Colombian Supremo
We’ve got coffee on the front porch today: five pallets, with 10-12 bags each on them, so over four tons of green beans waiting their turn for the magical process that is coffee roasting. We get this size shipment about once a month, so it will be the end of February before this scene appears again. Moisture is the enemy of green coffee and every winter shipment that we receive on a sunny day like today is a reason to be grateful.
If you live around here, I hope you got a chance to get outside and kick up your heels in the early part of this week. Wasn’t it splendid sunny weather? It felt like Spring was throwing us a teaser, reminding us of the rebirth to come. I saw my first robin and my first moth fluttering around the porch lights this week. The deer which traverse our field daily are still in full dark winter coats, but the sight of daphne about to bloom heralds the beginning of the flower and blossom cycle for the year.
As yesterday’s misty skies reminded me, it is only the beginning of winter, and we often get our harshest storms in February and March. Since we are a household with cupboards replete with good coffees and teas, we are set for whatever the weather gods throw our way. One upside to winter weather is that is makes it easier to stay inside and heal if you’re sick–and I think that maybe every employee on our staff has been ill in the last two weeks. Whew! Hopefully good health will return to all this coming week.
My sympathies are with you if you also have been battling the flu. It has not only made its way around the store, but both my kids have stayed home from school with similar symptoms. I can’t make your malady disappear, but I do recommend lots of sleep and a hot lemon and honey. And good coffee is sure to help too, don’t you think?
This week we are offering our Colombian Supremo as our coffee of the week. This is a former Cup of Excellence winner, an outstanding estate coffee from a country with a lot of mediocre beans to export. It is a San Agustin coffee, from the Huila department (region) of Colombia. The “Supremo” part of the name references the highest grade of Colombian, with the lower grade being “Excelso.” Since these terms designate screen size, we occasionally cup an Excelso Colombian that we prefer over a Supremo, but in this case, top grade is top flavor.