So, sit down with a cup of coffee and get comfortable before you read on.  Seriously.  Sit down.  Get comfortable and enjoy as he tells of his experience:

I arrive late Monday the 16^th to Guatemala City, picked up at the airport by Edwin Martinez (going forward he is ‘Eddy,’ because his dad’s name is also Edwin), Ryan Knapp from Madcap, and Raul Rodas.  Our first stop is a newly opened Starbucks in central Guatemala City, where we arrive right as they’re closing down for the night.  Raul goes his separate way for the night and Ryan and I are catching up on our respective businesses while we observe the interior of the space.  We’re greeted by a passionate staff of green-aproned, energetic Guatemalans and they insist that we sit down and experience a tasting of their coffee.  My Spanish is decent, but I look at Edwin and say something like, ‘What is happening here?’ because they are trying to close down for the night.  He seems a bit confused too, but the three of us sit down and wait.  In the ensuing fifteen minutes I will experience the most earnest representation in my life of Starbucks Pike Place Roast.  As our educator is speaking, I start to take a sip from the French Press brew he’s made and he stops me before it can touch my lips; ‘no, wait!  I have a few steps for tasting you must follow.’  I’m impressed and curious.  By the end I tell him he should compete in his country’s barista competition, because if he could transfer that sort of passion to talking about his own country’s coffee it’d be a good thing for us all. 

On our second day in Guatemala City we carefully time the traffic and make our way halfway up to Fraijanes, where Finca de Dios co-owner Stuart meets us and drives the rest of the way to his farm, where his wife Ellen awaits our arrival.  Madcap has been buying this coffee for a few years so this farm has special significance to Ryan, who is also figuring out his new camera to best document this beautiful farm.  We walk through the trees, some pruned down to the base, some yellow Bourbon, some young and flourishing, all carefully managed.  Ellen tells me about how they placed very high in their first entry to the country’s CoE, also the first year they installed their own wet mill and processed their coffee.  With that sort of positive reinforcement, they’ve been going hard at it ever since to bring the best their land can offer.  At lunch we roast a small sample of an older growth Bourbon from an early harvest lot.  Ryan and I are comforted by the smell of roasted coffee and we give Stuart some tips on roast length and degree.  Shortly after, we grind some up in a hand grinder I’ve brought along and brew up both French press and Aeropress.  Both are fantastic.  They’ve never seen an Aeropress before so we explain a bit more about the ‘by the cup’ movement happening worldwide and talk about some of the specific advantages of the Aeropress.  We finish the day visiting their wet mill and patio and the sun goes down on us all marveling at their work, tired from a day of sun and great conversation.

We’re sitting at the breakfast table the next morning and I gather that Eddy Martinez’s grandfather is asking about my tattoos.  I hold my arm up and show him my space invader tattoo, telling the story of how some friends and I journeyed off to Europe and later got these friendship tattoos, mine a bursting yellow and blue mosaic on my inner bicep.  I think he’s still intrigued and see a bit of a smile, so I ask if he has any tatuajes.  He laughs a bit more and points to a mole on his face then his wife, a kind and healthy older woman, begins singing a song and smiling.  Such is the start to my third day in Guatemala on this trip with Onyx’s Eddy and Edwin Martinez.

We head out shortly to catch up with Tracy Allen’s group of roasters—who have just that morning made the journey from El Salvador—and meet them at Anacafe.  We’re a bit early, so Ryan Knapp (Madcap) and I are able to spend some extra time with the passionate baristas/educators of Anacafe who run a series of courses for baristas and business owners.  They have amazing resources here, which I’m told  are very new.  Many roasters of various sizes, a Strada, every brew method I can think of: the works.  The rest of our entourage arrives after Knapp and I’ve successfully over-caffeinated ourselves and we’re probably looking a bit nauseous (Chemex of a coffee from Huehue, espresso, capps, aeropress…).  We meet and greet then head on to Anacafe’s labs downstairs, where we hear all about the impressive plethora of resources available to producers: soil testing, fertilizer formulation, insect response, and more, hearing them specifically stress that chemical-free is always the first choice.  We’re all a bit overwhelmed and curious, snapping pictures of equipment and joking about how some of their soil testing filters and beakers would make a rad sort of mini Chemex.  In order to make it to Huehue before nightfall, we are a bit rushed and have to depart prematurely, piling into a van with our new acquaintances.  I probably say something about how much I love these diesel vehicles, my new Greek friend Yianni of Taf Coffee is clicking shutters like nobody’s business and the mood is very good. 

