JordanL

Last month we touched briefly on the longer-term impacts that can result from decisions made in the short term on a coffee farm. This month we wrap up our La Bolsa series with discussion on the farm’s longer-term challenges. 

Finca La Bolsa is in the Huehuetenango state, near the border with Mexico, and the area has been going through a lot of changes over the last decade. One of the biggest impacts on the coffee sector has been the number of agricultural workers leaving the industry – many have emigrated to North America and those staying have found more work in construction. Traditionally these people would have worked on the larger farms in the area, and because of these changes the larger farms have had to either reduce their crop areas (and therefore production) or mechanise more of their processes to work with fewer numbers of workers. Many farms have sold off smaller sections to local families who receive what is known locally as support money from their family abroad. Those remaining have started growing coffee and other produce themselves for the local markets. 

As a medium-sized, family-run farm in Huehuetenango, La Bolsa has also been affected by the local labour conditions. They have reacted by carefully planning their upcoming harvests and having a well-paid and trained team. The family’s focus on building their core team has helped maintain production and deliver quality coffee consistently. Crucial to this is the work of returning farm manager Mercedes Jiménez. Mercedes more recently worked for Anacafé (the National Coffee Association of Guatemala) where she gained expertise and knowledge from other coffee areas of Guatemala. 

One of Mercedes’ many strengths is future planning. She is an advocator of making early decisions so that the next step in a project can be actioned. Mercedes believes the best way of doing this is getting out onto the farm and into the plots where the analysis is completed. Analysis can include soil, plant and climate condition, as well as understanding more about the likely local market conditions. There is no point planning a big rejuvenation of an area of the farm if there are no pickers in three years’ time to collect the harvest. Equally, replanting a plot is almost three years’ worth of work, and must be started well before it is needed with choosing the varietal, gathering the seeds, and preparing the seedbanks. During this time the land needs to be cleared of remaining coffee trees and prepared with mulch to protect the topsoil from erosion. Intercrops such as legumes, which help fix nitrogen into the soil, are often also planted, cared for and harvested. 

Another challenge for the team at La Bolsa has been the changes in the local climate. The dry and rainy seasons are seemingly on the move and becoming less predictable, which combined with the typical La Niña and El Niño pattern, makes planning the harvest challenging. However, there are some interesting opportunities from the changes; land at higher altitude not previously suitable for coffee is now warmer and new plots are being considered. 

We’re looking forward to our next visit to La Bolsa and catching up with the team there. For now, we’ll leave this month with instructions from Mercedes, ‘be efficient, have a strategy, define each activity well’ – words to live by.
Monmouth x

Last month we talked about the crop cycle at La Bolsa and the harvest pattern that is repeated year after year. The first harvest for a coffee tree is usually three years after planting and the trees are typically productive for thirty years or so before being replaced. Farmers either buy in seedlings or select their own seed from their crop. Seed selection is the first critical decision in the tree cycle with a variety of factors all being considered. These include: the cultivar’s ability to resist disease, pests, and climate variability; it’s productivity and cup quality; and the local growing and harvest conditions. The team at Finca La Bolsa have a nursery so they choose seeds to germinate from their own best trees. Siting a nursery on a farm takes consideration. The area must be slightly sloped and well-drained, protected from the elements, and easily accessible. Running a nursery is a full-time job as the plants need irrigation and constant weeding.

Farmers will usually plant 25% more seedlings than required to allow for any problems with the germination or plantlet development. At La Bolsa, seedlings take between 45 to 60 days to germinate and unfold their first leaves. Once standing, they are transferred to their own containers where they have some space to grow and do not have to compete with other plants for nutrients. Between eight to ten months after germination the tiny trees are planted in the field. The team at La Bolsa plant around 25,000 new trees every year. Once in place, the trees will be looked after in the fields and will be in full production within another two years.

The first pruning decisions are made depending on the growing and harvesting conditions. Pruning is one of the best tools a farmer has in regulating their crop and establishing the kind of crop cycle they wish to have on their farm. It is a highly debated topic and there are many ways to go about it – the only consensus is the plant should be kept productive in the most sustainable way for that farm. The team at La Bolsa moved away from selective pruning as it requires a lot of labour and makes the crop volume more difficult to predict. They now have a general three-to-five-year plan with the slower growing varietals left longer between pruning.

