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CFI's First Coffee Now
Roasted and for Sale
It
has been almost three months since the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
Although the citizens of Ranquitte, Haiti were not directly affected by the
damage and loss of life, most citizens had relatives or close friends who
lost their lives, were injured, or were suddenly homeless. Under those
circumstances, it is not hard to imagine that many Ranquitte citizens have
had difficulty concentrating on the formidable tasks that lay ahead, whether
taking in those who have been displaced from Port au Prince, determining how
to grow enough food during the forthcoming growing season to feed the sudden
increase in population, or simply moving through the grieving process in a
proper manner.
Two
weeks prior to the earthquake of January 12, the EcoCafé Haiti team
submitted coffee for a private formal testing by Coffee Review in
California, a prestigious coffee “cupping” (testing) laboratory and online
buying guide for coffee aficionados.To our delight, the EcoCafé Haiti coffee amassed 90 out of 100 points on Coffee Review’s testing scale, a score that equates to an “excellent” rating. As the owner Kenneth Davids states:
“The coffee is rich, sweet and deep, with notes of aromatic wood and dark chocolate, with rich and balanced acidity, a medium-full weight with a creamy mouth feel, crisp with pungent notes of aromatic wood, cocoa, and a hint of flowers; a simple, rich finish, toasty with chocolate notes lingering…a very nice Caribbean style coffee. Has the full body and deep sensation of good Jamaican and Puerto Rico coffee, but it is also clean and free of musty hints or patio faults, unlike most Jamaicas and Puerto Ricos.”
Wow, those are a lot of fancy words, words that
probably don’t mean too much to those of us who quaff at least 3 or 4 cups
of coffee each morning without pontification.
Door # 2—A Good Samaritan Coffee Roaster
Almost simultaneous with the coffee testing report we received word that a specialty coffee roaster/retailer in Portland, Oregon (a roaster who was graciously introduced to us by a fellow missionary) had unilaterally decided to sell our coffee to consumers over the Internet. Although Mark Hellweg of Clive Coffee was a bit skeptical of Haitian coffee, he and his team tested our coffee and were delighted by the results. After making that bold decision, Mark submitted his version of the roasted coffee for a blind cupping by Coffee Review, a special blind cupping of the best Caribbean and Hawaiian coffees from roasters in those regions, a special blind cupping that was initiated at least partially by Coffee Review’s earlier private cupping of our EcoCafé Haiti coffee.
As before, the coffee scored highly (although a bit lower), beating out 27 of the 36 roasted coffees submitted for the competition! Read the full report at http://www.coffeereview.com/article.cfm?ID=169, or the specific details of the Clive Coffee submission at http://www.coffeereview.com/review.cfm?ID=2088.
|
88
|
|
Roast: Medium-Light |
Review Date: March 2010 |
|
Origin: Ranquitte, Haiti |
Price: $19.95 / 12 oz. |
Sweetly rounded aroma with hints of flowers, chocolate, nut. In the cup a low-toned, subdued acidity, medium body, continued sweet chocolate and nut notes, with a hint of malty mustiness. Clean, simple finish with some carryover of the chocolate nuance.
|
AROMA: |
8 |
|
ACIDITY: |
7 |
|
BODY: |
7 |
|
FLAVOR: |
8 |
|
AFTERTASTE: |
8 |
|
AGTRON: |
62/77 |
More important, after learning of the EcoCafé Haiti
story, Mark Hellweg, a man of faith and a champion supporter of good causes,
decided to donate all profits from the sale of the coffee to our program, a
goal of $15 for each 12 oz. bag of roasted coffee! With a 2009 harvest that
did not produce the expected volume, should all of our coffee be sold over
the course of the next several months, the EcoCafé Haiti program will
achieve another milestone—revenue/donations from the sale of coffee that pay
for almost half of next year’s operating expenses.
Door #3—Missionary Mule Runners
Excuse the metaphor, but I could not think of another appropriate term to describe what was needed to transport our coffee from Haiti to the USA.
As you may know, the two major ports in Haiti either were severely damaged (i.e., Port au Prince) by the earthquake or inundated by relief goods/workers (i.e., Cap Haitien). Accordingly, we could not even contemplate how to transport our coffee from Haiti to Portland, Oregon without paying exorbitant fees (some would say bribes) to get our coffee containerized and transported in any reasonable timeframe. Besides, our communication with the manager of Haitian Shipping Lines in Cap Haitien came to an abrupt halt soon after the earthquake…with no communication since. With our coffee all but sold, it was a frustrating period—so near, yet so far, so to speak. That is the background for door #3.
With the first group of Christian Flights’ missionaries expected to arrive in Ranquitte in March, the first missionary/aide workers to make it into Ranquitte since the earthquake, an opportunity was at hand. It dawned on us that since those missionaries transport many goods into Haiti and usually leave with empty containers, it might be possible to fill those empty containers with coffee. That is exactly what was done.
Scott Mandl, executive
director of Christian Flights, and his team of missionaries hand-carried the
first lot of coffee out of Haiti as checked baggage on their return airline
flight, bringing in a total of 240 lbs. of finished green coffee. Although a
bit trepidatious about getting coffee out of Haiti through the somewhat
notorious Haitian customs, and bringing commercial goods into the USA
through the always skeptical US customs, the transport was accomplished
without a hitch. Our heartfelt “thanks” go out to Scott Mandl and his team
for navigating the coffee safely to Portland, Oregon.
Two more shipments are currently scheduled over the
next several months, using the same method with gracious and brave short
term mission teams.
Coffee for Sale
As with all stories, this one comes to an end; however, in this case, it is a bittersweet end.
I
am pleased to announce that you can now purchase EcoCafé Haiti coffee
directly online from Clive Coffee of Portland, Oregon. To do so, go
to this link:
http://www.clivecoffee.com/
To refresh your memories, each $ that goes to the EcoCafé Haiti program is used for three primary purposes:
ˇ To enable economic self-sufficiency in rural Haiti
ˇ To provide food crops (seeds and labor) for those in Ranquitte who are unable to cultivate food on their own (i.e., the widowed, aged, and infirmed)
ˇ To restore a heavily deforested part of Haiti back to a healthy state
So,
when you sip your Haiti: Ranquitte EcoCafé coffee (Clive
Coffee’s brand name for our coffee), take comfort in knowing that your
purchase of coffee goes to a very worthy cause. Each sip supports the fruits
of labor provided by a hard-working crew of motivated Haitians, who now have
some hope for the future—hope that emanates from God’s open doors.
Thank you for your continued support, prayers, and blessings. Without you, this program would not have gotten off the ground, and certainly would not have achieved milestone after milestone—in this case the milestone of having sold our first harvest.
Blessings,
Tom Durant
CFI Business Development Director/
EcoCafe Program Coordinator
541-683-1778
tldco3@msn.com
www.ecocafehaiti.org
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04/08/2010