandkids). So, although one plant is not expensive to buy, many plants are needed and the expenses don’t stop after the plant is purchased.

On our way back down the mountain to Andes, I rode on the roof (sorry Mom). There was a spare tire tied to the roof rack, which I sat in, and held on to the rope for dear life. The pace was slow for the most part, as it was rocky in many areas, and we slowed to take pictures many times, so I was safe and I definitely had the best view.

We ended the day at the boarding house in Andes, where they had made us an amazing dinner of cheesy mashed potatoes, wild rice and vegetable-stuffed chicken. It was nice to spend some time there.

Tomorrow is bound to be another big day! Ovidio gave Carol and I each a coffee seedling which we are planting somewhere tomorrow. I think we’ll see Jaime Marin again. I’m a little confused about why our leg muscles are called “quads” because it feels like I’ve made about a hundred muscles that I didn’t even know I had very angry. My body is confused by all this activity, and at the moment, after sitting for about an hour, I feel like I’m going on 92. I’ll either have buns of steel when I get back, or I’ll be dead. Oi.

I just killed a spider the size of my hand in my hotel room and a big moth-type bug just singed itself on the light bulb above my head and dropped dead on my keyboard. Time for bed.

Ciao,

Terra

An Honour for Level Ground

2011-09-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend, at the school in Andes, Hugo received a beautiful wall hanging of Level Ground's logo. The presenter of the gift was Jairo, a young man who personally understands the value of Famicafe at work in his community.

Jairo was a recipient of a Famicafe scholarship which enabled him to complete his schooling. In November of 2008, he graduated from university as an agronomist.

Carol's muscles are aching

2011-09-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

Hola amigas y amigos!

Wow, what an experience our trip to Colombia has been so far! We have met so many wonderful people, some whom I felt I already knew, just from hearing stories and watching videos. We have done and seen so many things, that it is hard to process everything right now.

We drove the roads that the coffee travels, and went into a coffee plot and felt how steep the landscape is. We have seen the poorest of the poor. We have sore muscles from riding horseback for 2+ hours. We have smelled the smells and tasted the food (including fried intestine) and felt the hot sun on our skin. I have learned a lot of Spanish in the last 6 days...

Good things are happening around us. On Sunday a group of us visited a very poor neighbourhood, where a family we visited is not receiving proper support. This evening we found out that their status has already been adjusted so that they qualify for more help.

There is so much more to tell, see you all soon to tell you in person!

-c

Famicafe is a 'life changer'

2011-09-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Terra wrote on Sunday: “We also met Martin, who was a long-time FamiCafe student. When he was thirteen years old, a teacher of a school saw him selling peanuts in the town square of Andes. The teacher asked him why he wasn’t in school, and he told her that he wasn’t allowed at school without shoes, so he was selling peanuts to buy shoes so that he could go to school.

The teacher told him that FamiCafe would help him, and he enrolled in school right away with support of the organization. He went on to high school and then to University on a loan from FamiCafe to become a Veterinarian.

Now he is 25 years old and as of about six weeks ago, he’s completed his education and is employed by the co-op in Andes in the Veterinary medicine section.

From peanuts to professional.

Before coming to Colombia I didn’t realize the impact FamiCafe has here, but I’m quickly learning it’s a whole lot more than just sending children to school, it’s a total life-changer.”

Off to Colombia!

2011-09-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning Carol and Terra fly to Colombia (very early in the morning!) to meet up with Hugo!

Hugo's already been there a few days meeting up with cane sugar and golden berry producers. Together the 3 of them will be meeting many producers with whom we partner.

For both Carol and Terra this is their first visit to Colombia. Bon Voyage!

Take a rest!

2011-09-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

One of the things about coffee that never ceases to amaze me is what can be discovered by WAITING. In this caffeine-crazed world, patience is a rare, but greatly required commodity. Last week during one of our regular tasting sessions, we tasted something in our coffee that you don't want... astringency. Astringency can come across in different ways with varying levels of intensity for different people. Personally, I am quite aware of bitterness and astringency. As a result, I am alwayslooking out for ways to minimize them in coffees. As a general rule, it will taste slightly medicinal... a bit like crushed aspirin. Again... not a taste that really keeps you coming back to the cafetiere* for a second cup. With coffee, both roasted and green, allowing resting time will actually allow astringency to mellow... or disappear altogether (optimal!).

In this coffee's case, we allowed it to rest an additional 7 days. When reevaluating the coffee, we discovered that this bitterness has mellowed substantially, several other exciting (positive) flavours had awakened in the brew, and we all left the cup feeling better. We took it one step further and went beyond the regular "cupping" method and brewed the rested coffee through a Melitta pour-over. Filtering a coffee can greatly improve the performance of acidity... and even provide a stage for some delicious flavours to surprise you. Once filtered, we found some delicate florals, amazing fruitiness, and some delicious citrus notes that just weren't coming through in traditional cupping.

Coffee is about hurry-up and wait.

Cherries: hurry up to pick the coffee when it's ripe; wait while it ferments in tanks or on beds
Processing: hurry up to dry it; wait to ship it as it cures in parchment
Ordering: hurry up to ship it; wait while it settles in your warehouse (important for fighting astringency!)
Roasting: hurry up to drive out the moisture in the roaster; wait to let the sugars develop
Packaging: wait for the orders to come in; hurry up to package and deliver it! (reversed!)
Preparation: hurry up to grind it and get the hot water on it; wait for it to brew.

Caffeine doesn't exactly drive someone to the point of patience, but coffee can certainly benefit from it.

-j

*fancypants word for "French press"

Espresso, manning the ship

2011-09-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Someone once shared a twist on an old adage:

"Give a man an espresso and he'll be happy for a day.
Teach a man to make espresso and he'll be frustrated for a lifetime."

This isn't far from the truth. That being said, I love working with espresso. Lately, working with the complexity of our small-holder Tanzanian and the variance in our Peru crops has presented us with some really great learning material. I'm always looking for ways to amp up our espresso. As I see it, a blend needs to be better as sum of its parts than a single origin on its own, otherwise there's no reason to do it. There is a certain joy and madness found in testing these things in our lab and our own machines before we share it with our coffee loving friends.

We're keeping our espresso firmly on track... ensuring that it's versatile in a variety of machines, skill levels, and altitudes. It's also important that this tastes excellent as an espresso/americano... or a beverage made with milk.

Today we took two competing blends and put them side-by-side using the myPressi - a handheld espresso machine that extracts coffee using NO2 cartridges. It's a great method to benchmark blends along side one another... while remaining in our small lab. We found something new and exciting that I'm looking forward to sharing.

.... once I've had more time to play.

-j

Response to National Post article- "Fair-trade coffee fix"

2011-05-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Re: "Fair-trade coffee fix," Lawrence Solomon, National Post, May 14, 2011

Lawrence Solomon’s recent article generalizes the results of one study of coffee farmers in Nicaragua to Fair Trade producer groups worldwide. This assumption runs counter to the conclusions offered by the study’s own authors.

Despite this, Solomon raises important points to consider about Fair Trade certification. Fair Trade, as it is practiced today, embodies a number of complexities and contradictions.

Fair Trade coffee markets have gone through dramatic changes since I helped found Level Ground Trading, a Direct Fair Trade organization from Victoria, BC, in 1997. Large companies have quickly become major players in the business of Fair Trade.

