Tony’s Sulawesi Toarco Peaberry Wins Award at SCAA Expo
By Andrew Bowman
 Our new season of Sulawesi Toarco Peaberry has arrived and we couldn’t be more pleased with the quality of this year’s crop. In April we submitted it as our entry into the 2010 Roasters Guild Roaster’s Choice Competition at the SCAA Exposition & Symposium in Anaheim, California. The theme of this year’s competition was fully washed coffees. Justin Freeman’s roast of Sulawesi Toarco took third place overall. Congratulations Justin!
Toarco is an expertly run wet mill in the central mountain district of Toraja in Sulawesi. The coffee is grown at very high elevations, generally in the range of 1500 meters above sea level. As mentioned, this coffee is fully washed and may surprise those who are looking for a more traditional Indonesian cup profile. The flavors are clear and focused, showcasing excellent sweetness, citric acidity and complex floral notes. It is reminiscent of many well-prepped Central American coffees while retaining the uniqueness of its actual terroir. Tony’s receives a very limited amount of this coffee each year. Please visit our web site or call us today to get some before it’s gone.
Andrew Bowman is Head Roaster in Bellingham
Tony's About Town
By Tracy Nowack
The 2010 Western Regional Barista Championship was held in Los Angeles in late February. Tony’s sponsored Veronica Ruckman, who trained with Heather Perry, a two-time US Barista Champion, to prepare for the competition. Veronica did a fantastic job placing in the top ten in the most competitive region of the country.
The Roaster’s Guild’s official purpose is “To foster communication and understanding about specialty coffee between roasting professionals.” According to this description, Tony’s Vice President and Director of Coffee, Wendy De Jong is a perfect fit as the Roaster’s Guild’s new Chair. Wendy never wastes an opportunity to share her coffee knowledge. As the new Chair, Wendy will organize and lead meetings, projects and retreats.
Justin Freeman tied for third place with his Sulawesi Toarco Peaberry in the Roaster’s Choice competition at the SCAA’s 22nd Annual Exposition in Anaheim. The votes came from everyone attending the exposition. Cupping samples, he knew the Sulawesi Toarco Peaberry would be bright and juicy. When I congratulated him, he bashfully attributed his placing to the exceptional coffee. True, the coffee was amazing to begin with (excitement buzzed before the green coffee even arrived), but I suspect Justin’s expertise in coffee roasting played a vital role.
Later I caught him smiling to himself. He may start wearing fur coats and
gold chains.
Tracey Nowak is a Coffee Roaster in Bellingham
Café Alteza: A Tony’s Coffees Exclusive
By Wendy Owen Harvey
Coordinadora de Mujeres Campesinas de La Paz (COMUCAP), provides economic opportunity for Honduran women one coffee bean at a time.
In 1993 Dulce Marlen Conteras founded COMUCAP to raise awareness about women’s rights. The Womens Cooperative soon realized they needed to provide their members with greater economic opportunities for themselves and their families.
In addition to rights awareness workshops they started training women to grow and sell organic coffees and aloe vera, helping them earn an income for their families. The income these women are earning as a result of their new skills is changing their lives and those of their families for the long term. All of the children of COMUCAP women now go to school. Today COMUCAP has 254 members and has over 100 employees.
This past March, Tony’s Coffee was privileged to visit with and cup the coffee of COMUCAP. Currently, they export all of their coffee to Europe. Tony’s Coffee will be the first roaster in the United States to offer Tony’s Cafe Alteza, a Fair Trade Organic Coffee from COMUCAP. Cafe Alteza will be available at The Community Food Coops and the Grace Café in Bellingham, WA, Java Bean in Ballard and West Seattle and online at www.tonyscoffee.com.
Wendy Owen Harvey is Distribution Manager in Bellingham
Soul and Soil
Coffee Corps Assignment in Uganda and Ethiopia.
By Wendy De Jong
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to accept a Coffee Corps assignment in Uganda and Ethiopia. From their web site, “Coffee Corps is a unique private-public partnership that matches experts in the industry with farmers and associations at origin seeking technical assistance. These individuals volunteer their own time in order to help growers improve their production methods, quality control processes
or marketing.”
My assignment in Uganda was to work with students who were interested in developing their cupping, roasting, and green grading skills. I was struck by the student’s dedication to becoming technically proficient in all aspects of quality control, even though many of them were already very knowledgeable. I served as head judge for the Taste of Harvest coffee competition and together with a few of the students and very experienced cuppers from Uganda, we selected the top coffees from the current harvest.
My assignment continued to serving as head judge for the Taste of Harvest competition of Ethiopia held the following week in Addis Ababa. Together with a panel of professional cuppers we cupped our way through 60 submissions to determine the winners. It is always a tremendous benefit to cup with people who know their country’s coffees intimately, and it was an honor work in that environment. The top coffees from Uganda and Ethiopia moved on to compete at the annual East Africa Fine Coffee Association conference, which was held this year in Mombasa, Kenya. The top five winning coffees from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe were all cupped together and awards were given for outstanding scores.
It is very exciting to see the increased commitment to, and understanding of, quality in coffee producing countries year after year. When coffee producers understand what the market is looking for and how to deliver it, they become more successful and we all benefit . They are able to command better prices and we are able to enjoy better coffee.
We have some very exciting East African coffee on the books, arriving soon. We look forward to sharing these coffees with you!
Wendy De Jong is Vice President & Director of Coffee
Who's Who: Dan Curtis
Keeping the process streamlined.
By Amber Paulson
| Dan takes a moment to chill in the warehouse. |
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Dan Curtis is Production Manager at the Tony’s Roasting Plant in Bellingham.
Dan is responsible for taking and processing orders from the various distribution centers.
