February
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Last week, our Head Roaster, Eric Stone, participated in the US Roaster Championship Qualifier held in Houston, Texas. The event brought together 32 talented competitors, all vying for a chance to showcase their roasting skills on a national stage. Each participant was tasked with roasting the same coffee to the best of their abilities. What made this competition particularly thrilling was the blind judging process. All roasts were evaluated without any knowledge of who roasted them, putting the focus solely on the quality of the coffee.
Competitors were judged not only on the overall flavor profile of their roasted coffee but also on how well they adhered to their intended roast plan recipe. Factors such as intended roast level, weight loss, and temperatures were all checked for accuracy. Precision in execution became just as crucial as the final taste.
We are thrilled to share that Eric Stone secured a spot in the top 10, clinching the 9th place. The journey to this achievement was filled with meticulous planning, countless hours of practice, and a passion for the art of roasting. It was an honor for Eric Stone to be recognized among such a talented pool of competitors.
Eric, has been a regular competitor in the US Roaster Championship and regularly makes appearances in the national finals. In 2016, his first year competing, he placed as high as 3rd. Since then, the competition has evolved and now better reflects the world competition format. Eric Stone’s passion for the art of roasting and meticulous planning has helped him secure a spot in the top 10 again this year. He says that these competitions are always great learning experiences and a fun way to stay engaged with the specialty coffee community. We are proud of Eric Stone’s achievements and wish him the best of luck for the national roasting championship finals in April.
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Free, fun classes exploring the world of specialty coffee.
These monthly events are designed to unlock the specialty coffee experience —become more knowledgeable about coffee, equipment, and integrate both into your home. All classes are taught by Buck Patterson—who has years of coffee experience, knowledge, and a passion for coffee knowledge and equipment.
Location: CODE Building lobby in the Downtown Mall
240 W. Main St. Charlottesville, VA 22902
RSVP for these free classes via the Eventbrite link below each class.
Jan 12, 2024 @ 6:30 pm —Triangulation of Single Origin Coffees
One of the key skills tested in when becoming a licensed Q grader, triangulating is an exercise that rapidly develops your ability to compare and contrast coffees.
COMING SOON:
February, 9 2024 @ 6:30 pm — Latte Art Class (make a heart)
If you've ever wondered how they make those beautiful designs in your latte—here is your chance to take a try! Perfect for a date night with partners or friends.
]]>Featuring a public raffle with proceeds benefiting One80 Place in Charleston
October 2023; Charleston, SC — On October 26, 2023 Mudhouse Specialty Coffee Roasters will be hosting a latte art throwdown at its Charleston location (375 King St. Charleston, SC 29401) with Balzac Brothers & Company. The competition is open to all local baristas and there is a $5 sign up fee. The winner will receive the entry pot and a gift package from Acaia Coffee Brewing Systems. Second and third place winners will receive gifts from Brewista Coffee Equipment and Chemex respectively. Sign ups begin at 6:30 PM with the competition beginning at 7:00 PM.
Throughout the competition there will be a public raffle with 100% of the proceeds benefiting One80 Place. Raffle items include contributions from Hario, Candlefish, Images Art Gallery, Tijon, Earth Fare, Bistronomy by Nico, Point Break Coffee & Drive Thru, Bodum Coffee, and Brewista
The competition is free for the public to watch and will be live-streamed on the Mudhouse social media channels.
If you have questions about participation please email areamgr@mudhouse.com.
ABOUT MUDHOUSE SPECIALTY COFFEE ROASTERS
Starting from a coffee cart over 30 years ago, Mudhouse Specialty Coffee Roasters has grown into a multi-cafe business with an award-winning roastery and experimental coffee farm in Volcan Baru, Panama. Winner of Roast Magazine’s Micro Roaster of the Year, multiple Good Food Awards, and a triple medalist in the Golden Bean 2023—Mudhouse is founded on the pledge to source coffees that are of exceptional quality and are grown in a socially responsible and ecologically sustainable manner. Mudhouse fosters direct trade relationships with dedicated farmers and producers around the world and builds relationships of trust and understanding with their importers. They are based in Charlottesville, VA and opened their Charleston location in 2023.
ABOUT BALZAC BROTHER AND COMPANY
Balzac Brothers is a small, independent, 4th generation family owned and operated green coffee importer. They have cultivated relationships with their producing partners for over a century and can leverage their wide range of direct origin connections to provide truly sustainable, responsible, and traceable value to customers all around North America.
ABOUT ONE80 PLACE
One80 Place provides temporary, transitional, and permanent housing and supportive services to homeless men, women, Veterans, and families. They are the largest provider of supportive services for individuals and families experiencing homelessness in South Carolina and operate in 20 counties. One80 Place programming includes counseling and case management, community kitchen and food rescues, a health clinic, legal services, employment and educational services, veterans services, eviction prevention programs, and housing assistance. All of these are integrated to help folks return to self-sufficiency.
