The Journey of Naga Singage: A Cup of Coffee, A Story of Tradition

At Mighty Good Coffee, we believe that coffee is more than just a beverage. It’s a story—one that begins with the land, the people, and the traditions of where it’s grown. Our newest release, Naga Singage, is a prime example of this philosophy, connecting your morning cup to the rich heritage of Ethiopia's Gedeo region.

The Origins: Naga Singage Mountain

Named after the Naga Singage Mountain, this coffee is rooted in a land that holds deep significance for the local Gedeo community. The mountain is not just a physical landmark—it is a place of reconciliation and healing, where people gather to settle disputes and come together in unity.

The farmers who grow the coffee in the Gersi kebele (neighborhood) live at altitudes between 1950 and 2150 meters above sea level. These smallholder farmers work the land with care, cultivating beans that will become some of the finest lots of both washed and natural coffee. Like the Naga Singage Mountain itself, this coffee represents a balance between tradition and modern craftsmanship.

The Process: A Labor of Love

The coffee you enjoy is the result of countless hours of hard work, beginning with careful cultivation. At high altitudes, the coffee cherries grow slowly, developing complex flavors that set them apart from mass-produced beans. The farmers hand-pick each cherry at peak ripeness, ensuring that only the best are used.

Once harvested, the beans go through a meticulous drying process. Under the Ethiopian sun, rows of cherries are laid out to dry, as seen in the photos below. This natural drying method locks in the bright, fruity acidity that Ethiopian coffee is famous for. Each step of the process is done with precision and care, from sorting to drying to bagging the beans for export.

The Cup: A Taste of Tradition

When you brew a cup of Naga Singage, you’re experiencing coffee as it was meant to be—rich in flavor and steeped in history. The high-altitude growing conditions give the coffee a unique profile, combining fruity acidity with a full-bodied mouthfeel. It’s the perfect balance for those who appreciate both natural and washed coffees.

But more than just its flavor, Naga Singage carries with it the story of the people who made it possible. Every sip connects you to the smallholder farmers who pour their heart into their work, day in and day out.

Why It Matters

At Mighty Good Coffee, we are committed to sourcing our coffee in ways that support the farmers and communities behind each cup. By purchasing Naga Singage, you’re not just getting premium coffee—you’re supporting small-scale farmers who work tirelessly to bring the best of their region to the world.

Next time you enjoy your coffee, take a moment to think about the journey it took to get to you. From the misty mountains of Naga Singage to the drying beds of Gersi, and finally to your cup—it’s a journey of hard work, tradition, and a love for the craft.

Start your morning with Naga Singage, and take a sip of Ethiopian tradition.

The Art and Science of Roasting

Coffee roasting, at its most basic, is the process of turning green (raw) coffee beans brown. That basic fact hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. As consumption grew worldwide, manufacturers of roasting equipment sought ways to increase the speed and amount of coffee that could be roasted at one time, to then grind and package for mass consumption.

Evaluating new coffees on a trip to El Salvador

Beginning in the 1970’s in the US market, better definitions of roast levels began appearing on packaging to assist the consumer in identifying their taste preferences. Coffee drinkers were offered coffees with names like City +, Full City, French, and Italian, thereby prioritizing the roast level as the most significant factor in terms of choice. Roasters such as Alfred Peet built their businesses based on this type of signature roasting style and promotion.

Fast forward a couple of decades: roasters then began asking themselves whether they might better elicit the specific flavors of a coffee through careful attention to time and temperature. In addition to roast level, the conversation also shifted towards the importance of terroir as a flavor influencer relative to the countries and regions of origin. Guatemala Antigua, Costa Rica Tarazzu, and Kenya AA started to appear more frequently at retailers. Colombia’s own Juan Valdez became a household name.

When Mighty Good joined the industry in the early 2000’s more advanced and accessible computer software became readily available. Smaller roasters like us could collect real time data, enabling us to critically evaluate our roasting process and track changes to any number of variables. This combination of science and craft became the foundation of our philosophy and production process: deliver the best flavors, from the best beans, consistently and reliably.

Continual evaluation of our coffees and processes keeps us on track.

We at Mighty Good are proud to continue our legacy of being rigorously intentional in our approach to sourcing and production, from seed to cup, to ensure you enjoy the best possible product. Please join us in celebrating nearly two decades of coffee excellence—because at Mighty Good, it’s more than coffee, it’s a craft.

Experience the Difference

Explore our range of signature blends and single origin coffees today and taste the meticulous care and passion we put into every roast. Visit our online store or stop by one of our retail partners to discover your new favorite brew.