As the tree ages, a decision must be made about when to replace it. Any tree not performing as expected will be removed but it may not be immediately replaced. The ideal plot will have trees all roughly the same age, in their own pruning and crop cycles by row. Replacing just a few of these makes for more work across the farm as the new trees will be out of sync with the older ones. The younger trees also find it difficult to compete with the root system of the more established trees. Some plots on the farm will be left semi abandoned and then fully renovated. On our last visit to La Bolsa we saw Ventana Grande, a plot that had been left for three years and was now being planted out with a new varietal for the farm. La Huerta is a plot that is being left while the team decide what to do with it. Growers are always considering the longer-term implications; a poor decision today could mean plants have to be pulled out within a couple of years and a great deal of work is wasted whereas a good decision can mean thirty years of great production and good income.

Monmouth x

It’s always fun to have two coffees from the same farm on the counter at the same time – and this month we have the two La Bolsas. Both are from the same crop, the same varietals and the same processing (traditional washed) method. They differ in a key aspect though – caffeine. After selection at the end of last year’s harvest we sent one lot to Mexico for decaffeination. If you would like to taste the difference this one aspect makes, now is the time to do it. We visited La Bolsa earlier this year. The fruit, which was on the trees then and almost ready to be picked, has now been processed and milled and is on its way to us. Again, we have sent one lot to be decaffeinated and one directly to us. We have been buying this way for a few years now from La Bolsa, and it has become part of the harvest cycle for us.

For the team at La Bolsa, the harvest cycle begins straight after the last one with a tidying of the farm and strategic pruning of the trees, typically in March. Pruning is decided on a three-to-five-year timeframe depending on the varietal and plot location. Last year’s new growth (on the trees not selected for pruning) will be where the flowering begins, and the fruit sets. The flowering is prompted by the first rains after the summer season. This isn’t the beginning of the rainy season, but a signal to the trees that the weather is turning and more rain will be on its way. The flowering typically happens in April in this area and is the best signal of the size of the upcoming harvest. Without this first rain, the flowering won’t happen.

After flowering, the first round of fertilisation is applied, usually in May. Weed control and fumigation happens after this, before the second round of fertilisation. Weed control is primarily done by machete and before any soil improvement, you don’t want those precious nutrients feeding the weeds! Chopped weeds are left on the ground to turn to mulch to help protect the topsoil layer. From here, it is a bit of a waiting game until the fruit starts to set later in the year. However, it is not a quiet time on the farm. New seedlings will be planted out with the start of the rainy season, and then the preparations begin for the start of the harvest.

Depending on the exact time of the flowering, the first pickings at La Bolsa happen in December and this cherry is processed using the natural method. The La Bolsa team wait until the full flush of the crop is under way (typically by mid-January) before processing using the washed method. Fruit is left in bags for up to 36 hours before being sent to the patios (natural) or pulping (for the washed). Cool temperatures during the harvest at La Bolsa allow for this kind of storage of picked cherry. At other farms it would need to go straight to processing to prevent spoilage.

After the harvest and processing is complete, we sample the different lots (varietals, plots, processing days) available to us and make our selection for the year. And then, it all starts again!

Monmouth x

What a glorious start to Spring we are having and a perfect time for a quick catch up.
 
Just landed is our latest annual – 46 – put together to highlight all the coffees we have roasted over our last year with added commentaries on a few interesting bits and bobs. The team have done a wonderful job putting this together, and we must acknowledge the work our green coffee team has done in catching up with the coffee farmers we work with, collecting new farm biographies, and taking some lovely photos of the beautiful terrains they visit. We are a bit late in getting this edition out, but we’re pleased it has arrived and it looks great – you can see copies in our shops, and it is available online.

We have had our now traditional Easter Eggs from Chocolarder on the counter for a couple of weeks. This year we chose Maleku (70% cocoa solids) and Cornish Honeycomb (50% cocoa solids) from the delicious samples sent to us earlier in the year. The eggs are a perfect size for sharing if you’re a nice person, or in your writer’s opinion perfect for one for an amply sized Easter treat.
 
