Mariposa Coffee Roastery

Throughout the months we’ve been roasting coffee, many people are surprised that our brewed coffee tastes significantly different than theirs, but we use the same equipment. Ever wonder why coffee house coffee always tastes different than coffee made at home? In all honestly, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fancy coffee brewers, and more with the technique (and freshly roasted coffee, of course). So, we’re going to teach you how to brew like pros.

The five most important components in coffee brewing is (in no particular order):

1. Water (okay, so fresh and filtered water is crucial)
2. Water temperature
3. Coffee volume
4. Grind size
5. Steeping time

These five things are arguably the most important in ensuring that you have really quality brewed coffee. And as we mentioned, water is critical. Coffee is 98% to 99% water. If you use the shady, arsenic-friendly, Chromium-6 rich Norman tap water, you may be getting some heavy notes of metallic flavor. At minimum, your water will be freshly filtered (and cold). Reverse osmosis is good, but not always necessary. Despite what many people may say, bottled water is not always best. In short, you don’t know how long the water’s been sitting in the plastic, and you don’t know what other chemicals from the bottle have leeched into the water.

Right next to water is water temperature. In order to obtain optimum coffee extraction, you need water temperature to be just below boiling (about 200 degrees F). Here’s the kicker…ready? Almost all automatic home coffee brewers are nowhere near the 200 degree point when your coffee is brewing. 175 to 182 degrees is more like it. There are very few that will brew at the optimal temperature. We only recommend three automatic home coffee brewers – that’s it. If you’re interested in knowing more about our recommended home coffee brewers, shoot us an email for more information. But, for home, we recommend sticking with manual brew methods such as pour-over drip, the Clever, french press, Chemex, Aeropress, and vacuum pot. We never recommend the percolator (sorry to disappoint).

Coffee volume is best measured in grams. Partially because it’s more accurate than ounce, and well, the rest of the world uses grams. Therefore, the only way to do this is to purchase a digital scale (about $30 at Target). Although this may seem a bit expensive, we won’t start recommending a $150 Ohaus scale or any that are for-trade certified (ones we use to make sure your coffee is accurately measured). Our recommended amount is anywhere between 7-9 grams per every 4-6 ounces of water. Personally, we use 9 grams per every 4 ounces of water for brewing devices such as the Clever or french press.

Grind size can be the difference between making your coffee look and taste like tea, or an enjoyable, balanced, and good bodied coffee. In honesty, a blade-style grinder ($20-$30 at the store) will be more than sufficient for most home needs. Heck, you can even use a blade-style grinder to pull espresso at home (never professionally). The reason why? Most of the time, you’ll be the one drinking the coffee, or a significant other. And, our recommended burr grinders start anywhere between $200-$250 each. If however, you already have a burr grinder: the more power to you. We generally grind our coffee finer than the norm. Our grind for french press is particularly fine (considering the brewing style). This is all about taste. We do think that a finer grinder will give you better extraction; just make sure it’s not too fine to start brewing the coffee too strongly it becomes too bitter. Use common sense when grinding. If after plunging, the french press is mucky and you pour out grinds, it’s way too fine. However, do you really want to waste your coffee by grinding too coarsely? If it were up to us, we would say, take a little risk, and err on the side of grinding a little finer. Because, if you think it’s too fine, it’s probably just right. It’s all about training our visual perception. Grind size is something that just takes practice.

Just like grind size, if you steep too early, you’re wasting that speciality coffee. Then again, if you steep too late, you may not want to drink the coffee anymore because it’s so heavy and over-extracted. On average, a 3-5 minute steep time before extraction on the Clever or french press is enough. If you steep it for 3, it’s okay to forget it for a couple minutes. If you steep it for 5, be sure you pour it shortly after steeping. The thing to keep in mind with these two systems is that the coffee is still brewing until it is poured out because it still maintains contact with the coffee.

Just by incorporating these 5 simple and easy steps in your brewing technique will make tremendous difference in how your coffee tastes. Just remember, automatic is not always better. The more control you have in brewing coffee, the better it will taste.

Happy brewing!