Stay Mighty

Sweet Treat - Iced Brown Sugar Sea Salt Cold Brew

Sometimes it’s nice to have a little sweet treat in your coffee, iced or hot. We originally created this recipe over 15 years ago and it’s been a favorite ever since. Easy to make and store so you can add it to your Mighty Good Cold Brew drink anytime.

1 tablespoon flaked sea salt such as Maldon or Falksalt.

1 cup brown sugar loosely packed.

3/4 cup hot water, near boiling.

Add water to pyrex measuring container and add the sea salt & whisk. Add sugar & whisk until dissolved and you have an even light brown syrup.

Pour into storage bottle and keep in the fridge.

Add 1-2 tablespoons to your Cold Brew and top off with milk or your favorite dairy alternative.

Savor the Summer

As Summer unfolds, we're excited to introduce two perfect companions for your seasonal adventures – the Campfire Blend and Cold Brew Blend from Mighty Good Coffee.

Our Campfire Blend is crafted to capture the essence of a night around the campfire, delivering a rich, dark, and adventurous flavor profile. It's mesmerizing in every sip, making it the ideal coffee to enjoy under the starlit sky, whether you're camping in the woods or relaxing in your backyard.

For those hot summer days, our Cold Brew Blend offers a refreshing escape. With its exceptionally smooth and revitalizing taste, this blend is designed to keep you cool and invigorated. It's perfect for sunny afternoons by the lake, picnics in the park, or any outdoor activity where you need a deliciously cool boost.

Celebrate the flavors of summer with Mighty Good Coffee. Savor the adventure of the Campfire Blend and the refreshing delight of the Cold Brew Blend. Order now and make your Summer moments even more memorable.

Stay Mighty Good.

Summer Time Iced Coffee Recipe

For a refreshing summer treat, here’s a favorite recipe for the Japanese style iced coffee. Lighter roasts, like the Guatemala or Brazil mentioned above work well for this method. In short, you are brewing over ice, replacing cubes for part of the water you would normally use. This method is for a single 20 oz. cup using a Hario style dripper, but you can modify for a full pot too:

1. Start with 32 grams of freshly coffee, ground on a normal “drip” setting is fine.

2. Place 210 grams of ice in your large glass, or ~7-9 large ice cubes.

3. Place the coffee in your filter and slowly pour ~75 grams of water over the grounds making sure they’re fully saturated. Slowly add another 175 grams of water and let it fully filter through.

4. Remove the filter and add 4-5 more ice cubes to the glass and enjoy!

If you want to add sugar, it’s easiest to do so during the brewing so it will fully dissolve and blend more easily.

If you’re in need of brewing supplies for this recipe, we have an assortment of Hario products available on our Gifts and Gear Page

Whirlwind in Guatemala

Freshly harvested La Loma

This past week, I was fortunate to be able travel to visit with coffee producers in Guatemala for the first time. The week was jam packed with visits to farms, cooperatives and and exporters covering Guatemala City, Acatenago, Antigua, Huehuetenango and even a short trip into Mexico for tacos.

Glamping

The trip started with our arrival in Guatemala City on Sunday and being driven to Coffee Awakening, a “glamping” site set up to host visitors to the Dinámica Coffee operation in the 18th zone of Guatemala City. This rather large, 3rd generation family owned property encompasses almost 100 acres right inside the city and houses the coffee milling, exporting, education center and the Glampground for visitors. In addition to the coffee business, the family also operates a brick factory, construction business and several Chili’s franchises. Most of the family members live on the property, and there is other housing for employees and their families.

Before sunset, we toured La Labor, the small farm located just down the street owned by Francisco Quezada, who grew up working for on the family farm. His grandfather taught him to drive the tractor starting at 6 years old and he’s never left the family business. Francisco exports his own coffee small roasters all over the world under the Montenegro Farms moniker.

Tasting the newest coffees

On Monday, we toured the Dinámica operation. In addition to processing their own families coffees, they work with producers throughout Guatemala to bring their coffees to markets globally. Their model is not to compete with the largest exporters, or grow to a mass size, but to continue to invest in the people throughout the coffee chain foster sustainable growth, quality and success.

During the tour, we were able to taste 35 different coffees that are the first pickings from the current harvest. Slightly overwhelming to sort through them and ponder what we might bring in this coming year.

From there, we loaded up for a 3+ hour journey west to visit Finca Esmeralda in Acetenango. Mid-way, we switched from the bus to 4 wheel drive SUV’s as the roads are un-passable in anything else. The drive gave us views of some of the most beautiful countryside as we navigated around Volcan de Agua, one of the largest of the 20+ volcanos in Guatemala. Producer Hermes Peres Higueros not only manages his own farm, but represents the Cafe de Acetenango, a collective of producers in the region that certify all the members coffees. After lunch in the farm house, we loaded up for the 2 hour drive to Antigua. I did not relish another long drive over the dirt roads, but was eager to settle into a hotel for the night. After a fantastic dinner at a local Guatemalan restaurant that served traditional Mayan dishes, the day was over.