Also for Easter, we have the return of our Easter selection box. You’ll find these in the shops and online. Coffees from Tessema Edima (Ethiopia), La Divina Providencia (El Salvador) and Las Palmeras (Colombia) make a lovely trio – full of bright acidity and fresh fruit flavours to complement the return of Spring. Our usual selection box is also still available. 
 
Over the next few weeks coffees from our new project with the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC) make their way onto the counter. There are some very interesting flavour profiles and farm stories amongst them, including the El Pedregal which at the time of writing has just arrived.
 
We have a lot of coffee changes coming up. Our Malacara A and La Divina Providencia (both El Salvador) will make way for the return of El Morito and Huabal (both Peru). From Brazil, Santa Inês and Senhor Niquinho will replace Irmãs Pereira and Sertão respectively (all Brazil). El Sendero and Bella Vista will also be replaced by Santa Ana and La Bolsa (all Guatemala). If you’re losing a particular favourite in the lineup, the team would be delighted to help you select another. In the shops, you can have a sample made and the online chat is staffed by a real live person. Natural coffee enthusiasts, keep a watch on the arrival of the Tibebu Roba.
 
Happy Easter,
 
Monmouth x

It has been three years since we moved to only using reusable cups for takeaway coffees in our shops. We had made the decision in 2021 and implemented it by March 2022. In the preceding years we had been looking to replace the paper cups that we were using at the time and in researching our options we discovered just how dysfunctional this area of recycling and composting was – and still is.

The takeaway hot drinks industry combined with the waste management industry has yet to really consolidate around a unified approach in which all cafes and similar companies can participate. Defra’s (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) mandatory takeback scheme, which was meant to come into force this year, came close but was officially scrapped at the end of last year. This scheme required all companies selling drinks made into paper cups, with more than ten full-time equivalent employees, to provide dedicated paper cup recycling bins. These bins would be collected by waste management companies and the cups sent to specialist recycling facilities. The bins need to be dedicated because paper cups are not recycled with regular paper or plastics and need to go into their own waste stream. If paper cups are put into mixed or regular recycling, they can cause the entire lot (this could be one full bag or a full lorry depending on interpretation and the sorting facilities) to be deemed contaminated. Contaminated lots are sent to landfill or incineration. It’s important to note that not all paper cups have the plastic (bio or regular) lining which prevents them from being recycled in a paper only recycling stream, but there aren’t many of them that don’t, and most waste sorters will treat them like regular paper cups.

Whichever paper cup is used, the problem is not the cup, the problem is then what happens to it – which maybe makes it the cup’s problem after all. Essentially, the number of coffee cups that are actually recycled is vanishingly small, and the current infrastructure cannot accommodate a good end-of-life solution for the volume of waste produced.

Reusable cups are also not without their own problems. Managing the stock and the washing of our reusable cups has been our biggest challenge over the last couple of years. Managing the additional load on our staff and equipment has taken some thought and this year we are installing a dedicated washer at our roastery specifically for the job. Winterhalter (manufacturer of commercial dishwashers and detergents) has been great in helping us find solutions over this time. There is also the question of how many times a reusable cup needs to be reused before it is considered climate neutral in terms of manufacturing and washing cycles. Ecoffee (the suppliers of our cups) has some interesting information regarding this on their website in their FAQs section.

Over the last few years, we have talked to many companies in our industry who are starting to launch their own reusable cups projects. And rather excitingly, some waste industry specialists are seeing the potential in a cups-as-a-service type scheme. We’re looking forward to seeing what comes of these over the next few years.

Remember your reusable or borrow one of ours for a fiver for as long as you want (refunded to you on return of the cup).

Monmouth x

Finca La Bolsa, Guatemala

While we enjoy the last dregs of winter it’s all go in Central America where the crop is coming in and in Costa Rica the farms are at the peak of their harvest. This is the busiest time of the year on the farm with coffee being picked, processed, and dried – all in a matter of around six to eight weeks. We’re looking forward to visiting all the farms from which we buy coffee in Costa Rica over the next two months to see how the crop is coming in and taste samples. Coffees will need to be rested, graded, and bagged before export, so we expect them to arrive in late Spring.
 
