FincaVistaHermosa

Usually when one is busy time passes quickly. The last 2 months have seemed an eternity. Carlos and Edwin Garcia Martin continue to be missed tremendously. In their absence many relationships have grown stronger.

I have learned much about how we all process differently. And different is not wrong. Grieving takes many forms. With out means to preserve a body, funerals take place with in 24 hrs. There were a few hundred at the funeral that mourned loudly for a few days. Sometimes it is most difficult to deal with the present reality, and anything outside of denial seems impossible.

At such a time everything else seems so unimportant, yet distractions seem to be so comforting. Two months ago we were right in the middle of harvest with full patios and Diego, Carlos’ oldest stepped forward and chose to take his fathers responsibilities. Juana and most of her kids have since been in San Juan their home town to be close to their extended families despite not having lived there for 20 years. Diego spends half his time at FVH and chooses to sleep in the bodega alone with the coffee rather than in his home, the managers home. Life is different for many of us.

Early March on a layover in LA I went to visit John Gozbekian at LAMILL where the food is unreal and their culinary approach is mind blowing. Then before leaving I had to pay a visit to TONX as well. Soon after arrival I met up with Ryan Brown from Ritual along with Ben and Jaime from Barismo to embark on a new venture. We cupped at 7 of the largest exporters in Guatemala along side many CoE judges. I will post more on this later… possibly on a different blog. Since then Jaime has written a piece that is thought provoking and hopefully inspiring any reader to get back to the basics. The post is dated March 31, 2008.

And we picked up a few more friends along the way…

Klaus, Aaron, Mark and Ben have also posted pics on flickr.

To read more detail on the latter part of this trip please check out:

Klaus Thomsen (TCC) PART1, PART2 AND PART3

Victrola PART1, PART2 and PART

On February 15, Carlos, the manager of Finca Vista Hermosa, and his son Edwin, were on their way back up to the Finca with supplies and money for payroll. On the way up the mountain, some bandits not from the area took their money and their lives as well. This was shock not only to the FVH Family, but also to the local community. If you wish to read more follow this post to the bottom.

CARLOS’ WIFE JUANA REMAINS WITH 11 KIDS. 100% OF THE FUNDS WILL GO TO TAKE CARE OF THEM. IF YOU WISH TO CONTRIBUTE VIA CREDIT CARD/PAYPAL CLICK HERE, OR MAIL CHECK TO: P.O. BOX 31123 BELLINGHAM, WA 98228 WITH THE WORD MEMORIAL IN THE MEMO. (If you wish to use this link on you website please email me)

Carlos 1960 - 2008. Husband and father of 12 kids.

Edwin 1991 - 2008. While not the oldest he was the first in his family to go to high school. Ever since he could kick a ball he fearlessly played with people twice his age and is a legendary goalie.

This year Carlos would have been 47 and Edwin 17.

Carlos wife Juana will be 42 yrs old in 2008

Remaining kids and ages in 2008:

Diego 27

Ana 25

Eluvia 20

Elena 18

Reina 14

Mariela 12

Ronaldo 10

Ashley 8

Dianet 6

Carina 4

Israel 3

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES.

It’s been 10 days and Nina and I are still in disbelief.  I apologize I have not taken or returned some of your calls. Email has proven to be a good emotional filter.

For years now there isn’t a week that goes by with out someone asking “How’s Carlos doing?”. The first thought that comes to my mind now is “It’s none of your business!” But, it probably is. And while it’s the last thing anyone wants to talk about in a time like this, the question remains: How will this impact FVH?

Carlos was a good mentor and delegator. It was just 1 month ago I was hiking the boundaries of a couple micro lots and I told Carlos “I don’t know what we would ever do with out you!” To see things at FVH continuing to move forward brings tears to my eyes as I see the impact this man has had. Particularly in his absence. Many managers are limited in what they achieve because they are afraid to let go of their managerial duties. Carlos was good at teaching, letting go and allowing people to make mistakes knowing that he too had made his fair share. With early morning jobs beginning at 5:00 a.m. and depulping sometimes running until 2:00 a.m. delegating was not an option. Carlos knew if he made himself obsolete by training others to do his job that it would be good for everyone. While some hold the reigns tight in the interest of job security Carlos proved to move far beyond what his job called for. He was a forward thinking innovator that was aggressive in getting things done but also a tender and sensitive listener that was eager to hear others opinions.