View of Volcan de Aqua from Antigua

On Wednesday morning, we had a few hours to walk the ancient city and enjoy coffee at a local cafe. Fat Cat Coffee resembles many of the cafes we have come to appreciate in the US and other parts of the world. They served locally grown coffees that they roasted themselves and even had coffee from friends of ours in El Salvador. It’s amazing how small the coffee world can seem sometimes. We loaded up for a visit to CafeMar, another small milling and exporting operation run by a multigenerational family. Again, the work with small producers in the Antigua region to bring unique coffees to roasters that otherwise might never be known. We tasted another 24 coffees from small producers before taking a lunch break. While the number of coffees can seem overwhelming, over time, it’s becomes easier to distinguish the stellar from the great, and great from the good and know that all of these represent something unique.

We loaded up again the drive back to Guatemala City to catch a plane to Huehuetenango. It’s a short 30 min. flight vs. 8+ hours in the car. Our De Havilland turbo prop plane barely held our group and my front row seat and the open cockpit gave me a great view from the pilot's perspective. Much better than the back seat of a Toyota.

We landed and drove another 45 min. west along the Pan-Pacific highway which runs from Alaska to Argentina. Our hotel was only 5 miles from the Guatemala - Mexico border. (More on that later.) We arrived well after dark and called it a night.

The goats

Rolando Villatoro

We again loaded up into SUV’s for visits to local Huehuetenango producers, stopping first at Finca Buenos Aires. Producers Hector and Diana Diaz made some big changes in the past few years as they downsized from 100 hectares to 40 to adapt to both the market for coffee and the local economy. In essence, having a larger farm was not sustainable. Between a labor shortage and the lower prices for coffee, they decided to focus on solely on higher quality coffee instead of volume. One of the most interesting thing we saw was a small herd of goats eating away at the undergrowth, eliminating the need to hand weeding around the coffee trees. From there we visited Finca la Rosas where Rollando Villatoro maintains a farm that’s been in operation for over 100 years and 4 generations. He’s a gregarious and dedicated producer with many different varietals planted that he carefully maintains to yield his prize winning coffees year after year. After lunch and coffee from his farm, we made our way to Finca La Union. This farm had been abandoned years ago until Carlos Rivas took over and revitalized the operation. In addition to clearing the way to begin harvesting from the neglected trees, he cleared away areas for new trees and more specialized varietals. Again, this is the movement away from lower quality and lower priced commodity coffees to the more specialized coffees that bring sustainable prices, something that was evident everywhere we visited. Smaller is footprints and higher quality are becoming the norm while specialized exporters who work with these producers can help find the market for otherwise undiscovered coffees.

We finished our visit in that night by driving to the Guatemala - Mexico border and walking across to our hosts favorite taco stand. It was somewhat surprising that while there was a gate for vehicles moving back and forth, there wasn’t any apparent restriction on people walking from one country to the other. I found this to be slightly confusing going both directions that gives pause to examine the complexities and realities between what we read and what we experience first hand.

The next morning, we made our way back to the airport and the short flight to Guatemala City and our last night at the Glampground. Our short 4 days encompassed most of the major coffee growing regions and gave us insight into one of the best coffee growing countries and also the poorest at the same time. While agriculture, including coffee, are the major exports, money flowing from illegal drugs and Guatemalans living in other countries far exceed any other form of income, a fact of life that we are insulated against when enjoying our daily brew. The rhetoric streaming from Washington does little to point out the realities of how we live our lives compared to the majority people living and working in Guatemala and other coffee growing countries. At times, it’s hard to enjoy the coffee I drink, yet I know that in some way, our efforts to connect with these producers, exporters and other people involved in the coffee chain will hopefully raise their standard of living and educate coffee drinkers north of the border.

Thanks for reading!

David

Travels in Colombia, 2019

Our group at 6000 ft., atop Finca El Silencio

Having just returned from the town of Jardin, Colombia for the 3rd year is a row, I’m reflecting a bit on how each year, a different discovery is found on the trips. A lot of this has to do with the itinerary that our hosts, the Vasquez family, create each year, but also the people we meet, and the interactions we have with new farmers and fellow coffee travelers. This year, we were fortunate to have Jackie Victor and Atiba Seitu from Avalon Breads in Detroit accompany us. It was their first trip to visit the place where we source the coffee used in all of their cafes and restaurants and provided a in depth view of how we go about sourcing their coffee.