One80 Place’s original shelter opened in 1984, and they are presently located at 35 Walnut St. In the future they plan to have a location at 573 Meeting Street which will house 70 units of affordable housing, new family shelter, and One80 eats.
One80 Place Mission and Brief Background
Stats
Most recently, in FY22 (July 2, 2021 - June 30, 2022), One80Place:
-Served 1,696 people;
-Ended homelessness for 945 people, including 488 Veterans;
-Prevented homelessness for 482 people;
-sheltered 425 people;
-Rescued 158,437 pounds of food and served 90,501 meals
-Resolved 619 legal issues;
-Provided 2,245 medical services
Lowcountry Continuum of Care, Outreach, and Housing Crisis Line
Barriers and Wrap Around Services Helping to Break Barriers
One80 Place Case Managers work with clients to help them increase their income and educate themselves on money management. Case Managers help families with access to free childcare, summer camps, and parenting tools workshops
Hario- Deep Sea V60's, pack of filters, Glass V60 kit and a Skerton Hand Grinder.
Candlefish- Gift Basket; including candles, matches, and a gift card for 2 spots in a candle making workshops
Images Art Gallery - 2 art pieces photographed by the talented Don & Jen Bennett
Tijon - Class on scent making
Earth Fare - Charcuterie basket
Bistronomy by Nico - Basket & gift card
Point Break Coffee & Drive Thru - Merch Basket
Bodum Coffee - Set of latte art mugs
Brewista - Tornado Duo, X Series Server, Smart Scale 11
Balzac Brothers, Andrew Curry, Alex Blake Photography
October 19, 2023 @ 6:30 pm —How to Brew with a Hario V-60 & Hario Mugen
Transportable and convenient, the Hario V-60 and Hario Mugen take up little cabinet or suitcase space. Join coffee professional Buck Patterson for a free class at our CODE location and learn how to make the most of these versatile brewers.Get one for your Fall travels with 10% off V-60 Brewers & Filters.
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Our October Benefit Day will support the International Rescue Committee (@rescueorg). 10% of all sales on Thursday, October 19 at our 10th St. location will be donated.
ABOUT THE IRC
The IRC in Charlottesville has resettled over 5,000 refugees since opening its doors 25 years ago. The IRC serves refugees upon initial arrival and throughout their early years in the United States, by providing housing, benefits enrollment, job readiness training, employment services, school enrollment, healthcare coordination, cultural orientation, and language learning and interpretation. The IRC in Charlottesville has resettled over 5,000 refugees since opening its doors 25 years ago. The IRC serves refugees upon initial arrival and throughout their early years in the United States, by providing housing, benefits enrollment, job readiness training, employment services, school enrollment, healthcare coordination, cultural orientation, and language learning and interpretation. The IRC offers intensive case management for people with challenging issues, provides financial coaching and credit building services to secure refugees' long-term financial stability, engages with youth enrolled in local schools to support academic and social integration, and works to ensure that each person has the holistic support they require. Our New Roots program provides refugees and other community members the opportunity to rent plots on which to grow culturally appropriate food, both in support of their families and to produce income at local farmers markets. Finally, the IRC offers interpretation and immigration services to the wider community. Supporting the IRC in Charlottesville means giving people who have experienced tremendous hardship and turmoil a chance to recover and thrive in a new environment.
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Available for free at all five Mudhouse locations— join us to pair Mudhouse's single origin coffees with chocolates from Odyssey Chocolates and unlock a truly delicious experience.
Session Schedule—All locations 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
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Following the success of our August Mudhouse Coffee Session featuring our three recent Golden Bean Bronze Medalist coffees—we're excited to announce the September Mudhouse Coffee Session. This event will feature the brand new blends of our best-sellling snapchilled coffees—including our brilliant new Ethiopian Hamasho, a Golden Bean Bronze Medal winner.
These sessions will take place at all five of our locations on Friday, September 22—join us to learn about the new roasts, the process, and to try these amazing new coffees. There is no cost and are on-going (no set times, stop by anytime during the location window).
Take the experience home with 10% off four-packs.
Schedule
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These monthly events are designed to unlock the specialty coffee experience —become more knowledgeable about coffee, equipment, and integrate both into your home. All classes are taught by Buck Patterson—who has years of coffee experience, knowledge, and a passion for coffee knowledge and equipment.
Location: CODE Building lobby in the Downtown Mall
240 W. Main St. Charlottesville, VA 22902
RSVP for these free classes via the Eventbrite link below each class.
December 14, 2023 @ 6:30 pm —Instant Coffee
Learn the special way Mudhouse's instant coffee captures the same high quality taste as our whole bean coffee. Then try all six of our instant coffee options—and take some for stocking stuffers with 10% off.
Check back for more Coffee Classes for Spring 2024.
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Host a Mudhouse Happy Hour in the Code Lobby or a presentation in CODE's Irving Theater. Public or private events welcome—send an email with your event details and let's get started!