The drive to Huehue is a time to get to know your fellow travelers.  By now KnappCap (a nickname he may or may not embrace) and I have spent quite a bit of time together so we cozy up in a bench seat in front of Mike from NYC behind Peter from Arkansas, behind Anna from Illinois and Stephanie from MPLS, behind our Greek Yianni and Edwin Jr, next to Tracy Allen, with Edwin Sr. at the helm.  Whew.  It’s a beautiful day in Guatemala City as we depart and Edwin Sr. is talking about history, elevation, the Panamerican Highway, and we have a chat in back about the Darien Gap.  Tracy tells some stories about driving a little four by four down to Costa Rica a number of years ago.  Then Tracy tells more stories because he’s got no shortage.  Talk drifts: roasting, travelling, Zacapa, queso, vintage Marzocco, Portland, Los Angeles, Greek coffee, Miami, Instagram, coffee labels and bags.  We see a policeman peeing on the side of the road as we climb in elevation, more pictures clicking away.  Stopping for a quick snack of corn tortillas with cheese and hot sauce, we carry on and make it to Huehuetenango right around nightfall.  Now I understand what Eddy means when he says that not a lot of people make it all the way to Huehue when they visit Guatemala on coffee business; it takes a lot of time.

Our first stop as we pull into town is a dry mill and we stretch our legs, then move on to our residence for this one evening: the Martinez home, a four story, very airy, compact space.  I find the lookout room on the roof and breath some of this fresh air, curious about how the night will unfold.  Edwin has mentioned that some producers will be swinging by to talk with us all tonight because our schedule is so tight the next few days.  They come along around 8 or so, bearing some fresh pergamino, which we agree sounds sexier than the English version, parchment.  Eddy is able to visit with and present a beautiful bag of Temple coffee to the two women who produce his ‘Diamante,’ coffee and they are shocked to see their farm name on the actual bag.  We’re all in a circle looking at them and the room feels a bit electric, I’m waiting for them to cry.  Edwin Jr. also looks like he’s on the verge. 

Climbing into the mountains of Huehue is shockingly beautiful and takes a good deal of time.  I am able to upload a few photos along the way, one of them a cement patio with coffee and clothes drying and the mountains and sunshine beyond in the distance.  We visit a few farms along the way, meeting some friendly dogs and observing the landscape: steep and dry, coffee everywhere, I see where Edwin’s farm name Finca Vista Hermosa found its inspiration.  We stop at his farm for a lunch then head out again, this time four of us enjoying a ride in the back of an old Toyota Landcruiser diesel pickup.  Bumpy road, sunshine, laughter, cool breeze.  I’m feeling bad for my wife at home in Seattle enduring the worst snow storm the city’s seen in what must be a decade or more.  The producers we visit are all family operations that take quality and land stewardship very seriously, and they are also proud, genuine people.  We hike, eating fresh, ripe cherries of various varieties: Caturra red and yellow, Bourbon as well, Geisha, Catimor, Pacamara. 

We regroup back at Vista Hermosa and the Martinez father and son tell us we’ll have to do some walking for the last farm visit of the day, so we drive a ways, dodging roadside shrubbery from the back of the truck then park on a dirt soccer field while a game is underway.  I see coffee everywhere, but have no idea where we’re going to walk next.  The sun is setting during the walk down and I come across a large wasp-looking thing dragging a recently-deceased tarantula somewhere.  I take a bit of video and keep on heading downhill.  Fifteen minutes later or so we come upon this shockingly well-organized, simple wet mill perched on the side of a steep hill.  There are some freshly pulped cherries sitting in a fermentation tank, I hear some sort of accordion music coming from down the hill, and then I tune in my audio senses a bit more and discover these gentlemen of Rosma are not speaking Spanish.  It’s mam they are talking in, a dialect of the region that Eddy says is about as similar to Spanish as English is to Italian.  I’m amazed, tired, curious.  Sublime.  We hike back to the trucks with a few fresh samples, still chewy and dense, more evergreen in color, and make the ride back to Vista Hermosa in a comforting, cool darkness.