We have just returned from a visit to Guatemala, where we visited Finca La Bolsa, El Sendero Cooperativa, and Finca Bella Vista. The trees were all laden with fruit in the last stages of ripening. Guatemala will begin harvesting now and coffees will arrive in late Spring. We are especially looking forward to Finca Bella Vista arriving. This is a new coffee for us, and we are excited to share their story later in the year.  

La Divina Providencia, El Salvador

The teams at La Divina Providencia and La Bendición (El Salvador) are expecting a bumper crop this year and will be hitting the peak of their harvest over the next few weeks. They have had some interesting weather lately, including a cold and windy front from the north and occasional impressive downpours coming from the Pacific. This weather seems to have cleared and they’re expecting good conditions for drying. We plan to visit both farms and Malacara A in the next month or so.
 
In South America, post-harvest tidy up is in full swing and the last of the harvest is on its way. We’ve had shipments from Peru (Huabal, Finca El Morito, and Amoju) and Brazil (all our favourites including Fazenda do Sertão and Fazenda Irmãs Pereira) land recently. And our container from Bolivia which holds a range of washed, honey, and natural process coffees has just arrived. These will start to come onto our counter over the next few months. Our first container from the Huila main crop in Colombia has also arrived and we will finalise our second in March. The Nariño main crop will be harvested in late Spring to early Summer. Colombia is one of the few countries that has two main crops in opposite times of the year. This is due to their unique weather patterns which are affected by the mountain range that runs along the spine of the country.

Trabocca, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Lastly, to Ethiopia and Kenya. Ethiopia is at the very end of their crop with cherry off the tree and in its final stages of drying and processing. Once ready the coffee will be transported to warehouses in Addis Ababa where it will be rested, dry-milled, graded and bagged. We expect to taste pre-shipment samples from this crop in March. We are travelling to Kenya this month to visit farms and cooperatives and taste new crop samples.
 
Back in London we can expect a lot of changes coming to the counter in Spring as the new crops start to arrive. We’re also planning some storage solutions at our Dockley Road shop in Bermondsey, and a new cup washing area at our roastery for our reusable cups.
 
Monmouth x

We’re going to start 2025 off with a topic we don’t often talk about – the coffee futures market. You may have noticed over the last few months a fair amount of reporting on the commodity coffee market and its record prices. We don’t usually pay too much attention to the commodity market because it isn’t our area of expertise and as we buy all our coffees based on their flavour profile, and we pay a premium for the quality, the commodity prices don’t often factor in to our thoughts. However, 2024 saw record prices in both the Arabica and Robusta futures markets and to give the records some context it’s useful to go back to the frost of July 2021 in Brazil.

The July frost in Brazil led to an estimated 10% loss of production during the harvest and came at a particularly difficult time. The frost hit after a period of tricky growing and shipping conditions and caused a spike in the Arabica futures market. This has been followed by drought and wildfires during 2024. Brazil is by far the largest coffee producing country in the world and what happens there has corresponding impacts on all coffee markets. Commodity grade buyers found themselves priced out of the Arabica market and turned to Robusta coffee from Vietnam. Vietnam is the second largest coffee grower, and the largest grower of Robusta.

But over the last few years Vietnam has faced its own challenges. The country has shifted from the El Niño weather pattern to the La Niña pattern. This change in weather affected the Robusta crop, and by 2024, the harvest was estimated to be down by 20%. In our view, this decrease in production, alongside the problems in Brazil, has led to nervousness and speculation in the futures markets. Both the Arabica and Robusta futures markets are up by over 60% during 2024.

Many commentators in the industry consider the commodity markets to be overpriced but as there is a world of speculative trading that happens in the commodity markets, it’s impossible to know if that’s true. The next harvests from Brazil and Vietnam will show the extent of short stocks in coffee and if these price increases will feed into the specialty, quality-focussed areas of growing. As large buyers compete for Robusta coffee, some may be forced into the Arabica market, which may put further pressure on farm-gate pricing. This could be great for farmers who sell into the commodity markets – if they receive the increases. Most coffee farmers sell cherry. The price they receive has more to do with their local conditions, and whether the coffee cherry traders and cooperatives have buyers contracted and ready to fix their position. When the futures markets are high, these buyers often wait for a dip or correction before finalising their contracts.

