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At the end of a great day spent with the Petersons at Esmeralda, we took the up-and-down 90-minute drive from Boquete to Volcan to visit a good friend, Carlos Aguirre from Carmen Estate.
After spending a good deal of time in the moderate climates of Costa Rica and Guatemala (due to the altitude), arriving in Panama City was a bit of a shock. It was extremely humid and hot.
After visiting the West Valley, I returned to the exclusive office for a day of cupping—about 50 or so coffees from West Valley and Tarrazú.
If you’ve been to our Marda Loop location recently you might have noticed some new art on the wall opposite the espresso machine. It’s the story of one little coffee cherry and his ripening on a coffee farm aptly called, “The Ripening”.
My 2nd day in Costa involved more cupping at the Exclusive office with 5 great folks from Maruyama, including the current Barista Champion of Japan, Mie Nakahara.
The title of this post may imply that I will studiously post everyday of this 25-day origin trip. I’m not sure I can commit to that, but I’ll certainly try to relay the interesting goings on here.
Recently, we had Telus TV visit us at the roasterie to interview Phil about the process of coffee from the green bean to the cup.
We’ve been told that when one door closes another door opens, and this gives us some consolation as we say goodbye to our market location and close a great chapter in our young history.
This year has shown some of the most talented and committed baristas yet! From Day One through to the Finals, everyone showed passion, dedication, and an immense talent for understanding and sharing coffee knowledge. Congratulations to everyone on all your accomplishments!
The Prairies Regional Barista Competition this year was anything but low-energy and dull. In fact, the coffee was a-pulling, the crowds were a-cheering, and tunes were a-pumping!
The competition is over. Everyone’s packed up their cups for another year. And it was an amazing competition! Both to be a part of and to watch.
We arrived to the West Valley town of Naranjo in the early afternoon, at which time we had to remind Francisco that normal people tend to eat a few meals a day, so we stopped for lunch at a local “soda”, a Costa Rican name for an informal eatery where we enjoyed some nice tacos. The more time we spent we Francisco the more we liked him – he’s so animated and passionate about his cause, it was refreshing and exciting to hear him talk.
