The Coffee Project

This is a first hand recollection from our friend David Borton about his travels in Guatemala, and his experiences in the region of Pampojila…

Memories Hidden in a Cup of Coffee

Pampojila, Guatemala. Memory lane. Seeing that coffee for sale took my mind rocketing back to Guatemala, Summer 1988. Pampojila, rural western Guatemala, where many of the indigenous Mayan were among the 120,000 that had been murdered by its own army. Civil war. Nothing civil about this unending 30 year war that took its own innocent people as the first casualty.

As we descended into Guatemala City, my mind raced with anxiety…

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As we descended into Guatemala City, my mind raced with anxiety. We had read Love in a Fearful Land to prepare us for the 13-day visit. Henri Nouwen’s book had the area around Lake Atitlan as its setting. (Pampojila sits off to the southeast of the lake). It is the story of the toll the civil war took on the indigenous communities surrounding the lake and the murder of Father Stanley Rother by the death squads of the Guatemala army. Rother’s offense? He stood with the poor. And that village was on our itinerary…

Right about then, the noise and jolt of the wheels touching down jarred me back to the present. I began to have second thoughts about our scheduled visits to Christian base communities throughout rural western Guatemala. But it was too late. The attendant opened the safety of the our womb and we disembarked.

For about a week, we trekked over roads that our four-wheel found next to impassable. Sewing cooperatives, literacy programs, agricultural projects, stove construction with vents to prevent women’s blindness – you name it, we had seen it. Magnificient projects, funded with minimal dollars, all designed to foster collaborative efforts and raise the standard of living of community members. And in the midst of this, I saw mind-numbing numbers of young soldiers, all sporting Uzi guns wherever we walked. Our host, Jorge, told us, “…Just don’t make eye contact and keep the cameras away.”

On day eight, we headed south off the highway to Panajachel and took a ferry across Lake Atitlan, on our way to Santiago Atitlan, the village that served as the setting for Love in a Fearful Land
(http://www.henrinouwen.org/books/bibliography/view/?id=1101355054045722400 ).
Absolutely stunning scenery belied the horror and impact the 30 years of war had on these quaint indigenous villages. Just outside Panajachel a field greeted us, absolutely void of any growth, not even weeds. I asked Jorge what was wrong with the soil here. “The army poisoned it with chemicals. It will be years before it can come back.” What was that about?

Armies use all weapons available to them, including intimidation and terror. The army believed that this community (who had farmed it cooperatively, as many indigenous groups do throughout Central America) was sympathetic to the leftists who hid throught the mountaneous region to the south. Terrorize them. Poison their fields.

As we gathered in the church where Father Rother had served, Jorge took me aside. “The army has been following me since we left Panajachel. Lead the group in prayer and then ask everyone to scatter. We will meet at the ferry and catch the next boat out of town. I can lose them.” He had that look in his face that said, “…We aren’t discussing this.”

At that moment, I am sure that I offered the most bizarre prayer that had ever passed over my lips. I haven’t a clue what I said, but we all skedaddled like nobody’s business. The ferry was awaiting us, and its nasty diesel fumes never smelled so good. At the last moment short, barrel-chested Jorge came bounding aboard and off we went. Smiling.

Later that evening, in Xela, we stopped for dinner. Jorge then spilled the beans, figuratively. It seems that three nights before our arrival, at 2 a.m., three hooded men had awakened him, banging on his door. Their greeting?

“You are to quit your work among the poor – stop teaching the Indians (pejorative term) foolish ideas. Oh, and by the way, we know where your wife and children are every moment, of every day.” And with that mid-night greeting, they left as quickly as they had arrived.

But Jorge didn’t quit. That day or any day. It just wasn’t in his spirit. He died this past Spring at age 55, blind and in renal failure, still working with the poor. And it was from him that I learned love — in a fearful land. R.I.P., friend.

What’s in a cup of coffee? In this Pampojila, there are rich and very deep memories. As deep as Lake Atitlan itself.

Dave Borton
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
August 2008
http://sidewalkmystic.com

Here’s an answer I put in the newsletter from probably 5-6-7 years ago. He was in part asking about the cups/value you get from a P&G coffee vs a home roasted coffee:

Most references re “Why Roast?” are comparing specialty coffee to specialty coffee. Folgers, Maxwell House etc are kind of a different beast. Twinkies can be eaten for instance, but I wouldn’t necessarilly call them food. When we compare the dollar value of roasting your own beans against roasted beans we’re looking at… Starbucks of course, Peets, Graffeo, all the places that actually produce good enough coffee that you’d drink it.

