Welcome to 2020 and our first featured roaster of the year! We hope you had an amazing holiday season; we are pretty sure those who indulged with our Holiday Box, will have!
Before we get into our latest feature, don’t forget that Bean Bros roasted coffee is available on our website, to supplement your subscription, or even to send as a surprise gift to someone who needs great coffee in their life!
This month we feature Lippe, an amazing roaster who goes from strength to strength. We checked in with them and hope you enjoying reading about their work, whilst you enjoy your coffee!
How was 2019 for you?
2019 was a game changer for us at LIPPE. We scaled up our production line with a Loring Peregrine 70 kilo and improved the packaging line. This has helped us a lot, saving our workers backs and wrists in the roasting and packing! We are now rigged for further growth and hope for a great future with the Loring as our pounding heart at the core of our business! We have also had the opportunity to employ two fantastic new people that are eager to bring LIPPE forward and into the future.
What do you have planned for 2020?
For 2020 we have several projects going on. Sustainability is one of them, and those who follow us on social media will see changes regarding this topic in the months to come. On a general basis we will always look out for new and exciting collaboration partners and customers. The market has been changing lately, and LIPPE will seek to adapt and conquer new markets and opportunities and be a proactive and competitive supplier of quality coffee in the years to come. With our new equipment and staff, we are definitely rigged for a bright future
Coffee pop-ups, always fun, and new bag designs as well! What was the plan, did you enjoy and will you be doing more?
Our summer pop up was initiated to give a young and unknown designer an opportunity to try out his skills in the real world. Herman Billett took the challenge and delivered fun and fresh bags for us during the summer. We have not made absolute plans for the year to come, and who knows, maybe another creative soul can have a chance to contribute some other time. Right now, we are back to our regular Henrik Placht design.
Loring roaster – it seems you can’t be an amazing roaster without one of these! How are you finding it and why Loring?
We searched the market for different coffee roaster suppliers for years before ending up with our Loring. Alexander, who is our technical mastermind, was never satisfied with what the producers of roasters were able to deliver. His target is always perfection and it took some time before he was happy with the Loring, which is next to perfect.
The machine is a sturdy and robust instrument in stainless steel. The true beauty of the machine, though, is its energy saving technology as it recycles the warm air inside instead of letting exhaust air straight out the chimney. The Carbon emission is thus lower for a Loring than any other machine we have looked into. Also, the size of our Loring contributes to relatively low use of energy when roasting, compared to our old 15 Kilo Joper.
When the surface to volume ratio decreases, so does the need of energy to heat up the system as there is less heat loss through the surface. You can also roast the same amount of coffee in a shorter period of time compared to a small roaster, thus also reducing the heat loss per kilo produced further. This is an important contribution to efficient and energy saving when roasting.
Other than that, the Loring has a nice built in software that is easy to handle. The machine also responds well to changes in roasting profiles, and coffees tend to turn out crisp and clean as the Loring roasts the coffee with technology that gives you a stable thermal control.
How is your partnership with farmer, Paulina Rosario Xutuc Lopez. From El Mirador, Huehuetenango? (This is not the coffee in our boxes, but a long term relationship for LIPPE.)
We have been buying El Mirador from the Lopez family for almost a decade now. It is nice know that we have contributed to this family’s success and belief in a future at their farm. The old grandmother Paulina was about to give up on her farm as the younger generation saw no hope or future as coffee producers. Prices were simply too low, and the work was too hard for the younger generation to imagine a future in coffee.
Then came Nadine Rasch along from Primavera coffee and saw the quality and potential in the farm and their coffee. The family was offered a substantial amount of money for their effort and decided to keep going and develop their business further instead of abandoning the farm.
It is a touching and rewarding story for us, as a roaster, to see how we have contributed to the farm flourishing. We are also happy to see that the younger generation is eager to stay at the farm and develop it further. We recently got a status update from the farm about the flowering and harvest season and are happy to learn that 2020 looks very promising.
Do you have any competition plans for this year?
We plan to participate in the Nordic roasters competition again this year, although a bit difficult with a Loring Peregrine 70kg!
How do you recommend our subscribers get the best from your coffee this month?
The coffees delivered by us this month are all crisp and juicy with clean elegance and good balance. I recommend hand brew as the best technique for bringing out balance, depth and great aromas.
Our recommendations below are based on non-filtered Oslo tap water, and Mahlköhnig Guatemala Lab grinder, setting 3,4. On a Mazzer ZM filter, we use +/- 0.6mm. Water temperature should be pretty warm, almost boiling, when being added to the pour over kettle, as hand brewing method steals a lot of heat from the water during brewing.
The Los Alpes from Colombia is the richest of the selection and I would recommend a ratio of 60-65 grams of coffee per liter in a Hario hand brew device or similar. Drip should be ready in about 3 minutes 30 seconds, no longer than 4 minutes and no shorter than 2 minutes 30 seconds. An optimal brew should have a TDS of around 1,35-1,5 and an extraction degree of around 20%.
For the Foge and the Juan Gaspar, we recommend a brewing ratio that is a little higher; 65-70 grams of coffee per liter. Both Foge and Juan Gaspar are coffees that give slightly lower extraction than the Los Alpes, and thus need a little more input to become well balanced.
You could also try to adjust the grinder a little finer compared to the Los Alpes in order to get a little more out of the coffee. Be careful when doing this as the coffee might be over extracted if the grinder settings are too fine.
