A Nice Cuppa

Direct Trade Certified beans of beauty with a hip name and a clever game.

I attended a Counter Coffee Culture tasting at Dean and Deluca recently, but I only got to try out a few. Here are the specs from Dean and Deluca’s online catalog for “Ndaroini-Nyeri … a Kenyan coffee is intensely flavorful, exquisitely rich, and bound by rules of law that make its purchase complicated to say the least. Our buyers are undeterred, seeking out the most flavorful ’single lots’ at auction directly from the farms that produce them. These pure, unblended coffee beans yield the Ndaroini-Nyeri coffee: bright, intense, with notes of blackcurrant, tropical fruit and dark chocolate. Born of beans directly purchased for a fair price from the farmers who grew them.”  Now can you say this three times? Thank goodness you don’t have to….

I found it hard to resist the intelligent process Counter Culture Coffee projects, so I delved a bit deeper on their website to find they are a veritable National
Geographic spread of expansive collaborations. Their team of Coffee People enjoy the cultural exchange of traveling anywhere from the Asia & The Pacific to Africa where locals might be bedecked in a brilliant plumage of feathers and leaves or wrapped in silk and satin head dresses of Sumatra stylings. I would be much too sleepy at first, to pronounce their “Doluk Sanggul” Sumatra coffee, but I would like to try it!

Their brochure reads: “Traditionally cultivated in the remote community of Dolok Sanggul-located near the giant Lake Toba in the mountains of Lintong, Sumatra—this unique coffee offers flavors of savory herb and spice, profound depth, and a smooth, syrupy body.” Dreaming of these skilled artisans plucking the berries would surely add to my fanciful awakening to clear and focused breakfast space. I might even wear a sarong too. What about the beans? They have some serious bragging rights, touting sacred beans sourced according to strict ethical policy of “Direct Trade Certification, sustainable, and basically serious about being green and treating their Moka-Java crew with love.”

Exotic micro lots equivalent to a Grand Cru or small batch of luscious beans of beauty are rare but an occaisional treat. Now here is a concept that reminds me an awful lot of the love that is applied to single origin teas.  Looks like I am going Counter Coffee Culture straying from my tea. Roasted fresh to each online order.12 oz goes for $15.00

Photos courtesy of: Counter Culture Coffee