We recently used our 15% to purchase art supplies for the talented entrepenuers of Bee’s Knees. Bee’s Knees is a program of Youth & Family Services, Inc., a non-profit, community-based charitable organization based in El Reno, Oklahoma. The mission of Bee’s Knees is to encourage independence, promote self-sufficiency for young adults with special needs through entrepeurial experiences and business skills. The entrepreneurs of Bee’s Knees create handmade functional products and original one-of-akind masterpeices to sell at various venues and exhibits. All proceeds from their products sold benefit the program through purchase of supplies, afurther pursue forms of entrepreneurship, and social activities.

During this past year, one of the Mariposa team members had the opporutnity to serve as a LEND intern and was exposed to the myriad of challenges and triumphs that accompany children with special needs and their families. As a result, I had the opproutnity to meet several of the youth that create art fo Bee’s Knees at this year’s State Autism Conference and Governor’s Conference honoring those with disabilities. Please check out their accomplishments at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bees-Knees/106361136062973?sk=wall

Visit them at the Paseo Art Walk in January!

Check out their 2012 calendar – all proceeds go to their program!

Listen to free music on his website: http://zachwintersmusic.com/.

For more information, see the event on Facebook, cover is $7 at the door.

If you haven’t been by, we think you should not only try out the delectable cuisine Benvenuti’s has to offer, but also their custom blend roasted by us! Benvenuti’s Blend #2 is an exclusive only to Benvenuti’s. You won’t find it anywhere else. Benvenuti’s is our first custom blended customer and we are pleased to see that their patrons are really enjoying their blend!

Taste notes: earthy and nutty aroma; marshmallow and strawberries; and a nice clean finish of slightly tart cherries, mild chocolate, toffee and caramel.

This is a truly delicious coffee that pairs very nicely with any of one their desserts. Enjoy it by the cup or take home a pound after enjoying it at Benvenuti’s!

http://benvenutisristorante.com/

Happy National Coffee Day to all our coffee fans! We’re hopeful that Mariposa will have an international presence one day. In the mean time, keep enjoying that Mariposa coffee!

Remember, you can get our coffee at Forward Foods, Shop Good in OKC, or Benvenuti’s Ristorante.

Thanks for your support and love, we couldn’t do it without you!

Megan, meet everyone. Everyone, meet Megan. Megan is playing a very essential support role, and is helping with future planning for Mariposa. We just thought it was about time to introduce her!

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!

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!