Welcome to November!

The New Coffee Year is well under way and we are seeing new crop samples starting to roll in.
The first round of Microlot offerings come in from our partners in Brazil. We will be selecting a range of Ipanema Premier Cru Specialties from the Rio Verde Farm.
Each lot has been handpicked and dried though a unique method in Ipanema’s state of the art processing facility. For details on how to get your hands on these, please contact your account manager.  

New in Stock
Last month we were eagerly awaiting our Mexican Grupo Terruno Nayarita Washed and Natural lots after a year of hiatus. True to form, these two coffees landed in excellent condition with the Washed lot showing a delicate juiciness with subtle orange blossom acidity. Brown sugar and caramel lingering in the finish (83.25 points), and the Natural cupping with notes of strawberry, grape and vanilla candy. Rounded white wine acidity and creamy body. Jammy smooth finish with a soft boozy note (86.25 points) – improving on their original Pre Shipment Samples. You can read more about GTNay in our October origin spotlight newsletter, on our website.

Market Report
The month of October came and went with not much change on the macro side of things when it came to supply and demand. As observed over recent months, the New York “C” price was closely linked to the strength (or weakness) of the Brazilian Real vis a vis the US Dollar. Thus as the Real weakened, “C” dropped, and as it strengthened the futures price rose.

It’s not to say the price of coffee was static across the whole month; far from it. In the space of 30 days the December Futures contract went from trading at 101 usc/lb at the start of the month, to a low of just over 93 usc/lb during the middle of the month, and then back up to 105 usc/lb by month’s end!

It looks pretty volatile if you just take the one month, but if you zoom out you can actually see that the market has been trading in the 90 to 110 usc/lb band since July. The expectation is that this will continue to be the case until at least the middle of 2020 when potential shortages from other South and Central American countries come into play. This would presumably come as a result of less coffee being harvested by farmers due to a second successive year of prices under the cost of production.

Even for the upcoming 2019/20 season prices from Central and South American origins have been firm this early on in the season with seemingly much less coffee available, and any offers seemingly drying up when the “C” has gone down. It will be an interesting year if the coffee market goes up and the AUD keeps bouncing at around the post-GFC lows of recent times.

A Word from the Cupping Room
Last week our very own QC Harry competed in the Southern Regional Brewers Cup Competition. His years of sensory training in the cupping room, and roasting, lead him to select a special Geisha coffee from La Maria farm in Colombia and transform it though his unique brewing technique. Harry placed second in the competition, from the entire team at Bennetts we congratulate Harry on his exceptional achievement!

In other news, we have had such a demand for Natural Ethiopians this year that we have brought in one last lot of Yirgacheffe Gr3 before the Christmas rush. This lot is showing notes of green melon, blackberry and lemon fruits. A rich syrupy body carries a long balanced finish of almond, chocolate and soft earthy notes, scoring 83.75. For price and availability, please contact your account manager.

Have a great November,
The Bennetts Team