By achieving organization and maximum efficiency, Dan has helped to improve the company and streamline the overall production process.
Dan has been with Tony’s Coffees & Teas for three years and enjoys being around coffee and working with a great product. Dan is interested in roasting coffee and looks forward to some basic roaster training so that he can be a backup roaster when needed. When Dan is not at the warehouse he likes to read, watch movies and play a little guitar.
Amber Paulson is a Driver in the Bay Area
Customer Profile: The Grace Café
Great food, delicious pies and Tony’s Coffee make for a winning combination.
By Rosie Germond
| Apple pie and a cup of Tony's Coffee: Todd and Heidi Larson at The Grace Café. |
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The Grace Café, located in Bellingham, will celebrate their ten year anniversary this coming fall. Owners Todd and Heidi Larson have been baking up delicious treats, serving mouth watering soups and sandwiches and proudly brewing Tony’s Coffees since The Grace Café’s doors opened in August of 2000.
Both Todd and Heidi feel blessed The Grace Café has given them this opportunity to interact with so many wonderful customers and employees over the past decade; especially the loyal pie patrons who come back year after year for their special holiday pies!
The Grace Café is excited to announce they will feature Tony’s Coffees limited time offerings, currently Cup of Excellence El Salvador. Additionally, both Todd and Heidi are vegans and our proud to have many new vegan items on the menu.
Remember The Grace Cafe the next time you need an apple pie for a special celebration, or want to grab a ham, egg and cheese bagel sandwich to-go on your way up to Mount Baker. Tony’s Coffees congratulates Todd and Heidi on ten years of great business and look forward to many more years of great food and coffee.
Check out the Grace Café’s web site for more information:
www.gracecafepies.com
Rosie Germond is Assistant Distribution Manager in Bellingham
Coffee Sleeves, Please
Caution: Contents May be Hot.
By Adrienne Lema
| Wrap it up, I’ll take it: Hot new sleeves for your hot bevvies. |
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Hot cups burning your fingertips? Double-cupping those pesky Americanos? We’re swooping in to your rescue with our new Tony’s logo coffee sleeves. Made from recycled cardboard and adorned with our Tony’s elephant, these coffee sleeves dress up any plain white cup with a sturdy, protective layer against the heat of a fresh brew.
We’re always looking for ways to decrease our impact on the environment and these coffee sleeves represent our latest effort. In lieu of our Tony’s logo cups, we will now be offering compostable recyclable plain white cups and our new Tony’s logo coffee sleeves. Not only does this reduce the waste of doubling cups around extra hot lattes; they also provide customers with a stylish and professional way to promote excellent coffee!
Our Tony’s logo coffee sleeves are available in one size that fits 12, 16 and 20 ounce cups. They’re stocked, prepped and ready to swoop in to your shop at an order’s notice. Please call for more details and get ready to sleeve that coffee!
Adrienne Lema is Assistant Distribution Manager in Seattle
President's Message
 In April, I had the pleasure of participating in the Second Annual SCAA Executive Symposium and attending the 22nd Annual SCAA Expo. For those few days, Anaheim truly was the happiest place on earth…and the most caffeinated. Once again I was reminded of why I’m blessed to be working in specialty coffee. Overwhelmingly, the people in our industry are curious, motivated and fun. And the product we work with, well, it’s downright amazing.
Speaking of which, the star of the show, for me, was the Peru Tunki, from the Puno region, produced by Wilson Sucaticona Larico of the CECOVASA Cooperative featured in the Roaster’s Guild COTY (Coffee of the Year) brew bar. RG volunteers staffed nine brew bars, one for each of the nine highest scoring coffees of origin. Show attendees were invited to taste all nine finalists and vote for their favorite. The Kenya Gichathaini, from the Gikanda Farmers Co-Operative Society in Nyeri was delightful, the Panama Esmeralda Geisha exquisite, the Colombia from San Agustin, Huila, produced at the Buenavista farm by Carlos Imbachi was solid, but the Peru Tunki was heady, syrupy, sweet and balanced, like drinking liquid coffee-blossom. The Peru won the People’s Choice award in a landslide.
Another show highlight was the cup of Tony’s COE Bolivia winner, Café Golondrina, prepared for me in a Chemex at the Barista Guild café.
Although there were thousands of people engaged inside the massive Expo Hall at the hundreds of colorful, lively booths; most of the action occurred outside the convention hall itself. The hub of meaningful activity and concentration of energy was in the classrooms, espresso labs, roasting labs, cupping labs, at the BG Café, at the RG COTY and at the US Barista Championships.
The clear and pervasive theme of this year’s event was the confluence of specific lot coffees and “by-the-cup” preparation. All six finalists in the USBC prepared single origin espressos. There were siphon brewers, Melittas, cone bars, Clever Drippers, Clovers, Chemex, and Cafe Solos. At Symposium, I attended a presentation by espresso bar and coffee house owners who had all successfully made the transition to brewing coffee exclusively “by-the-cup”. Each panelist confirmed that their customers embraced the change from urn, shuttle or airpot to by-the-cup preparation. Some of the industry’s bigger players are making a move in the single serve direction.
I’m not entirely sure whether innovations in single serve and by-the-cup preparation equipment have increased demand for more interesting coffees, or whether more interesting coffees demand by-the-cup preparation. Either way, the consumer ends up winning. With so much interest in the unique tastes of different growing regions, specific farms, and variations in the processing of the fruit, the quality in the cup just keeps getting better and better.
One final Anaheim highlight, our very own Wendy De Jong, vice president and coffee buyer, was elected as this year’s Chair of the Roasters Guild. Wendy, our heartiest congratulations!
Todd, Licensed Q Grader
Todd Elliott is President & CEO |
