Last week, Dilettante Chocolates founder Dana Davenport returned from a visit to Dominguez Estate in Venezuela, the source of a coffee Dilettante sells only on weekends to table customers at its Mocha Cafe and Martini Bar at 538 Broadway East.

I asked him to share thoughts and photos from his trip, and his e-mail response was so perfect that I'm posting it directly (he's now chocolatier and coffee master for Dilettante, which Seattle Gourmet Foods bought a few years ago):

Hi Melissa,

It has taken me a few days to get back in the saddle so to speak. Yes, I took tons of pictures.

The purpose of my trip to Venezuela was to work with our Estate Direct coffee grower, Enrique Dominguez, to confer what processing procedures are best to achieve the flavor profiles we are seeking. Obviously, it was an educational trip for me - first time -- to this estate. I was pleased to see they were employing natural composting and the farm remains insecticide and chemical fertilizer free.

The topography of the region is unique. The township is Guarico (a farming mountain village of approximately 5,000 inhabitants) nestled in some of the Andes' oldest foothills. This translates to unique soil conditions.

Purely volcanic soil with an extremely high mineral content but which is compressed and broken down over millions of years. The very narrow (and steep) foothills provide natural drainage, and the narrow hillsides provide heavy atmospheric moisture (cloud formations daily at 5:00 PM) - with the kicker of all this tropical atmosphere being at a 3,000-foot altitude. The coffee is appropriately grown under natural shade trees. The plantation has been a private family-held farm for over 100 years and the Arabica plants were imported from Africa. All in all, a gem of a find producing coffee equal in my opinion to the famous Esmeralda from Colombia.

My visit was to cement the selection and processing procedure for the upcoming crop.

Venezuelan coffee has a gourmet cachet in Europe that dates back to pre-WWII days when the Germans had a relationship with Venezuela. But with the advent of the oil industry, coffee took a back seat economically, and basically Venezuelans consume most of their own coffee output and therefore it has not achieved an international reputation for coffee. As far as I know, we are the only company in the US who has access to Venezuelan coffee.

We were fortunate to develop a relationship with Enrique (a Venezuelan) who obtained the rights to export his own coffee. Of course, with the selection process and farming techniques he employs, he is able to get premium price and pass it on to those whom he employs.

The unique quality of his coffee is, that it is full bodied and totally balanced - providing a full-spectrum coffee profile usually found only in blends. Dilettante receives the green coffee, and we have our own roaster. We sell two versions in our stores: A darker roast (used for espresso) under the name Venezuelan Single Origin, and a super-premium selected batch we call Estate Direct which is roasted slightly lighter as a Vienna Roast.

Dilettante began our own coffee roasting 6 years ago. And when the company was purchased by Seattle Gourmet Foods three years ago, SGF installed a full-fledged medium batch commercial roaster. The purpose of getting into the coffee roasting business was to secure and blend our own beans, and roast to our own specifications to support our retail Mocha Cafe expansion. I wanted coffee that matched our chocolate - and not have to search out chocolate that matched someone else's coffee profile. We have four coffee blends (Hapsburg, Romanoff and Bohemian and Decaf) and two Venezuelan single-origin coffees in our line-up.

As we are also the largest manufacturer of chocolate-coated coffee beans in the nation, we needed full control of the supply side of this gourmet treat - which is finally destined to become mainstream -- as our client, Wal-Mart has tripled their order this year.

Due to rather limited quantities of the Venezuelan coffee, we roast and serve the Dominguez Estate coffee only on weekends for table service at our Broadway Mocha Cafe and Chocolate Martini Bar - which by the way is proving to be an excellent model. Our chocolate and mocha martinis, along with our double shot martinis are a hit. I'd say chocolate/coffee martinis are the perfect hedge against periods of financial downturn.

I happened to be in the Guarico (coincidentally) to experience the Divina Pastora (a statue of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, as patron saint of farmers in Venezuela) as the statue was paraded through the streets of Guarico (brought all the way from Barquisimeto to the local cathedral). It was an amazing experience.

Best regards,

Dana

This map shows the rural area that he visited:

View Guárico, Venezuela in a larger map