Mayorga Coffee Roasters is proud to partner with Identity, a nonprofit organization working with Latino Youth in Montgomery County to “empower them to reach their full potential and successfully transition into adulthood by providing them with knowledge, life skills, support and positive role models”, in the development and implementation of a new after- school Peer Tutoring program. As a Hispanic-owned company, Mayorga is committed to supporting programs such as Identity, which helps Latino students find their own paths to success amidst social, economic, and academic challenges. This program will bring qualified high-school students to E. Brooke Lee Middle School twice a week to tutor and encourage their younger counterparts, providing them with meaningful and relevant tools for managing their often complex circumstances.

To finance this new venture, Mayorga will host a fundraiser on May 17, 2006, “Identity: An evening in Celebration of Latino Food, Music, and Culture” at its flagship location in Silver Spring, Maryland. The evening will include a Latin American coffee tasting, delicious dinner featuring Latin American specialties, and an opportunity to meet and mingle with those who have a true love for and commitment to the Hispanic culture and community in Washington.

If you live in the area, please join us in support of this important project and enjoy a festive evening at the Mayorga Coffee Factory in Silver Spring, MD! If you have any questions, do not hestiate to contact Allison Gustavson at 301.315.8093.

Until recently, all Kenyan coffee was purchased through a government controlled auction system that only allowed the differentiation of coffee through the different grades. The Kenyan government now allows the direct purchase of green coffee from estates, therefore allowing buyers to ensure traceability.

We have been working with our Kenyan coffee buyer to source the finest Kenyan estate coffee. After months of sampling different estate coffees, we have finally chosen an estate called KIBUBUTI. Beyond producing great coffee, this estate is also certified by Utz Kapeh.

Utz Kapeh is a worldwide certification program that sets the standard for responsible coffee production and sourcing. Utz Kapeh, which means "good coffee" in a Maya language, gives the assurance of social and environmental quality in coffee production that coffee drinkers expect. Utz Kapeh certification provides the answer to two key questions: - Where does the coffee come from? - How was it produced? To learn more, visit the Utz Kapeh website.

This new estate coffee will be our only Kenyan coffee offering and will consist of AA and a very unique Peaberry. It will be available by mid June of this year.

There seems to be a perceived chasm between coffee “experts” and the rest of us who just know a good coffee when we taste one. Like wine, coffee tasting has its own complex vocabulary and a deeply- devoted subculture; but all of us, no matter how inexperienced, have the ability to identify, recognize, and name what we like about a certain blend—we simply need to learn the basics and begin to explore on our own. Here are a few simple tips to help you to focus and develop your palate.

Smell: First, a comparative exercise. Smell the coffee just after it has been ground, and then again just after brewing. What do you detect? After the initial inhalation in which you’re simply soaking up that irresistible coffee aroma, smell again. What comes to mind? Jot down a few words that spontaneously arise. Don’t edit yourself, or think about what a true connoisseur might say—there is no wrong answer. You’re simply exploring.

Now, taste. Leave politeness at the door, and go ahead and slurp. Slurping is the best way to help the coffee spray all parts of your tongue at once, to ensure that all taste buds are activated.

Flavor, body, acidity, aroma: As you become accustomed to tasting many different coffees, you’ll start to learn what you like on each of these different axes. Acidity is a good thing—it is a brightness, liveliness, and sharpness that keeps the coffee from tasting flat and lifeless. The acidity will be experienced as a sense of dryness under the sides of the tongue and towards the back of the taste buds.

Aroma is virtually inseparable from the tasting experience—without using our sense of smell, we’d only experience the most basic taste distinctions: sour, salty, bitter, and sweet. But when we explore the “bouquet” of a coffee, we find ourselves in a territory of endless subtlety and distinctions. Again, explore your “aroma vocabulary” and listen to the descriptors that arise with each whiff.

The body of a coffee is described by how the coffee feels in your mouth. You can literally take a sip of coffee and “weigh” it on your tongue. Does it feel heavy? More medium? Compare several coffees, and start to feel the distinctions between medium and full-bodied coffees.

When you put all three of these characteristics together—acidity, aroma, and body—you now have a coffee’s flavor profile. Flavor is simply the interplay, the overall experience, of these various components. There are innumerable words that coffee lovers use to describe a coffee’s flavor. You’ll commonly hear coffees described as chocolatey, smokey, winey, earthy, fruity, spicy, sweet, nutty, bright, or delicate, but any description that comes to mind is fair game. So have fun with it!