Coffee from... Myanmar?

Yes, there is an awful lot of coffee in Brazil... and in Myanmar (Burma) too!

In anticipation of sanctions being lifted on exports from Myanmar, we have been sampling a new source of coffee from a company that is trying to work with promising producers who need a hand up to upgrade their equipment and find new markets for their coffee.

This Myanmar blend of Bourbon and Typica Arabicas is dry-process and sun ripened. The green beans came in looking beautiful... very clean and few defects. It roasted evenly, puffed to an impressive roasted bean size, and has its own unique flavor profile that is a nice cross bewteen Indonesia-style Arabicas and Vietnamese Bourbon style of Arabica.

We've been loving it as a single-source blended Arabica (grown on one farm cooperative) or pairing it with some Dalat peaberry Robusta for a very broad flavor profile that seems to appeal to everybody. It's been my go-to coffee or blend (I like to play with beans) for the last couple of weeks but I have decided to lay off it for a bit so that we can have enough of the 25-kilo test run to go around for such time until Hillary decides to let Myanmar residents begin to create their own wealth by exporting. Right now the State Department is allowing US businesses to go in and rip-off (I mean purchase) Myanmar assets and land but we won't allow the individuals or small businesses there to generate income from exporting to the USA. Politics is so wonderful....

I spoke today with SE Asia clothing importers who have a wonderful shop in Rockport MA who tell me that they could "see the progress day by day" when they were in Myanmar recently, the effect of the lifting of sanctions by European and other countries. This most disadvantaged country has great prospects for an improved standard of living soon. Hopefully we will resolve the issues with the ruling military government for the benefit of all, including those of us who want to drink some delicious Myanmar coffee.

As always, we buy direct from the producers, and we pay the asking price. This form of direct trade is far better than buying through the commodities market or Fair Trade, which only assists certain producers to get a somewhat higher market price. Direct trade often puts 200% as much money directly into the hands of the coffee farmers, and we are proud to be Direct Trade buyers.

We have made 4-ounce packages available of this limited 25-kilo trial at Myanmar Coffee (we've limited sales to one per customer for the time being). We would very much appreciate YOUR comments on this Myanmar coffee, and it will help us know what volume to bring in when exports are enabled again.

Update October 2011

We are settled in to our new digs at 9 Jerome Street and have resumed our Brewology Seminar events.Our seminars are being successfully promoted on Groupon, Google, and other coupon companies!

The Sumatra Lintong and our own blend of Philippine Liberica and Lintong (Lenberica- ouch!) have exceeded expectations on how quickly people have been adopting these coffees. The Lintong has an amazing aroma that brings exclamations of "I want you to bottle that aroma!" We don't know if the Lintong itself is totally responsible or the really fine roasting job Mystic Coffee Roaster is doing for us on this coffee. We are running down on our initial supply of this coffee but we have reserved 10 60-kilo sacks of green from the new harvest that should be arriving in November.

Lately you may have noticed we have been out of many coffees. During the move we did not make any large orders, and we assumed that the usual summer slowdown would kick in. Instead, August and September kicked up gangbusters and orders were running 200% of the same time last year, quickly depleting our supplies of some coffees. Some people, when they see these shortages, make large orders to avoid the expected next shortage, but we want to advise everybody that we do have a lot of these coffees on order, and we also expect that in December there will be some price reductions on favorite items due to much lower shipping costs. Apparently there is a dearth of international shipping right now and rates are at almost a record low, so since high shipping costs have been driving our recent price increases, we will see improvements. So don't feel the need to stock up, the trends are improving.

We are excited to be receiving new week our first shipment of Indochine Estates prized Dalat Bourbon Arabica in green unroasted beans. We will be experimenting with special fresh roasts using these high-body, low-acid, rich-tasting Bourbon Arabica beans, so watch for some new blends and announcements.