From February 1st to the 10th 2007 Barefoot will be making a trip to origin to visit our friends at Finca Vista Hermosa and a few other farms. We will also be helping to finish the medical clinic that Barefoot funded on the farm, harvesting coffee cherries, wet and dry milling them and bringing back the same coffee we picked ourselves. Finca Vista Hermosa is a micro family farm run by the Martinez family in the highest elevations of the Huehuetenago mountains in northern Guatemala. At 6000+ feet high there will be precious little oxygen for us poor lowlanders but it is the perfect climate for growing seriously great coffee. And the Martinez’s do just that.
Barefoot will start the adventure by arriving in Guatemala City and hosting Guatemala’s first ever Barista Jam at Anacafe February 2nd and 3rd 2007. Anacafe is Guatemala’s coffee marketing organization. On the 2nd Andy Newbom and Eugenia Chien and 2007’s Guatemala Barista Champion Noe Castro will be teaching Guatemala City Baristas the core skills of espresso extraction, advanced dosing and extraction techniques and doing a tremendous amount of cupping with the famous master cupper Eduardo Ambocio from Anacafe. On the 3rd Barefoot will then take the crew on a tour of leading Guatemala City espresso bars and continue the classes and lessons at these cafes. The Barefoot team will also be providing a little help and training to Guatamala’s reigning Barista Champion to help him prepare for the World Barista Championship in Tokyo, Japan.
After a grueling but exciting two days of Barista training and international coffee camaraderie Barefoot will meet up with several roaster friends from PT’s Coffee, Victrola and Brown’s coffee to make the long trek up north to Finca Vista Hermosa. On the way up the massive mountains the team will visit the dry mill where our coffee is processed and cup some great coffee there. Then as we wind our way up the mountain track towards the top we will visit several other world famous farms such as injerto, huixoc, miralvalle.
The team will spend 3-4 days living on the farm and harvesting and processing coffee the way it is done at Finca Vista Hermosa. Picking coffee cherries, pulping, fermenting, washing, sorting, grading and patio drying our own coffee. This is truly the highlight of the trip and is what we are all looking forward to. A true connection from seed to cup. Quality and passion in action.
Then it is off to visit the growing region of Antigua in southern Guatemala. There we will visit several more coffee farms to get an idea of the growing and processing differences in the various areas.
The team zips back to Guatemala City for another all day coffee training session at Anacafe and several intensive cupping sessions with the master cuppers there. A final chance to say farewell to new friends and fellow coffee lovers and then we all fly off for home sweet home. Hopefully a bit more humble and happy of our role in the incredible chain of hands that affects our coffee. A complete circle of love and great coffee from seed to roast to cup.
feel free to… see how this all works…
wow! fun stuff yesterday! cupped great coffees.