He committed his time to developing new projects that always somehow improved the quality of the coffee, quality of life or quality of the environment. Some of the things Carlos supervised the last 12 months include the construction of new restrooms, new sleeping quarters and laundry mat for seasonal workers. He also discovered a new small spring and protected it while building a multiple tank reservoir system which provides good pressure with out a pump while also filtering and providing clean water. And of course he always took joy in remodeling the wetmill area. This was where all the fine tuning and experimenting took place. Carlos built a few new roads and diplomatically maintained good relations while settling multiple property line disputes with honesty and integrity. The list goes on, but most importantly he was a loving husband and father that will be greatly missed.

I want to express my gratitude to not only our customers but so many in the coffee community who have expressed their condolences and to you who are currently doing something about this. If you wish to put a DONATE BUTTON on your website or blog please email me and I will gladly forward the picture file as well as the link. It is very easy to do.

Sometimes there are difficult questions in this life that we cannot possibly understand the answers to. Carlos was quite possibly one of the happiest finca managers in the world. When he went back to his home town to visit he was treated like royalty because people knew that he had a good job where he did a great job and intern he was paid well for it. Few things brought him more joy to know the level of appreciation people had for the fruit of his labor. His grin was ear to ear when told about where FVH coffee ended up and that people asked for it by name and even asked and cared about him.

I will soon be visiting with the rest of his family to try to begin expressing some of the warmth that has been expressed to me. However much we are able to gather up in the coming months this will never make up for what was lost. And however little it may be we trust that it will be multiplied and meet their every need.

Despite so many things that are uncertain in this world, we are confident that we will see Carlos and Edwin again one day and that they are much happier today than ever before.

Harvest is a season and everyone seems to have a different point of view about exactly when this begins as the cycle of growing coffee is exactly that… a cycle.

Although we did start some picking in early January, this year the first day of harvest for us is January 21.

PEPENA is the word in spanish we use for the pre picking which we do to capture early ripes. This also prepares the tree for a more uniform harvesting and allows maximum nutrient to be available to the fruit that is prepared for export.

It is costly to have a separate PRE harvest picking wave, but the cup quality proves this to be well worth it. Traditionally it is common practice to catch the over ripes during the first wave of picking and for quality’s sake sort them out somehow at some point. However the fruit that is reaching “IT’S POINT” ends up competing for nutrient with the fermenting dying coffee that is ahead of the game and now dying on the tree.

We’ve tried to send out a “STATE OF THE HARVEST” newsletter each year to our customers in the past. Instead I’ve thought more about creating a TOP 10 list of reasons why NOT to write it. Of course it would include the fact that we have few customers, no one reads it and if I’m not procrastinating and I get around to writing - my writing gets wordy. The truth is it is hard to write a years happenings concisely and you should just come down and see for yourself. To answer the most common question “How’s the harvest looking?”. It’s looking great. Quantity will be less this year and much less for many of our neighbors. Not so much because of one time weather related events.. rather a cycle of having relatively strong production the last couple years. This is a year that the mountains are taking a breather.(small tip for those working of the C) I will try to post more “happenings at FVH” in the coming weeks.

On that note- a few weeks ago we (Guatemala) lost aproximately 150,000 bags or 20 Million dollars worth of coffee due to high wind. Click here for more info (in Spanish). It was previously expected that the 08 crop would exceed the 07 crop in quantity. No longer the case.

I occasionally get requests for this and although they exist in Guate, you probably don’t want it. A well processed natural calls for slightly drier climate or a controlled mechanical drying. As we dry everything on the patio we need to get lucky with a solid week of exceptionally strong sun to handle this. There are still 2 greater reasons why not to buy naturals from Guate.

photograph taken by Mike Garber

1. I think it’s illegal. I think all exports must be “CLEAN COFFEES”

2. If you dried it adequately and gave it good drymilling/processing that yielded a nice “looking” bean it probably still tastes fermented and or grainy and grassy. Why? The only naturals I’ve ever seen are the result of sifting off the floaters in the first water tank before depulping and some of this is nice because it is a cherry that has only 1 bean in it, BUT IS NOT A PEABERRY. The other parchment/mucilage shell inside is hollow, thus it floats. However most floaters float because of other internal defect, or most likely it is simply overfermented and clearly appears it as the skin has already begun to shrivel and dry up like a raisin. This means although it maybe remains connected to the plant it is no longer in growth mode receiving nutrients, rather it is dying ON the tree. The other natural coffees found in Guate tend to be under ripes. Whether this was picked accidentally or on purpose, sorting them out is easy, and the taste is poor, so everyone ensures they’re not part of the “export” coffee. If you’re cup ever tastes like wheat grass… this is probably why.