Most of these companies buy coffee through brokers and have no direct relationship with the farmers that grow their products. Without meaningful dialogue or connection to producer groups, it is nearly impossible for these companies to confirm how much of the price they paid for green coffee beans gets back into the hands of farmers.

Trade that is empty of any relationship to producer groups, yet marketed as ‘Fair Trade’, warrants increased scrutiny from consumers. Fair Trade is meant to be a way of doing business: it is not a product, or a logo, or even a minimum price paid for that product. The study Solomon mentions examined whether purchasing coffee from Fair Trade certified coops in Nicaragua translated into improved living conditions for small-scale farmers. The authors emphasize this was not the case for that locality and period of time.

Fair Trade coffee certification under the current system does not adequately address the disbursement of payment to farmers. At Level Ground Trading, we have been trading directly with small-scale farming groups and have paid an average of 26% above the certified Fair Trade minimum prices over the past 14 years.

We have been striving for Fair Trade through direct relationships with producer groups, which allow us to engage in dialogue and visit regularly. Through these relationships we can analyze and divulge what percentage of payments get back to farming families and learn how we can further improve our partnership for the long-term.

Solomon also points to the perversity of having small-scale farmers pay for certification fees, which can be onerous and farming groups should be relieved of that burden. Level Ground Trading offers to pay these annual certification fees for the Fair Trade certified coops we work with, so that they may benefit from the Fair Trade label and sell to whom they wish.

At the end of the day, Fair Trade is meant to focus on equitable trading relationships based on dialogue, transparency and respect. We should welcome thoughtful questions about what really is fair for small-scale farmers and embrace the complexities of Fair Trade, while avoiding conclusions that polarize Fair Trade as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Stacey Toews, co-founder Level Ground Trading

Giving voice to Direct Fair Trade

2011-05-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Financial Post recently published an article critiquing Fair Trade. You can watch Level Ground co-founder Stacey Toews respond in the video below. You can find the original article here.

Celebrating World Fair Trade Day

2011-05-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

This World Fair Trade Day, we greeted morning commuters with a free cup of Direct Fair Trade coffee.

World Fair Trade Day 2011 was initiated by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) as an acknowledgement of those invested in Fair Trade and as a call for further commitment to trading fairly. The 2011 theme, “Trade for people – Fair Trade your world”, emphasizes the need to value the well-being of people and the environment through trade. With more than one third of the global population currently living in poverty, Fair Trade provides an opportunity for sustainable economic growth.

Yoko in Bolivia!

2011-05-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to visit the coffee farm of the Montaño family in Bolivia with my husband. Our trip to Bolivia began with the complication of an unexpected strike at the border between Peru and Bolivia, causing all the highways to be blocked. However, we were fortunate enough to have Daniela from Agricabv help us to rearrange the itinerary to make this visit possible. Despite our change in schedule, the Montaño family welcomed us with open arms and showed us around their farm, explaining all the steps involved in their coffee production. We learned about the challenges of bringing their coffee to Canada and how much effort it takes to maintain the quality of their product. During this visit we also had the opportunity to see the dryer that Level Ground
Trading purchased for them a few years ago, and it was nice to hear from them that this dryer has helped them to save many coffee beans that would otherwise have spoiled due to the frequent unexpected weather changes that affect the region.

Our trip to the coffee farm also turned out to be very adventurous. We took a very narrow road called The Death Road, which was once known as the most dangerous road in the world. It was hard to believe that this used to be the only way to transport coffee. Then, for the first time in my life, I ate a ripe coffee cherry at their farm. The sweetness of the coffee cherry was quite surprising. And of course the Montano family freshly prepared a delicious cup of coffee for us with their own beans. The first sip reminded me of the first time I drank Bolivian coffee in Canada, bringing everything together for me.

Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to Caranavi, where the coffee processing plant is located.
However, the time I spent with the Montano family was unforgettable. I would like to go back to Bolivia to visit them again, as well as the farms around the Caranavi region that I was unable to see this time.

I am very proud to be part of the Level Ground Trading family. During this trip I recognized how important it is to maintain our direct relationship with the producers and share their story with the customers so that everybody can feel the connection to the origin of the coffee and appreciate the hard work of the farmers. I hope that the relationship between the farmers and Level Ground Trading keeps growing stronger.

Mind-blowing Decaf?

2011-04-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, I get that every cup of coffee isn't going to blow my mind. Some of it will just be coffee. Some of it will be predictable. Some of it will need work and care to bring it to its full potential. It just can't all be mind-blowing.

However, coffee will always be intensely interesting to me and I doubt I'll ever lose the sense of wonder and joy that comes from discovering truly unique flavours "popping" out of a humble coffee bean.

Recently, I've been captivated by the most curious of all coffees... Decaf. How can something treated with such brutality taste so amazing? I'm being a little melodramatic, for sure, but there is a grain of truth. The decaffeination process subjects green coffee to water saturation, heat, and esters (naturally derived Ethyl Acetate) that strip away what the majority of coffee drinkers are after... and yet the quality of the coffee still comes shining through.

We have just approved another shipment of decaffeinated coffee coming from Colombia. When putting this coffee on the table, blindly, it is quite often the preferred cup! Put alongside other fully caffeinated coffees from various origins and roasts (ours and others), it once again stood out as having the most complexity and pleasurable taste. This doesn't always happen, but more times than diehard caffeinated coffee drinkers would like to believe (or admit to themselves). I get a certain impish joy from watching a staunch caffeine lover smack themselves in the forehead when they point out Decaf as the "keeper" on the table.

This is clearly a nod to our partners in Colombia (DESCAFECOL) who decaffeinates the coffee we source from Andes. Our commitment to long-term relationships and supporting the economies and peoples of the producing country is a point of pride for business and is reflected in the magic that I taste in the cup. The coffee remains versatile, consistent, and delicious.

Yes, Decaf can be mind-blowing.

-j

P.S. The Ethyl Acetate that is used in our water-process decaf is derived primarily from cane sugar. You can read more about EA here

Home-grown fertilizers

2011-04-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

On our most recent trip to Peru, we visited farmers and discovered with delight new farming techniques they are learning through the Co-op, CAC Pangoa.

In the words of one of our Level Ground travelers:

"Learning about organic fertilizers and farming practices was by far the most interesting and significant part of this trip for me. The relationships between the farmers, CAC Pangoa and ultimately Level Ground proved to really affect the farmers’ quality of life in a positive way. Using ingredients for fertilizers and compost right from the forest floor means that the farmer isn't spending money on chemicals that could be spent elsewhere, the land is not being depleted of nutrients that could ruin the soil for future crops and the farmers and their families are not living on land that is covered in harmful chemicals.

The enthusiasm and pride that literally erupted from this particular farmer, Victor Huaringa, was truly inspirational and left me leaving the farm feeling confident in being a part of Level Ground Trading.
Victor Huaringa and his family were happy and healthy and so were their coffee plants!"

~Chantelle Mussell, Marketing

African consistency

2011-03-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve obviously got Africa on the mind. I’ve been evaluating more inbound African shipments than any other these days. At the forefront is Tanzania, as we have a record number of containers coming from LIMA Ltd. in Mbeya. I am incredibly pleased with the work that’s been happening with respect to quality. Of particular note is the lack of insect damage coming through on our samples and end lots. This shows a high degree of commitment on the part of our African producer partners. It’s a clear indication that ripe, clean cherries are being selected by farmers, milling practices are working, and sorting methods are improving.

