The Insane Coffee Project

We’re about to complete another successful lap around the sun.

It’s been a momentous year for me. I went public, launched my website. (It’s about my evolving relationship with coffee in general, with a special focus on my collection of spent coffee grounds.) Nothing much happened, but it was terribly exciting!

I admitted to the owners and waiters of many Viennese cafés that I had been lying to them for years, that I do not compost the spent grounds I collect from them (it was a white lie), but that I simply… collect it, like other people do stamps or sports memorabilia. They were mostly very encouraging, said for me to come by any time to grab some more. Some didn’t say anything. My mother always said “if you don’t have something good to say about somebody, just keep your mouth shut.” I don’t know if it’s good advice or if that is what they were doing. Perhaps they were simply too damn busy.

It was a good year for my own grounds too. Here is an animated bar chart of where all the coffee I drank at home this year was grown:

Seven of those countries are new additions to my barrel list, bringing the grand total to 57!

By far the most exciting new origin is New Zealand.

Coffee is not even supposed to grow there. Hold on, let me qualify that. After all, I have a coffee plant growing here in Austria (it over-winters in our flat, beneath a small skylight). So you can grow a coffee plant in any number of unlikely locations. But to have a single ornamental limping through the temperate seasons is one thing, growing coffee commercially is another prospect altogether. The latter is strictly speaking only possible in the tropical belt.

But Rob Schluter wasn’t put off by that. He trialed many different varietals and his persistence paid off. He now commercially grows Bourbon pointu in the far north of New Zealand’s north island. And I can happily report that it is one delicious coffee. I first stumbled across it on the internet nearly ten years ago and have been trying to get my hands on some ever since. In late October of this year my first batch finally arrived. Swing by the Pekerau Hills Coffee Farm’s website for more info and to order.

There were a number of new African origins. African coffees enjoy a special place in my heart, firstly because I grew up in South Africa, but more importantly because Africa is the evolutionary cradle of both coffee and humankind. I scored a Zambian from Rohkaffeebohnen, and coffees from Mozambique, Cameroon and Angola from RoastLov.

Last but certainly not least among the new origins, I enjoyed coffees from the island of Reunion (which I count as African) and Malaysia, both of which I purchased from L’Arbre à Café.

But look, getting as many coffee-producing countries on the list as possible is not what my home grounds collection is all about. Re-establishing ties with an old friend is one of the sweetest joys, as I did this year with Zimbabwean coffee, which I got from coffee-direct. The last time our paths crossed was in September 2006! Although I have had coffee from the Philippines before (in January 2012), I made a new acquaintance this year through Kape de Filipina, namely with Barako coffee, a varietal of Coffea liberica.

There are more details, of origins and species and varietals and processing, I could mention but I won’t. This is probably more than enough for this year’s highlights.

I’m looking forward to another year of discovery, making more connections with coffee-mad folks and collecting freaks, and writing the blog. Look out for a dive into addiction in a few weeks.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this coffee-flavoured review of my last lap around the sun and that you’ll join me for the next one: please subscribe. There won’t be weekly posts, I’m aiming for quality above quantity.

Thank you for reading. Here’s wishing you a contented, healthy and fun new year ahead.