Last week I received the following email from my father:

Eddie

I spoke to Carlos This morning. He was working with about 20 people in the
upper part of Vista Hermosa. They have cleaned up 20 brand new cuerdas. Monday and Tuesday they have dug 1200 hoyos and will dig a total of 5,000. Today they stop digging hoyos and building a road so we can drive right to the new Lot.
We don’t have a name for that yet. It was exiting for me to talk to Carlos knowing exactly where he was and what he was doing.

He didn’t have the exact numbers for the cuerdas in each lot. He is going home for lunch when I will call him again and send the numbers to you.

for your information. Next year we are going to use one of the pilas para reposar el cafe despues de lavarlo y antes de secarlo. La pila es la mas nueva y esta cerca de las bodegas.

Te envio la informacion mas tarde.

Papa

I must say this year we have had the most abnormal weather in decades. We’ve had rain when we didn’t want it and didn’t get it when we wanted it. Go figure. It is risky business to be so dependant on the weather and we were certainly put to the test this year. Although our quantity is down a bit, it seems the quality is stronger than ever. Cup quality is consistent with the past years and it seems the rain that came at the wrong time gave us a small loss of fruit that actually primed the plants for continueing to develop more evenly and slowly as we like it. The biggest challenge was handling some processing logistics after picking. For example having full patios with coffee that isn’t dry yet, no sun, and more coffee getting depulped each day. We had to set aside some lots that we just couldn’t manage properly and we also trucked coffee to other patios offered up by generous neighbors. We go through great lengths to naturally sun dry as it is extremely difficult to dry coffee consistently with a mechanical dryer. If this seems like alot of work to you, you’re absolutely right. It means not being a stranger to 20 hour work days. As a result we had to decide whether to build another patio or some raised drying tables which to this day I’ve never seen in Guatemala. Thank you Jeff Taylor and George Howell for sharing pics on what this looks like. We have chosen to move foward with the building of a new patio. This will be the biggest patio and it is in the only place we can possibly build one this size with out creating an engineering marvel. For those of you who haven’t seen first hand, it’s not easy to find a flat area in the highlands of Huehuetenango. Our community is known to be particularly rugged.

As I write this we have officially unloaded most of our U.S. bound coffee and are starting to ship this back out as most of it is already sold out. We bought some more coffee again from our neighbor who we have been working with now for a few years. To see a clip done by a reporter from L.A. CLICK HERE!!

The task at hand is a pass through the entire plantation for extensive pruning as well as a wave of weeding, which means swinging a machete back and forth horizontally half an inch above the ground. We don’t kill other vegetation we just cut it down so the coffee plant ends up the stronger one that absorbs water and nutrient rather than a growing weed.

Nina and I will return in a few weeks joined by her parents Thomas and Shirley Grant. Nina and I are very fortunate to have the support of both of our families in this venture that was once a dream. A dream my grandparents never imagined would come true.

As I reflect on the coffee that has been produced in our family the last 3 generations I realize how blessed we are. Finca Vista Hermosa seems to be the perfect size to manage exceptional quality across the board. As we visit smaller farms, quality tends to be more of a challenge because of loss of economies of scale. While larger farms leverage economies of scale and can’t afford to give the same attention to detail. Many of the other coffees offered up in the Cup of Excellence this year are a micro lot that has been sectioned off from the rest of the farm. This has been “babied” every step of the way to be a coffee that is really exceptional above the rest of what the farm has to offer. In our case we are small enough and in the perfect location with the right people and climate to put out an entire crop that is excellent. Most that have cupped all our micro lots cannot differentiate between them and we almost had to flip a coin to decide what went where. I’ve decided not to think about the CoE and get my hopes up. Having tried some of the other coffees I can tell you they are all VERY good! Having a coffee in the CoE in Guatemala is like being in the Olympics. The difference between first and last place is just a decimal… a fraction. The smaller the difference between the first and last in a CoE auction is a sign of how developed the origin is in consistently putting out good coffee as a nation. Some countries with more challenges have a much greater variance between the samples that are submitted.

Sorry for such a lengthy post, I just thought I would compile some thoughts and responses to incoming emails and phone calls. Thank you to those of you who have called in with congradulations. We don’t see the Cup of Excellence as a sign of having arrived or as a peak. Rather a point in a continuous line. Our goal is not occasional excellence, rather excellence consistently through the years. Thank you for partnering with us and being a vital link in this chain that we value so much.