The incredible thing about this is not what I see with my eyes... but with I “see” with my tongue. The cup development over the years has been remarkable to witness. We’ve seen greater balance coming from small-holder lots and CUP (central pulpery/processing unit) coffee, resulting in a rock-solid set of amazing flavours. The grading and blending practices at origin have grown along with our expectations of predictable high quality cups.

Truly inspiring.

-j

New crops, new crops!

2011-03-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

This has been a busy couple of months for our little lab! We've had a record number of African shipment approvals come our way and it doesn't appear to be slowing down. The quality of the coffee that we're seeing come out of the origins right now is very encouraging for the year.

You, gentle coffee lover, can look forward to:

Tanzania: Surprising tangerine toned acidity with some amazing hazelnut accented central notes! The capability of this coffee to stand up to all roast spectrums is hugely encouraging. The dark roasted Tanzanian is rolling forth with more plush dark chocolate notes than I've tasted in a very long time, mix in the unique sweetness and robust acidity that comes from our requested blend of peaberry and the flavour does not disappoint! For those who enjoy this coffee in a medium roast, you'll be treated to some amazing "sparkle" that only comes from fresh crop Tanzanian.

Ethiopia: This year's shipments are coming through with some more bass notes and spice than we've experienced. You're still going to find the magic of blueberries in your medium roasts, but... we've found that strawberry and lemons are coming through with some delicious subtlety. Bergamot is very present in the medium roasts, but those interesting characteristics are transformed into caramels and even a toasted vanilla impression in a dark roast. Surprisingly, all of these flavours are mightily maintained while remaining awesomely smooth.

You'll appreciate these coffees. I believe it. What you can appreciate even more, however, is that the coffee quality in these regions continues to improve. This means that the orders will keep coming in... and the relationship stays strong. Strong relationships are long relationships.

What could be tastier than that?
-j

Level Ground Celebrates Women and Families!

2011-03-08T18:47:00.000-08:00

This International Womens' day we thought it fitting to share stories of how coffee purchases are raising awareness and cultivate empowerment in women.

In this video, captured on Level Ground's most recent trip to CAC Pangoa in Peru, Rianne van der Bom - our translator, and former worker of CAC Pangoa - shares a story of how the Women's Development Committee, which is supported by Level Ground's Fair Trade premiums, has brought a new voice to women of the coffee growing region.

In recent years, CAC Pangoa has learned that their initiatives to empower and support women are most successful when they honour and provide capacity building resources to the entire family. Rianne shares an account of CAC Pangoa's recent transition of the Women's' Development Committee to the Family Development Committee.

Check out the WFTO's Women for Fair Trade initiative to see how others are celebrating International Women's day and Fair Trade.

Saying "No"

2011-03-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

I did something this week that I really don't like doing... I rejected a sample for an incoming coffee.

There's a certain rush that comes from a new shipment from a new crop of coffee. Perhaps it's the overwhelming potential that each new coffee presents. Maybe it's that we are only really working with five origins, know them intimately, and I am thirsty for a new challenge (ahem... not that my job is at ALL boring). But, just like a kid at Christmas, a new sample comes in and I feel excited... anxious to unwrap it. In this case, however, the goal is to sort out the defects, test the humidity, roast it up and taste it with my friends here on the tasting team. It's one of the rare opportunities I have to connect on a very physical level with people on both sides of the coffee story. I feel like a type of translator.

So... when the coffee isn't telling me a love story, or an action adventure... I start to get a little worried. Please understand, I'm by no means pollyanna when it comes to how coffee works. The coffee road is fraught with trials and we weather these. But I can't help but feel a little heartbroken when a coffee fails to live up to its potential.

In this case, we had a coffee that came in with less than optimum results in the cup and a high instance of physical defects. Not a happy coffee at all. The cup experience was similar to sipping apple cider vinegar with a bit of chalk thrown in for good measure. Other, more interesting flavours came through, good sweetness, some great malty impressions and interesting tartness. You could see that the coffee had potential... huge potential... but the problems in the cup were too big. I won't, however, be the author of a tragedy. This is the point in the tale where the protagonist (the coffee) comes up against some conflict (a coffee guy who follows guidelines and a very picky set of taste buds). This was a rare opportunity for both story tellers to share dialogue.

When a coffee is rejected, there is a bit of a ripple effect that I am keenly aware of. A day's delay can translate into weeks if the logistics don't line up. If the coffee has to be re-sorted or blended, this can translate into a few days or a week added onto an already tight timeline. Depending on where the coffee is traveling from, this can cause everyone involved (from production to sales) to hold their breath. Just. A. Bit. We don't like to say "no", but sometimes we must. Rejecting a sample gives the producer a rare opportunity to truly assess what might be weak in their operation. It could serve as a great tool for dialogue or effective change within their own coffee community. It's easy to forget these things when we're faced with... saying "no".

Resolution: I did what I must do. I told the folks that sent me the coffee that there were problems, outlined what was falling short, and requested a second sample. They kindly obliged and... well... let's just say that this story has a happy ending. Our hero, the coffee, has persevered in the face of adversity. You'll get your fantastic cup of coffee.

Smiles all around.
-j

Updates from Bolivia

2011-02-24T14:33:00.000-08:00

In October of 2010 and February of 2011 we purchased two containers of Bolivian coffee from Agricabv. Yrma Montaño, Agricabv’s social worker.

Over the years, Agricabv has worked to increase the capacity of farmers and their families by providing training in agronomy, access to health care and educational scholarships for children of farmers.

This February, we received a report from Agricabv of how Level Ground’s Direct Fair Trade premiums ($8,025 USD) from purchasing our last two containers were spent.

Over a quarter of the premiums were used to fund Agricabv’s educational program (educational scholarships, uniforms etc), and another significant portion was used to fund the salary of Agricabv’s social worker, Yrma.

Being in Pangoa, Peru

2011-02-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

In January, a number of Level Grounders headed south to visit farmers in Peru. Our roaster, Alain, shares some of his experiences from the trip:

Visiting Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa, some of their members and farmers, seeing and experiencing their way of life was an adventure I will cherish and remember for years to come. Living and farming in the middle of the jungle is as much exotic and hard as it sounds. Those who welcomed us on their land, did so with open arms and took great pleasure in sharing their stories.

As you all know, organic is becoming part of everyday life for many consumers. I was pleased to discover that the organic certified farmers understood the health benefits of such a practice and believed in it as much as the consumers.

Most were truly passionate about it and although they went through a period (couple of years) of lower crop yield during the transition, none had any regrets and have noticed an improvement, not only in their on personnel health, but also in the health of their land. Everyone we met was striving to improve themselves, their techniques and to keep high standards that result in a good cup of coffee.

If you ever get the chance to visit such an area, take advantage of the food! There are oranges that won’t stop running, mango that melts in your mouth, coconut, cane sugar, fried fish, Cuy, Masato and so on and so on. Just stay away from the intestine soup.

Alain Angers, Roaster

The cost of coffee

2011-02-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

This February we increased our wholesale and retail coffee prices. As a result, you might be asking why?
Various factors are contributing to a price increase:

Green coffee, the commodity we buy directly from farmers in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Tanzania and Ethiopia is costing us 21% more for this current 2010-2011 harvest.

The supply of specialty high quality arabica coffee is being affected by poor weather conditions in producing countries. Floods in Colombia have seriously reduced the recent harvest.

