We are extremely proud of Mr. Bouvier’s accomplishment and are excited to have him represent us at Canadians.

Coffee newcomer Liam Quinn also deserves a nod for the time, energy, and culinary knowledge he tirelessly devoted to Graham’s training and comp.

Morgan beat out the rest of the field by a huge margin, (80 points over second place,) with an innovative performance that focused on pure barista skills. He opted to leave out any extra ingredients in his signature beverage and instead focus on how variations in grind can manipulate the flavour and body of espresso. The judges had a hard time wrapping their head around this one but also recognized the skill level required to pull it off.

We’re very proud of Morgan’s win and the effort he put forth to get there. On October 2nd he will attempt to follow up his win at the Canadian Barista Championships. If he is successful there it will mean back to back National titles for Fernwood Coffee Company.

Here is a story with a video link that was posted on Sprudge.com after Morgan’s win. http://sprudge.com/fernwood-you-believe-it-morgan-allen-wins-western-canadian-regionals.html

I’ll summarize the last few months events and fill in some details in the near future.

I guess the 2 big things to mention are our appearance at the world Barista Championship and the complete renovation of our cafe.

Our very own Rob Kettner represented Canada in Bogota, Colombia a few months ago and placed 16th out of 54 countries. We’re very proud of all his hard work and pretty hopeful that we will get to represent Canada again in the coming years.

As for the reno, it was pretty much a complete reboot of our cafe space. The layout is very similar but with all new decor and equipment. We are going to coincide our grand re-opening party with the Western Regional Barista Championships this August.

Detailed posts to follow soon…. promise..

Ben

The new 3 barrel at the Center for Excellence.

Even in Brazil Rob finds an FB80 to pull shots.

Good coffee does exist on airplanes.

Ever wonder who roasts the samples for Cup of Excellence? This is the man.

Here is the International Jury.

The 20 winning farmers at the award ceremony.

My buddy Thiago.

The view from Thiago's family fields down to the lake in Boa Esperanza.

This was the view as we walked out of a farm house in Oro Fino.

Ripe coffee cherries.

Without getting into any kind of debate about Fair Trade vs. other systems I can say this trip was a great chance to see first hand where our premiums go that we pay when we purchase fair trade coffees. It was also nice to see Fair Trade focus on improving quality at origin, which is often one of the things they are criticized for.

The things I saw and learned that really made the trip worthwhile are almost too many to list but here are a few of the big ones;

I had the misconception that there was a typical “Brazilian profile,” for flavors and characteristics but I couldn’t have been further from the truth. We tasted such a variety of styles of coffee on the cupping table that I left feeling a lot of excitement for future offerings from Brazil.

Another thing I took away from this was a better understanding of regional tastes and preferences. Natural coffees that the younger North American Judges loved for there berry notes and fruit sweetness were viewed as fermented and some were even disqualified by the South American Judges. The line between sweet/fruity and ferment is at different levels for different people. The most important thing is that you know your own customers enjoy.

Of course visiting farms and meeting small scale producers in their homes was amazing and really makes one appreciate what goes into the drink we love so much. We met hard working, honest, happy people who live in some of the most beautiful places on the planet and although they weren’t wealthy by our standards they never hesitated to share what they did have with us, break bread with us and roast and brew coffee for us.

We have said we would like to work towards sourcing our coffee directly from small scale producers at origin and as a young company this has been one of our main challenges. This trip was the first step in the right direction for us to start realizing that goal.

We tried wood fire roasted coffee from this ball roaster on one farm.

One of the families that was gracious enough to host at at their farm.

Rob at the cupping table.

-Ben

A huge thank you goes out to all the people who helped along the way, (you all know who you are and have likely already been thanked in person or on twitter.) And another huge thank you to the judges, volunteers and competitors who made it such a fun and exciting weekend.

The other things I wanted to mention are our new single origins. We have 2 sacks from a 20 sack lot of Perla Negra natural process Costa Rican. The ripe cherries are tested with a Brix (sp?) refractometer and the sweetest ones are held for this micro lot. The other coffee of note that we just got in is a beautiful bright washed Sidamo from Moredocofe. Great as s.o. espresso. We are just tweaking the roast profiles so the next roast should be available on line.

Welcome aboard Brette!