Last week the Golden Bean North America Competition took place in Columbus, Ohio. Part competition, part conference, Golden Bean North America is an annual event that celebrates excellence in coffee roasting across the North American region. This competition invites coffee roasters from the United States and Canada to showcase their skill and craftsmanship. Entries are blind-tasted and evaluated by experienced judges who assess a range of factors including flavor, aroma, acidity, body, and balance. The competition features various categories such as espresso, milk-based espresso drinks, and filter coffee, with top-scoring coffees earning medals and recognition. We are honored to announce that this year 3 of our single origin coffees won Bronze medals in the filter coffee category. The filter coffee category was judged by brewing the coffees in the Behmor Brazen Plus “at home” automatic brewer. A panel of judges evaluated the coffees' sweetness, acidity, mouth feel, uniqueness of flavor and balance. We submitted our three newest additions to our menu: the Hamasho- Ethiopia, Nyeri Estate- Kenya, & Finca Muxbal- Mexico and are ecstatic that all three medaled!
This is our third time competing in the Golden Bean, and second time medaling—having medaled in the 2019 Golden Bean competition. Try all three via our Golden Bean Bundle option.
More about the Golden Bean Competition
• Golden Bean is the largest coffee roasting competition in the world
• 700 coffees judged this year from 300 North American coffee roasters
• All coffees are judged blind by coffee industry professionals and roasters
• Over 100 coffee judges attended this year
• The event has been running in North America for 10 years
Special Event
Join us for a Brewing Event at all five of our locations Friday, Aug 18. We'll be having in-house coffee samplings of our recent Golden Bean Medalists (see below for location schedules) for you to try.
Also, all weekend long (Aug 18 - 20) enjoy Buy One, Get One 50% Off on beans to take home and 10% off brewing merchandise.
Schedule—
Mudhouse CODE— 7AM - 9AM
Mudhouse 10th St— 10AM - 12PM
Mudhouse Downtown — 1PM - 3PM
Mudhouse Crozet— 11AM - 1PM
Mudhouse Charleston— 11AM - 1 PM
NEW RELEASE: Aloha Blend
Join us in supporting the Maui Humane Society as they help recovery efforts from the recent wildfires. The Maui Humane Society's stated mission is to "protect and save the lives of Maui’s animals, accepting all in need, educating the community, and inspiring respect and compassion towards all animals." In doing so they are currently focused on helping injured and displaced animals as well as reuniting missing pets with their owners.
All proceeds of every bag purchased will be donated to the Maui Humane Society.
If you would like to help the ongoing recovery efforts in a different way here are some good options vetted by the Washington Post:
]]>August 12-13; Charlottesville, VA — On both Saturday, August 12 and Sunday, August 13 from 10 AM to 1 PM, Mudhouse Specialty Coffee Roasters and Bluebird Company will be collecting school supplies and operating a mobile bookstore at their Crozet location (5793 The Square, Crozet, VA 22932). On those days, there are two ways to receive 15% off your Mudhouse order—show a receipt from the mobile book trailer or bring a school supply donation (offers are not combinable and are one time use only). These collected books will be donated to the Free Book Bus. The school supplies will be donated to local schools.
ABOUT BLUEBIRD COMPANY
The co-owners of Bluebird Company met through the small business network of Crozet and immediately started hosting pop up markets together to encourage and support a variety of female entrepreneurs in and around Crozet. What started as a small side hustle quickly became a dream for a shared retail space to house our two businesses, Bluebird Bookstop and Fancy & Nell.
Their vision from the start has been a place for us to house their businesses, for Bluebird to ship out of the back and a place where they can bring in novelty products by all of the awesome female owned businesses they continue to come across. Their mission remains constant which is to encourage, empower, and support female entrepreneurs in whatever stage of their business journey.
ABOUT FREE BOOK BUS
The Free Book Bus is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2018 to serve Charlottesville, Albemarle, and the surrounding area. Our first mission is to enable all children and young people to have a home library. We focus on children and young adults who have less access to books. Our secondary focus is encouragement of reading for all at public events.
The book bus has given out over 39,000 books to area families since 2018. The Free Book Bus makes about 125 stops every year at places like Boys & Girls Clubs, apartment complexes, food pantries, and public housing. Some of our more recent projects include a multilingual coloring book to serve recently arrived refugee families, and an essential needs shelf to help bus guests obtain personal hygiene and cleaning supplies. We are very grateful for all of the support we receive from the local community!
On select Thursdays this summer, sign up for a special Summer Sips and Self-care Series on the Mudhouse 10th Street rooftop.
Every class will begin with a gentle rooftop yoga class led by Shannon Burns from Salute the Sun Yoga, accompanied by a crystal bowl sound bath by Karianne Michelle, and finish with a specialty coffee.
Following class, you can extend your self-care by booking something special at the Well Room. Every participant will receive a 20% discount off the service when it's booked on the same day (the service can be for a later date).
This one-of-a-kind class will run for approximately 45 minutes.
Register for one, two, or all three experiences:
8:00-9:00 am
Thursday, July 20th
Thursday, August 24th
Thursday, September 28th
Price: $35 (Includes Class & Coffee) / $30 (Class-only)
To get tickets please click here.