Our current prices for green bean coffee are close to double the FLO/TransFair minimum price, which is set at $1.55 USD/lbs

We take advantage of volume shipping discounts and are able to pass on these savings with a price per package delivered to stores near and far. We will continue to deliver coffee to stores with a line-price including shipping.

You might also be wondering: “Are farmers receiving a higher price as a result of rising commodity prices?”

The answer is,“Definitely, yes for all Level Ground farmers”. On average, farmers are seeing a higher price for their coffee, but the downside is that the quantity of their harvest is lower. On every shipment we buy, we ensure farmers always receive at least 65% of the price we pay, in cash in their pockets. We can do this because our Direct Fair Trade model allows us to negotiate directly and monitor the activities of our trading partners in the countries of origin.

Letters of Intent

2011-01-20T14:02:00.000-08:00

Every year, we plan our green coffee purchases and send out Letters of Intent to each producer group. We like to sign Letters of Intent because it clearly outlines our comittment with each producer group and keeps us focused on fulfilling that commitment. For producer groups, Letters of Intent provide assurance of the amount of business to anticipate from Level Ground and the ability to plan ahead to fill containers and find customers for the remainder of their harvest. The Letter of Intent is a two way agreement with both Level Ground and the farmer coop/exporter's responsibilities and commitments outlined in writing.

Take a look at our sample Letter of Intent linked HERE. As we sign these agreements with producers, and the coffee and payments exchange hands, we'll upload the actual documents to our website so that you can watch it all unfold.

Chantelle's Update from Peru

2011-01-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Background: January 2011 - Chantelle (Creative Design & Multimedia Production), Nicholas (friend to LGT), Derek (Marketing) & Alain (Coffee Roasting) all teamed up for an adventure to Peru to visit the coffee farmers cooperative, CAC Pangoa. Here's an update sent from the road.

Hola!

Hey there! Thought I would drop the team a quick line to let you know how things are going. Pangoa was absolutely one of the greatest places I have ever had the privilege to see. Everyone from the Co-op, the farmers, Esperenza, Cesar our driver, Ana our hotel mama, Rianne our Spanish voice, EVERYONE is so warm and welcoming and funny. It has been a really wonderful experience.

We have eaten quite the array of Peruvian dishes–
including Cuy :( Also we ate chicken liver and chicken heart and some intestine soup which was really terrible. We ate everything put in front of us with big, goofy Canadian smiles. It has been really fun and our little mini Level Ground team have worked really well together. Good dynamic yeah.

What has made this trip so incredible for all of us is experiencing the producer relationships firsthand. Actually being here and meeting all of these great people and seeing their farms and all the hard work they put into this relationship with Level Ground is amazing. The fact that these are working/trading relationships that have nothing to do with charity or hand outs becomes clear in a way that is hard to attain from our side of the chain in Canada. There is this great sense of pride that you feel from the farmers and their families when they are showing you around and feeding you fruit right from the trees. Most people stressed that since joining the Co-op they were able to produce higher quality crops by farming organically in more sustainable ways that do not destroy the soil for future use. Many farmers were very humble, quick to stress the fact that they don't posses much more than primary school education, yet they were extremely excited to learn anything they can. Many of these procedures for making organic fertilizers using composting and other methods seemed incredibly complex to us, and yet these farmers have managed to master them. It was funny because they would often assume that we understood exactly what they were doing and knew even more about the science behind it than they did when in fact we often felt that we were the ones being informed.

Across the board farmers truly seemed to appreciate not having to use chemicals that they know will make their families sick. That part we found SO interesting. Several farmers were incredibly passionate about this knowledge, and had become strong voices against the use of commercial fertilizers with other farmers in the area - to paraphrase one farmer in particular, I didn't know that there was life in my own soil, that there was nitrogen and minerals (etc etc) that I could get from the rocks and dirt and plants on my own farm. We really did not know what to expect when we asked them if they actually cared whether or not their practices were organic or if they were just trying to feed their families, but now we can say with confidence that it makes as much a difference to the farmers as it does to the consumers.

Organic really is about them.

Thank you so much for this opportunity. Travel is always a wonderful experience but when it can be coupled with something as meaningful and enriching as this it helps give meaning to life and work and transforms a vacation into a truly life changing experience. This trip has solidified our resolve and belief in these kinds of endeavors and removed the barriers of cynicism that too often cause well meaning people to lose interest. LGT is SO legit ;)

-Chantelle & Nicholas

Decaf arrives in Vancouver

2011-01-18T14:01:00.001-08:00

On January 18th, 2011 our container of Colombian decaf coffee arrived in Vancouver. The total purchase was for 275 sacs (over 42,000 lbs) of green coffee.

For this coffee, we paid $3.00 USD/lb green bean coffee. This price included a Direct Fair Trade Premium of $0.10 USD/lb, which is to be invested in the farmers' community through Famicafe

View our purchase order and invoice for this container.

Ethiopian coffee has arrived

2011-01-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

On January 18th, 2011 our container of Ethiopian coffee arrived in Vancouver. The total purchase was for 300 sacs (over 37,000 lbs) of green coffee.

For this coffee, we paid $2.37 USD/lb of green bean coffee. This price included a Direct Fair Trade Premium of $0.10 USD/lb of green beans, which is provided to Farmers and administered by SCFCU, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

View our purchase order and invoice for this container HERE.

The story of Fruandes

2011-01-11T18:43:00.000-08:00

"What began as a desire to address the hard-hit coffee community transformed into a dual mission to protect the marginalized women struggling to survive in Cazuca"

In 2002, we sought to respond to the commodity crash that saw the market value of coffee beans reduced to nearly nothing. Our original intent was to support small-scale rural farmers - if famers were going to survive, they needed to diversify. Fruit, a natural by-product of Colombia’s rich tropical climate, was coffee’s most practical partner. Small-scale coffee farming at high altitudes in rich soil lands like the Andes offered natural shade through high-growing fruit trees. Out of this recognition, Fruandes dried fruit was born.

Giovanni Porras, the director of Fruandes, rented a small space in a low income area, and, by 2002, installed a dehydrator that provided work for six marginalized women struggling to survive in the Cazuca refugee community. Today, there are up to 45 women employed by Fruandes during peak fruit processing periods and we receive around 4 containers of their dried fruit and sugar a year.

Fruandes provides its workers with a sustainable wage, vocational training, health care, and education for their children. Three of the original members of Fruandes remain with the organization and have received microcredit loans that allowed for the down payment on a home outside the refugee life of Cazuca. These transactions exemplify one of Fruandes’ key objectives: to provide a way out for the women of Cazuca. These women now enjoy a modest, safe life outside the confines of poverty and despair and are able to offer their children a better future. As the company grows, more women are hired, and so the cycle continues.

New purchase - Colombian coffee

2011-01-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

On January 6, 2011 our 74th container of Colombian coffee arrived in Vancouver. The total purchase was for 260 sacs (over 43,000 lbs) of green coffee.

For this coffee, we paid $2.73 USD/lb of green bean coffee. This price included two Direct Fair Trade premiums

1. $0.10 USD/lb premium to be distributed to farmers as a dividend

2. $0.25 USD/lb premium to be invested in the farmers' community through Famicafe

View our purchase order and invoice for this container HERE

Colombian continues to impress

2010-12-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

The new harvest samples keep coming in! Our friends in the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta have just treated us to another sample of amazing coffee. The coffee from this northern region of Colombia has such an interesting character. I'm truly excited for the opportunity to work with this amazing crop when it arrives.

