But the tears keep clouding my vision. Every time I try to write more about Carlos and Edwin Martin and the tragedy at Finca Vista Hermosa I cloud up.

Thank you Mark Prince at Coffeegeek.com for putting finger to keyboard and doing a great pair of men justice.

Read it here

Barefoot Coffee Roasters is a cafe and roastery in the heart of Silicon Valley operating in the old ways of hands-on craftsmanship. Hands and hearts beat computer chips any day. Striving for coffee perfection makes Barefoot take coffee pretty seriously and pour love into every bean. While still keeping it simple; taking great coffee, crafting it with pride and passion and treating the whole coffee experience as a culinary art and operating sustainably from top to bottom.

The team has been ranked as one of the top four boutique roasters in the nation by Food and Wine Magazine and been voted Best Coffee in the Bay Area four years running by the Wave and Metro magazines and recently the Mercury News.

Barefoot is an artisan roaster of sustainable great coffees including Organic, Fair Trade, Shade Grown, co-op grown, single estates, auction winning lots and relationship coffees. These great coffees have amazingly complex flavors, nuances and layers which are truly wonderful on your tongue.
Great Coffee is it’s own reward. Trust the coffee.

Barefoot is a family; we don’t want your money we want your soul. If you are a lover of the bean and want to see if you have what it takes to be part of the crazy Barefoot coffee family then look around and drop us a line.
www.barefootcoffee.com

Customer Builder
The Barefoot Customer Builder is a relationship builder. A romance expander. A customer farmer. A business partner. A solution provider. A coffee slinger. A tea suggester. A chocolate enticer. Barefoot wholesale customers look to you for answers to their questions about great coffee: what you have thats hot and sexy this week, how best to brew it, how best to market it and how to get their staff excited about it. They are already sold on great Barefoot Coffee they want a friendly ear to talk to and a confident voice to help them along the way. You are not selling them coffee, tea and chocolate, you are guiding them towards serving great coffee, tea and chocolate and helping to make their cafe a success.

The Customer Builder works under the tutelage of the Coffee Wrangler and Roast Master to suggest hot new coffees each week for cafes to focus on, promotion ideas in their cafe, upcoming events, suggest trainings and suggest new items that we supply. These are existing customers already serving great Barefoot Coffee so you are their advisor and partner not their sales person. This is a great and engaging role. The Coffee Wrangler rides the range searching for new killer cafe customers that are ready to meet the rigors and standards to join the Barefoot family. The Customer Builder helps these new and existing customers maintain the high standards. Where the Coffee Wrangler will be out traveling to their cafe to help them install a new brewer, setup whole bean retail coffee, doing an espresso training or just giving ‘em the famous Wrangler face time. The Customer Builder is focused on building those customers’ weekly orders, answering questions about training or whole bean sales, and making them feel welcome and tight in the Barefoot family.

In a nutshell the Customer Builder works Monday through Friday in the office with periodic trips to customer cafes for training and support. You call and email every single customer every week to tell them about new or recommend coffees and teas that week, get their order, make sure they have all the airpot labels, signage, marketing materials etc, invoice it in Quickbooks, get it to production, make sure they are shipped and prioritized correctly and overall make the customer experience a great one. The Customer Builder is the customer advocate to production. You will also suggest new items like teas and chocolates, send them samples as needed, suggest trainings, remind about equipment cleaning and service and promote whole bean sales in their cafe. You will work closely with the Coffee Wrangler to help build our customers into world class successful cafes that serve Barefoot coffee exceptionally well. You will also be on the training team helping the Coffee Wrangler with wholesale cafe trainings, events and classes. The Customer Builder is in the Wholesale sales familia and works closely with the production and training teams. You are the face and voice of the Barefoot wholesale team to people who call the Coffee Works. The main phone number goes directly to you. You will be a master of Quickbooks and the gatekeeper of the phone.

The Customer Builder will also manage and promote the Barefoot online store. You will enter new online store sales in Quickbooks and ensure they get shipped on time and accurately. Communicate with these customers any issues or delays and ensure their satisfaction. You will manage the online store offerings to make sure that the store is accurate, up to date and well setup. You will manage subscriptions and repeat orders. You will also promote the store online, in our cafe and anywhere else needed to increase the sales in the online store.

