If you're a follower of pro cycling then you might be thinking I'm talking about the start of the one-day Flatland races in Northern France and Belgium that mark the traditional beginning of the racing calendar. Paris-Roubaix, The Tour of Flanders (Ronde Van Vlanderen) and Liege-Baston-Liege are all great examples of the best of the spring classics. Of course nowadays the pro's are racing pretty much year round and have probably spent the European winter down under or in the Middle East ! The idea of a 'season' in that world has become somewhat blurred in recent years but not so in our world of coffee !
Seasonality is the crux of specialty coffee, after all we're talking about a fruit that grows on a bush and requires a certain amount of sunlight and water. Harvest times in different parts of the coffee growing world are completely dependant on climatic conditions and typically once harvested the cherries have to be processed and stored and shipped to their destination. Here in the UK that could be one of the large dried goods warehousing companies like Eniti in Suffolk or CWT at Tilbury Docks. Alternatively it might go to one of the larger roasting companies that have bought 'directly' or piggy backed on one of the speciality importers shipments. Either way that coffee has been on quite a journey from the time it was picked as a ripe fruit (hopefully). Months have passed and those coffees ideally will be bought by me and my like as soon as they've landed and are as 'fresh' as possible given their necessary journey.
Which brings me nicely to my own "Spring Classics Blend". I've been cupping (we'll get to that in another post) some great coffees and selecting fresh shipment coffees that have just landed in order to come up with a new blend in time for the new stuff popping up everywhere this time of year. The buds are out, the birds are singing and it's time for something new...