We visited the 1 hectare El Llano farm plot on the Resguardo Indigena de Cristianía owned by Humberto Carupia, who processes coffee for his entire family, where attention to detail and quality allow him to reinvest in equipment and send his daughter to university for an engineering degree. At the other end we took a long trek (2 1/2 hours) with Hektor Ramírez at El Silencio whose 99 hectare farm is divided between coffee (47 hectares) and protected habitat and conservation area (45 hectares). These two provided an up close view of the dedication to quality and sustainability that make our partners some of the best to work with in the world.

When not moving from one place to the other, we tasted unique and distinctive regional coffees and small micro-lots from more than a dozen other producers that we have met in the past, or didn’t have time to visit personally on this trip. We spent an afternoon in the Empressas de Antioquia mill, delving into the process where producers have their coffee inspected, graded and purchased with 100% transparency and above average prices. I’m continually surprised each year at what’s uncovered that I did’t know the year before and happy to see the progress of coffee in this region. We can’t wait to visit again and see the changes that will take place over coming years.

Humberto Carupia, El Llano. High quality production allows his family to reinvestment in equipment.

Rogelio López - Angela Muñoz, Finca La Carmentulia

Atiba by the drying patio, El Llano

Daily cupping table of coffees available from area farms

Atiba at the cupping table.

Jackie and Atiba by an original Willy’s Jeep, which was manufactured right across the street from Avalon’s Bake House

Hello from the hill tops

In addition to tasting coffee, we were treated to some interesting Colombian delicacies.

In a few months, this coffee will land at our Main St. roasting plant.

The cathedral in Jardin decorated for the holidays.

Last look at the view until next year.

Downtown / Main St. News

To our Community:

After much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close our downtown location—a place at which our community has gathered for great coffee and conversation for the past decade.

It’s been a hard decision.   Running a small family business is tough, but we’ve been blessed to have received so much support from so many.   With that support, Mighty Good has grown from a small roaster in a rented garage to one of the regions premium coffee roasters.   

Over the past 2 years, the challenges we faced in our desire to grow proved to be more than we could manage as business owners and as a family. We, the founders of Mighty Good, decided it would be best to begin the transition away from the retail café side of the business.  This past week, we began implementing a long thought out plan to downsize.

As we move the business forward, we will be focusing on our growth as a nationally recognized roaster of coffee.   We will continue working with the farmers, co-ops and mills to bring you the very best coffee the world has to offer.   Our beans will continue to be available at grocery stores, restaurants and other cafes as well as at our Arbor Hills location.

Rest assured, the wonderful smell of coffee drifting into the alley at North Main Street, though, will continue as the Roastery is staying put. We will continue training for our wholesale customers and begin offering coffee development courses for professionals and enthusiasts alike. And you can still visit us at our Arbor Hills location for a tasty latte or creamy nitro cold brew.

From the depths of our hearts, thank you for being so mighty good!

David Myers, Nic Sims, Jim Levinsohn

Micro Honeys from Tarrazu

Honeyed coffees on raised drying beds, Finca La Pastora

Entrance to Finca La Pastora

The family

Cara and Kaitlyn picking coffee at La Minita

The Tarrazu Valley in Costa Rica is one of the most well known and recognized regions for producing great coffees and we’ve been roasting some of them since the beginnings of MGC. But something has been slowly changing over the past decade. That is the ever expanding offerings of smaller and more distinctive lots of coffee we can source. The micro-lot revolution! From our view at 1700 meters, no one exemplifies this more than Minor Esquivel of Finca La Pastora. His farm, in the San Pablo de Dota region, has been in the same family for over 60 years. During his stewardship, he has become an innovator, working on new processes and continually reinvesting in his operations to further differentiate his offerings and create a sustainability family business. The original estate has been divided into 3 separate farms; 2 for his daughters and La Pastora on which he built his own mirco-processing mill and more recently a full coffee lab for roasting and testing his coffees. He also added a small guest house that overlooks the valley so that visitors can now stay for a few days and work with the family during the harvest.

His experimentation with honey processed coffees is what really sets this operation apart from the rest. This involves removing only the outermost skin of the coffee fruit, leaving the sweet mucilage intact. The coffee is place on raised African drying beds for 14-20 days, and as it does, the coffee takes on a honey color, hence the name. Minor takes this even further by removing the skin in varying amounts to create different flavor profiles. Named for the various honey hues, his lots include yellow, red and black honey. He also produces a traditional full natural and African process where the coffee is left in large plastic barrels for 5 days, then hand washed of the pulp in the same containers. Looking around on the day we visited, all of his work was in plain view. Standing in the middle of all these coffees creates an overwhelming sense of anticipation of what these will taste like in a cup!