On Jun 22, 2023 Mudhouse Specialty Coffee Roasters will be hosting its inaugural Benefit Day at its 10th St location (116 10th St NW, Charlottesville 22903). On that day, 10% of all sales at that location will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House of Charlottesville in support of their work with families whose children are receiving treatment for a serious illness or injury in Charlottesville. There will be a representative present who can help answer questions and share all the wonderful things that the Ronald McDonald House of Charlottesville does for the Charlottesville community and those traveling to the community alike.
The Ronald Mcdonald House of Charlottesville will be the first Benefit Day for Mudhouse Specialty Coffee Roasters, and they are joined by Bowerbird Bakeshop (120 10th St NW) who will also donate 10% of their sales that day. Additional Benefit Days are planned once a month through the end of 2023. If you have a non-profit organization you would like to nominate for participation please email areamgr@mudhouse.com.
ABOUT THE RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE OF CHARLOTTESVILLE
For countless families, the Ronald McDonald House in Charlottesville becomes the home they never thought they would need. Sitting on a quiet street, just blocks from the University of Virginia Medical Center, it offers families traveling from all over the country—or world— a refuge—a place where they can find comfort—as they face one of life’s most unimaginable challenges: caring for a child who is seriously ill.
In an effort to lessen the burden, reduce stress, keep the family intact, and enhance the quality of life for these families, they provide affordable housing in a caring home-like atmosphere. In its 42nd year, the Ronald McDonald house hosts between 800 and 1,000 family stays lasting from days to months each year, delivers hearty lunches to the pediatric floor of the hospital every Friday, and provides a variety of services and comforts.
Thursday, March 30
We're here to take the guess work out of what to get the coffee lover in your life with bundles and ideas sure to fit any need. Through midnight Monday, November 28th get free shipping on all orders over $35—and take 10% off instant coffee (a great stocking stuffer).
The Traveler
Wanderlust can hit anytime of the year—make sure your friends and family are ready with specialty instant coffee that can be prepared hot or cold and a mug that'll keep it the perfect temperature.
SHOP NOW >>
The Traveler +
For long trips or weekend getaways, get that perfect cup of coffee in just minutes with the portable but powerful Aeropress, a spill-proof mug, and a bag of our Mudhouse Blend.
SHOP NOW >>
The Weekday
Start your day off right with a cup of one of our favorite Single Origin Coffees prepared with simple, effective Fellow XF Pour Over Dripper. Whether you're a coffee expert or novice, the Stagg XF Dripper will help you consistently brew the perfect cup.
SHOP NOW >>
The Weekend
Enjoy a leisurely cup of Mudhouse's specialty coffee in style with the beautiful design of Chemex. This six cup model is perfect for brunch with friends or multiple cups throughout the morning. This package includes our Airscape storage system to keep beans fresh.
SHOP NOW >>
The Full Set Up
Want to introduce the joys of pour over coffee to friends and family? This is the perfect starting point—a single origin Mudhouse Specialty Coffee, a precision pour with the Fellow Stagg Kettle, and the timeless beauty of a six-cup Chemex.
SHOP NOW >>
The Full Set Up +
The Cadillac of coffee set ups—start with a bag of Geisha coffee from our Finca La Cabra, ground to perfection with the Baratza grinder, and then brewed to the ideal temperature by the Fellow EKG Electric Kettle and the six cup Chemex.
SHOP NOW >>
In the coming months we'll delve more deeply into these four lines and expound on each of them and what they mean to us. While our haiku is concise, it points to a complex and evolving concept that involves people from all over the world. Specialty coffee means much more than it did when we started brewing specialty coffee from a cart back in 1993, but the essential points remain the same for us: quality and care for others.
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The Specialty Coffee Expo is quite the experience. People from all over the world come together to explore, promote, share, and sell any and all things related to coffee. From green beans and the machines used to roast them, to bags, tags, cups, milks, honeys, books, etc., if it is coffee related it can most likely be found in a booth on the expo floor. Organizations of farmers and coops from various countries come to share their very best coffees; importers, exporters, and everyone in between bring their favorites as well. Experts with PhD's in everything from chemistry to marketing hold lectures and seminars all with the end goal of advancing specialty coffee. Even as a coffee professional it can be overwhelming at times.
I spent my time on the floor exploring the never ending sea of coffee and coffee related products. I stopped by booths of friends, producers, and current products we use. We are considering upgrading our current roaster to a newer model so I swung by our friends at the Giesen booth and got the rundown of the newest model Giesen W15 roaster. On our recent trip to Panama we met former Barista Champion and current coffee producer extraordinaire Mikael Jasin from Indonesia. Mikael is part of a new cadre of Indonesian coffee producers at the forefront of revolutionizing the way coffee is grown and processed in the archipelago. Their experiments with different fermentations and drying methods have already begun to unlock a deep pool of vast and unique coffee experiences from this region. We tasted some of the cleanest and most exotic Indonesian coffees we’ve ever come across.
