Bastards........
A big fat buying group made up of the "coffee illuminati" has snatched up a lot of #1, (Bolivia COE). With an average score of 93.52, and boasting a score of 100 from Geoff Watts of Intelly, this coffee gives me action in the pants. The buying group included the folks from Victrola, Paradise Roasters, Intelly, Coffee Klatch, Gimme!, Barefoot, Sweet Marias, PTs, and Terroir. I'm not sure who got what or if all of these shops ended up being involved in the winning bid. Apparently, there are some small roasteries in Japan who are also getting a piece of the action. The ending bid was 12.55/lb. I was kinda suprised that it didn't go for more, but maybe people learned their lesson from the Esmeralda. (not saying the Esmeralda wasn't great, but for $20 a pound, that coffee should have granted wishes) So congrats to all who bagged some #1, I hate you all. Except Victrola, you're cool.
Update: Miguel from Paradise drops some science in the comment section.
Retraction: Paradise is also cool.
(photo by Miguel of Paradise Roasters)
1 Comments:
The final group was the Small Axe Coffee Alliance - Intelligentsia,
Coffee Tree Roasters, Coffee Klatch,
Paradise Roasters, Caffe Pronto,
Sweet Maria's, PT's coffee,
Gimme Coffee, Barefoot Coffee, Victrola,
Groundworks, Alpen Sierra, 49th Parallel,
Ecco Caffe, Maruyama Coffee for
Mikatajuku group.
I'm not even sure who is getting how much. I know were getting 1 Bag though. The buying group got so large because we were expecting Esmeralda prices or higher (we were all prepared to go to $30/lb and maybe higher had it been necessary). We were expecting to have to bid against the Japanese (Maruyama Coffee)they buy for about 26 small roasters in Japan and are a major force for top COE coffees. They were the main bidder agianst the group of American Roasters who bought the Esmeralda. Prices would have continued to climb had they not had computer errors which prevented their bid from getting in on time. Mike Perry from Coffee Klatch and I were working together on the auction (he was a judge down in Bolivia so we had a heads up on things)He liked the #2 better down in Bolivia but while cupping the offer samples it was quite clear which one we wanted to go after, the #1 which as it should be was clearly the best. We called up geoff watts at Intelly to see if we could get in with them, because we knew they would be going after (Geoff gave it a 100 how could they not)We knew we would have to part of a powerful buying group because the oher person who gave it a 100 in Bolivia was Kentaro from Maruyama, which meant this was going to be a bidding war. Geoff and kentaro were talking and Maruyama wanted to join us and take half 8 bags. all together at this point we had a pretty solid group. this was tuesday. Monday for whatever reason Maruyama backed out of our group. that meant we would be bidding against them, almost ensuring record setting prices. so Mike and I called whom we knew, and Geoff banded together some roasters and by the end of wednesday we had rounded up a group of 14 of the best damned Roasters on the continent to battle the japanese onslought to the bitter end however high that may have been. Thursday morning, Maruyama wants back in. That means no bidding war, now we have more roasters than coffee. By this point i'm sure word had spread at the powerhouse we had created so whomever wanted a piece of the action was in either with us or didn't even bother to test our might. we didn't even put a bid in untill about $9.00/lb. within 15 minutes after that we were at $12.55 and no dared to challenge us any further. had we known we would have gotten it so cheap (relative to what were expecting any way) a few of us may have grouped together on #2 at less than $6.00/lb it was a real steal. Intelligentsia is coordinating getting it flown into the country so with any luck we will have it before christmas. be careful who you hate. remember there is only so much of it to go around, don't want to spoil you're chances of getting some ;)
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