In addition to Finca Las Pastora, we visited Hacienda La Minita and Beneficio del Rio Tarrazu where many of our coffees are processed. Cara, our lead coffee trainer, and Kaitlyn, the Arbor Hills cafe manager were along for this trip and got to see first hand the complete seed to cup process. We were treated to tastings of the new crop of Costa Rican coffees we have been roasting for many years. Hacienda Rio Negro will again be a mainstay of our offerings for 2019 and we’ll also try a new Dota lot, La Gladiola which has a distinct floral brightness.

In only a few short months, these coffees will be available to us in Ann Arbor and we can’t wait to offer them to you!

Colombia, Our Last Trip of the Year

The first week of December, we made our annual trip to Jardin, Colombia to visit several of the farms we buy coffee from and to taste the newest offerings that will be shipped in early 2019. Our days were spent between the Empressas de Antioquia, the mill where all the coffee is processed, and visiting farms which means piling into Jeeps and heading out on the back roads not far from the town center. We were fortunate that our trip leader Jim brought along a drone giving us, and you, the opportunity to see some of the landscape from a different point of view.

The above video was taken after we had already driven through the mud reaching the highest point we could drive to this year. Arboleda reaches almost 2000 meters above sea level and you can see that coffee is grown, and picked from bottom to top. The views are spectacular in every direction. It was especially rewarding to have Jahn White and Trent Lytle, our two roasters, along on this trip. For Trent, it was his first time traveling to origin and the insights he gained will last a life time.

Among the highlights was visiting Finca Margaritas where producer Lourdes Restrepo has been turning out excellent harvests for the past 14 years since taking over operations after her husband passed away. It was especially rewarding to bring her a few bags of her coffee that we roasted just a few days before our visit.

After visiting with Lourdes for a few hours, we spent the remainder of a day visiting Resguardi Indigena de Christiana. This large plot of land is home to 450 families that collectively grow coffee and sugar cane that is sold commercially along with other crops that provide food for those living on the native lands. The community is largely self contained including their own schools. Intricate beaded jewelry made on the reservation is also very popular with locals and tourists.

Having been some of the first settlers in this region over 200 years ago, the Christiana successfully regained control of their ancestral lands in 1976. Keeping their history and traditions alive is an important part of community life.

The elder women performed several dances for us before we departed. By far, this was the most in depth visit to a coffee community we’ve over the past 8 years.

Our trip ended with a 4 hour cab ride back to the Medellin airport. Since our flight schedule was different than everyone else, our hosts booked us the ride. We realized this wasn’t an official taxi when the driver mentioned that if we happened to get pulled over by the police, remember to tell them that we were his good friends visiting from the US and had been staying at his house all week. Fortunately, we made it to the airport without incident.

Over the next few months, we’ll continue to receive samples of coffee from this years harvest and decide which will be the next offering at Mighty Good come April. We’re very much looking forward to sharing that coffee with you.

Brazil Origin Trip

In November, I was fortunate to be able to lead a group of coffee professionals from around the world on a trip to the Cerrado Mineiro region of Brazil, one of the largest growing areas in the world’s largest coffee producing country. Our trip was sponsored by the Coffee Roasters Guild, the Specialty Coffee Association, and hosted by Gustavo Guimaraes from Cerrado Coffee Growers Federation, a collection of farmers, cooperatives, and support organizations that represent just over 12% of all coffee produced in Brazil.

Our eclectic group of 21 travelers came from Greece, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Switzerland, England, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Kenya, and the continental US (Houston, Denver, New York City, Ann Arbor). Also represented were various roles in the industry such as producers, baristas, equipment service technicians, and roasters.

We began our time in the town of Belo Horizonte where the International Coffee Week festival was held. This is a large regional trade show which also coincided with the world championships for coffee competitions (latte art, brewers cup, and mixology). The competition for the best coffees in Brazil was also going on and we had the opportunity to sample the top 25 coffees entered into this year’s competition.

After a few days at the trade show, we headed to the town of Petrocinio, a 6 hour bus ride into the heart of the Minas Gerais growing region. This area is home to several cooperatives and farms growing arguably the best coffees in all of Brazil. Gustavo had arranged a high paced tour of the region over 5 packed days which started with us enjoying coffee at dusk atop a hill overlooking Petrocinio, underneath a large statue of Christ.

The next morning, we toured the Coffee Center for Excellence, a regional experimental farm which showcases a range of coffee varietals and again were served coffees expressing the wide range of flavor profiles the region is able to produce. We sampled some of the robusta coffees that are starting to make their way into specialty coffee shops in Brazil and beyond.