While the expo floor, lectures, and cuppings were great, that was only part of the reason I was in Boston. My main focus of the weekend was the finals of the US Roasting Championship, a competition I have been competing in since 2016. This year was particularly challenging for myself and some of the other competitors I spoke with. On top of coming out of the pandemic restart, this year a new roasting machine manufacturing company sponsored the event. Not a single roaster had more than a couple of hours of practice on the new Roastronix Stronghold S7.
Unlike most conventional roasting machines, the Stronghold S7 is different in a number of ways. For starters, the machine is completely electric. While most roasters rely on a burner powered by natural gas or propane, these machines use hot air and a halogen bulb to heat and roast the coffee. Another difference is in the machine's drum, the chamber where the coffee is roasted. Most machines have a rotating barrel with fins in it that keep the coffee from sticking to the side of the drum, the Strongholds instead have a paddle that spins and keeps the coffee moving in the drum. Lastly, on the Stronghold you can change the temperature of the internal walls of the drum. All of these variables are able to be controlled by the operator and allow for the creation of some pretty unique roast profiles. Despite the difficulty of getting a hang of how to roast on the Stronghold, I was pleasantly surprised by the resulting cups it was able to produce.
The competition was broken down into multiple stages that spanned 3 days. The first stage was the sample roasting stage. Here each competitor received a small amount of the competition coffee to roast for flavor notes and insights into the final roast. The second stage was green grading, where competitors were given a random sample of coffee and tasked to find any defects, the moisture content, density, and screen size of the coffee. Next came the practice roast where we received enough coffee to roast a full batch in the Stronghold, however the coffee was different from the final competition coffee. The last stage was the final roast of the competition coffee. Afterwards, all coffees were blindly judged and assigned a score. This score was then added to our green grading score, as well as a score assigned to how well we matched our intended roast profile and the coffee's final intended taste in the cup.
Unfortunately, this was not my year. While I am still waiting on the final list of results I was unable to place in the top 6. I would again like to extend my congratulations to everyone that did place. It was one of the more, if not the most difficult competitions I have experienced and everyone should be proud to have made it this far. For me, these competitions are always an enormous learning experience, and I am excited to bring back new ideas and energy to the Mudhouse roastery, and lab. I look forward to competing again next year, in what will hopefully be a lot less of a prolonged season.
]]>The competition was fierce, but our guy, Eric Stone, was even fiercer, taking 3rd place among his esteemed peers. It’s hard to put into words how cool that is. We went up against the big guns, and they were all there. Just placing in the first round is an honor. But Eric’s name was called again and then again, for the final 6 top winners. He placed 3rd with the help of our Ecuador washed typica from farmers Pablo and Jaime Ponce. Congratulations to the winner, Tony Querio of Spyhouse Coffee, who also roasted a beautiful Ecuador as well--he rocked it!
As a small specialty coffee roaster, watching the bean go from our friends and farmers into the beautiful hands of our crew through the amazing, impressive Giesen roaster, then hand delivered to our own baristas who treat each bean as if it were a piece of gold, each step is as intense and mess-up-able as the next. I am truly honored, humbly proud to present what these amazing people do. I have the coolest job playi ng with the smartest of the smart, the highest caliber of talent, with the integrity to beat the band.
Love,
Lynelle, Director of Joy
[one_half][/one_half][one_half_last][/one_half_last]
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Coffee is an affordable luxury, a small way to treat yourself or your friends, but the shipping can be cuckoo. That's why we've put together these four ways to save you money on your order:
Starting this week, at the shipping page, you can select the option to pick up your coffee at our roastery location near Downtown Charlottesville on Wednesdays from 4-5:15 pm. We'll have your order outside at the roastery at the loading dock on the east side of the building, opposite Firefly. Email us here with any questions.
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We are proud to announce that our Moras Negras won a 2020 Good Food Award! It is an honor and privilege to highlight this beautiful coffee and all of the hard work that goes into providing this coffee, from farm to cup.
The Awards
Every year the call goes out across the country to makers and craftspeople to submit their very best to the Good Food Awards. Founded in 2008, the brainchild of the creators of the Slow Food movement, the Good Food Foundation sets out to celebrate “good, clean and fair food”. The Good Food Awards pit the best of the best against one another in a spectacularly delicious showdown to celebrate the Good Food movement. Whereas there is often a distinction made between food that is sustainable and food that tastes good, the Good Food Awards set out to determine exceptional products that are both.
We Won!
This year the awards considered over 2,000 entries from all 50 states in categories ranging from honey to fish, beer to coffee. We are incredibly honored to be selected as winners of the 2020 Good Food Awards for our roast of the Mi Finquita, Panama Geisha by Tessie and Ratibor Hartmann. This is our third time winning a Good Food Award, having won for our roasts of Finca la Mula and Limu Dabessa in 2016 and 2018, respectively. It is always an honor to be considered in such an elite company, and we strive to exude the quality and standards the Good Food movement demands.