This year we made an extra effort to give much attention to the sorting pre and post wetmill in order to have a perfectly clean coffee so the terroir that is to be had can be more clearly articulated. I leave this to you to discover. To enjoy. And to share.

Happy Roasting!

We had 2 trips early 07 related to coffee and last week a group of 19 who rebuilt a house for someone who lost theirs because of Hurricane Stan. Click on Gabe’s face to see the reduced pool of pics mostly from first trip. I will be posting more pics or links to pics to the thousand plus pics that Gabe took. Click here for flickr tag words barista trip guatemala. Click here for Barefoots pics from roaster trip.

Growing coffee is not rocket science (it certainly is not easy either) but much of what I hear and read with the exception of producer trade journals, needs to get put through the myth busters show. Because I think there’s alot of myths floating around out there. Elevation is one of those that topics that often gets mutilated in coffee. Elevation does not produce higher yields in coffee (in fact quite the opposite), it does not guarantee quality, higher elevations are not the SOLE cause of a denser harder bean or sweetness or acidity etc.. So what does elevation mean? It means you have thinner air, you’re closer to the sun, you are not at sealevel and things tend to grow a bit slower. THE ONE VARIABLE THAT IS A MUST TO PRODUCE DENSITY IS TIME. You can’t produce a dense bean quickly. (And of course.. don’t get absolutist on me, time does NOT guarantee a harder bean). For example look at the chart below from Anacafe that labels out growing seasons. It is broken down by elevation and bean type. These associations are mostly acurate, but slightly misleading becase it is in fact a generalization.

COFFEE

TYPE - ALTITUDE - HARVEST SEASON
Strictly Hard Bean 4300 feet 1300 meters January/April
Hard 4000-4300 f, 1220-1300 m December/January
Semi Hard 3500-4000 f, 1070-1220 m October/November
Extra Prime 3000-3500 f, 915-1070 m September/October
Prime 2500-3000 f, 760-915 m September/October

This is not to say you can produce great hard beans with out any elevation, however here is an example of breaking the rules of the above chart, and sticking to the time rule.

If you are growing your coffee under shade this means it will be achievable to be organic if you choose as the lack of sun means it will both drink less water, and require less nutrient. So by not having sun and being fed natural fertilizers, the growth process is slowed down compared to the growth spurt the tree experiences each year with heavy fertilizer, heavy sun and good ground water. It is this slowing down of the process that allows further developement of the bean. Generally a more dense bean has the potential to be more complex because there is more to be tasted. Again this does not guarantee quality, rather hint towards a higher likelyhood of it being present.

So if you were strict to break down types only by altitude as the chart above dictates, you will be surprised when you find a shade grown organic Semi Hard bean, be HARDER/DENSER than a full sun conventional Hard. You may not know this until you can closely analyze the beans visually, put them through a densitometer and cup them. And again this is because of TIME.

All have been covered by freelance reporter Angela Sun. Going from being a sponsored surfer and snowboarder she began covering these same events and developing quite a career reporting on whatever she’s taken an interest in. Her involvement with Al Gore’s Current TV project connected her with producer Adam Yamaguchi who joined her on a trip to the highlands of Huehuetenango for a story. As our coffee is indefinitely sold out, we’ve begun working with a family co-op that has received more recognition internationally and domestically (in Guatemala) than our coffee has. We are now their exclusive exporter to U.S. and are looking for the right match that may possibly commit to their entire crop that is U.S. bound. I will inevitably share more about them in 2007, but for now consider this coverage from someone outside of the coffee industry a preview of what is one of the finest coffees in Guatemala. The proof is in the cup. As Angela and I were not able to line up our schedules it dawned on me this was a priceless opportunity to help out our friends and neighbors Julian and Aurelio Villatoro. They are past CoE winners, and have been awarded #1 and #2 coffee in Guatemala by Dr Ernesto Illy and Starbucks. THIS FOOTAGE IS PART 1. Part 2 is coming soon.

I’m looking to bring Aurelio up sometime this fall. Please contact me if you have interest in partnering with them. The quantity they’d like to send to U.S. is 2-3 CTRS.

Angela and Adam hired Chino, one of my cousins, as a professional guide to tour Guatemala and take care of safety, logistics, and interpretation. For a non coffee highlight in Antigua, Guatemala, Chino couldn’t let Angela leave with out covering holy week. CHECK OUT THIS CLIP!!!