We buy coffee and agree prices based on the quality of the coffee, costs of production, and local conditions. However, we are not immune to the impact of a frost in Brazil, a drought in Vietnam, or a run on the futures market and we may yet see the current conditions impact on the way we buy coffee over the next couple of years. Stability is highly valued in farming, and we will continue to value the relationships we have, some of which go back decades.

Best wishes for 2025.

Monmouth x   

Oh it’s an exciting month! Panettone from Pasticceria Triestina Ulcigrai have arrived and taken their place on the counter alongside chocolate-covered hazelnuts and chocolate bars (Öko Caribe and Maleku) from Chocolarder. Add in some of your own favourites and you have a solid sweet-treats-table for the season. You’ll need some coffee obviously and what better way to start than with our traditional Christmas choices. Remember you can sample any of the coffees in our shops, so if your favourite isn’t there, we can help you find your next. Online, feel free to chat to our real-live team during office hours, they will be able to help with a recommendation.

First up, no surprise we have Finca Malacara from El Salvador, and as a bonus we have two coffees from this farm on the counter this year. The first is the Red Bourbon which we have known, loved, and recommended for many years. And the second is the SL28, a new varietal on the farm which has notes of the sweetest persimmon and nougat. It’s a super choice if you’re looking for something the same but different and will go very nicely with a small (or big) plate of something sweet.

If you’re looking for a big, bold coffee that will get the job done look no further than Fazenda IP and Decaffeinated Fazenda IP from Brazil. The first will get you out of bed to walk the dog before the lunch preparations and the second will help, not hinder, the needed deep sleep afterwards.

Arriving on the counter this month we have the new crop from Nariño, Colombia. Perla del Valle and El Troje both have classical Nariño profiles of fresh-fruit notes and a pleasing acidity. We have been buying from Perla del Valle for over ten years now. They were one of the first coffee farms we bought from in Nariño, and it feels like a nice celebration to have it available for Christmas.

If it is natural funk you’re after try Finca La Llama, or if that runs out before Christmas its replacement La Linda (Bolivia). Both have heavy, dried-fruit notes, which along with some boozy acidity make a stand-up addition to the Christmas pud.

For us it’s not just any regular Christmas this year, it’s also the opening of our new shop in Dockley Road, Spa Terminus – Bermondsey. Keep an eye on @monmouthcoffee on Instagram for the opening days and times. The team have done a wonderful job getting the site ready and open for Christmas. Special thanks to Ross, James, Sam, Tom, Dom, and Serge for putting in the extra effort to make this happen for us.

That’s it! Happy Christmas and may all the good coffees come your way.

Monmouth x

Last month, we had the great pleasure of welcoming Mike Longman and Becca Lazar from Chocolarder (Falmouth, Cornwall) to our roastery for a staff evening which began with a chocolate and coffee pairing. The two products have so much in common at farm level and it was great fun seeing how different flavours can match or complement each other. Who doesn’t love a sip of the good stuff while eating the good stuff! Afterwards, we sat down to hear from Mike and Becca how the company started, what makes them different in the world of chocolate and their current projects and challenges.
 
Mike is a chef by training. From working in some of the best and most rigorous kitchens, he developed a love for making everything from scratch from the most local ingredients possible. Obviously, with chocolate the two raw ingredients of cacao and sugar are not local, but all the additions and flavour combinations are sourced as close to the chocolate factory as possible. Chocolarder is one of the very few small-batch, bean to bar chocolate makers in the UK. There is a difference between chocolate makers and chocolatiers. Chocolate makers make chocolate from the raw ingredients, making their own cocoa butter and cocoa solids from cacao beans. Chocolatiers source those ingredients pre-processed into large slabs and then work them into chocolate bars and confectionaries. The distinction is important in the world of chocolate. By having complete control of the entire process, Chocolarder can celebrate and highlight the flavours of each farm and areas from which they buy.
 