April is a very exciting month as we say happy birthday to…US! That’s right, we’ve been officially roasting coffee for one year, and that’s quite a feat if you ask us. What’s an even greater feat is we feel extremely fortunate to have supporters as yourself, and our regular customers. It really is a big deal that you’ve chosen Mariposa as your daily coffee, quite an honor actually.

So, as a way to say “thank you,” we would like to present to you coupon code: APRIL2011. Use it as much as you would like from now until the end of April, and we’ll give you 15% off every online coffee order (sorry, the Clever Dripper doesn’t apply). Let your friends in on your secret to good coffee by passing on this coupon code to them, we won’t let them down, we promise.

We’re currently working on some big things, one of them is an upcoming blend that is a perfect start to your mornings! But for now, thanks for choosing Mariposa Coffee. We know you can get it elsewhere, but we’re glad you’re getting it from us.

In talking to one of our good friends, a fellow coffee broker, we went on a small tangent on explaining why we roast the way we do. It occurred to our team that it may not be apparent that our roast profiles tend to be a little lighter than some roasters. Don’t get us wrong, that doesn’t mean we roast all of our beans lighter than others, it just means our “roasting threshold” is generally not as dark as others.

Let us further explain. Roasting coffee is almost like an art form. During roasting, a lot of involvement is required on the roaster’s end, it is mostly sensory intensive. Not only is experience needed to know where to start and how much coffee to use for each batch, but as a coffee progresses in it’s roast, it develops many different levels of smell, change in color, and sound. A very important and obvious change in coffee is it’s color. Many times, roast color will determine the type of taste notes the coffee will produce. So, one coffee bean, an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe for example, will taste very different when roasted light verses roasted dark – this is generally true for all coffee.

So, why lighter? Well, first of all, we are firm believers that the customer should have an input on what tastes good and what doesn’t. So, we try to accommodate everyone’s tastes and desires, while keeping our philosophy true. Coffee that is generally roasted lighter will contain more flavor and each bean’s uniqueness is highlighted when roasted lighter. In short, the darker you get, more oils and sugars are burned out, and well, it all starts to taste the same: “burnt, full-bodied, and smokey.” If all coffee were roasted dark, there’s no point in having so many different regions and varieties.

Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t have dark coffees. Our Sumatra Permata Gayo, Decaf Colombia, and Vintage Blend are all roasted dark. How dark? Let’s just say, it’s dark enough to ensure that  you’re not jipped out of your pleasant coffee drinking experience. It all depends on the coffee, but we will never substitute the reason to roast dark just because we have a sub-par coffee bean. We ensure two things when it comes down to our coffee: (1) it’s specialty arabica grade, and (2) it is able to handle a variety of roast levels without compromising quality.

As you may have noticed, our coffee prices have unfortunately gone up. In our last email newsletter, we broke the news that the coffee market is on a dramatic rise (15-year highs), and is only projected to continue to rise. In looking at coffee trends, the general explanation regarding this price increase has really boiled down to these three things:

1. Demand for specialty-grade coffee is increasing.
2. Coffee is being “over-sold” in the commodities market, thus, available demand is greater than supply.
3. Unpredictable environment factors are reducing the ability for farmers to grow the needed coffee.

In a nutshell, coffee in the U.S. is traded on the NYSE “Commodities” Market (“C” market), and is all predicted trading. Thus, coffee prices are based off of what traders predict the market will be in the future – based off of past market trends and demand. All speciality coffee is traded at a certain monetary level, what is called “coffee futures.” These coffee futures are reaching historical highs, and is expected to continue to rise.

Not only are more consumers in the U.S. asking for speciality-grade coffee, but this is an impact that is felt in all over the world. One of our coffee brokers used Brazil as an example. Brazil is quite possibly the largest coffee producer in the world, yet is expected to export less coffee because Brazilians are also seeking higher grade coffee (consumption expected to exceed U.S. consumption levels in 2011). What this then equates for us Americans is: less available coffee to purchase.