The Customer Builder manages all of our wholesale customers and ensures their complete satisfaction, encourages standards achievement and guides them to be a profitable customer and a profitable business. It is a tall order with a huge amount of satisfaction. It requires extremely hard work, focused determination, attention to detail, persuasiveness and a great love of coffee and customers. It also requires a deep sensory and technical understanding of coffee, tea and chocolate flavors, sourcing and preparation. You will be able to enthusiastically wax poetic about new or exciting coffees and teas and help them extract the best espresso possible all in a friendly phone call. You will be confident enough to tell them when they need to make changes to their orders and their coffee preparation and enthusiastic enough to get them to try out the kick ass new Panama Kotowa coffee or Dragon well tea.

You will love great coffee and you will love customers. And they will love you and the coffee right back. Ahhhhh… ain’t that sweet!

Requirements:
1. Reliable transportation
2. able to work Monday through Friday 8 am to 5 pm
3. Must be passionate about great coffee
4. Be able to make great espresso and coffee
5. Excellent written and verbal communication skills
6. Very computer savvy and comfortable
7. Minimum of two years as a Barista or coffee professional
8. Prefer one year in customer service or sales in food industry
9. Able to actively and excitedly talk with business customers
10. Must want to kick coffee ass and help make Barefoot cafe customers the best they can be
compensation is $25,000 to $38,000 depending on bonuses and experience.

To see if you are a good fit for the team do the following:
1. Write a sexy cool cover letter explaining why you are the one true customer builder
2. Include your resume
3. Email it to us at: info -at- barefootcoffee -dot- com
4. But if you really want to get our attention and impress us, then do something truly creative and inspiring. Ask around at the cafe and you’ll get some ideas…

Thank you so much for your outpouring of support for the Martin family at Finca Vista Hermosa! With your help we have already raised over $700 in two days. Spread the word and join our support of the Martin and Martinez family by telling anyone interested to buy coffee or donate money.

With your help we can reach $2500 or more by this Friday! And our friends at Victrola Coffee and fellow Finca Vista Hermosa friends are going to be launching their own program to offer proceeds from the sale of FVH coffee for the Martin fund and we will add this to the check we give to Edwin Martinez (owner of Finca Vista Hermosa) when he goes to Guatemala in two weeks.

Thank you all!

And Edwin Martinez has setup a donation and more info about Carlos and Edwin on his blog as well

Tragedy at our farm partner Finca Vista Hermosa in Guatemala.

On February 15^th, 2008 a tragedy struck our farm partners at Finca Vista Hermosa in Guatemala. For the last decade or more Carlos has managed the day to day operations of Finca Vista Hermosa. He has labored tirelessly to bring exceptional quality, exquisite farming methods, demanding harvesting and processing procedures and intense cross training for all farm workers. The results have been astounding. Finca Vista Hermosa has consistently won international awards for coffee flavor and quality in auctions and programs. Carlos Martin lived a rich and full life and lived for his family and for coffee. He was training his oldest son Edwin Martin to take over managing the farm when he retires.

But Carlos and Edwin Martin’s lives were tragically cut short. On a return trip to the Finca they were ambushed by armed bandits and brutally murdered. They were returning with payroll for the farm workers and supplies and food for the entire farm. The sorrow and pain we here at Barefoot Coffee feel is deep and taxing. Roast Master Eugenia Chien and Andy Newbom spent a great deal of time with Carlos and Eddie when we last visited Finca Vista Hermosa.

To show our love and support for the entire family of Finca Vista Hermosa and to help Carlos’ wife Juana and her 11 children Barefoot Coffee Roasters is launching a support fund for their family. From February 22^nd through March 7^th

100% of all proceeds from sales of all of our Guatemala Finca Vista Hermosa coffees beans will be donated to the fund for Juana.

In about two weeks Edwin Martinez (the owner of Finca Vista Hermosa) will be going back to Guatemala and will bring down the check and present it to her. Please join us in supporting this amazing family of coffee farmers. You are also encouraged to make cash donations as well.

Carlos Martin and his son Eddie were an amazing team of coffee professionals and our hearts are saddened at their passing. Carlos’ older brother and original farm manager Lencho and Carlos’ son Diego are working with the Martinez family to manage the harvest right now as they are in the middle of the key part of the harvest.

Buy any Guatemala Finca Vista Hermosa coffee in our cafe or from our online store between now and March 7th 2008 and 100% of the sale will go to Juana and her 11 children.

You can also make a cash donation in the cafe or online right here.

We’re holding a special pre-competition training on Saturday, March 1st to encourage new comers and experienced competitors to get in training mode for the Western Regional Barista Competition - and a party afterwards so you can relax and mingle.