I haven’t showered in what I think is two days at this point and am feeling the length of the day in my bones, but I’m here to help Edwin prep and roast samples so it’s down to business when we return from Rosma around 7 PM.  Yes, this is still the same day in which we initially left Huehue city to head to the mountains.  Everyone is curious about the little electric drum roaster we’ve brought along and I’m chipping away, trying to dial in my profiles while we munch on some steak the ladies have prepared.  Knapp is screening samples that were just dry milled and will later fire up the sample mill again to work on the ones we’ve gathered from today’s journeys.  All total, it’s twenty-two, so we’ve got a good five or so hours of work ahead of us.  We persevere and enjoy one another’s company, easing into a rhythm that feels both normal and foreign.  Every now and again we are reminding ourselves where, geographically-speaking, we are working.  Around 1AM Edwin has a minor hallucination: a patio full of coffee at Hermosa.  We all laugh about it and keep on going until about 2 AM, when Edwin and Ryan take a quick break to hit the sauna and I call it a night. 

5:30 AM Friday comes upon us quickly and I’m groggy from my light nap, but we’ve got to catch a van at 6 that will take the two of us and these samples down to the city of Huehue so that we can set up the afternoon’s cuppings and keep this tight schedule moving along.  Neither of us are quite sufficiently prepared for the nature of the ensuing van ride, but we try to get a bit of sleep and not think about how sore our butts are getting as we’re crammed in amongst nineteen or so others in this small vehicle.  Some school girls come in and out, I hear some older men in front of me speaking in mam, at one quick stop Knapp jumps out and hands another of his producers a bag of their coffee in Madcap form.  Hours go by and eventually we’re back where we started the day prior: Martinez home in Huehue.  It must be one of the most intense twenty-four hour periods of my life.  Because we’ve been so busy I’m no longer positive what day it is, but the sunshine on the rooftop patio is calming and invigorating.  We decide to take advantage of the layout of the home and set the cupping up on the third floor veranda, surrounded with potted plants and with a beautiful view of the city.  Everyone else arrives by late morning, we get the cupping underway, and we’re all thrilled to be tasting coffee from the farms that we’ve just visited.  All of the twenty two lots are bright, lively, juicy, and we all have a few favorites in common, as well as certain coffees that appeal to specific individuals.  I’m relieved that my roasting is well-received. 

Friday evening we begin trekking back to Guatemala City in our van full of acquaintances-turned-friends, and we stop for a great dinner along the way, Eddy and Edwin hospitable as always.  Back in the city some of us relax down in the hotel bar, reflecting back on this short, but intense trip.  We agree to all exchange some coffee upon our return and Ryan Knapp coaxes a few of us to the hotel casino, where we lose a few Quetzals, but have some big laughs.  In the end, we’re all more motivated to be buying fantastic coffees and to connect with producers who are as inspired by what we do with their coffees as we are with their work. 

Over the years I’ve learned that in the seed to cup chain the closer a coffee gets to the cup the higher the chances are of it being screwed up.

It is truly a hockey stick curve except it’s upside down and the steep part is between the roaster and the end consumer.  Granted if you start with bad or even an average coffee, there is no roaster (man or machine) or $20,000 brewer that will make it great.  Quality can never be improved only preserved.  So it is a tough challenge just to keep a strait line and NOT let quality drop.