Here at Mariposa, we still hold true to our belief that speciality-grade coffee should be widely available and affordable to anyone. Therefore, we have really tried to hold off as much as we can in raising prices. Yet, with our latest coffee purchases, we have incurred a 20% increase in green coffee prices since last August 2009! However, since we hold very strongly to our beliefs, we feel that a modest 25% price increase in our roasted coffee is at or lower (on average) than other speciality roasters, and will help cushion the rising coffee prices – at least for awhile.

At this point, we believe it’s difficult to determine whether this price increase is a benefit to the farmers and harvesters, or is only due to the predictions of coffee traders and the economy. However, during this process, we have concluded that because coffee is a tangible good, it is only right to treat our prices the same as well. Therefore, our coffee prices will now follow the market trend and fluctuate accordingly. What this means is that once coffee prices start dropping, we will follow suit and lower our prices. But, if prices continue to rise, we will have to follow that trend as well.

So in summary:

• We have to raise our prices to follow the market trends and absorb the increasing coffee prices.
• We are still committed to our belief that speciality-grade coffee should be available for everyone at an affordable price.
• We will raise and lower our prices in conjunction with future coffee prices as predicted by the “C” market.
• We’re still giving 15% of all monthly revenue away to a social justice organization.

Happy New Year!

Okay, so, we confess, we were a little slow getting this out. But, we figure, better late than never!

2011 looks like a very exciting year for us! We had a very busy holiday season (thanks for your support!), and we hope your friends and family enjoyed the tasty coffee we so love to roast.

There is some updates we need to share with everyone, so here goes:

• We have implemented a new roasting schedule as we’ve figured, this may make things easier to manage. We’ve tried to make it obvious online, so we wouldn’t catch anyone off guard. For all online orders, we will roast every Monday and Thursday with a delivery/ship date within 2 business days after roasting. If you find yourself in some sort of a bind and need an “emergency” roast, let us know, and we’ll see what we can do for ya.
  • If you order on Monday (after 5:00pm, CST), Tuesday, or Wednesday, your order will be roasted on the upcoming Thursday.
  • If you order on Thursday (after 5:00pm, CST), Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, your order will be roasted on the upcoming Monday.
• We’ve had to stop offering free Saturday deliveries to Oklahoma City. We’re sorry to say at the moment, we can’t sustain that as a service at the moment. However, you can definitely pick up coffee at Shop Good and Forward Foods in the city! Check back soon, if more people tell us that they liked the deliveries, maybe we can compromise with a pick-up point?

• Benvenuti’s Restaurant has recently begun serving our coffee. We’re excited to see specialty coffee breaking into Norman restaurants. Check our their website: http://www.benvenutisristorante.com/.
• We’ve recently been mentioned in the Oklahoma Gazette with Shop Good in Oklahoma City! (Even though it’s one sentence, we’ll still get excited about that.) http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/article-10539-hot-cuppa.html
• We’re making a resolution to blogging more and send more consistent newsletters – we’ll try our best!

• We’ve saved the best for last. We’ll be soon adding a new member to our roasting team! She’ll be approximately a foot and a half long and anywhere between 7 to 9 pounds. So, we wanted to thank you in advance for being patient with us if we end up having to close up shop for a few days.

Keep checking back for more news and new coffee offerings! Get excited, blueberries are coming!

Okay, so we really don’t want you to make really bad coffee, but you’d be surprised what type of brewing equipment can make some really bad coffee if you don’t keep it clean and maintain it every so often. Don’t get too worried though, it’s not rocket science, and it’s just as easy as making coffee!

Since the majority of coffee drinkers use the good ole American style automatic brewers, we’re going to focus on how to clean this specific type of equipment. On a couple side notes, Europeans don’t drink brewed coffee through a dedicated coffee brewer like we do – Americano is a more appropriate alternative if you want a cup of coffee instead of an espresso. Also, stay tuned for future blogs on how to clean an espresso machine!

There are many ways to clean your automatic coffee dripper. Many home brands include the infamous Mr. Coffee, Black and Decker, GE, and Krups. The list can go on an on: name any electric company, and they probably have their own coffee maker. Since this blog isn’t about the quality of coffee makers, we’ll stay away from making any comments towards individual machines (we don’t get paid by any company either, so we don’t say good things for money).