We then headed to visit Gabriel Nunes, the winner of the 2017 Cup of Excellence for Brazil in 2017. Winning this prize is a big honor for a coffee producer. Usually this is a very small lot of coffee, maybe only 1-2 60k bags which brings in a very high price at a coffee auction. Gabriel used his winnings to build a fabulous new tasting room, coffee lab, and entertainment space for his farm visitors. After a tour and tasting, we feasted on Brazilian BBQ late into the evening.

The next morning took us to visit Marcos Antonio de Oliveira, a small family farm of 12 hectares. Marcos has also won several prizes in regional coffee competitions and is part of a small collective of growers that work together cooperatively. In addition to coffee, he raises dairy cattle and produces an excellent cheese that accounts for 30% of their family income. Winnings from different competitions have afforded the family to send their children to university - and they all still come home to help on the weekends.

From there, we stopped to see Gabriela Baracat Sanchez, whose 200 hectare farm is more typical of the Brazilian coffee landscape. Gabriela took over operations of the farm from her father over a decade ago, while her other siblings took on management of the family’s other ventures. This stop included coffee and a festive lunch party. The main dish was entire rib racks of fresh beef cooked over an open fire. It was on this stop that I began to see how these coffee families create multi-generational legacies on a scale I have not seen on visits to other coffee producing countries.

Ribs!

After a long lunch, we headed to Cafebras one of the co-ops in the region that also has an excellent lab facility complete with espresso bar. It’s never too late it seems to drink coffee in Brazil. Again, the tasting provided a view into the broad variety of regional coffees available.

For our last day of farm visits, we drove almost 2 hours east to Sao Luiz Estate Coffee, another of the larger family producers in the region. Here the parents have largely turned the operation of the estate over to their children, Ana and Miguel. Over the past three years, they have been transforming this 300 hectare operation into a showcase for specialty grade coffee which now accounts for up to 30% of their overall harvest. While we didn’t taste coffee at the farm, they made arrangements for us to try it at their co-op the next day.

From there, we visited the Carmocer cooperative which represents several coffee farmers along with other agricultural products grown in the area. Carmocer represents the “Mulheres de Chaves”, a group of women-owned and operated agri-businesses in the area. While there, we met Ismael Andrade, whose micro lots of coffee garnered the Cup of Excellence for Brazil for this year. Among the coffees we tasted at Carmocer, his were among the tastiest. While the COE lot had long since been auctioned off, several other small lots are still available. He easily quoted us prices in Euros per kilo and offered us logistical help to get them into the US.

Our last morning arrived too soon it seemed. Having already sampled hundreds of coffees up to then, there were still a few more to enjoy at the offices of Expocaccer, the second largest (by volume) coffee co-op in Brazil. Looking to us more like a grain harvester in the Iowa corn fields, this is an amazing operation. Tracking vast amounts of coffee from macro lots to micro in meticulous detail, they’re entrusted by their members to make sure their coffees reach their intended destinations around the world. Their offices include a state of the art coffee lab as well as a coffee bar / roastery that’s open to the public. By lunchtime, we had tasted another thirty coffees, including several from farms and farmers we met during out trip.

Gustavo, agronomist and coffee guide

En route to the airport for the 20 hour journey back to Ann Arbor, I had plenty of time to reflect on the great variety of products Brazil has to offer, from coffee to cheese, to grilled meat and regional pastries, to sweet treats.

I also met people who are so dedicated to preserving and improving their family farms, and helping their neighbors do the same.

And, some of my conceptions of Brazilian coffee production were changed. While I often think of coffee from this region as having a uniform profile, it’s clear now that there are many more options available to further define our offerings. And having the chance to share this experience with such a diverse group of fellow travelers only made the trip that much sweeter.

Mighty Good Tailgate

Wolverine fans love upping the ante when it comes to creating the perfect tailgate. We take this as seriously as you. Bringing interesting food and drinks to your event is part of the tradition in Ann Arbor.

We recommend the following options, unique to Mighty Good Coffee, to bring to the next football event:

1. Our seasonal latte: Maple and Smoked Salt. This may be your new go-to autumn drink as it features real Michigan maple syrup and a dash of smoked salt.

2. Or enjoy a terrific new coffee offering: El Salvador Finca La Siberia. Sourced directly from the Raphael and Carmen Silva family estate, this medium roast is produced from a single Bourbon varietal. The cup has notes of toffee and plum with a lemon zest finish.

Known for their beneficial ecological practices, the trees on this farm produce 60 pounds of fresh oxygen each day.

Call ahead to order a box of coffee for your tailgate, a box comes with  (12) 8 oz. cups and all the fixings to enjoy a great cup of coffee on a crisp fall football Saturday. Or come by and load up a drink tray with lattes and cappuccinos for all your friends!

