Last month’s thumpology article explored Stumptown’s Direct Trade coffee buying practices and the lengths they go to source and separate out the world’s loveliest beans. This month’s thumpology reposts an article written by Stumptown’s Annex employee and apprentice roaster, Matt Dawson. It further describes what differentiates Stumptown’s Direct Trade buying practices from other coffee buyers and roasters in the industry.

Lot Building At Stumptown

by Matt Dawson

If you’ve spent any time around the sign shop or the roastery, you might have heard the term “building a lot” used in discussions about selecting green coffee. Lot building is one of the most important things we do at Stumptown. Generally, it is a way to separate green coffee we want to buy from green coffee we don’t want. This process always happens at the cupping table and a lot can be created from the output of a single farm, a mill or washing station, a co-op, or a group of farms within the same region. Lot building by Stumptown helps the farmers understand in a direct way how specific variations in agricultural practice translate into better and worse tasting coffee. This allows motivated farmers to improve cup quality year after year. Read the rest of the article here (PDF download).