Why would a champion come to visit a coffee farm?

Why do you want to come to the origin and experience the farm tour?

For myself, after I made so many cups of coffee, I wanted to finally see a fresh coffee cherry.

After roasting so many pounds of green beans, I wanted to experience the various ways of processing coffee.

After I read so many books about coffee, I wanted to know the real life of coffee farmers.

I also wanted to enjoy the sunshine and beauty of nature.

……

All champions have a much broader perspective of coffee after visiting Pu 'er.

American Champion shows you how to become a Champion

From seed to cup, coffee origin is an important link in the chain

No matter how good a barista you are, the final taste in the cup has to come from the source. Even if the coffee beans are not of good quality or the barista does not know the natural flavor of the beans it is difficult to make a cup of coffee that shows the best of the coffee beans and makes people satisfied.

Coffee origin comes to a very important part of the whole "coffee chain." Indeed, the farm tour has played a role in leading people to search for the root and explore the source of coffee. For example, one point of the Torch farm tour is to allow everyone to experience the cupping test of "how to maintain a strict beans standard form Torch" . In practice, we will discuss what kind of coffee beans are qualified and what the market needs.

A bridge between coffee farmers and consumption



Fortunately, the efforts of generations of coffee people have not been in vain.  Consumers are gradually adapting to and enjoying what we have created. Whether it is the instant coffee in the past, or the specialty brewing coffee in the present, or the upstart luckin coffee, more and more consumers are trying to drink coffee and are even getting used to it.

By some estimates, China already produces more coffee than Tanzania and Kenya combined, and consumes more than Australia. From 1990 to 2012, the number of coffee shops in China increased from several giants to 75,000. From 2012 to 2017 the number increased to 130,000.

I saw a scene in Shanghai a year ago and it is still fresh in my mind: people riding their bikes in the morning with thermos cups, instead of going to buy fried bread sticks with soybean milk, they go to the cafe on the corner, buy a cup of freshly ground brewing coffee and take it home.

There are three characteristics of coffee consumers today. First, consumers are eager to learn about coffee from the coffee origin. Secondly, consumers will challenge all cafes with their coffee knowledge.

Third, one of the reasons consumers know about coffee is by sharing.

If our market is in such a state that baristas and roasters can not build the "right" bridge between the origin of coffee and the consumers, they will just want to get away with it and eventually be eliminated one day.

Yunnan beans are rising up on the world stage

The right investment of energy and time will pay off.

Torch is very serious to tell you that Yunnan beans are not bad! For WD48 and WD72 hours, the two types of beans that we processed with our own experiment, washed and dry fermentation, have made everyone think they are African beans. However, they are 100% Yunnan coffee beans grown in Yunnan, processed in Yunnan and roasted in Yunnan.

Come to the origin, truly to find the potential of the land: before coffee farmers treat coffee trees like apple trees, orange trees. The soil trace element and the distance between the tree as well as the way of picking and screening are not professional. That causes people who have heard of Yunnan beans, including myself, will shaking heads. Some think of Yunnan coffee not having a place in specialty coffee however it can be changed.

Many coffee farmers do not realize this so it is another important purpose of coming to the origin: to understand the real situation of coffee farmers and the production area, to record the development of the production area, and to improve the quality of coffee together with coffee farmers so that Yunnan coffee beans can be displayed with more and more excellent appearance.

Since the champions also want to visit the farm and promote Yunnan coffee why don't you give it a try and see if it is the same as what you think?

If you have suggestions of improvement for our Farm Tour, you can leave a message and write down your thoughts and feelings. We look forward to your thoughtful feedback.

If you want to know what champions think, please click me

How to experiment？

With so many coffee courses being offered both on and offline, many people are starting to blindly regurgitate what others say.

The specialty coffee industry was started by people that challenged the traditional standard of what coffee was and how it was served.

Let us never stray from that.

To promote a more sustainable coffee chain, we need all of the links to be strong. This requires the baristas, brewers, roasters to continually experiment, push the boundaries, and master their craft.

So in this article I want to talk about doing experiments, and give you 2 examples of an experiment I recently did.

As many of you may have learned in middle school science class, there is something called the “scientific method.”

It is as follows: observation, question, research, hypothesis, experiment, analysis, conclusion.

Observation:

Many brewers have different methods of the bloom, yet they all swear their way is the best.

Stir? Pour slowly? Pour fast? Which ratio is best? Or a 1:2 or even a 1:3?

Question:

What would the effect of changing the bloom temperature and ratio be?

How does changing bloom temperature or ratio affect the overall cup?

