Around December this year I am going on holiday to do some coffee research. I am trying to build source trips into the business that I am starting, designing and manufacturing coffee roasters. I would like to offer source trips as an educational aspect of the services that we offer. I am still trying to decide where I want to go, there are so many great coffee-growing regions. Does anyone have some suggestions as to the best way to get in contact with farmers, or have the names of farms that I could visit or people that I could get in contact with?
Colin, what countries would be your first picks? There are probably a ton of people here on bX that would love to host you, in a number of countries. I have connections in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Columbia, Peru, Brazil ... (as many others do).
Good luck, I too want to plan a source trip early next year ... I am thinking South Africa, Dylan, David Donde, ahem ... :)
You and others are welcome to come to Costa Rica and come check out the recent micro-mill revolution happening here. Most radical change in the coffee culture here in decades and re-discovering and in some case saving amazing coffees from the ax. Beaches and and rain forests here are also amazing to visit. December is start of harvest time so you can see the whole process. I am from the US and have a rustic farm and micro-mill in Tarrazu that I always have open to educate visitors and at our Exclusive Coffees exporting office we have a great cupping lab to give enthusiasts the full on cupping tour of the countries finest and diverse micro-climates.
We tried discountmugs.com and had a relatively bad experience. First time around they prkinted our 2 color logo in one color. Second time around they the colors were not lined up correctly and many were smeared. In both cases they gave us a full ref…
I didn't mean to insult, and Teresa made it sound like she was just doing dishes before adjusting the OP to clarify. And certainly if just touching the rag while wiping the wand is destroying your hands your solution is WAY too strong.
-bry
What is specialty coffee? Do you know?
Specialty Coffee
by Ric Rhinehart
In a 1998 article for the Specialty Coffee Chronicle Don Holly wrote the following as he grappled with the question of defining specialty coffee: “My understanding of the or…