The number of cups a pound produces has a similar analagy to junk food. A loaf of Wonderbread is probably very inexpensive compared to real bread and produces as many sandwiches as a nice bakery loaf of bread. Two slices are two slices. But, if a restaurant produced a beautiful Martha Stewart dinner however, and served a basket of Wonderbread with it you might feel something just doesn’t measure up.

One lb of roasted beans is the same as one lb of ground beans, exactly as one pound of feathers weighs the same as 1 lb of gold. Typically you can get 50 shots of espresso, or fifty cups of coffee from one pound depending on your taste.

In mass produced coffee though there is an element known as triage. This is “stuff,” it is sticks, shriveled beans, junk. This makes up part of the weight of canned coffee. They may not still include it today but at one time the chaff from roasting was reintroduced and ground up as well. So a measureable amount of canned coffee cannot really be concidered coffee at all. The quakers, floaters, black beans, sticks, road sweepings… these are all defects which make up a very large part of commercial coffee. Virtually every bit of this is removed in processing Specialty Coffee however via hand sorting. A few defects make it through, but if you could see the difference it would be like Times Square as it used to be, and Times Square today. Additionally, commercial coffee is lightly flash roasted and contains a bit more moisture content for that extra bit o’ weight in their 12 0z pounds. A full four ounces of what you perceive as a pound isn’t even going home with you.

The economy of roasting your own beans is like every day having a brand new Lexus at half the cost of your neighbor’s Lexus plus never running up the odometer no matter how much you drive it. Roasting your own coffee is having the best coffee in the world, forever, and never having it go stale. It’s the everlasting gobstopper accesable to everyone with only ten minutes and a heat source.

Good Morning from Hollywood! Well, staying nearby, anyhow. James lives here, and I’m visiting for the annual Specialty Coffee Association Conference and Exhibition–that’s a mouthful. Basically, it’s three days of immersion in all things coffee. We’ll be attending educational seminars, forums, and generally hobknobbing with all the other coffee people. One of the things that I enjoy is meeting some of the growers that attend the conference as well. It’s a wonderful learning experience, and there’s always a lot of fun stuff at the Exhibit Hall. So, if you’re calling, we’re not ignoring you! Anyone who leaves a voicemail for either James of Cheryl will get a phone call back, if, perhaps, not as promptly as you usually do. We’ll be back soon!

Cheryl

http://www.slate.com/id/2180301/?GT1=10837

That’s a good article.

The counterpoint to it is also that if your store is dirty, hard to park at, has no visible signage, and the staff is cranky- plus your coffee is old, stale and weak… then it ain’t Starbuck’s fault if you fail.

One point the writer makes at the end is very true too- Starbuck’s isn’t giving anything away. Its a very expensive place to go get a cup of coffee. I know from experience that the sandwiches just got smaller. They’re in business to make money.

Although the article didn’t address quality specifically, a small independent coffeehouse can produce way the heck better coffee (specifically espresso) than Starbucks if they even try a little…. I think its because when Starbuck’s got shareholders they became a very different company with different concerns. A few years ago Starbuck’s actually got rid of espresso machines that require skill and knowledge in favor super automatics. The impact of that is apparent in any single shot that doesn’t have a cup of milk added. But- that leaves a LOT of fertile ground available that’s already been prepped and tilled for any go getter to step in to and do a better job. A lot of the hardest work was done. Starbuck’s established that you can sell a cup of coffee for $3. For gosh sake thank them for that.

Starbucks was brilliant at leading the way, they’ve educated the consumer to what’s possible. But excellence can be hard to maintain on a large scale. As a business grows it becomes a beast that needs to be fed, and in that is opportunity for everyone else. I agree with the article, there’s tons of opportunity for small shops to benefit. Absolutely.

Here’s a cool thing I saw on ineedcoffee.com

http://www.ineedcoffee.com/04/art/

Jacquie Farr

artoffarr@aol.com

Jacquie Farr is an emerging artist from Western Montana. She has been a professional sign artist for almost 20 years. Four years ago she began seriously painting fine art. Since then she has produced over 600 pieces. The coffee art is her latest experiment.

stores.ebay.com/Art-of-Farr-Gallery

I am wanting to add a coffee tree to a coffee-themed shower gift. How much are the trees and how would it be shipped to Chicago? Also, is it possible to create a coffee basket to be shipped out as well.

