100 Year Celebrations

And the winner of our instagram competition is Sparks Coffee Roasters with an amazing photo and describing what quality coffee is all about! Check out the post here. Enjoy the 2-day roasting consultation with Anne Cooper!

Thanks to everyone else for their entries! We thoroughly enjoyed seeing and reading what quality coffee means to you all!

For the whole month of July, we will be doubling our contribution per bag of Indian Tiger Mountain to the WildCats Conservation Alliance (formerly 21^st Century Tiger). WCA is an organisation that Bennetts has been supporting since 2006 and have donated just shy of $60,000 USD to help tigers survive in the wild. We are excited to do this as part of our centenary celebrations and hope to crack the $60,000 mark in the coming weeks! To see what they do, check out their website here.

Update from the Bennetts Team

In the month of July, the Bennetts team are very excited to be moving into our brand new renovated space! We will be holding an open cupping later in the month for everyone to come and see what our new hub!

Director Scott is visiting PNG coffee growing regions mid-month after hopefully completing a life-long goal of walking part of the Kokoda Track. Scott is looking forward to seeing how coffee production has developed over the past few years, so stay tuned for his sentiments on PNG. 

As a team consensus we are tipping Uruguay to take the World Cup Champions honour! This might be largely influenced by team member Alex who so happens to have Uruguayan heritage.

Bennetts would like to congratulate Agnieszka Rojewska on becoming the first female WBC champion! 

Origin News – Guatemala

Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) erupted in early June causing massive damage and loss of life. The coffee growing areas of Antigua (a main sourcing area of Bennetts) and the nearby Guatemala City have been hit with a large volume of ash blanketing.

Guatemalan coffee association Anacafé says it estimates that the eruption of the Fuego volcano has affected approximately 1 per cent of national production (roughly 30,000 60-kg bags).

Coffee farmers in low risk areas that are able to safely return to their farms have been advised to shake down their trees and irrigate seedlings as much as possible to clear away as much of the ash as possible to prevent any long-term damage.

Despite the devastating consequences of the volcano, it has been an active part in the unique flavours that come from this region. Volcán de Fuego provides essential nutrients to the surrounding farms. The ash creates mineral rich soils that also have high pumice content which helps to retain a consistent level of moisture in the soil. This aids farmers to deal with low rain fall in the area.

Our thoughts are with the people of Guatemala during this difficult time.

The Coffee Industry 

This month the NY “c” market managed to drop as low as 114 US cents per pound and it seems as though it will stabilise around 118 US cents at months end. Across the other side of the North Atlantic, the London Robusta market dropped below 1700 US dollars per tonne a few times in June. The Robusta market is in a short-term backwardation where the spot price is higher than the forward price.

The low prices are due to a forecast that there will be an increase in the 18/19 crop harvest along with the weak Brazilian Real and stable internal price fetching a better price for the farmers. We’re seeing an increased production in Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam for 18/19.

In other news, despite California ruling that coffee must carry cancer warnings last month, this month scientists have successfully treated type 2 diabetes using coffee in lab mice. Across in Africa the record for the highest price ever paid for an African coffee has been broken by Gesha Village. The lot fetched $105 US dollars per pound ($313 AUD/kg). In Australia, the Federal Government is being urged to phase-out single use plastics, this includes plastic lined coffee cups. 

‘Having freshly landed this week, my selection is our fresh crop Ethiopia Limou Gera Farm Gr1. Having a well-balanced melody of lemon, lime, blackcurrant, pineapple and orange this coffee is sure to excite your tastebuds. We scored it 86.75 internally which can be partly attributed to its complex sweet acidity and delicate tea like body. We are looking forward to putting a batch of this through the office filter coffee machine!’ – Scott

The Gera Farm uses sustainable production methods with no chemical fertilisers or insecticides. Additionally, the coffee is grown beneath a canopy of shade trees helping to prevent erosion and conserve water. Farm employees benefit directly from the sale of this coffee. Money is funnelled back into the community to provide housing, schooling, health care services and recreational facilities for workers and their families. Check it out here. 

Enjoy the Month of July!

From,

The Bennetts Team