Hypothesis:

If I use a lower temperature bloom, then the acidity will be lower.

If I use a higher ratio bloom, then the acidity will be brighter.

Experiment:

It is important to know how to isolate variables. If you change too many variables, you will be shooting in the dark. You won’t know the difference between coincidence, correlation or causation. For example, when I look at one variable, I keep ALL of the other variables constant: dose, ratio, temperature, height, spins, time, etc.

With science, the more objective the better. However, in coffee, TDS and extraction numbers don’t necessarily mean the coffee is delicious. So I will be using TDS, extraction percent, and sensory analysis to compare and contrast the cups.

In any experiment, you need to have all of the variables written down. Be clear which variables you are changing, and which variables you are not changing.

Make sure to write EVERYTHING down: the more information you write down, the better. This will help with analysis, repeatability, and accuracy.

Experiment 1.

In my first experiment I altered the bloom temperature, but kept all other variables the same:

Bloom time, brew temp, dose, ratio, time, grind size.

For this experiment I invited Q grader instructor Marty Pollack, and Sudanese Q Grader Ahmed Tahmer to taste with me and see.

The coffee for this experiment was Torch’s Myanmar Wa State, washed processed coffee. This coffee is a very balanced cup of coffee. It has comfortable acidity, medium sweetness, smooth body, and a clean finish.

Experiment 2.

This experiment was to see how bloom ratio affects the overall cup. I altered the bloom ratio, but kept all other variables the same:

Bloom time, temp, dose, brew ratio, time, grind size.

For this experiment I invited Q grader instructor Marty Pollack to taste with me and see.

The coffee for this experiment was Torch’s Yunnan Zebra Manor Natural processed coffee.

This coffee is a crazy fermented natural. Comfortable acidity, intense sweetness, thick and smooth body, with interesting flavor notes.

Analysis:

At this stage, you just point out trends. Try to get all of the trends out and on paper. This will help you draw conclusions. It is important to not talk about “why” just yet. Just clearly point out “what happened.”

After you identify all of the trends, then take a step back and ask “is there a trend among the trends? Is this trend supported by background research? Why would this be the case?”

My analysis:

Changing the bloom for the clever dripper does not have much impact.

For the v60, the bloom had more of an impact. The TDS and extraction changed, the acidity and balance of the cup were different.

Extracting more out in the beginning, i.e., higher bloom temp and bigger ratio, led to more acidic cups of coffee. Anecdotally, cold brew has low acidity. I have talked with several people that brew cold brew, and they use low temperature water at a long time. The higher temperature led to more harsh acidic tones.

Conclusion:

Combining your background research, experiment and analysis, what can be learned?

My conclusion:

There are not any hard and fast conclusions that can be drawn. If I wanted to be able to make some hard lines that would be true across several coffees and different brew methods, I would have to repeatedly brew the same coffee over and over to get accurate results. Then I would have to brew with several coffees of different origins, densities, varietals, processing methods, roast dates, etc.

However, what I noticed about increasing extraction in the beginning goes with the background research I have done: acids dissolve quicker, but require higher temperature. This is why cold brew made with low temperature is lacking in acidity.

Under-extracted coffee also has a very harsh acidity with an ‘empty’ aftertaste as the sugars have not dissolved fully into the cup yet.

I never want to blindly follow anyone. I want to know why things are the way that they are. Even if someone else has done an experiment and can objectively prove an answer, it is still important to do it yourself. You can know something to be true because someone else said it, or you can know it to be true because you yourself have experienced it.

Experience leads to wisdom.

Future development:

In my opinion this is an important step that is not always highlighted. Sometimes in your quest for an answer, you stumble upon a lot more things that you are curious about. You don’t want to constantly chase rabbit trails, but you need to identify these other questions, so you can put time aside later to find the answers.

This is an important step in creating a feedback loop: what went well, what would you change, what other questions do you have?

My Future Development:

Does the quality of coffee matter? Both coffees I used are 84+ coffees. If I were to use 78-82 coffees, how would the extraction be changed?

In my second experiment I used a grinder that I am not use to using and my brews were all under extracted. Using a grinder I am comfortable with would have led to good extraction. Would a different extraction highlight different aspects of the cup that have been changed?

Maybe.

The world is a beautiful and complex place. We will never know everything, but it is fun to work and uncover some of the mysteries along the way.

The more I learn, the more I realize that I don’t know very much. This practice of being constantly humbled by the complexity of nature is both frustrating and exciting.

Keep on.

Push the boundaries. Master your craft. Honor the work of the farmers.