The Coffee
Husband and wife team, Ratibor and Tessie Hartmann started their farm Mi Finquita on the Volcan Baru as an open air laboratory of coffee innovation. At Mi Finquita, the Hartmanns experiment with highly controlled fermentation and processing methods to produce sustainable coffees with exceptional, exotic cup profiles for a global audience. We have known Tessie and Ratibor for years, and have had the honor of visiting the Hartmann estate and eating at the family dinner table. The incredible hard work and dedication to coffee by the entire Hartmann family is apparent in the exceptional coffees they produce, the hard work and dedication we strive to represent in our roast of the Moras Negras.
Want to try a Good Food Award Winner? You can order the Moras Negras today.
]]>Last Friday, the Mudhouse team all piled into the Suburban at the crack of dawn and took off on an 8 hour road trip headed to Nashville, Tennessee to eat world famous hot chicken, and also to take part in the United States Coffee Championships. The yearly competitions draw coffee professionals from all across the country to compete in 5 coffee centric competitions: Barista Cup, Brewer’s Cup, Coffee in Good Spirits, Cup Tasters, and the Roasting Championship. The competition in Nashville was one of two regional qualifying events that determines who moves on to the national championship.
Our Head Roaster, Eric Stone, has been a regular competitor in the roasting championship since 2016, where he placed 3rd in the national championship. Since then, the competition has continued to grow and evolve, incorporating a new challenge every year. This year featured one of the largest fields yet with only 12 moving to the championship in Portland, Oregon.
How The Competition Works
The competition itself is pretty straightforward. A few weeks prior to the event all competitors are sent the same coffee. It is then up to each competitor to roast their coffee using their sensory /science and best cupping knowhow. The coffees are then blindly tasted and scored out of 100 points. After the judges cup, each roaster gives a five minute presentation explaining their roast and why they chose to roast the coffee the way they did. All scores are totaled and winners are announced.
Our Head Roaster’s Approach
For his roast, Eric first noted the physical characteristics of the green coffee (unroasted). According to him “this coffee was particularly challenging because of two seemingly contradictory characteristics: its small screen size and very high density”. Eric explains that in order to properly develop the roast he would need to apply a lot of heat to the coffee, however the small size of the beans would leave them susceptible to overdevelopment. In order to manage this, Eric first removed all “microbeans” (coffee smaller than the smallest acceptable screen size). Then during the roast, he made sure to keep the final end temperature as low as possible as to not burn the coffee when it was at its most susceptible to heat.
National Championship
Now that the scores have been tallied, we are proud to announce that Eric placed 4th in the qualifier round, guaranteeing him a spot in the national finals in Portland later this coming April. “For me these competitions are about building relations within the larger specialty coffee community and honing my skill set as a roaster. Every year I compete, I meet so many great coffee people and learn something new about roasting coffee”.
For the category of “straight espresso” we entered our long time favorite Worka, a naturally processed Ethiopian heirloom from the Yirgacheffe region. Though we do not typically roast this coffee for espresso we thought that its incredible sweetness and intricate floral characteristics would shine as espresso. By slightly elongating the end of the roast we were able to tone down some of the coffee’s bright acidity which allowed it’s subtleties to shine as a beautiful espresso. In fact, we loved this roast so much that you can now find it on our menus as a rotating single origin espresso.
For the “espresso with milk” category we decided to revamp one of our oldies, ‘are you gold.’ espresso blend. This proprietary blend of 3 of our favorite micro lots was designed to not only be able to stand up to a high fat milk, but pair harmoniously with it.
And finally for the “brewed coffee” category we submitted our YirgZ, a washed Ethiopian. YirgZ stands for the region Yirgacheffe (like the Worka!) and zero defect. During the processing of the cherries and seeds at the farm level, the coffee undergoes rigorous quality control and sorting efforts, then undergoes them again. This produces green coffee with “zero green bean defects” and thus the Z for zero. This coffee is another one of our longtime favorites and we love its floral and fruity notes and exceptional clarity!
Catch the Worka and YirgZ in our stores and online now! The are you gold. is available exclusively at our online store!
]]>Here's what Eric has to say about his experience at the U.S. Coffee Championships 2019:
]]>Every year the competition has completely changed, bringing both different formats and new rulesets to each stage. In my first year competing I placed 3rd in the country. That year we simply had to submit a coffee of our own choosing to be blindly evaluated. Since then presentations and multiple rounds of roasting have been added to the challenge, making for a fun and more active environment. This year, in order to make it to the final stage of competition, you first had to place in a qualifying event in Nashville, TN or Denver, CO. From there 12 finalists were selected to compete in the Championship.
This past weekend was like no other final stage before it. All competitors had to demonstrate they had the full skill set of a professional coffee roaster. Beginning with the “sample roasting” stage, all roasters were given 30 minutes on a very small 500g (close to 1 lbs) roasting machine to roast a small sample of the provided competition coffee. This sample was then to be used by the roaster to determine how they wanted to roast their final batch and what flavor and other characteristics they wanted to achieve in the brewed cup.