Here is the easiest, most simplistic way to clean those calcified pumps and hoses:

1. Pour 1/4 cup of lemon or lime juice into the coffee pot and fill the rest of the pot with cold tap water.
2. Pour the citrus-water mixture into the water reservoir – if you have a permanent filter, you can keep it in your machine as well. If you use a copper lined filter you may want to take it out (we’re not sure if the copper will come off or not, better be safe than sorry).
3. Put the coffee pot beneath the brewing spout.
4. Turn on your machine.
5. Discard the citrus-water mixture that runs through your machine (or let it set in your pot if your coffee pot is a little stained from coffee).
6. Fill your empty water reservoir with fresh, cold water.
7. Turn on your machine to clean out any remaining citrus-water mixture, and discard whatever runs through.
8. Repeat #5 and #6 one or two more times.

Voila! You’re done. You will be extremely surprised at what type of changes you may experience in coffee quality after doing a thorough cleaning.

Now go enjoy that Mariposa Coffee.

We have two new items to add to our line up! One is the Clever Coffee Dripper, and the second is a limited single-origin coffee: El Salvador La Montañita Pacamara. What’s best is that these two go very well hand-in-hand.

The Clever Coffee Dripper is a cross between the French Press and filter drip brewing, giving a full immersion brewing experience. French pressed coffee generally leaves sediment in the  bottom of your cup, but gives you control of steeping time. Alternatively, filter drip brewing gives you a cleaner cup, but you have no control over steeping (coffee begins to brew immediately when water is poured).

How does it work you ask? Coffee is still brewed using a filter, but it first steeps until you are ready to release the brewed coffee by putting it over a cup or a mug. A stopper mechanism prevents the coffee from being released until you put it over a cup. Since it is a manual brewing process, you must be sure to control water temperature, amount of coffee to use, grind type, and steep time. However, ensuring the right ratios will brew yourself a very tasty coffee and blow the pants off of auto drip coffee. The Clever Dripper uses either #4 or #6 cone-style filters, we like to use the unbleached natural filters since no chemicals are used to stain the filters white.



Click here for brewing instructions on the Clever Dripper.

Buy the Clever Dripper here.

Buy the El Salvador La Montañita Pacamara here.

What comes in the box: Clever Dripper, coaster, and lid.

Coffee is a universal experience enjoyed by billions of people on a daily basis and is part of an industry worth over $80 billion a year. But the people behind the product are in crisis with millions of growers fast becoming bankrupt. Nowhere more evident is this paradox than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee.

-   Nick and Marc Francis (Co-Directors/producers of BLACK GOLD)

Our team at Mariposa coffee recently viewed the documentary, BLACK GOLD. It is an eye-opening account of the international coffee market and documents the labor-intensive process behind the very coffee we consume (Please read ‘About Us’ for more info regarding this). Most importantly, it follows a man named, Tadesse Meskela as he embarks on a journey to advocate for fair wages for 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy in Ethiopia. The co-operative Tadesse manages is called, Oromia and since viewing this documentary, our team has decided to carry our Ethiopian beans from Oromia.

Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, it has had tremendous social impact and continues to serve as a resource for campaigning to large corporations for fair wages.  For our team, BLACK GOLD put faces to the very causes we support. In addition, it challenged us to consider our consumer lifestyle and our global impact on the rest of the world. In BLACK GOLD, the Malawi Minister for Trade said, “We don’t want aid, we want trade.” Mariposa is proudly taking part in the process to support the movement toward fair wages for these farmers that work so hard to bring forth our coffee. We hope that you will take the time to view this documentary, for it was created with the intention of challenging western media portrayal of Africa. This documentary links the often de-contextualized images depicting poverty in Africa with daily western life.

Fair trade is growing in popularity, especially in the mid-west, yet there is some controversy behind process. There are two main general concerns with fair trade: first, that there is not high enough quality standards for fair trade beans; second, that fair trade is not necessarily providing ‘fair’ wages to the farmers needing the help most.

