Beneficio Alto Grande Uncorks The Specialty Coffee Market With The Introduction

Clou du Mont sounds like a famous French drink, but it is not from France. And though the new beverage has a wine ring to it, it is not wine, either.

Making its national debut in restaurants and retail outlets in September, Clou du Mont from Puerto Rico is an industry first--a limited production coffee to be sold exclusively as a yearly vintage using wine-inspired methodology to control quality. By combining these two elements, Clou du Mont sets a clear new standard for the specialty coffee industry - the Grand Crus category. Like the finest winemakers around the world who harvest, blend and ferment grapes, Clou du Mont coffee-masters harvest and blend coffee beans for a distinctive signature taste.

Going one step further than Jamaican Blue Mountain or Hawaiian Kona, Puerto Ricos Clou du Mont ensures a Grand Crus cup of coffee by blending selected varieties and cupping each batch for quality to match a particular taste profile at the coffee mill (beneficio); it is like tasting each barrel of wine at the vineyard. This method of quality control is borrowed from the French world of wine and referred to as the Cepage Control System (CCS). (Cepage means varietal and Grand Crus means great growths in French.)

"By introducing the Cepage Control System into the coffee industry, we are establishing a new category - the Grand Crus- comprised of ultra-high quality coffee based on selections and cup performance. Using a daily collection of cupping information, allows us to set a consistent Grand Crus standard regardless of the climate conditions throughout the growing season, says Jaime Fortuqo of Fortuqo & Seitzer, Clou du Monts importer, We cup coffee seeking a particular taste quality rather than cupping in the traditional-style that looks for taste defects in the cup.

1-2-3 Perk the Clou du Mont 3-Step Process

The three-step process begins with the highest quality green coffees selected from Puerto Ricos most-respected coffee farms and transported to Clou du Monts coffee mill, Beneficio Alto Grande, which was established in 1839 and has exported top Puerto Rican coffee to Europe and Japan for generations. The blended green coffees are then roasted by hand in small batches by Clou du Monts master roaster. Finally, each batch is cupped (evaluated by taste) under laboratory conditions by renowned coffee expert and author, Kenneth Davids. Mr. Davids, along with Clou du Monts laboratory director, Adalberto Santiago, aim to create a coffee that consistently
meets Clou du Monts authentic Old Caribbean taste profile. Coffees that fail this test are simply not considered for the Clou du Mont designation.

A Revolutionary Methodology Brews The Hottest Beans for 2002
What is so special about Cepage Control System? Typically, estate coffees worldwide are primarily judged by the coffees altitude and the farms terroir (total natural environment of any agricultural site). Its revolutionary that Clou du Monts quality assurance cupping is done at the coffee mill. CCS ensures that coffee drinkers will experience the same great Clou Du Mont taste in each cup year-round, remarks Kenneth Davids.
The Cepage Control System (CCS) examines five quality components:
7 Origin  terroir of Puerto Rico, a tropical island in the Caribbean Sea
7 Altitude of the coffee trees  2,400-3,300 above sea level, cloud cover over the
7 Botanical coffee tree varieties  three types of premium Arabica coffee: antique Borbon, Porto Rico (Typica 401) and Caturra
7 Roast color  Full City Roast  roasted to the second crack with oil at the tips or showing up within 24 hours
7 Old Caribbean taste profile - full-bodied, creamy, with a touch of cocoa, and plenty of roundness in the cup.

Such stringent quality requirements result in very limited production quantities: Fewer than 2,200 coffee bags (100 lbs. each) will be designated Clou du