As most of you know, Doma Coffee Company is a member of Cooperative Coffees, a North American coffee buying group that focuses on fairly traded coffees, organic and direct relationships with the farmers. By direct I mean that each member of the Coop is required to go to origin at least once a year and work with our growers on different levels. Sometimes we spend the whole time cupping coffees, other times we’ll focus on roasting and if we’re really lucky we’ll spend a lot of time at the farms participating in what they do best – which is growing great coffee. Drinking beer and sharing a great meal at the end of the day is just a bonus.

More recently the Coop has been working on a SCAA certified cupping lab. As VP of the board of directors, I would like to take the credit for putting this together. I can’t. Thanks to the hard work of Monika, all members of the Coop and more importantly all customers will benefit. I’ve listed our certificate below and we’ll be posting more information a bit later.

The Coopérative de Solidarité du Café Équitable (CoopSol), in partnership with Cooperative

Coffees and Coffee Lab International, is proud to announce its recent certification of the Labo Equitable Montreal as Canada’s first SCAA accredited training laboratory for cupping and quality control.“Under the careful tutelage of Mane Alves, Master Roaster and renowned Quality Control/ Cupping Trainer, we have been able to develop a space that is unique in Canada – bridging the concepts of equitable trade and the professional skills of quality control and high-level cupping,” says CoopSol Manager Monika Firl.  “Making this experience available to the broadest possible population – through exchange and formal courses – also strengthens our mission as Fair Traders directly engaged in the development of our cooperative members, partners and the quality savvy, consuming public.”

The Labo Equitable is responsible for sample testing for import approval or refusal of Cooperative Coffees members’ contracts and for non-member sales, quality profile evaluation from regions across the coffee growing world, and the facilitation of information exchange and learning amongst a broad sector of the Specialty Coffee industry, coffee producing partners, and the consuming public at large.

And now, as an SCAA certified learning lab, we can offer specialized courses to help new-comers to the world of Specialty Coffee in demystifying the building blocks of quality; and for seasoned coffee traders and roasters looking to improve their skills and / or qualify, to join the ranks of SCAA Cupping Judges or Q Graders, based upon industry-recognized standards.

Located in Montréal, a city renowned as an international crossroads in North America, we can also offer multi-lingual instruction (French, English, Spanish and/or Portuguese) -  as well as a rich cultural experience.  Our next Q Grader and SCAA Cupping Judge class is scheduled to take place August 28 to September 3, 2010. Spaces are limited – so don’t wait to reserve your seat at the cupping table!

This is just a great photo.

If anyone happens to be visiting our neighbors to the north (Canada) and going through Kimberley, BC, be sure to stop by Sprouts. Our main man Stephen will be doing a coffee tasting, and as you can see from the sign (even with the exchange rate), free is still free.

Sprouts is a great store and Stephen is an awesome guy.

Kees has done it again, The coolest espresso machine ever. In my opinion, it also produces the best espresso. Ever. Doma Coffee was the first to bring the Mirage into the US a number of years ago, and we are hoping we’ll be one of the first to bring the new SPIRIT in. Yes, I’ve already placed my order.

News 07-06-2010 First assembling the frame and bodywork of our fully new model: SPIRIT Body is now at polisher, frame at paintshop. This machine boosts multiple boilers, PID on each boiler, pre-heated water towards front coffee boilers, every boiler can be switched on or off separately, progressive pre-infusion cylinders, lever activated steam valves, individual pressure gauges on each boiler. We`ll show this proto-type at the upcoming WBC-SCAE-Caffe Culture show June 23-25 in London. Production to start early 2011. Back

A couple of weeks after the fact, but who doesn’t want a reminder of how great a Saturday that was. We’re working on our next one, so watch for  it on the roof of my favorite building in Spokane. In the meantime, check out these great photos from Ben Tobin.

The MENU. Deserves to be capitalized because of its awesomeness.

Part of the awesomeness was fresh Doma Coffee.

This guy couldn’t wait and hung out all day.

Fireworks yes. Fire dancing no.

Yes, please. Thank you.

Davids arm in action.

Family photo.

Action photo.

Fun and food in the sun.

David in action.

I just got back from two weeks in Nicaragua.  Joe (from Third Coast) and I were there to teach two 1-week courses about coffee quality, roasting and cupping.

The first week was spent with a cooperative called PROCOCER.  Denis, the head tecnico, met us at the airport, took us around for the whole week.  He was a great host.  PROCOCER’s offices are in Jicaro, in the Northern Highlands of Nicaragua and they represent about 800 farming families.  We were there to visit the dry mill at Mozonte and while there, teach a roasting and cupping class to a group of local youth.  These students are studying at the coffee school in Ocotal and most of their parents are producers from PROCOCER.

We showed them what we look for in a coffee sample, taught them how we sample roast and cup.  By the end of the course, they were all roasting great samples and running a very professional cupping table.

We visited organic farms in the Murra region.  A truck dropped us off, and we had to hike for a half hour just to get to the first farm.  No road, no electricity but each farmer we visited was proud of their finca.  One of the farmers we met is the head of a women’s producer group.  Doña Dominga and her family produce about 800 pounds of coffee a year on very steep slopes in a remote valley.  I was only to take one picture because I was ready to pass out from the difficult hike to her house and to see her coffee trees.  She invited us to come back and work for a few weeks during the harvest.  Maybe if I start training now, I might be able to keep up with her.

At the finca of Reynaldo Rivera we saw the new style wet-mill that the government is helping to fund.  It uses less water so the environmental impact is significantly reduced.

Each farmer composts and uses worm bins to help enrich the soil.

Outside of Jalapa, we visited the finca of Ernesto Canales, the president of PROCOCER (whose daughter, Rosibel was in our class) and saw his wet mill and nursery.  He is developing an eco-tourism project at his farm where people could come and see best practices in general farming and coffee processing.

A half an hour or so further up another 4-wheel drive road and strenuous hike (where I, again, almost had a heart attack) we arrived at the finca of Mario (the father of Dunia from our class).  He has an incredible farm right along the border of Honduras.  His plants are extremely healthy and he is very passionate about his finca.  He has just built a new wet mill (carrying the cement up the mountain trail by himself) and a couple of cabins for his eco-tourism project.

Two small cabins (bunks for 6 in each), fresh mountain spring water and an amazing jungle valley.  They have a small family cabin with a kitchen and made us a great meal.  Visitors will be able to stay in the other cabins and participate in the coffee harvest, plant their own coffee trees and eventually harvest their own plants.  It is an amazing spot, and if anyone is interested in visiting, e-mail me and I will give you details.

The next morning we “decided” to walk back to Jalapa …every 30 minutes, Denis would me that it was just another 30 minutes hike.  Four hours later we made it to town.   There we had dinner with Ernesto and Denis and talked of our future plans together.

Coming later, week 2 near Matagalpa.

All DOMA coffee will be on sale for the entire month of June at Main Market. We will be doing tastings throughout the month. The first tasting is scheduled for Saturday, June 5th from 9:30am-1pm. Come by and sample some real coffee…real fair trade and real organic.