For example, joining or creating a fair-trade certified co-op requires approximately 3500 USD¹ and those who belong to these co-ops can still sell their green beans on the gourmet market^1,2. Thus, there is the possibility that someone who has enough funds to join the fair trade co-ops is also selling their high quality beans via the gourmet market. If so, this begs the question, are we really helping the disenfranchised farmers? The ones who are truly marginalized may struggle to join these pricey co-ops and only sell their beans on the specialty coffee market. Those farmers who can belong in both fair trade co-op and sell their beans on the typical market then have an advantage over the farmers who are unable to join the co-ops. Viewing Black Gold, assured us that the beans we order from Oromia are checked for quality as well as genuinely helping the marginalized farmers.

As you already know, we are extremely committed to social justice; it is one of our top priorities to source our beans through sources that guarantee fair wages to their farmers.

Watch the trailer here…

Visit the website here.


References:

¹ http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj27n1/cj27n1-9.pdf

² http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/alexsingleton/4019311/The_poverty_of_Fairtrade_coffee/

Ok, so this is long overdue, but better late than never, right?

Thank you for all those that came out to help and support Hearts for Haiti last Friday! There was a great turn out for the last night of Sauced at the Paseo District before they closed their doors. All proceeds from the night were directly donated to the Haiti Earthquake Relief and Rebuilding Project headed by Partner’s in Health. If you’re interested in reading more about PIH, check out their website, www.pih.org.

So, I’m sure you’re awaiting to hear the million dollar question, “how much was donated?” Although it wasn’t a million dollars, we were happy to be able to donate over $600! Let me say it again, $600!

OKC, you should be proud. We have successfully partnered with Partner’s in Health, a world-wide social justice organization devoted to the well being of others throughout the world. Heck, even Harvard Medical is partnered with PIH; we essentially partnered with Harvard! How awesome is that?

This night could not have been accomplished without the help of so many people, artists, musicians, and the community. We have to give a special shout-out to those OU Health Science students that so willingly stepped up to put this event together (in no particular order): Casey Prammanasudh, Caytlin Snodgrass, Michael Wing, Henry Nguyen, Jennifer Salazar, Jessica Sack, Kimberly Davis, and Sarah Warren.

Thanks to Sharon Roberts, Valerie Ledbetter Pulley, Sue Moss-Sullivan, Angela Pace, Lana Wilkens, Jennifer Salazar, Lisa Felman, Adam Davis, Kimberly Davis, Taylor Northern, Bev Crider, Rob Hamm, Chantal Loper, Sheridan Conrad, Candace Robledo, and Deborah van Sweartingen for making the night successful with your great artwork.

Without Queen of Monroe, Zach Winters, Brian Payne, and Cody Criswell, we would’t have had the awesome music to listen to, thank you for sharing your talent!

Last but not least, thanks again to Sauced for providing the venue. We’re sad to see the doors close, but it was an awesome way to go out with a bang!

In our commitment to the rebuilding project in Haiti, Mariposa coffee will also be supporting Partners in Health for the month of September. 15% of all revenue will go directly to the organization.

Missed the show? Don’t worry about it, we’re keeping the info on our site until the end of this month for those that are interested. Click on Hearts for Haiti on the top of our page or follow here.

How embarrassing. We’re glad that we found out from a fellow coffee lover and not from an offended individual.

Apparently the usage of “Sidamo,” the region in which one of our Ethiopian coffees is from is incorrect. Sure, many large coffee conglomerates, and well respected roasteries use the distinction, “Sidamo”  to describe the region of Ethiopian coffee. Heck, it is even used on maps!

“Sidamo,” from our understanding is a derogatory term used to describe the people of the region. The actual and corrected term is “Sidama.” This incorrect distinction is over a century old, where “Sidamo” was used to humiliate the people of Sidama from an invading king.

So, we’d rather be safe than sorry so we apologize for the usage of “Sidamo” out of sheer ignorance. From now on, we’ll be using the corrected term: Sidama.

Even if the people of Sidama don’t care any more, we still want to refer our coffee to be from the correct region, and without offense.

Read more about the incorrect usage of “Sidamo” here and here.