The cup presented some very interesting fragrances with chocolate, cocoa, subtle honeysuckle-like floral notes in the aroma of the dry grounds. In the cup, lime-toned entry with a slight savoury quality, tart, plum-like central impression with distinct cocoa in the finish and slight impressions of hazelnuts lingering. In the darker profiles, a sweetness develops with this coffee that is rich and full while maintaining its clean acidity. Read the fullcupping report for this coffee.

I certainly hope that you'll enjoy this coffee in your home as much as I have in the roastery!

-j

P.S. Our current Colombian, which is from Cauca, is equally incredible! The full-on cocoa flavours in the medium and dark profiles are inspiring... while the light profile remains deliciously luscious and clean! We've hit the jackpot in Colombia and I'm not afraid to share it.

Famicafe Update

2010-12-27T11:30:00.000-08:00

Through the purchase of our Colombian coffee, Direct Fair Trade premiums are invested in Famicafe - a non-profit providing scholarships for students of Colombian coffee farming families.

At the end of 2010, we had the joy of receiving an update from the Famicafe Director, Julian Toro. He reports that in 2010, forty-five students, including seven university students, were the recipients of Famicafe scholarships.

From our purchases of Colombian coffee in 2010 ( Col-74& Dec-16 ), over $8,000 USD in premiums were transferred to Famicafe.

Incoming Peru rocks my world

2010-12-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

I've just come from a cupping for our an upcoming shipment of coffee from Peru and, folks, I am excited.

Full, luscious lemon acidity (Meyer-type sweetness), central malty notes, soft milk chocolate and a very clean finish. The sample was unsorted (which means that I kept their shipment sample as-is... no picking out the questionable beans). Above all, this is probably the most encouraging indication. The biodiversity and varietal spread that they're using in Pangoa (the region of Peru we're buying from) has proven to be effective in fighting off the boring beetle that plagues coffee growers. A lower instance of insect damage means that the coffee bean's integrity is preserved. For you this means an amazing coffee throughout the lifespan of the green bean.

If you haven't tried it, I recommend it. Totally. Awesome.

-j

Direct can mean Delicious!

2010-12-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

It has been an interesting fall season. We have been incredibly busy around here, especially when it comes to putting coffee in the roasters, packaging, and boxes for our favourite people (that's you).

This is also the beginning of the new harvest offerings for the two African coffees that we bring in. It has been very interesting to witness the growth in the amount of quality coffee from Mbeya, our friends in Tanzania. In the last three years, the quality of the coffee that we receive from these producers has improved every year! This year is no exception. In 2010, we were very happy to use the 2009/2010 crop in our espresso blend. This season's crop certainly has not disappointed me in the slightest. It maintains all of the incredible complexity of the previous harvest with some new crispness and cleanliness that actually makes me feel a bit giddy! From a technical standpoint, it's scoring higher. From a taste standpoint, it's much higher in awesome.
Short summary: It will continue to be used in our espresso. It will continue to be awesome. I will continue to tell you (and the rest of the world) how much I love it.

If you haven't done so, I strongly suggest you pick up some of our Tanzania coffee. If you have an espresso delivery method... get our espresso and feed the part of you that loves great tasting relationship based coffee.

-j

Golden Berries

2010-12-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

In October, we headed down to Colombia to visit with the farmers growing one of our most delightful dried fruits - the Golden Berry.

A ripe golden berry

Close to the border of Ecuador, near a town called Ipiales, golden berries are grown on small scale organic plots. It is here in Ipiales that Fruandes - our trading partner - is interested in establishing a drying facility. This is exciting news! The road from Ipiales to Bogota is long and bumpy, and transporting fresh golden berries often damages the fruit: around 15% of the fruit is damaged upon arrival. To avoid damage, fruit has historically been sent not fully ripe, decreasing flavor and taste. A fruit dehydrator in Ipiales will contribute to a more delicious product with less wasted fruit.

In addition, it is Fruandes hope that a solar dryer can be purchased, which will reflect their commitment to reducing emissions and consumption of fossil fuels.

Actual Payment to Farmers

2010-12-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

Over the last twelve years, Hugo Ciro (president of Level Ground Trading) has visited producer regions to meet with farmers, cooperatives, and exporters. On these journeys, he has sought to calculate Actual Payment to Farmers—a cost distribution for every pound of green coffee beans purchased and shipped to Level Ground Trading.

By calculating the actual payment to farmers on each shipment, we ensure that farmers receive a fair and sustainable share of the total price we pay for green beans.

Level Ground is committed to ensuring farmers receive 65% of the price we pay per pound of green beans. We receive a transparency report from each of our trading partners to verify this. This is what we call, Direct Fair Trade.

Knowing the actual payment to farmers allows us to ensure that justice is inherent in every trade transaction. We import coffee directly and in 2009 we paid farmers on average 27% above the FLO certified minimum price.

Above is an example from our some of our 2008/2009 Colombian purchases. It outlines the price paid to the co-op, the Fair Trade premium - given to farmers in the form of a dividend, or second payment - the second Fair Trade premium - given to Famicafe - in addition to the percentage of the total price paid to farmers.

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta

2010-11-25T18:20:00.000-08:00

In October, Hugo (our CEO) travelled alongside Doug and Joanne Dirks of Ten Thousand Villages to Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia to visit with farmers and our trade partners la Red Ecolsierra .

Farmers of la Red Ecolsierra hold a strong commitment to farm coffee sustainably. They are organic certified and conscientious of planting a variety of trees for shade growing; often it is hard to see coffee plots from the road because the landscape is still, thankfully, verdant with forest cover.

In just a couple days our second shipment of coffee from this region will be on its way to the port of Vancouver, and then not long after it will make its way to our loading bay.

Click HERE to learn more about this wonderful coffee.

Bolivia coffee purchase

2010-11-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

On November 17th, 2010 our 16th container of Bolivian Coffee arrived in Vancouver. We bought this container from our longstanding trading partners, Agricabv. The total purchase was for 260 sacs (over 40,000 lbs) of green coffee.

For this coffee, we paid $2.70 USD/lb of green bean coffee. This price included a $0.10 USD/lb Direct Fair Trade premium to be invested in the farmers' social project (proyecto social)

Producer Profile

2010-10-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

Joaquin and his family farm organic coffee and many other food crops in Marinca, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. They are very entrepreneurial--a natural, prestine waterfall on the edge of their property is a tourist destination in the area. Joaquin charges a dollar entrance which includes a swim and access to a proper bathroom and his wife sells drinks and “sancocho” a hearty yuca, potatoe and beef soup.

Their coffee is sold to you as our Colombian.

Road to Minca

2010-10-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

Farmers in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta use this one and only road from Minca and communities beyond to bring their coffee down to market. We cleared the road at one landslide, but later on had to leave the vehicle behind and walk the rest of the way to visit farmers.

Coffee farming is not for weaklings. These farmers do not receive subsidies like North American counterparts.

Interested in buying coffee from farmers in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta? It is sold to you as our Colombian.

Luz Amparo, Famicafe Student

2010-09-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

Luz Amparo, Famicafé student graduated with a degree in Social Work from the University of Quindio in Armenia, Colombia on September 24, 2010.

See some pictures of Luz Amparo since we’ve known her as part of the Famicafé student family.

