Sorting through cherries at the end of the day

Just had a french press of (RED) with a partner, and it inspired me to create another post!
This shot was taken just outside Bella Vista and shows the coffee pickers sorting through their cherries at the end of the day. Although the utmost care is taken in only harvesting perfectly ripe red cherries, some underripe beans and leaves do find their way into the basket. Pickers can leave up to 2% green cherries in their harvest, but anything above that means their basket will be turned away. Many keep the green cherries and try to ripen them further in the sun on a patio, and then process, roast and consume it locally.

The average picker can pick from 100 - 150 lbs of cherry per day, and will be paid about $1.30 per cajuela (a cajuela is the volumetric measurement of cherries, and is about 13kgs or 28.6 lbs). The pickers work on both small farms and large estates, with 95% of farms being between 1-5 hectares (1 hectare = 2.47 acres). The other 5% of farms are large estates that account for 40% of production in Costa Rica.

Tune back in next week for the life cycle of a coffee tree!

Picking the Worlds Best Coffee

Here is a shot of some coffee pickers hand picking ripe red cherries at the peak of their flavour. One of these coffee trees will only produce 1 - 1 1/2 pounds of coffee beans THIS YEAR. Each flavourlock bag of coffee in your store represents the yearly production of ONE TREE....

As we reassert ourselves as the COFFEE AUTHORITY with our Spring Promotion, I thought that I would share some quick coffee facts:

25 million people work in the coffee industry.
Over 60 countries world wide grow coffee.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil.
Brazil is the world's biggest producer of coffee, accounting for 25-30% of world production.
Latin America accounted for 78% of our 2008 global purchases.
Coffee trees take 4-5 years to produce their first harvest.

And it is our responsibility to get it right in the stores. As a partner, I ask you that for the Spring Promotion:
Taste the Coffee of the Week, record your thoughts in your new coffee passport, and sign off on the Coffee Passport Tracking Poster.
Keep your passport in your apron, as part of your dress code, so that all of the information is at your fingertips to help you connect with a customer
Make sure that the brew baskets are so clean you can see your reflection, your urns have fresh faucet cups and your grinder is perfectly calibrated. This will ensure that our customers really taste the worlds best coffee.

Share the passion that our farmers have...love what you do...I do!
Cindy GH

Douglas picking coffee Day 1

This is a video of a coffee picker named Douglas demonstrating his experience and skill!