Chocolarder are equally enthusiastic about their machinery. From the beginning, they have sourced and repurposed antique equipment, which is all held together it seems by sheer will and inventiveness. The machines are all individually named, from Mr McKracken the cocoa bean cracker to Enzo the chocolate bar wrapper. Enzo is a masterpiece of traditional engineering (long before the days of CAD drawings and computer algorithms) with 980 moving parts that are serviced and maintained by the Chocolarder team. Asked how they keep such individual machinery running (long after they were stopped being serviced let alone manufactured), the answer was “Cornwall”. Mike and Becca have a super team of makers and engineers around them that help keep the equipment running and the chocolate pouring.
 
We covered a lot of ground over the evening and spent some time talking about the challenges growing cacao and the cocoa industry. The botany and agronomy side are particularly interesting. It is a bit of a bonkers crop to see growing. The cacao pods grow from the trunk of the tree and vary in size from a small rugby ball to a larger one. They ripen to various deep yellows, reds, purples, and all the shades in between and each pod contains 80 to 100 beans. The beans are encapsulated by shells, which are held together by a sweet, white pith. It is this pith that is fermented off the shells. Fermentation can take around a week and is followed by drying. The pollination of the flowers for the following crop is extraordinary; each bean is individually pollinated which means there can sometimes be up to eight or nine different varietals in each pod.
 
We could go on, but let’s enjoy the truffles we have on the counter and anticipate bars and chocolate-covered-hazelnuts for Christmas! See Chocolarder.com for more information.
 
Monmouth x

Autumn is a busy time for the green team at Monmouth as we make final preparations for coffees arriving at the end of this year and the first few months of the next.

Last month in Brazil we completed our buying from the new crop. We travel each year to Carmo Coffees in Minas Gerais where we select coffees for our counter, and the Brazil component of our Monmouth Espresso. Brazil is the largest (in size and volume) coffee producing country in the world. They typically account for around a third of the world-wide crop and news in coffee in Brazil will impact the entire industry. Post-harvest, Brazil is going through an extended dry spell which may delay flowering for next year’s crop. We are anticipating that this might mean a late crop next year but there will be a lot of weather between now and then, so this isn’t certain.

There has been a trucker’s strike in Colombia which has meant delays in shipping our final containers from the main crop in Narino, and the mitaca crop in Huila. The government announced an increase in diesel prices which prompted the trucking companies to protest. Goods, agricultural and manufactured, are mostly transported by truck in Colombia. It is a huge industry and increases in costs mean increases for everyone. The Colombian government argue that diesel has been subsidised for too long and that it is unsustainable. Removal of the subsidy is part of a wider group of economic decisions that are proving to be unpopular. The truckers are also protesting at general conditions and safety on the road.

We have selected our new crop coffees from Bolivia and Peru. Coffee in these two countries is usually harvested around a month or two later than Brazil, so are only now being hulled, rested, graded and readied for export. We are pleased with the selections we’ve made and look forward to seeing these coffees on our counter in December and January.

Over the next month or so we will finalise our shipments from South America and organise delivery into the warehouses. Our next buying will be in Huila, Colombia where the main crop will be harvested from November to January. After which we will be heading straight into the Central America harvest season which starts early in the new year. Most of the farms in Central America have finished their in-between crop tidy up and projects.

Descamex (the company which decaffeinates our decaffeinated coffee) have begun building a new plant in Brazil. This will mean that from mid to late 2025 Decaf Fazenda IP (Brazil) will be decaffeinated in Brazil rather than Mexico. Our La Bolsa Decaf (Guatemala) will continue to go to Mexico for processing. This is an exciting project for Descamex, and we look forward to visiting the new facilities when they are open.

Our Dockley shop project continues, at time of writing Tom the carpenter has been working on the oak table and a reformatted counter. We have had to adjust our plans to accommodate a new boiler for our filter coffees as the model we have been using for possibly two decades is no longer in production. The oak table is coming along nicely. It is being made from salvaged oak pews and will run to three meters long. They don’t make trees like that anymore, that’s for sure.

Monmouth x