About the coffees:
Santa Lucia, Costa Rica.
Farm: Helsar de Zarcero
Farmer: Ricardo Perez, Marvin Rodriguez and Felipe Rodriguez
Region: Llano Bonito de Naranjo, West Valley
Varietal: Caturra, Catuai and Villalobos
Processing: Wahed and sun dried
Altitude: 1,750 masl
Harvested November 2009-March 2010

This is the third consecutive crop we’ve purchased from Helsar de Zarcero (08,09,10) from MadCap and each year the coffee keeps getting better. Helsar is a multiple award winning Organic farm and mill including COE. Their harvest and processing methods are precise, and their coffee is divided into micro lots of both organic and conventional which are carefully selected for each roaster who agrees to buy this coffee while it is still on the plant.
Ricardo Pérez Barrantes, a partner in the Miramontes mill, has great understanding of the effects the pulping, fermentation, and drying process has on their coffee. His willingness to work closely with the roasters who buy his coffee coupled with his skill as a processor allows him to present them with fabulous coffees.

Los Lobos, Costa Rica
Farm: Rio Jorco Estate
Farmer: Luis and Jim Alfaro
Region: Vuelta de Jorco, Tarrazu
Varietal: Cattura
Processing: Wahed and sun dried on raised beds
Altitude: 1,650 masl
Harvested November 2009-March 2010
Rio jorco Estate is a third generation coffee producing family that has been producing quality coffee for 100 years. The “los Lobos” coffee comes from the highest part our farm, 1650 meters. The microclimate of this area with its fog and colder weather, help to produce the unique quality of this coffee. The actual plantation is located near a large bird corridor protected by the owners of Rio Jorco, ¾ of Rio Jorco estate are a protected Tropical forest.
Los Lobos coffee grows on the steep banks of the farm, protected by natural shade and tropical forest. All the coffee is hand picked at its peak of ripeness and then carefully processed and sun dried . The sun drying is done on drying beds that are turned several times an hour and overseen by Romon the beneficio manager. The coffee is then carefully peeled and then hand selected by the hands of workers that have many years of experience in selecting only the best coffee. This coffee has rated very well and was ranked in the top 20 coffees of Costa Rica in the Cup of Excellence Competition.

-Chad, MadCap Director of Relationships & Wholesale

GLRBC 2010, Top 3

2010 TNT Latte Art Champion

For detailed play by plays of both the GLRBC and USBC check out Twitchy.

This trip has brought to my attention the huge responsibility we have as Direct Trade Coffee roasters. If you have been to our coffee shop, you have recognized our commitment to quality. we try our best, from seed to cup, to be intentional in our practices; from sourcing the best green coffee beans, to roasting, to the presentation of our espresso drinks. we hope our methods encourage others to do the same….make intentional choices.

This is where we feel the weight of responsibility. As we ask consumers to make intentional choices about sustainable practices, we realize that in the Direct Trade Coffee industry, it starts with us. We are committed to the highest quality. We are committed to improving and supporting social and environmental sustainability at all levels of our interactions. We are committed to educating others. We are committed to being the best. As a group, we must focus simultaneously on all of these commitments. Our customers trust us to first make the right decisions, so that they may too make right decisions.

We could disregard social and environmental practices to purchase coffee with only the highest cup quality….but we wont.

We could disrespect our customers and others doing the work in the Direct Trade Coffee industry….but we wont.

And we could disrespect ourselves and lose sight of the course we have set for ourselves at Madcap Coffee Company….but we wont.

~Chad Morton, Green Bean Buyer

I have to say that the last year has been an amazing adventure and the thought of trying to recap everything that’s happened is somewhat overwhelming. With that being said I will attempt to share with you all the great joys of this last year and those that we look forward to experiencing in the next.

First of all, Grand Rapids has been great to us! We love being downtown and we’re excited to be seeing all the efforts of those passionate for making this a great city. The acceptance we’ve received in how we are presenting coffee has been a great blessing and encouragement to us and has definitely made our first year an unforgettable one. So thank you Grand Rapids for your support and hopefully in the coming years we will continue to provide you with a great and ever changing coffee experience.

Secondly, we love our coffee community! Not just locally but globally. The relationships and camaraderie we’ve developed over the last year and half have been amazing. We definitely owe a lot of our education and success to the greater coffee community. Those that are constantly pushing the envelope both in how coffee is prepared and presented have impacted us greatly. We are especially thankful to those that have shown us it is as much about relationships as it is about the quality. In October we had the opportunity to host a Great Lakes Barista Jam and got to spend the weekend interacting with coffee professionals from five states. We entitled the jam “Coffee Talk” with the idea that more than just offering educational opportunities we could spend time discussing as a community how we could better make an impact in our industry. Hopefully those that attended were able to take away as much from it as we were. We are especially thankful to all those that contributed as instructors Jesse Crouse – Intelligentsia Coffee, Chris Demarse – The Coffee Institute, Edwin Martinez – Finca Vista Hermosa, Scott Lucey – Alterra Coffee, Chris Defario – The Coffee Institute, Ryan Knapp – MadCap Coffee, Talya Stader – Intelligentsia Coffee, and Colin Whitcomb – Alterra Coffee. We hope the coming year can be as rewarding.

Lastly, the thing that impacted us most as a company was the incorporation of our own Direct Trade program. Thanks to the hiring of Chad Morton half way through the year we were able to see the dream of doing Direct Trade as a small company become a reality. Chad’s experience in developing relationships with coffee farmers and his creativity in finding ways to get that coffee from origin has offered us an some amazing opportunities. Not only that but we have been able to purchase some amazing coffees! From Edwin in Finca Vista Hermosa to Ricardo in Helsar de Zarcero we have developed some great relationships. We are really excited about a recent coffee we purchased from Ellen Prentice and her farm Finca de Dios in Guatemala. Chad and Ben (our roaster apprentice extraordinaire) just returned from a week and a half trip of visiting our Guatemalan farms and had an opportunity to see some of the great things Ellen and our other producers are doing. With all that being said we are really excited about what the future holds for our Direct Trade program. Over the next few months we are sending our staff to farms in Costa Rica, Honduras and Kenya. We can’t wait for the new relationships and coffees we will get to experience in the coming year and hope to share them all with you.

Well that’s about as short of a one year recap as I can manage. In all reality that was just a tip off the iceberg of all the great things that have happened at MadCap in the last year. Thank you so much to all that have joined and supported us on this journey. We hope that you will continue to experience coffee with us in the years to come.

photo was taken by Terry Johnston