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huehue to go

so in just another day i’ll be off to guatemala and the highlands of huehuetenango for two weeks to visit edwin martinez’ finca vista hermosa. not to brag or anything, but it is going to be one slammin’ trip. some of you may remember edwin from our november barista jam at ruta maya here in san antonio. edwin has become more than a professional colleague. i feel privileged to call him a friend and i have immense respect for the things he and his family are doing with coffee of course, but also in being an amazing part of their community. edwin says that while it’s not uncommon for many coffee plantations in their area to have to search for labor during the critical harvest season (going on now in guatemala), at fvh they have workers lining up to help. why? basically, because they care.

now, you can talk all you want about fair trade this and certified that; but when you’re doing the stuff–really doing good and right by your workers as they are at fvh–then you don’t need some third party bureacracy to stamp a label on your coffee just so americans can feel good about themselves. edwin, his family and all the workers who are associated with fvh have had a great thing going down there for three generations and i cannot wait to experience it firsthand and to pay my respects and say thank you to the people who surely spend blood, sweat and tears to care for the coffee they produce. our trip will be all about learning as much as we, the last people in the coffee chain, can about the first people in the coffee chain.

i will be doing my best to blog regularly about the trip here and/or at my other coffee blog.

when i return there will definitely be plenty of things to share with you about some projects and experiments we began and conducted there. very, very cool stuff that’s out there on the bleeding edge of the specialty super-premium coffee movement. won’t get into it all here and now, but some of the stuff the projects include are: freezers, g.p.s. equipment, tons of hiking, tons of note taking, at least one article (hopefully two) in one or another of our beloved trade zines and tons and tons of pictures.

i’m humbled and honored to have such a great opportunity, and i’m hyper proud to plant the proverbial texas flag in the midst of all this hoopla. i don’t consider myself to be anything special in all of this. i’m just glad to have the chance to be there and i hope this will be another small stone in the coffee edifice we’re building here in the lone star state.

and oh yeah, i want to put out there before i go that i’ve really been thinking long and often about the next texas barista jam. something magnanimous. something difficult and challenging and inspiring. something never before seen in texas. i’m thinking late march or early april. who’s down?

catch y’all soon.

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