Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/609699
SA: When did you fi rst get the idea for Ninety Plus? What did you want to do with it that was completely different from anything else being done at the time? JB: I was inspired by the periodically undeniably amazing coffee that would show up on the table for judges at the Ethiopia competitions. Those were Ninety Plus experiences. I wanted to work on changing production practices so that these Ninety Plus experiences were the norm from our channels, as opposed to the once-in-a-while "Wow!" that could be found by coffee hunters like the kind I had been at Novo. SA: Please tell me about your estate in Panama. When did you pur- chase it, and why? JB: It was misfortune colliding with fortune in late 2009. The new Ethi- opia Commodity Exchange rules nearly put Ninety Plus out of business, and I had been looking for a very small farm project with Gesha in Panama. The only large one like this—182 hectares with 40 already planted with Gesha—ever to come on the market landed in my lap as an opportunity. I had 24 hours to decide, and I risked everything and a depth of debt previously unfathomable to take on that project. I couldn't get an investor to believe for nearly two years… I was in fairly desper- ate straits for a couple of years. Finally, a forward-thinking investor (plus a very patient and wonderful seller who turned into an important mentor for me, Don Juan de Dianous) made a good choice and helped me to close the deal for Ninety Plus Gesha Estates, nearly two years after we assumed operations and a lease-to-own deal. Had we not closed on that farm, Ninety Plus would have had a very diffi cult time surviving. Just three years later, Ninety Plus Gesha Estates has produced 10 distinctive Taste Profi les and, to our knowledge, is the largest single-boutique-variety coffee farm in the world. Ninety Plus Gesha Estates feels more like a national park with coffee inside than a coffee farm with forest. This became the farm of our dreams. We planted tens of thousands of native shade trees. We built our own processing equipment. We started the Ninety Plus Maker Series program here, which made a world championship coffee in its fi rst year. Outside of Ethiopia, Ninety Plus Gesha Estates is our coffee paradise. SA: Can you please explain what the Taste Maker Team consists of? How do you select your Taste Makers, what are their responsibilities, and what do they get in return? JB: Taste Makers are all of us involved in making a Taste Profi le with intention at every step, from an advanced and dedicated Superpicker, to someone who works in Profi le Processing, handling coffees at each step, to roasters and baristas who release and champion the potential fl avor of these Taste Profi les maximally for end users. The Ninety Plus Maker Series program and team are made up of international baristas who have fallen in love with the Taste Profi les and the work of Ninety Plus to transform the coffee-farming model into one focused on fl avor over volume, forest over sun, and inspired teams instead of low-paid laborers. The Maker Series team shares a platform of coffee production (coffee production, we realized, involves all Taste Makers, through to the end user) leadership with Ninety Plus on the world stage, at com- petitions, trade events, and consumer events, to speak authentically from their direct experience with Ninety Plus at our farms, processing coffee with us. The Maker Series team benefi ts individual and company brands as a collaborative program for communication and marketing. The form of currency we use is largely coffee. We all work for the coffee, and the coffee works for us. SA: What does Ninety Plus' ecological cultivation consist of? JB: Reforestation of former cattle land at Ninety Plus Gesha Es- tates in Panama, planting of tens of thousands of native trees, very low-density planting of Gesha coffee to make for convenient work and space for other wildlife, with numbers of native plants and animals increasing every year. We also have preserved nearly one-third of the property as indigenous forest. Zero use of highly toxic agents for crop disease control. Very little use of mild controls for roya, which we hope to be able to eliminate entirely. In Ethiopia, all coffees are grown 100-percent organically (although we don't market the certifi cation), and most of our projects are in semiforested areas with high canopy above the coffee, much like at Ninety Plus Gesha Estates. The Ninety Plus Varone Project, begun in 2006 in collaboration with Ethiopia's leading coffee visionary, Abdellah Bagersh, consists of single-variety farms (51 varieties separately planted on 11 select farms throughout the country), is like Ninety Plus Gesha Estates in that we have full control over farming and processing, and also of the ecological and social model. The Varone Project farms will have their coming-out party in 2016, with the Maker Series Team scheduled to work for two weeks at our fi rst Varone farm in production, Ninety Plus Magokoro Estates, in Shakisso, Ethiopia, almost identical in size to Ninety Plus Gesha Estates, with seven varieties separately planted in myriad microclimates, all under forest canopy. At the Varone Project Farms and Ninety Plus Gesha Estates, we hope to set new standards for ecological cultivation for quality run by skilled, well-paid workers who have an incredible quality of life and passion for discovering and advancing the coffee taste spectrum. SA: Ninety Plus has a distinct focus on professional baristas of the highest level. Why did you choose baristas to not only help tell the stories of your coffees, but to be ambassadors for them as well as the brand? JB: Backstage at world competitions became the best place to enjoy our Taste Profi les. [The] Craig Simon Maker Series backstage at Rimini [was] said by many to be the best espresso of WBC that year. [The] Stefanos [Domatiotis] coffee (also Craig Simon Maker Series) before his 2014 World [Brewers Cup] championship performance [was] the most balanced Gesha profi le I have ever tasted. Odd-Steinar Tollefsen's coffee [was] the most exotic coffee ever produced by Nine- ty Plus prior to his 2015 World [Brewers Cup] championship perfor- mance. There had to be meaning to all of this beyond competition. When we asked [these baristas] to come and make coffees with us as part of our R&D; team, the level of their engagement and enthu- siasm naturally increased. We have chosen not only talented people but very humble people who don't take themselves too seriously. They are ambassadors for quality on our farms and for our workers as much as in the market, and Ninety Plus are ambassadors for our Maker Series Team and their aligned work wherever we go. Most importantly, we all love what we do, care for each other, and have a wonderful time together. SA: Where do you imagine Ninety Plus will be in fi ve years? Ten years? JB: We will still be working to innovate taste-driven coffee production technology and ecological coffee farm transformation. With all of the varieties and variables to work with, we can have as much as decades of great advancement to go. In fi ve or 10 years, if we continue to hum- bly and happily do our work, we will have made a progressively more meaningful impact on coffee lands and an ever-increasing number of coffees partners and fans around the world. Make magic. Grow the family. That's the plan. 87 www.baristamagazine.com