From there all roasters were asked to demonstrate their knowledge of green bean coffee (coffee before it is roasted) by sorting it by bean size, recording moisture and density levels, and by sorting out any defective beans. Using all of the information they had gained from the sample roast and green evaluation, each roaster had 30 minutes to roast a batch of coffee that would be tasted and scored by judges the following morning. When it was all said and done I took home 6th amongst a field of the best coffee roasters in the country!
Our Head Roaster, Eric Stone, competed again this year in the United States Roasters’ Championship. He finished 5th overall with fantastic coffee and presentation scores, and we could not be more proud to have him represent our company and efforts. If you would like to learn more about the competitions, you should check out our blog post about the qualifying round of the USRC. Naturally the competition preparation and participation uses up a healthy portion of our time while at the event, but we still found time to do some other very cool things too!
One highlight for me was meeting and cupping with one of our favorite producers, Luiz Roberto Saldanha from Capricornio Coffee in Brazil. Capricornio specializes in exporting unique Brazilian coffees from the regions surrounding the Tropic of Capricorn. Because the latitude is right on the edge of what we call the “coffee belt," the temperatures are cool enough to grow exceptional coffees at unusually low altitudes, many below 800 meters above sea level.
The rare combination of cool temperature and low altitude makes for very unique coffees with slow cherry maturation and low density beans. This creates a fun challenge for us as roasters. Luiz is also doing a lot of work with experimental processing methods, and they are showing some really promising results. Working with people like him, who are pushing the envelope, really makes this whole crazy adventure special.
I also got to attend a lecture on coffee farm profitability led by a panel of researchers and importers. We learned key differences between large- and small-holder farmers, namely how implementing “best” agricultural practices can often lead to a lack of profitability for the latter. As a roaster, it’s easy for me talk about agricultural practices as if they’re feasible for everyone, but the truth is that smaller farmers cannot sustain best practices if they cannot make a profit. Until the market begins to value small-coffee-farm products more, it is difficult for small producers to survive. This is one of the reasons we believe so strongly in super specialty coffees like Geishas/Geshas. Because of their value perception, they have the potential to be game changers for small farms.
Finally, just being in such an awesome city as Seattle is a highlight in and of itself. The views of Puget Sound and the mountains, the food, the drink, the coffee-- it’s a pretty cool place.
--Phil
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Last week our head roaster Eric Stone went to New Orleans to compete the qualifying round of the 2018 U. S. Roaster Championships and he made the cut, along with 5 other folks. He will be traveling to Seattle for the finals in April as part of the Specialty Coffee of America's annual convention.
Competing in coffee competitions has not only been a fun outlet for the Mudhouse team’s competitive spirit, but also a fantastic avenue for deepening our knowledge about coffee and the roasting process. The pressure to succeed has really encouraged the crew here at Mudhouse focus in on the minutia of our craft. Coffee being an ancient, yet ever evolving industry, requires a process of continual learning and ever expanding knowledge, a fact highlighted by the various challenges these competitions present.
In order to have success as competitors it is vital that we constantly question our beliefs about coffee, in particular our roasting process. For instance, the Specialty Coffee Association’s Roaster Championship allowed us to truly pick apart our roasting process at a microscopic level and narrow our scope of focus to the point where single degree changes in temperature, and seconds on the end of a roast, make all of the difference.
It also really helped open our eyes to the dramatic impacts origin information such as the density of a coffee, how big or small the beans are, and how the coffee is processed can have on the roasting process. We as a team have explored and learned so much since we began challenging ourselves through competitions and have really drawn in our collective focus. It is this focus that brings challenge, challenge that brings change and growth that allows us to operate at the tip of the spear in the coffee industry. However, with that being said, it is not only Mudhouse that is benefiting from this process; other roasters are experiencing the same thing, chasing the same goals. While we are competing against one another, we are also sharing ideas and exchanging knowledge, causing mutual growth, not only amongst each other, but the coffee industry as a whole. We are extremely lucky to have organizations like the Specialty Coffee Association, Good Food Awards, and Roast Magazine that put on these kinds of competitions. They not only allow for recognition of companies hard work, but also foster the continued betterment of coffee.
Here's our debrief with Eric after the semifinals in New Orleans:
"New Orleans was lots of fun. This was my third time competing in the SCAA Roasters Championship, however only my second time since they changed the competition a little bit. It used to be that you would just show up with your coffee at the national coffee convention and have it scored.
This has added a bit more weight and pressure to the competition. Instead of just being able to show up with something that tastes really good, you have to be able to demonstrate and explain your process.
My biggest challenge is the presentation component. Public speaking is what I'm focused on improving for the Seattle championship. My plan for nationals this year is to get my roast locked down right away then move onto saying my speech about a million times until it is flawless."
Join us in wishing Eric good luck in April!
The Good Food Awards were "created to redefine ‘good food’ as being tasty, authentic and responsible. [They] aim to set criteria for entry that are realistic and inclusive of food and drink producers who have demonstrated a commitment to be part of building a tasty, authentic and responsible food system, going far above and beyond the status quo for their industry, while not making them so strict that eligible participants are limited to a small handful of products."