Here’s a link to the trees. It should open on any browser:
Coffee Trees

We don’t really have gift basket items, however a gift certificate would be a good thing. If your friend considers herself a coffee lover, roasting coffee from scratch is just about the peak of coffee consciousness.

Maybe order some raw coffee, the home roasting book, and a gift certificate. I’d be happy to include a stenciled burlap coffee bag so you can make a nice presentation.

Gift Certificate

Burlap Bag

Coffee Roasting Book

Oh, and a Roast Magazine is free with any order

Trees usually only travel on mondays (from California) but we could overnight everything if time is an issue.

Karl Seidel is a local coffee roaster (www.FreshRoastDaily.com) and a trade journal writer who is making his debut foray into the local readers market with this article. Compliments and critiques are accepted and appreciated. E-mail: Karl@FreshRoastDaily.com

There are a lot of coffee lovers out there, but not as many coffee connoisseurs. If you really love quality coffee, I’d like to offer a list of things to look out for to begin exploring the best there is about coffee.

First of all, it’s important to note that coffee is food. As it ages, the oils that naturally develop as part of the roasting process get old and rancid. Compare your coffee to bread. As the bread ages it hardens and becomes stale. Coffee also gets stale as it ages. Recommendation: Buy only enough coffee to use within 2-3 weeks.

Storing coffee in your freezer is advised by many people. I’ve even heard this from some roasters who have pretty impressive resumes when it comes to coffee. However, I have to ask: Who does it serve when a coffee purveyor advises you to put your coffee in the freezer? Why is it necessary to buy more than you need? If you put roasted coffee in your freezer, naturally, it retards the process of aging to a degree. To what degree I can’t say, but I welcome scientific analyses on this subject. In reality, the issue is not the freezing of the coffee. It’s the thawing it that matters. Taking frozen coffee out of your freezer begins a process that allows frozen oil to do what’s only natural: melt. Thawed oil mixed with watery condensation is not a happy combination for coffee integrity. Recommendation: Store coffee in an airtight container, without freezing.

During the coffee roasting process, raw green beans typically get heated well over 420 degree Fahrenheit. Like popcorn, the coffee bean begins to expand. Essentially, the internal structure of this once-very-tight little bean expands two or three times its original size. At the same time, the water within the bean—its natural essence—is vaporized during the process of heating and roasting. In the final weight, it’s fairly common for each bean to lose 10-15% in water weight. So, the bean has expanded, but it has lost weight; its internal fibers have expanded and it is now “sweating” from its open pores. At this point, when you grind the bean to make a pot of coffee, you are exposing its already compromised and fragile facade to the brutal element of air. From this point on, with every minute, the bean loses more of its essence and flavor. Recommendation: Don’t grind your coffee beans until it’s time to brew your coffee.

In a recent article from “Cooks Illustrated,” the author asked various coffee roaster purveyors when the coffee she had purchased at the supermarket had been roasted at their plants. The answer will surprise you. The range was from 6 months to 2 years ago! Why would you pay your hard-earned money for something cooked 2 years ago? The process of discovery can be a real eye-opener. A local roaster can sell you recently roasted beans often at comparable prices. In addition, since that roaster knows you personally, he/she will be better able to recommend new types of coffees that you may like. Ask your local roaster what types of coffees he/she likes to drink. Also ask what a “French Roast” is and what kind of coffee beans are in that roast. A little bit of research on your part will give you a much greater understanding of what coffee is. Then, try different coffees so that you can find out your preferences. Recommendation: Locate a local coffee roaster and talk to them about what you like.

The Colombian Coffee Trade Board has put a lot of thought, energy, and money behind marketing the coffee farmed by their people. I often hear from people, “Is this Colombian coffee?” or, “I only want Colombian-quality beans.” What this tells me, more than anything, is that people have heard the word of the Colombian marketers and they have responded well to Juan Valdez. Hey, Juan now has his own website and has even opened up cafés in New York City! The point is that there is a wide world of coffee out there that spans over 60 coffee-producing countries. Although Colombia is prominent in our minds, take a moment and consider beans from Ethiopia, Kenya, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. One of my favorite coffees comes from a little estate named La Torcaza in Panama. Recommendation: Broaden your horizons and try beans from around the world.

Once you’ve started trying all sorts of new brews, the final step is to learn to taste your coffee. If you’re putting cream and sugar in before you’ve had a sip, then you’re not really getting the best that coffee has to offer. It’s OK if you prefer cream and/or sugar with your coffee, but give your bean a chance to introduce itself first—especially if you’re trying a blend for the first time. Recommendation: Practice sipping and tasting your new coffees black.