Famicafé is a Colombian non-profit organization dedicated to investing in education, organic and sustainable coffee farming and capacity building. Famicafé is funded by Direct Fair Trade premiums paid by Level Ground Trading for green coffee imported from Colombia.

See her graduation on YouTube!

Cupper at the ready!

2010-09-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

I recently had the awesome opportunity to participate in the prestigious Canadian Cup Taster's Challenge, a multiple choice styled coffee guessing game. The concept is pretty basic: Three contestants go head to head, eight sets of three cups of coffee are set before each contestant. Contestants have eight minutes to taste all sets of cups on the table and distinguish which of the three cups is different. It's like Sesame Street for coffee (one of these things doesn't belong here).

In the end of the semi-finals, I found myself displacing some very qualified tasters and mixed in with the first and second place winners from last year. In the end, I came out a very solid third overall with Barrett Jones of 49th Parallel Roasters (in Vancouver) and Geoff Polci of Créma Coffee Co. (in Toronto) placing first and second respectively.

It was a fantastic opportunity to meet other awesome tasters in the industry and challenge myself. I had a wonderful time and am grateful for the opportunity!

-j

Ornithologist José Castaño

2010-09-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

In many parts of the tropics, birds and coffee trees have a symbiotic relationship. Arábica coffee grows best in high elevations--between 1,200 and 2,000 feet above sea level-- and grows best under a canopy of shade trees. These trees provide a habitat for indigenous and migratory birds.

José Castaño is one of Colombia’s most committed ornithologists. José also happens to be a coffee farmer. Level Ground Trading is working with José to identify a coffee farming corridor where Canadian migratory birds, along with other native species, benefit from sustainable coffee farming. Small-scale coffee farmers and their families receive premium prices for their harvest, education and other social benefits through their coffee cooperative in an effort to encourage conservation. Level Ground’s Direct Fair Trade makes this possible.

Question from a customer

2010-09-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

Hi Josh - I'm a loyal Level Ground customer, and get my coffee from 10,000 Villages in Lethbridge, AB. We enjoyed having Stacey come out and teach us a bit about fair trade earlier this year. Keep up the good work at Level Ground!

I'm wondering if you can answer a question about coffee. My mom was just recently in Peru on a holiday and brought me back some coffee (ground - they roasted it, but I think she ground it) from a market there. It does not look very dark at all - equivalent to a medium grind - but it makes really strong and excellently flavored espresso. I'm wondering if you can explain to me why this coffee - which is ground coarser and looks lighter than my Level Ground Espresso beans - makes stronger espresso. Is it a different variety of bean? Thanks for your help.

Kerby

Hi Kerby,

When you're making the espresso, what is the method? Is this a stove-top espresso or a machine?

There are some reasons that come to mind with what you've described.

Roast: A lighter roast will almost always make a better performing espresso than a darker roast. Depending on the age, of course, lighter coffee has fewer of the coffee oils and volatiles driven out from the roasting process. It also ages more slowly than a darker roast because the cellular structure of the bean has had less stress due to roasting. This being said, there are times when roasting a bean a bit darker can add better characteristics into an espresso. This is where the age of the coffee plays an important role. A properly aged medium to darker roast can make a fantastic espresso. As always, I strongly recommend that espresso be ground on-demand.

Ten Thousand Villages receives our Peru in a 'dark' roasted profile. This being said, our dark roasted Peru, is not what others might consider dark, it's what we at Level Ground consider a "dark tasting" profile. By many standards, our dark roast would be considered a medium.

Varietal: All of the coffee that Level Ground imports is high grown, fully washed arabica. The varietals in our coffee from Peru are quite variable... in fact, they present one of the most varied cups in terms of arabica varietals. If the coffee that you received was from one farm with a narrow varietal focus as many farms do, you may have a different varietal spread that we're receiving... which is blended at the milling station. Many farmers mill and process their own. If the coffee was also roast and ground before packaging, this is another indication of small-scale post production. It makes me think that this may be a single or double varietal.

Grind: This really affects extraction time. Smaller particles have greater exposure to water, thus giving a heavier extraction. Larger particles (coarser grind) will give a slower extraction and, in some cases, a smoother extraction.

These are the "shoot from the hip" assessments that I can make without seeing or tasting the coffee. It's always intriguing when buying coffee at origin because so often what they sell in coffee producing countries varies from what receive in the coffee consuming countries. They often don't consume what they ship out... and what they sell to visitors is often in between what they export and what they consume. Coffee has many grading systems based on altitude, varietal, processing method, and (ultimately) cup performance.

I hope this answers your question, Kerby my friend. Thanks for this! Extra thanks for continuing to buy our coffee through Ten Thousand Villages. It's very nice to know that it's being enjoyed.

Warm regards,
-j

Amazing New Peru

2010-08-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Helloooo Peru!

I love it when the fresh crops of green coffee come in. There is something inherently exciting when you get a shipment from an origin that you've seen samples of, cupped, approved, watched the shipping reports, counted the weeks at sea, tracked the unloading, requested the sample to confirm quality, then you finally... FINALLY get your first roast into the big roasters. I seriously feel like kid at Christmas, unwrapping that shiny present first thing in the morning. Positively brimming with hope, expectation, and excitement. Certainly a highlight of the job and a nice pay-off for the patience and time invested in assuring quality.

The several steps in the Quality Control chain are designed to ensure and reassure that what you're buying is what you're getting. Because we're as passionate about great relationships as we are about great coffee, we are treated very well by our friends in coffee producing regions. At Level Ground Trading, we enjoy some of the highest scoring specialty coffee available from the areas we trade with.

At times the shipping process can be a little challenging. This time around, thankfully, customs officials were kind to this coffee (that's another blog post altogether). For a company like Level Ground Trading who does their own shipping and logistics, there are few things that make us sweat like seeing the word "DELAYED" anywhere on a logistics report or shipping manifest. One container can make or break our supply to customers, so we're chewing our nails until our sweet baby lands in our loving warehouse. We had no such hiccups with this shipment.

This most recent crop of coffee from Peru has been exceptional.... throughout the entire process. Our tasting today was sensational. The coffee played magically, developing superbly across the roasting spectrum. Here's my take on Peru's recent cups.

Medium: Gently sweet entry, very supple citrus note reminiscent of a Meyer lemon or juicy lime, rich cocoa hinted central flavour, with a crisply clean finish. In the nose when wet, I found some spiciness, citrus again... this time more authoratative lemon zest. The cups cooled very well with this fresh crop, keeping more cocoa impressions throughout. Very very encouraging. We have been known to use Peru in our Espresso blend, so the magic in this fresh crop will transfer over wonderfully to those intrepid coffee drinkers who love espresso beverages. I can see that this will work into an espresso (for us purists) or for an americano (for those of us who like to draw out the joy).

Dark: Tremendous cocoa aromatics, sweetness, with light caramel. Smooth, dark chocolate entry carried through to broad centre notes (my mouth says its a 55% dark chocolate), some hazelnut sweetness along with some deep cocoa impressions pushing into baker's chocolate without any lingering bitterness. The body in this coffee was surprisingly pronounced and, even with a week's aging, it was very active and quite playful on the palate. A total shocker with hazelnut in the cup. Lovely, lovely, lovely! If you want to find this one, you're going to have to buy this one from a Ten Thousand Villages store as our Level Ground Trading 300g is only sold in the lively-lovely medium... not this taste-traveling dark.

