The Challenge of the Rare Roast

Now I know what cutting diamonds feels like (well, sort of).

The rare coffee, cigar, steak or diamond businesses have a few things in common. The product is of the highest standard, the customers know what they are talking about and compare notes, the selection is often worldly and expensive, and learning about these items is fascinating. 

However, the risk accompanying selling these items is high. If there is an error in the order, on the part of the supplier or the vendor, the loss of revenue can be heartbreaking, not to mention unsold inventory if the product does not capture the imagination of the target market. Once in a lifetime Panama Hacienda Esmeralda coffee beans sold at auction at a split section in May requires the marketing power to sell the coffee while the fever about it is high. I imagine the same holds true for the newest Porche or solar technology. A mentor of mine once told me, "Lisa, sales is sales. The rest is romance."

One of rocketfuelcoffee.com's jewels in our line-up is Kopi Luwak. A most wonderful rare bean at $220 per pound, this is the legendary coffee in the movie, "The Bucket List", where Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson vow to drink it before they die. Made from the found droppings of Asian Palm Civets, the coffee is the most expensive and rarest beverage on earth. And it tastes damn good too. Read about it here.With the money and legend of course, comes carpet baggery, forgery and tall tales.

The Bucket List - Kopi Luwak 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVJqwCdzZnw

After 2 years of learning about rare coffee and having all kinds of coffee suppliers call on us to sell all kinds of weird beans, we found two Kopi Luwak bean farmers of repute. Trusted for authenticity, freshness and taste, these guys delivered consistent KL at the agreed price and in packaging that was at rocketfuelcoffee.com standards. Great. However, turns out, like unique, handmade rare products, one day is different than the next and constant supervision of anyone that came in contact with the beans was essential. A day of lighter roasting changed product. One batch, though not 100% proven, appeared to be stolen off site and replaced by an inferior bean and shipped to us. Espionage in rare coffee! Who knew?

We have a supplier who takes care of us on a personal level locally who we can look in the eye and ask what's what. George is my rock in the coffee business and without him I would be nowhere. But Toronto, Canada is not exactly in the coffee belt. Venturing further in the world has been the secret to my great coffees but at what risk and cost? Learning lessons the hard way (ok, the delicious way sometimes) is just something they cannot teach you in business school.

Cheers!

What is RARE coffee?

For a while now, www.rocketfuelcoffee.com has been describing its coffees as rare, and I thought it was about time to explain exactly what that means. To us it does not just mean expensive. Coffee is a passion to us and since drinking these fine brews we have spit more than a few out behind a tree or bush. Nice.

When starting www.rocketfuelcoffee.com,  the first coffee beans we learned about were Jamaican Blue Mountain and Hawaiian Kona varieties. Both were readily available, but shared the same issues in the marketplace. They were often sold fraudulently mixed with other beans to bring the price down. They were also sold as Kona-like or Jamaican style.

So to have 100% pure certified beans, fresh roasted on site from the supplier in Toronto where they were bagged and labeled was a definite marketing point.

The issue here is these beans are only grown in a specific place on earth, and must be certified to be from that place. The same strict rules apply to a fine Cuban cigar, a healthy serving of Single Malt Scotch, a genuine grass fed USDA Prime ribeye steak,  a modest bottle of red wine, or a platter of fresh PEI oysters. Interestingly enough, the price tag on each of these indulgences is $25, give or take.

Back to our rare coffees. www.rocketfuelcoffee.com  follows blogs, auctions, forums and coffee reviews, and one fine resource is the list of the 10 most expensive coffees in the world, of which we have carried four, including Kopi Luwak, Hacienda Esmeralda, Jamaican Blue Mountain and El Socorro, winner of the Cup of Excellence prize. These coffees may only be available in limited quantities and for a short time, but that is what makes them a valued treat.

Adding to the rare pleasure of the www.rocketfuelcoffee.com experience is the artwork on each package. A painting by company owner Lisa Rotenberg, chosen for each coffee variety such as Panama Carmen Estate or Queen Kong Nyeri AA.

Enjoy our rare coffees as each one comes available and watch for new ones as they are announce on Facebook, Twitter or register on our website for updates.

Great Coffee, Cuban Cigars, Single Malt Scotch. Hmmmm... A Theme Here Perhaps?

A Short Espresso, A Long Cigar, A Great Experience.

Over the past couple of years, DH Matthew and I have found some pretty fantastic joys in life. With kids older and off to university, we have discovered that alone time is best spent with fruits of the earth. Since that alone time is precious, the price of that fruit has gone up. Cigarettes are for amateurs as are blended Scotches, bland wines or coffees that do not make your heart sing.

We found that as Matthew's age and career advanced, so did our palate for food and drink. Funny thing, our friends and the arbitrary people we came to meet said the same thing. We learn from each other and most of these folks have lots to say. They know about single malt Scotches, Pino Noir wines, Angus beef and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. I thought we were in a recession?

Fewer friends know of or are tolerant of our Cuban cigar smoking hobby, but on Facebook, Twitter and at my local cigar patio where I am one of two women smokers, the passion is alive and well. When we talk about our favorite "stick", we also talk Scotch, favorite coffees and various other passions including fine wine and art. The men talk golf and soccer of course. No one seems to talk about garbage pick up, their mechanic or plumber or other mortal woes. They do say they wish their wives would pick up the cigar habit!

 

It occurs to me that the cross promotion opportunity here is immense. For Rocketfuelcoffee.com, my rare coffees are the perfect match for the cigar and single malt Scotch enthusiast. Price is not the issue, but is the product genuine and does it deliver on taste. Will a group of friends be satisfied sitting around a table and be proud to serve it? Will your Hawaiian Kona, Jamaican Blue Mountain, or KOPI LUWAK be worth bragging about along with your Cohibas and Glenmorangie?

I can tell you with confidence. Yes. Yes it will.

Cheers!

Coffee 301: What the heck does Bold Coffee mean?

Boldly go where no cup has gone before.

A recent article/discussion about bold coffees on the very informative forum coffeed.com had me fascinated. I could not contribute as I am not accepted as a professional member, so I decided to take keyboard in hand. The issues are many and diverse, from just what is a bold coffee, do you like it and is boldness borne in the bean or does it come later in the roast or perhaps the brew? These issues are right up there with Bethlehem or Nazareth as the true birthplace of Jesus, or which came first, the chicken or the egg?

When it comes to coffee boldness, the marketing litmus paper is Starbucks. As the market leader, why not. They have the beans, the labeling and the human research to decide this stuff. A few years back they re-aligned their coffees by boldness, taking a favorite of mine at the time, Verona, from medium to bold. The extra bolds then became French Roast, Italian Roast and Sumatra etc. Does this mean that on the Starbucks scale, bold is determined by roast?

Here is my conundrum. Have you tasted Starbucks coffee? They basically dump so much product in the pot of water that the coffee is mighty no matter which coffee you ask for. My mom says her heart rate doubles. Therefore, if it is the roast, but the coffee made is stronger than Hercules, what does it matter what "bold" means?

Back to the discussion on coffeed.com, which is for those of us in the specialty coffee business, or who believe the true passion behind coffee is in fresh, quality coffee beans, each chosen for for their origin, taste and variety. Bold may mean the flavors that pop or the kick at the start or finish, or maybe a blend that gets your heart pounding out of your chest.

But it sure means a lot of different things to passionate coffee lovers!