Happy Tailgating. Make it a Mighty Good One!

Barista Profiles - Nick

It's been almost 5 years since Nick started working at Mighty Good. Back then, we were just one cafe on Main St. with a staff of less than a dozen. He had been back from the Peace Corps for just a few months when he wandered into the shop looking for a job. Despite no coffee experience, his Peace Corps experience was based in Guatemala near the growing of Huehuetenanago and he had experienced coffee farming first hand. He had a real passion for coffee that sparked our interest in having him join our small team. Since then, we've grown to 4 cafes with a few stops on the way (Two Wheel Tango and Mark's Carts). Nick has lead our growing team for the past 4 years, first as the manager of our Main St. location and now as the General Manager of all cafe operations with 35 staff members.

Roasting in Georgia

Last week, Jahn, Trent and I flew to Georgia to attend the annual Roaster’s Guild Retreat held at the Lake Lanier Resort and Conference, north of Atlanta. This yearly event focuses on education, community, networking and of course, roasting and tasting coffee from dawn to dusk.

Our trip had many facets. Trent and Jahn were participating for the first time and attended several roasting education and certification classes, and participated in a 20 team (200 total people) roasting challenge, which has been part of the retreat for the past 17 years.

I attended as part of the Roaster’s Guild Executive Council, which I was elected to earlier this year. In addition to council meetings and helping to ensure the event went smoothly, I was also responsible for membership outreach. With more than 1/3 of the attendees there for the first time, it was great to meet so many new people. I also participated in several educational sessions including a Peer to Peer review class with other roasting instructors to calibrate our teaching curriculum to the new international standard.

This year,  the roasting tent was probably the largest that’s ever been set up anywhere in the world. 12 different manufacturers on hand with 21 different roasters for everyone to try. It was quite a collection, all housed in a 80 x 30 ft. tent with piped in A/C to offset the Georgia summer heat. Still, during the day, with all the roasters fired up, the temperature hovered in the mid 80’s inside the tent. (Before the A/C was in, we measured 106 on the floor and 142 at the top of the tent.)

Trent and Jahn were both put on teams of 10 for the roasting challenge where they were given samples of coffees, then had to come up with a blend using those coffees over the next 36 hours. We held two separate sessions to score the coffee with over 200 people tasting. The first round scored each as a brewed cup of coffee. The second was scored at a formal coffee cupping. Lots of slurping and spitting. During each round, the scores were submitted digitally in real time so the results were available immediately. Jahn’s team took 2nd place in the brewed competition and Trent’s team took 2nd in the cupping portion. While neither of their teams took a top 3 spot in the combined challenge, I’m super proud of them for their efforts and team work at the event.

After 6 days for me and 4 for the boys, we are back at work at MGC on Main St., putting our heads together looking for the small things we can do to make our coffee and workplace better. We all made some new connections with roasters from around the world. From coffee growers in China to scientists in Switzerland, the connections we make at these events become our resources for the future, and the friendships formed can often last a life time. We already can’t wait until next year!
 

Picking Coffee in Costa Rica

Nic's pickings.

Last week we had the opportunity to return to Hacienda La Minita in Costa Rica to visit a remarkable operation run by one of the coffee producers with whom we have worked closely over the years. Our goal was to experience, first hand, the effort required to grow and harvest La Minita coffee on the steep slopes of the Tarrazu Valley, to learn about their milling systems and processes, and to cup their newest offerings in order to purchase the high quality beans that we roast and serve here in Ann Arbor. Several changes have been made since we last visited including the purchase of an adjoining farm, La Pradera, where several micro lot coffees are being developed as well as facilities at the mill to manage these smaller, more exclusive coffees.

For the lowly coffee bean, this journey is relatively simple. For the many people involved in its journey from plantation to cup, it’s a tremendous amount of work.

The journey begins at the end of the rainy season in early Spring, when the coffee trees flower and the fruit begins to form. Bathed in sunlight, nurtured by the crisp clear mountain air which is warm in the day and cool at night, the dense green fruit appears at the buds the fallen flowers have left behind. Farm workers are busy during this time, weeding the spaces between the trees by hand and pruning branches that may have been damaged in the off season.

As Fall approaches, the coffee cherries ripen and turn a deep shade of red, signifying it’s time to pick. Many of the coffee pickers and their families travel throughout the region, moving from south to north as coffee ripens. At the peak of harvest, from early January to mid-February, more than 500 people will comb the farm, moving from the lower elevation at the Tarrazu river working their way up the mountain, picking only the ripe fruit. This process is repeated daily and weekly, from the bottom to the top of the hills and mountains, following the ever-ripening fruit, ensuring each is picked at the prime time and all branches are left bare.