Oh, the choices in life.

The bottom line here is this: The magically diverse coffee from Pangoa, Peru has survived the growing, harvesting, processing, storing, shipping gauntlet once again. You are now free to sample what this gorgeous Direct Fair Trade single origin coffee has to offer. The crop and varietal diversity coming from this region continues to deliver consistent cups and constantly impress us with its versatility and longevity. I, personally and professionally, adore this coffee and I am quite certain that you will too. Prepare it with a french press, drip filter, espresso machine (if you're curious), or however you darn well please. If you like it, smile. If you love it, tell someone. Heck, tell me if you like, because you'll be speaking to a friend.

-j

Transitional purchase

2010-07-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while we find ourselves having miscalculated the amount of coffee supply needed to fill orders. In these circumstances, we look to our producer partners to see if they have any coffee they can ship us - and quickly! But it is not always the case that they have coffee available for us to buy.

As was the situation this fall, Tanzania coffee supply was low and our producer partners- Lima Ltd and farmers of the HOPE project - had sold all their coffee from last harvest. We needed to look for other options - for a stop-gap purchase that would allow us to continue supply to consumers and align with our Direct Fair Trade approach.

We found ourselves a delightful coffee from the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. It is both Organic and Fair Trade Certified and was purchased from the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union. We bought it through OPTCO, a broker out of Vancouver, and paid $2.90 USD/lb of green bean. It was purchased from the producer group at $2.45 USD/lb FOB. Given the price paid, and that it is an Organic and Fair Trade Certified coffee, we feel confident that these farmers received a good price.

View our invoice here.

Organic Colombia

2010-07-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

Organic Colombia?

It's long been a question: "Why is your coffee from Colombia not organic?" In the San Miguel region where we've been purchasing our coffee for 13 years, this is a complicated issue. It's a complicated issue for Colombia in general. We've worked closely with producers, agronomists, agronomy students with an organic transition project in the past and many customers, unbeknownst to them, have actually enjoyed some of this organically growncoffee from Colombia. As the project was isolated, it was only the portion of a shipment that could be categorized or be eligible for an organic label... so it was simply blended in with the rest of the coffee that we receive from this region. There is a very large commitment to sustainable farming in this region, although challenges still exist.

Flash forward to now... today, in fact. We are trial roasting an organic certified Colombian coffee from the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta, a region that we've just returned from in May (our second visit). During my time there, we met with producers, agronomists, toured the milling station and port as well as spent some time in the amazing mountains of the region. The farmers fit with us, we fit with them, everyone is very excited about what's happening.

The coffee: Over the past year, we've probed, tested, tasted, approved, visited, tested and tasted coffee from this region extensively. Through all of this, we wanted to ensure that not only was the relationship solid, but the coffee had to meet our quality expectations. "Impressive" is a word that I would not hesitate using when describing the cup quality that we've experienced. As a result, we've recently received our first full shipment and have been thoroughly impressed with the way it's performing.

I'm so enamoured with it, actually, that I'm quite seriously considering using it in... (drum roll please)... espresso! The sweetness presented in this cup was so amazing that I couldn't help but play with it. We've nailed down a great tasting flavour profile, full of exciting milk chocolate toned centre notes and tingling brightness... it's so lusciously satiating that I practically have to hold back from eating fistfuls of it for a snack. Okay... that's a little far, perhaps, but I want you to understand how much I love what this coffee is doing for us.

For the first while, this organic Colombia will find it's way into the normal roasting pattern and will be packaged, in many cases, under our current non-certified Colombia label. We can't indicate when because we can guarantee that it will always be available. Rest assured that this is just the beginning of the fun. Level Ground is committed to quality. Quality relationships mean quality coffee. Quality coffee means that I continue to have one of the coolest jobs ever.... which, hopefully, means that you continue to enjoy some of the best coffee you've ever had.

Who knows... you might just taste some of this amazing coffee from the Sierra Nevadas de Santa Marta in your next shot of Level Ground Espresso... or your Dark Colombia? For now, I'll just have to tease you with information.

-j

Bolivia Believer

2010-07-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, I'm totally excited about something and I really want everyone to know this: our current lot of coffee from Bolivia... totally... rocks. I seriously love the way it's tasting and performing. Yes, love.

For those that speak to me about our origins, it's no surprise that I'm passionate about all of them for their own reasons.. but none intrigue me in the same way that our coffee from Bolivia does.

Note: As the topic of what 'makes' an origin is so expansive, I'm just sticking to 'the cup' for this bit of writing. In terms of geography, our Bolivian coffee comes from the region surrounding La Paz. Geographical influences are another topic.

Taste
In general, our Bolivian coffee presents with some pretty amazing characteristics.

Acidity: Because of the geographical conditions and drying time, the acidity in our Bolivian is muted.

Body: A muted acidity allows greater perception of body. Our roasting technique allows more of the natural oils found in all coffees to remain... this benefits Bolivian coffee greatly.

Flavour: The first word that comes to mind with coffee from Bolivia is "smooth". It is not what I would consider a "bold" coffee. When darkly roasted, it gets a bit of an edge presented, but it still remains cool and collected despite the heavy-handed treatment a dark roast can bring.

If lightly roasted, orange citrus notes and rose-like floral notes are sensed in the nose with a general tangerine sensation in the cup. Lightly developed roasts typically present with more acidity in the cup. Bolivia's light roasted acidity shares this spotlight with body very well. The tangy light notes are good friends with the inherent smooth behaviour of the cup. This is the area that works particularly well for espresso extraction, but not necessarily developed enough for the every-day cup.

When roasted to a medium, the acidity becomes a gentle "bright" impression on the central sides of the tongue and allows some very creamy cup body characteristics to unfold. I find a gentle milk chocolate impression at this point as well as some pleasant nut-like qualities. This roast will work in an espresso, though my preference is to keep it lighter than this. A medium Bolivia is really made for a filter, drip, or press pot. Paper filters will give you more citrus with a clean aftertaste and sturdy balance; wire filters (french press) will give you more creaminess and chocolate... while still playing up a bit of citrus.

When taken to a darker roast level, this citrus-like brightness leaves the scene almost completely and allows the full impression of our roasting technique to come through, with some sweetness... but only enough to tingle. This allows the other characteristics of a dark roast to evolve into full blown dark chocolate with a creamy, buttery sensation in wire filter methods. I have had an espresso with a dark roast and I have to say that I was impressed with its richness! There was definitely a dark edge to it... with some downright authoritative baker's chocolate bitterness, but it was still undeniably Bolivia: smooth, friendly, amicable... comforting.

Versatility
The structure of this bean is such that it gives us tremendous flexibility with respect to roast development and flavour enhancement through good ol' experimentation. This coffee performs like an absolute hero in all arenas and I can confidently say it's our most versatile coffee. It's a champion on its own or is a loving companion in any blend.

This coffee is exceptionally smooth and rich across all extraction methods. It is amazingly balanced in filtered methods, particularly a medium roast, with decisive citrus notes and some smooth cocoa and nut-like impressions. Bolivia is also fantastically creamy as a single origin espresso, with its precious body and voluminous crema, it's enough to bring the smooth espresso lover to their knees.

Love. Yes, love
I simply can't give enough positive energy to this origin. The work that's happening in the communities and at the co-operative come through loud and clear in this cup. I taste amazing things happening in Bolivia and I am proud to call this a Level Ground offering. When you decide to have some of your own, drink deep, take your time.

