we've been frantically cupping coffees of late. nothing like what Duane and those folks experience in the CoE judging (6 and more flights a day) but still enough to make me jittery even if i spit.

general thoughts from the cuppings... while we're seeing some really amazing coffees on the table, there are still far too many samples that show defect. in one flight we found that 2/3 of the cups had defect. given that we're only buying the top coffees and only working with the top farms, co-ops and importers and given that we have a reputation for being willing to pay for top coffees but only being interested in top coffees... i don't understand how this happens.

on the other hand, there have been some really outrageous coffees. standouts have included our current Yirgacheffe, a sample Guat or two, a sample Harar and our current Mandheling.

we've also been pulling a bunch of different coffees as single origin espressos to see how they're evolving. it's been very interesting. i'm sure there are some lessons and conclusions but right now it's all too complicated in my brain for me to parse.

i've been really focusing on understanding taste and flavour of late. it's an incredibly interesting and important topic. it shocks me how little we all know about this.