La Minita felt it was important for us to live a moment in the life of a harvester. We were each given the traditional basket to wear around our waist and we were taught to pick coffee for an hour straight - the fastest of us only picked a half basket. We took our harvest to the pick up area where the coffee was measured by volume and we were paid for our efforts. After we were paid, the rest of the real workers unloaded their efforts, easily 10-15 times as much fruit as we had picked. We boarded the coffee truck and drove a short way to another collection station where all the smaller trucks were unloading into a semi-trailer. Later that evening, we went to the mill to witness the unloading and initial processing.

After milling, washing and sorting the fruit by density, sometime between 7 pm and midnight, the coffee goes into large outdoor tanks to ferment for up to 24 hours. This allows the remaining pulp to decompose and be washed away, leaving only the parchment which will be allowed to dry on the beans before the the final milling, sorting, and bagging.

While all milled coffee goes through a final sort for imperfections just prior to bagging using a machine that scans a stream of beans moving at the speed of light, the most select coffees are sorted once more by a room full of women, who literally evaluate every single bean by hand.

Currently, the coffee we picked is somewhere in the fermenting process, and if we did a good job of picking, those beans will makes their way into one of the most select coffees offered from the farm and we'll be drinking it sometime this spring.

What do Coffee, Wine, Beer and Chocolate Have in Common?

Last week I had the opportunity to spend several days at a Sensory Summit for coffee roasters held at the Robert Mondavi Center for Wine and Food Science on the UC Davis campus. About 120 people gathered, primarily coffee roasters. Also attending were food science sensory professionals, malt roasters, craft chocolate makers, organic chemists and chemical engineers.

The goal of this Summit was to explore the ways that we use sensory information to describe and evaluate different but similar food and beverage products. Wine, spices, cacao, malt and even the acids common to all of these foods were explored. And on the coffee side of things, we explored our sensory response to subtle changes in the roasting process, discussed the effects of various fermentation methods, and heard about new research into the field of water activity and food safety.

Of the 10 or so sessions we participated in, exploring the environmental influences (terroir) on wine, cacao and spices was the most fascinating to me personally. While we generally accept that the unique environment where grapes or coffee are grown greatly affects their flavors, digging into this subject was very eye opening. How can cinnamon from two different regions have such wildly different aromas? Why does cacao taste so different in each of the many types of craft chocolate bars? How can we really identify a specific coffee origin given the multitude of processes currently in use around the world, that were once unique to a particular region?

It would take several more pages for me to fully explain the entirety of the experience, I will share just a few of my key takeaways.

Firstly, there are craft professionals at both ends of the spectrum of the food industry – from micro batch purveyors AND macro industrial food developers.  At each level, these folks invest a significant amount of time and energy into creating their products. We discussed and reviewed samples from Coors (macro) to Sudwerk (micro) beers, and from Hershey kisses (macro) to Dick Taylor (micro) craft chocolate.

Secondly, there is so much to learn by examining products outside of my industry, and looking for ways to apply those findings and experiences to coffee. Continually learning is important!

Lastly, I am grateful for having the ability to participate in these types of events and I take pride and joy in being responsible for bringing this experience back home to the wonderful people roasting, bagging, brewing, and serving our coffee. I look forward to conducting some in depth sensory experiments at Mighty Good Coffee and to continue to develop and create the best-trained and informed staff possible.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your coffee!

David

Resolutions in Coffee, #1

Here we go into the New Year and time to reflect on what worked for you, our customers, and what we can improve on to make your experience at Mighty Good even better.

The latter half of 2016 seemed to be an ongoing battle with Comcast and getting our network to be more reliable at our Main St. location. Many phone calls, visits from various techs, monitoring of our incoming lines, new modems and all new lines run to our building had some effect. We learned a few thing along the way. First of all, Comcast is a company run by people who may, or may not, have all the information they need to do their jobs well. No one person is the fountain of digital knowledge and their systems aren't really good at supporting the person on the other end of the line. The second most important thing is that getting mad at them is pointless. The third thing, and probably the most important, is to find someone who understands all of this. In our case, that proved to be Alex, a computer science professor at the U, and Joe, who works 2 floors above us and manages the IT systems for his company's offices in Ann Arbor, Detroit, DC and Madison. He even manages to monitor our system while sitting at his own desk eating lunch.

So, through a combination of all parties involved, some new equipment from Comcast as well as all new internal networking hardware, things seem to be humming along much better making everyone just a little happier at the Main St. cafe.

So what's our resolution? Remember that our digital environment matters just as much as the coffee we serve and how we serve it. We continuously strive to be better at making coffee and hope we that the good folks at Comcast can come along for the ride in delivering exceptional service for you as well.