-j

Deyanith

2010-06-22T18:11:00.000-07:00

Deyanith is a Famicafe university student. She comes from a coffee farming family on the mountains near Andes, Colombia. Her field of study is geriatric care. She requested an additional loan from Julian, the director of Famicafe, our education foundation in Colombia. Below, Julian’s reply translated from Spanish by Tracey Ciro:

Hello!

Of course we would be honoured to support you in this last stage of your schooling. Thank goodness we have the means to do so. We are especially pleased to support someone like you. You were in a difficult situation, you easily could’ve chosen a very different path. What a privilege to look back on how far you have come! I remember you fighting with Nidia, your mother, and even me, when you were an angry teenager ready to take on the world because you “were already grown up”. And now, here you are, you stuck it out with your schooling, even when you saw many of your friends “enjoying life” while you worked hard (without much money) to complete your studies. You have finished the first stage of your training. (Remember though good professionals are never finished learning.)

We thank God for placing young people like you in our path who want to reach their goals. Your ambition inspires us to reach out in service to our brothers and sisters, especially to the elderly poor who are vulnerable members of our society.

Again, Congratulations! We wish you many future successes!

With admiration,

Julian

Tasting Openly

2010-06-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

It seemed only right that my first post on this blog be something philosophical. I will expound technically as time goes on, take you into the roasting room or cupping lab, take you to origin with my recent experiences, but beneath it all is philosophy.

It's no great secret that I love coffee. It's even less of a secret that I love food. Taste is at the heart of both of these passions. When I choose to partake of either, I work to experience them with an open mind and open heart... allowing each to guide me along the sensory path of taste. By its very nature, coffee is a sensual, physical product - from seed to cup. We can scientifically control or affect certain variables, but in the end, preparation and science bow to the bean and tongue. If the coffee is "good" and the drinker believe it to be "good" the job is complete. If nature wobbles her hand even slightly in that end phase with something "different" in the bean, water, or taster... science loses.

Taste is subjective. How and what we taste in anything (I'll focus on coffee) is directly influenced by a host of variables. Science tells us obvious things like: what you ate previously, e.g. spicy, salty, fatty foods; what you consume otherwise, e.g. alcohol or tobacco; whether or not you can taste, i.e. super, regular, or non-taster. Some things we can control, others we can't. However, the largest obstacle is not scientific... it's preconceived notion. Science fails, yet again, to something "natural" - our minds.

When I approach a cup, new or old, I clear my mind. I let everything else in the surrounding atmosphere fall away, focusing my attention to what's presented. I smell. Smelling, for me, is done by inhaling gently and softly with my mouth slightly open - so that I might taste the aromas. My eyes are closed and I let the fragrance paint a picture, an impression, of what the coffee would like to become. As I taste, be it from a spoon or cup, I pull the first taste into my mouth rapidly and allow the entire brew to wash over my tongue.* I'll exhale slightly as I taste, letting the full flavour of the beverage breathe through my mouth. It's a unique synergy that we're exposed to with every bite of everything we eat that is, quite sadly, overlooked as we gobble through our daily bread. Is it sweet? Is it savoury? Is it tart? What shape does it make in my mind? Can I pair it with a food or colour? Is it friendly as it exits? Did I like this? 'll repeat this step a couple of times while I build an impression. *Note: Years ago I began making "tongue diagrams" of how tastes affected my mouth. This has been incredibly helpful both professionally and personally, noting where anything hits my tongue... be it strawberries, honey, or a medium roasted Ethiopian coffee.

That's all pretty verbose, but here's my challenge. I want you, the reader and person living, to taste openly. Allow each flavour you experience to exist on its own without a preconception muddying your unique experience. Take the time to wholly consider what you put into your mouth and let your senses guide you. Push the boundaries of your own likes and dislikes, exploring the "why" behind them. You may find common threads among seemingly unrelated items. You may find that you discover something beautiful in a food you've left alone. You may even find that your life is fuller and more complete. Okay, that might be a bit much, but I have found that tasting everything has become less of a profession and more of a life practice. The more of the world that I experience through my nose and mouth, the larger the catalogue of memories I have to bring to my favourite past time: coffee.

After all, coffee is arguably the most complex beverage we consume; yet it is so often taken for granted.

-j

Organic is about them

2010-01-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

Our producer partners are our environmental role models. Their intimate connection with the land they work results in a deep understanding of the health of our planet and the true cost of business as usual. Supporting them with tools to continue nurturing their environment and livelihood is at the forefront of our environmental consciousness.

Premiums paid for organic coffees help pay for organic certification and deployment of agronomists who are fluent in organic farming practices, into the farming communities.

Tanzania

2009-11-29T17:14:00.000-08:00

Travel to Tanzania with us in this great video we put together of one of our more recent trips. Interested in buying coffee from Tanzania? Check out our store.

Jaime Vargas, Producer & Innovator

2009-11-25T14:56:00.000-08:00

When we think of sustainable, we think of Jaime Vargas—a dedicated organic farmer who is determined to close all the loops on his farm. His latest addition is a bio-digestor that converts his compost and manure into usable cooking fuel. In September of 2007, four Level Ground employees, agronomist Juan Valez, former Famicafe student Liliana Franco, Famicafe director Julian Toro, and coffee farmer Jaime Marin toured the Andes mountainside to visit Jaime Vargas on his farm in Andes, Colombia.

Ethiopia bound!

2008-09-25T03:00:00.000-07:00

On our 2008 trip we travelled to Ethiopia to conduct a baseline analysis of what life was like for coffee producers, how the co-operative was running, and what areas could benefit from improvement.

For a snippet of our trip to Ethiopia watch our video:

Fruandes goes organic!

2007-11-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

In 2007, Fruandes, our processor of Frutos de los Andes, and Panela de los Andes, acquired organic certification for their processing plant. Organic certification will allow them to assist producers in obtaining organic certification.

Updates from Bolivia

2007-09-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Updates from Bolivia

Arriving at the Montaño’s homestead in September we were welcomed in the classic Aymara way: dance, song, gifts and gratitude. But the Montaño’s are far from classic, they are progressive and entrepreneurial and they are determined to better their coffee quality.

The Montaño’s run a local coffee washing station, and are a central hub for 15 coffee growing families in the region. During our visit in late September, Yrma, a social worker working in partnership with Level Ground Trading, shared with us her vision to purchase a coffee dryer for the Montaños.

It was not long before CEO Hugo Ciro agreed to purchase a micro lot from the Montaño family to help support the purchase of a coffee dryer.

After returning from our visit Yrma sends news on behalf of the Montaño family; she writes “Thank you for the opportunity to solve our quality and quantity coffee bottleneck through the advance payment of the Montaño family micro-lot. The coffee dryer purchased will be used by the community to improve coffee quality.”

Yrma also sends updates on behalf of students from the coffee growing region, whose scholarships are funded by Fair Trade premiums. She writes:

“Two scholarship students have graduated as agonomists: Zulma is caring for her baby and hopes to be productive in the field of agronomy which she studied: Diego went to the army as required for young men. Yhonny will graduate this year as a mechanic, and four more students will graduate in the following years. A new batch of 32 students have been selected for scholarships: 10 in post-secondary and 22 elementary and high school. These children of coffee farmers are all good students in their rural schools. There was a dental health campaign which benefited 2,014 children.”