When it comes to presenting a brewed cup in the retail sector, theatre has taken a front seat.  Syphons, V-60′s, chemex, aeropress and more…  The great value here is that it prompts the consumer to engage coffee and have a sense of expectation.  I would say most retailers undervalue this and lose a lot of business and profit for this.  The problem comes when the cup does not deliver and at least match the quality of the theatre.  One of the basic rules of thumb in the retail and service industry is that the consumer should walk away with a sense of having received fair value for the time and money spent.  Really one should aim to over deliver.  Something I’ve thought about a lot lately is that many consumers may not know the difference between good and great coffee today and for a coffee professional to bank on theatre and neglect cup quality is a disservice to those in the industry working hard to deliver something truly exceptional.

That being said.  This is an opportunity.  A tremendous opportunity in fact.  There is more good coffee out there today than ever before being delivered to consumers. All this with out a significant increase in supply.

The challenge is a simple one.  For those receiving something good, to deliver something good.  And if what you get is great, you must deliver great!

The obstacles I see are that while many artisan roasters strive to know their product well, they don’t know who their existing customers are and even worse they don’t know who their target customers are.  It is impossible to market a niche product of ANY kind when you don’t know who you are marketing to.

And as an easy solution to discover who your customers are many have decided since they deal in a specialty product to have retailers treat it as such.  However the “perception is reality” thinking will only go so far.  This is a terribly inefficient way to discover who your customers are.  Theatre creates buzz, theatre draws people.  But if it is not a good show people don’t come back.

What is disappointing is that in my opinion some of the best coffee roasters out there have no clue who their customers are and some of the less tasty coffee providers, know exactly who their customers are.  Whether you sell a cup for $2 or $22 you don’t want your customers walking away saying it was too expensive.  You want to know or GET to know who your customer is and delight them.  You should strive to over deliver so no matter what, they leave saying it was worth every penny and they would do it again.  If this is not happening with most of your customers….. I hate to say it but your products simply are not a good fit for most of your customers.  A quick solution is to change your products.  More likely you want to change your customers.  Not necessarily get new ones, rather to convert existing customers.  How do you know if you need to convert customers?  Most people that order black coffee add cream and or sugar to it.  Most people that consider themselves coffee connoisseurs and regularly frequent a coffee house, buy their whole bean somewhere else.  Why not from you?  Whats the disconnect?  Clearly you’re offering some other values that are trumping this.  Is this by design?  If so, great!  If not, what can you do to change this?

All this to say.  Theatre has it’s place.  It is incredibly valuable and by all means should be used anywhere it makes sense.  But it is no substitute for cup quality.  And know that if your theatre is trumping cup quality, despite being a small percentage that appreciate exceptional cup quality, they are a vocal and growing number.  They are the future of specialty coffee and perhaps the future of your business.

Here’s to 2012.  May Coffee taste as good as we them look!

The Gala Reception will be Friday the 13th of Jan from 8-10 p.m. in the main hall at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, California.

Marketplace will showcase the winners on Sat the 14th from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Front Alcoves of the Ferry Building.

So put it on your calendar and hop online now to book some tickets.  You know you’ve been looking for a good excuse to fly to SF for a good coffee/roaster crawl weekend.

Click here For more info from the Good Food Awards siteand here to purchase a Reception or Marketplace ticket.

Happy New Year!

-Edwin

And on a different note, yesterday Starbucks released their “blonde roast”.  It’s about time!  This will surely provide fodder for the media for the rest of the year as it is a significant departure from their near trademarked roast flavor so many have come to love and hate.  I am personally excited about this because while it will disappoint many existing Starbucks customers they can still get what ever they normally get and it will actually bring them new ones.  Customers that go to Starbucks for the taste of the coffee and not the roast.  This!  Is!  Big!  This is good for everyone.  Good for competition, the producer and the consumer.  This will allow Starbucks to slowly develop a consumer base that seeks terroir.  And if it is distinctive enough and consumers cling to it enough they may become less price sensitive.  Their blends will be available in several formats including Via.  I’m eager to try them all.

Here are a few links:

starbucks site

Seattle Times

USA Today

Starbucks blog – check out the video “blonde roast goes to second pop”

Starbucks unofficial fan blog

I was torn on how to respond as it means different things to different people in the industry.  And with out a consensus with in the industry the message to consumers is confusing.  However I find those who use it well are not concerned about how consumers define or understand this term.  There is a big difference between using a term that you have as a future goal to add value to your brand vs adding value by executing well and selecting the most accurate term to describe what you’re doing.  I’m sure this resonates for some of you.

