Perth Coffee Blog


Perth Coffee Blog, a digest of sorts, covers on goings, some thought and info from across Perth's burgeoning coffee landscape and further abroad.

Ristretto is both a coffee roaster and specialist retailer focused on quality and "goodness" from seed to cup. We're open early from 6:30am M-F at three inner-city Perth locations:

---> Ristretto Coffee Roasters walk up espresso, coffee and fresh roasted bean retail@ 160 Central Arcade, 160 St Georges Terrace, Perth

---> Howard Street Coffee by Ristretto@ 22 Howard Street (rear of 89 St Georges Terrace), Perth

---> ROASTING IN NORTHBRIDGE! July 2012: Our Aberdeen Street "Coffee Wall" opens SOON for Retail!@ rear 53 Aberdeen St, near William

Newsletter SIGNUP


Google Maps page for Ristretto location


Ristretto Home page

Colombia Cup of Excellence 2011 - Arnulfo Leguizamo

I am sitting at my desk working away “monitoring” the Colombian Cup of Excellence auction. The auction has gone into extended time where it will remain live until there are no bids across 3 minutes for any of the 22 national winning coffees.

These CoE National Winners have graduated from a pool of hundreds of lots (est 600+), based on their quality and cup character. Out of the leaders there is one coffee doing exceptionally well in terms of bids. It comes from a very small, just two hectare farm with one and a quarter hectare used for coffee. It’s near San Augustin in Huila. The farm is called Primavera it is owned by Arnulfo Leguizamo and is a family business:

“I have to do things with love, dedication and with the support of my wife and my children. The advantages of this land where my farm is located are a secret but mainly because of the high altitude and the right temperatures we produce coffee with the best attributes for its taste.”

Arnulfo will almost certainly be attending at the auction as his coffee did win 1st place with a mind-blowing score/ rating of 94+ points. Scores this high (say above 92) are rarely seen. The atmosphere must be electric as the bidding is high even for a Colombian Auction Lot.

About a metric ton of the coffee is available. At time of writing it will provide Arnulfo, and his family, with in excess of USD$100,000. Not bad when National GDP on a per capita basis is $10K p.a. and roughly 20% of the population earn less than $1 per day. 

I come to think how Arnulfo is feeling and what this experience means to him. Financially this is nothing shy of  a lotto win, however it is bigger and better because it is a both recognition and reward for his efforts and professionalism on the farm.

This is a great story, and there are many others in coffee the world. It encourages us to always apply the same dedication and professionalism at the roastery and cafe where we enjoy the privilege, opportunity and experience to realise or complete the farmers work and present, share and connect it with others.

Arnulfo Leguizamo



  1. coffeeblog posted this