Lots of visitors in town = busy busy coffee shop.
Yesterday was amazing. We had so many visitors from all over the world through our little space. People from Australia, Russia, Japan, Ireland, USA, Belgium, Poland, New Zealand and many more countries paid us a visit.
David Makin got on bar in the morning and pulled some fantastic shots for the collectivists. At the same time we were roasting several batches of coffee and trying to pack it all. It's difficult to pay attention to your tasks when people you haven't seen in a year keeps coming in the door.
Last night Edwin Martinez of Finca Vista Hermosa gave a wonderful presentation on life at the farm in Guatemala. Edwin is a tremendously engaging speaker and not afraid to share his personal stories.
"You [the audience] know these specialty coffee roasters, who spend a large percentage of their finances to travel to origin, visit farms and outstanding coffees. I'm at the other end - trying to find someone good to buy and roast my coffee." Edwin explained.
Edwin showed pictures from the farm, including the farm house at 1600 masl. and the surrounding landscape. The steepness and altitude of the hill slopes makes the work on the coffee farm extremely difficult. Transportation of cherries from the different lots, through small pathways on slopes to the wet mill is such hard labour that Edwin says: "There's no bad coffee!" A reminder to respect the hard work that everyone that produce coffee undertakes.
In stead of getting deep into the technical details of making coffee Edwin told about the culture and history of the Guatemalan people - something that highlights FVH's approach to coffee; It's about the people! The high cup quality comes from the work the people there do, like pruning the trees.
During the two hours many interesting points came up. The importance of medical care at the farm. The new technology of cell phones allowing farmers to get information from Anacafe about the market price so the farmers can hold on to their coffee until the time where they can get the most from it. How they will only take the finished coffee down to the harbor until they absolutely need to, so it doesn't sit in the warm climate and wait for an unnecessary time. And much more than I could possibly list here.
We'd like to thank Edwin and his wife and mother for taking the time to share with us the stories from the farm.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Lots of visitors and the FVH event.
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I attended a cupping event in Perth recently, Gerardo Barrios from Don Adan Estate in Honduras ran the session and he was entertaining, very knowledgable and the 32 who attended thoroughly enjoyed the knowledge Gerardo imparted to us about his estate, coffee cupping and benefits of estate coffee to him and his workers. Proceeds from the event went to purchase books for the workers on his estate.
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