As I think back over the last 15 years of all the roaster trips we’ve hosted  as well as meetings (both formal and informal) at different coffee association events one of the most controversial points about Direct Trade is not what most would expect.  I find most people in consuming countries see the level of communication with producer as a key pillar.  This is not the case.

The reality is that the buying roaster, the producer and any link in between, be it 1 or 11 end up focusing on level of commitment and defining expectations.  While communication is a foundational element, its simply the bedrock of a great Direct Trade relationship.  The life that flows through this is in the details.  Really, it comes down to sharing risk.  And while communication is key in minimizing risk between multiple parties, it is simply not enough.  A good fit goes a long way.  Simply put, a good fit is where one person is giving exactly what the other wants. This means hammering out A LOT of details.  It has been an easy band wagon to jump on for roasters to embrace the Indiana Jones of coffee idea.  And while this story sells, it is enduring meaningful value that builds a great brand in the long run.  And the “best fit” is an efficient one where a producer is not offering any more or any less value than the roaster wants.  To put this in brewing terms, an inefficient DT relationship is one where there is over or under extracting happening.  And in order to get a final result that makes everyone happy, something needs to change.

We get inquiries from several new roasters I’ve never heard of every week and I find that it seems easier and easier for someone new in the market place to have clarity of vision, laser sharp focus and have a at least a vague idea that the cost of their endeavor is more than they imagine.  This is much more than many of todays leaders in specialty coffee could say in their first years 10, 20 30 years ago.  Clearly credit should be given to those who pioneered and paid dearly for it.

The future of direct trade is one that hinges more upon the buyer being very clear about what they want and the seller being very clear about what they have.  This requires continued education on both ends of the spectrum.  If you’re a roaster reading this and you’re thinking to yourself.  ”I know exactly what I want!”  I would suggest you ask everyone in your company to describe exactly what they feel your company wants in a Direct Trade relationship.  If everyone from investors, CEO, operations, human resources, accounting, sales, training, roasters, green buyers, baristas are on the same page – that is a great start.  And everyone DOES need to be on the same page to embrace and give meaning to a commitment.  But this is still just a start.  The next question to ask would be “Is what you want something you already have and you want more of the same?  Or do you want something different than what you have”  For most it seems to be the latter and this is fine.  It simply means there needs to be a clear plan that makes sense to everyone on your team.  And THEN you can step into the conversation with producers and say something like “This is what we think we want.”  I don’t think one can say with confidence what they want until they’ve gotten exactly that a few years in a row.

Over the last decade we’ve seen the gap in price paid to farmer and price paid by end consumer grow significantly.  And earlier this year for the first time since 1997 the commodity market has reached a point where the gap has decreased.  This has happened because many roasters have not reacted by increased prices across the board that reflect their costs.  Those that have made increases have either partially or completely protected their margin.  However many large roasters are banking on futures dropping and are waiting it out.  In fact the J.M. Smucker Company announced a 6% decrease one month ago.  This is curious to me as  Guatemala has had the highest differentials this year in over half a century.  And when the C market has dipped, the differentials did not stay the same… they increased, which means the market value for Guatemalan coffees has been less connected to the C in 2011 than it has since the beginning of the Coffee Exchange in NY over a century ago.  This is good for ensuring future quality out of Guatemala and it seems the market is there to support it.

As someone who sells coffee to roasters I realize a brand can be perceived to be bigger and of better quality than it actually is.  The the inverse is also true.  Neither of these deter me in wanting to facilitate a direct trade relationship.  However as a roaster you must consider how this is perceived by a producer when they see that you look cooler than you are.  Or that you’re under appreciated.  They are just as interested in your customers being a good fit for you as you are a fit for them.  While you are making operational decisions week to week, month to month, they’re looking at several years at a time.  Producers with exceptional quality want to capitalize on the current market and they’re more perceptive than ever to 2 or 3 year contracts.  This is a bad idea for any large roaster with small margins, but if you’ve protected your margins, this is the time to talk about locking up your green from your favorite sources for the next few years.  It is definitely a risk.  But if it is one you can afford, you are in a fantastic position.