The exceedingly high standards for quality, taste, and sustainability led us to choose the organic Limu Dabessa from Yidnekachew Dabessa Coffee Plantation (YDCP) for evaluation by Good Food Awards.
The owner of YDCP, Yiknekachew Dabessa, is a dedicated and experienced Ethiopian coffee farmer and entrepreneur, born in the same locality as his farm. He transformed his small farm to a large-scale coffee farm in 2008.
YDCP's mission is to achieve the highest standard of quality in specialty coffee while prioritizing four areas of sustainability: product, economic, social, and environmental.
Product Sustainability
Dabessa is committed to using the latest coffee production techniques and technologies to bring the highest quality specialty coffee to market.
Economic Sustainability
YDCP balances value to the customer with fair employee compensation and rewards for achievement.
Social Sustainability
YDCP is a leader in its region, working to empower small farmers through employment, market information, experiential exchange, and technology transfer.
Environmental Sustainability
YDCP always factors in environmental conservation and protection while planning ways to increase production and productivity.
YDCP currently employees 35 permanent employees and 95 seasonal employees.
Tasty
• Food is delicious, bringing joy to those who consume it.
Authentic
• No artificial ingredients are used.
• Food is an expression of tradition and culture.
• Seasonality and locality are valued in crafting of food.
Responsible
• Respect and fair compensation are core values within the production chain.
• Ingredients are grown without synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides and are GMO free.
• Growing practices are chosen to promote healthy soil and biodiversity.
• Local ingredients are utilized wherever possible.
• Water and resource conservation and recycling are practiced.
• Transparency and honesty is practiced with consumers.
• Direct, face-to-face communication is sought out between growers, food crafters and everyone else in the production chain.
• Good animal husbandry is practiced and farm animals can eat and behave according to their natural instincts.
Coffee is a dreamy way to spend time. It's ever-changing, intelligent, sensory. It's all about relationships. And it's fun!
A few weeks ago we attended the Sustainable Harvest coffee conference, Let's Talk Coffee, in Mexico, where they announced the winners for the preeminent Roaster of the Year award. Thank you to the crew at Sustainable Harvest for the lovely event and to Roast Magazine for all that you do for this industry.
For those lucky enough to be in coffee, you understand the import of winning best Roaster of the Year. This is HUGE, a really big honor. We stand in the company of the best roasters in the world, and we humbly happily accept the honor. To be sure, this belongs to all of the Mudhouse team. This belongs to all of the folks who helped us climb this mountain, our present crew and our past, the people who serve as support, our teachers and our customers. We share this with all of you. Shall we clink a cup in celebration?
Some details on the award:
The Roaster of the Year award is widely considered the most prestigious honor in the specialty coffee industry. It recognizes companies that roast coffees of superior quality, exemplify a dedication to sustainability, promote employee and community education, and demonstrate a strong commitment to the coffee industry, among other criteria. The magazine awards top honors in two categories: Micro Roaster of the Year, for companies roasting fewer than 100,000 pounds of coffee each year; and Macro Roaster of the Year, for companies roasting more than 100,000 pounds annually. Mudhouse Coffee Roasters won for best coffee in the Micro category and Thanksgiving Coffee Company took the Macro award. Both of this year’s winners were co-founded and are led by married couples—Lynelle and John Lawrence at Mudhouse Coffee Roasters, and Paul and Joan Katzeff at Thanksgiving Coffee Company.
Mudhouse’s longstanding community involvement and philanthropy, its commitment to education and support for its employees, and its focus on sustainable practices at home and at origin, were major factors in the company being named Micro Roaster of the Year. Mudhouse also distinguished itself with the recent launch of its new coffee farm in Panama, with partners Willem Boot and Kelly Hartmann. Farm-to-cup is extremely rare among small roasters.
Both Mudhouse Coffee Roasters and Thanksgiving Coffee Company are featured in Roast Magazine’s November/December 2016 issue, available online at www.roastmagazine.com.
We want to personally thank all of you for this recognition. We are dedicated to serving the best quality coffee around, but we wouldn't be here without the plethora of ideas, lessons, customers, coffee and roaster friends, our farmers and producers and our hard working beautiful beautiful staff. And of course this gorgeous thing we call coffee. Indeed, coffee is fun.
Love,
Lynelle & John
"For a long time, certifications for responsible food production and awards for superior taste have remained distinct—one honors social and environmental responsibility, while the other celebrates flavor. The Good Food Awards recognize that truly good food—the kind that brings people together and builds strong, healthy communities—contains all of these ingredients. We take a comprehensive view, honoring people who make food that is delicious, respectful of the environment, and connected to communities and cultural traditions." -- Good Food Awards
Mudhouse Coffee Roasters is extremely honored and proud to have one of our coffees, Finca La Mula CAC Reserve Geisha from Willem Boot, named as a 2016 winner of the prestigious Good Food Awards. Good Food Awards recognize the very best food producers in the United States.
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