The Western Regional Barista Competition has been sanctioned by the USBC Committee of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. It will be held March 28-30, 2008 in Berkeley, CA. We hope you’ll join us! And feel free to hit the forward button at the end of this email and send it along to anyone you think might be interested in the training and/or the party!
Kerry & John Laird, Pacific Bay Coffee Co. & Micro-Roastery and Andy Newbom & Monica R. Hill, Barefoot Coffee Roasters.

WRBC Pre-Competition Training
Get your game on now!

Attendees will spend a full day learning from veteran competitors. The morning will be devoted to the score sheet and rules & regulations. Competitors will see and taste what the judges are and aren’t looking for in an espresso, cappuccino, and signature drink.

Expect to walk away with a comprehensive understanding of what you need to do get your highest score. After lunch, attendees will have the unique opportunity to observe two experienced competitors do a full routine from start to finish, including the critical set-up time.

If you’ve watched a competition and don’t understand why the competitors are moving the way they are, this is your chance to find out. The routines will be narrated and attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and critique the demonstrations. Learn what goes into making a solid routine, from the training schedule to the music.

If you are an experienced competitor come join us too - or pass this along to help a newcomer in the world of Barista Competition.

Event Location
Pacific Bay Coffee Co.’s Wholesale Roastery
2332 Fourth Street, Suite E, Berekeley, CA 94710
Saturday, March 1, 2008
9:00AM-5:00PM

Barista Guild of America Party!

After the training join us for a SCAA Barista Guild of America meeting and party at Cafe Mediteraneum, home of the first latte! All baristas are welcome, affiliated with the training or the BGA - or not! There will be a minimal fee of $5 to cover the cost of food and location for those not participating in the training. Come hang out and socialize with baristas from California. Chapter Representative Sean Komescher will be in attendance as well as Executive Council members Heather Perry and Andy Newbom. We will discuss barista culture and enjoy bounteous coffee love!

Cafe Mediteranium is located 2475 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, CA. Saturday, March 1st, 6 pm

Barefoot Coffee was invited to participate in the 2008 Ethiopian Limited Coffee Competition and Q Roundtable Conference. This is a fantastic opportunity to improve our relationships in Ethiopia, learn more about the coffee processing and farming of several different regions and visit the birthplace of coffee. This is an honor and a priveledge and we are thankful for the opportunity.

Coffee roaster Dominic Taylor is the lucky soul who is in Ethiopia right now helping with the Q Roundtable Conference. Tomorrow he is off to Djimma to visit a handful of farms and mills. During the next 9 days he will be visiting a dozen or so farms and several mills and doing pre-selection cuppings and screenings for the upcoming Ethiopia Limited Coffee Auction. This auction replaced the famous eCafe auction of former years.

The itinerary is below:

2008 Roundtable Conference, Djimma, Ethiopia

Sun. Feb. 17: Recommended date for arrival in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.

Monday Feb 18:Q Buyers Forum - Addis Abeba.
The Coffee Buyer’s Forum is organized by the Coffee Quality Institute. The Forum has the objective to promote the concept of Q graded coffees in Ethiopia and to assist in the actual start of Q coffee trade.

February is the month of coffee and love with Valentines day and Specialty Coffee month sharing the stage. And that coffee love is blooming at Silicon valley’s Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Barefoot is hosting Guatemalan National Barista Champion Noe Castro for the month of February. Noe Castro was the Guatemala national Barista champion and went on the compete in the 2006 World Barista Championships in Tokyo nabbing 28^th place. Noe recently took third place at the 2007 Guatemala Barista Championship and won the title of “Best Espresso” at the championships.

For the months of February and March Noe will be participating in a Barista Exchange at Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Noe will be exchanging information, techniques, coffee passion and stories with the Barefoot Coffee team. This is a unique arrangement that builds great rapport between all of the participants. The high end of the specialty coffee industry is a supportive community that thrives on open communication and co-opetition. Noe will be learning to roast coffee, cup and blend coffees from many different countries and learn new espresso extraction techniques. In exchange Noe will be helping to train Barefoot’s Barista competition team, Monica Hill and Marie Holston, as they prepare for the Western Regional Barista Competition March 29-31^st 2008 in Berkeley, CA. Noe will also be working the espresso bar pulling espressos for customers throughout the month at Barefoot’s coffee bar.

“My passion is coffee. ” Said Noe Castro Cacao. “Working with Barefoot Coffee is a remarkable opportunity for me to advance my coffee knowledge, skill and passion. The level of coffee preparation knowledge in the United States will allow me to achieve my goal of representing Guatemala in the World Barista Championships in 2009.”