I can very quickly know what to expect from a roaster in their approach to dialogue with a producer by looking at their relationships with their wholesale accounts as well as how they present their product and brand to consumers.  At the end of the day, a good brand is a good place to start, good quality behind “a” brand is also good.  But good quality AND a good brand together, have a very desirable stability that commands attention.

In short – your brand and target market NEEDS to be aligned with you budget and this will dictate what you can buy.  And if you don’t like where this leaves you, something needs to change with either your brand, target market and or your budget.  A lot of what in my opinion is legitimate direct trade in coffee is not economically sustainable.  This is not good.  For anyone.  If you would like assistance in assessing what a best fit might look like for you, drop  us a line.  We’re happy to help any way we can.

In Guatemala we take the liberty to turn really long names of co-operatives and associations into acronyms.  Usually the group has this in mind when forming the name, but if they don’t it gets acronym-ized anyway.  However, it’s more difficult when there are only consonants.  In this case we commonly take the liberty to include the second letter of any word necessary to complete an acronym that can actually be read and pronounced.   ….something like “TWECACOC”.  And that STILL manages to shave off 9 syllables!

Anyway if you are flying into Seattle from out of the U.S. or out of state and/or you’re driving from anywhere else in the United States, it’s likely you’ll be driving north on I5 right through Bellingham, Washington.  We’re 3 minutes off I5 (take exit 253) located at 1015 Railroad Ave # 105 Bellingham, Wa and we would LOVE to see you!

FREE COFFEE?  Right.  About that.  Nothing is really free is it.  But if you come in on the way to or from TWECACOC with a better sounding acronym we’ll gladly brew up a complimentary carafe for you of any of our available offerings.  Currently featuring Heart, Four Barrel and Coava as well as a dozen off menu selections including Starbucks.  Yes.  Starbucks.  However this one is only sold as part of a flight for educational purposes.  And if your acronym is not any better, we’ll still give you credit for trying.  And if you need any last minute gear we do keep a small inventory of hario products in house.

Note we’re only open from 10 a.m .- 6 p.m. Wed-Sat (and we sometimes close briefly for lunch somewhere between 2-3)

THEN REGISTER NOW!

DEADLINE IS ONE WEEK AWAY.

-Edwin

This is my first post since 2009!  Might as well keep it short and sweet.  I did not and don’t plan to make the shift from old school blogs to twitter.  So I will try to resume some activity on this blog with the help of a couple guys that run the onyx coffee bar.  More about this later.  Their posts will be more relevant to the bar and I’ll chime in with updates and other news outside of the bar.

Stay tuned……

49th’s “El Zapote” from Julio Roberto Melendez has a VERY pleasant Medium body with snappy acidity and tangy sweetness. Plum candy! Very versatile as it’s a great cup of drip as well as a sweet balanced espresso.

Gimme & Barismo each picked up some of Armando Melgar’s “Trinidad”, and this coffee is solid! Just received overnighted (thank you Colleen!) from gimme and shared with family over the holidays. The roast was beautiful, fragrance intoxicatingly pleasant and intense. Drink this every day! We’re working hard to get more of the same in 2010!

Happy New Year!

This is a project we started in 2008 and have continued for people who pay a premium to preserve the green at it’s freshest state.  This keeps the green from potentially picking up burlap taste and smell in transit and storage.  For green to stay fresh and stable regardless of packaging it is best to keep it from volatile temperature or humidity.  If you cannot control these elements it is best to keep it in something that it can breath in like burlap.  Sometimes a choice or commitment to the best in quality is a larger undertaking than first realized.  Everyone around the world that opens these boxes/bags gets a fresh smell that should bring you right back to the farm.  Pictured is the talented Casper from The Coffee Collective, with 2009 Harvest ONYX vacuum packed FVH 2009 Harvest.