The secret diary of a green coffee buyer aged 40 and 1/4
A trip around Central America Day 9 The lake, the beach and the town of turin.
I wake to the most amazing view of the lake, something that couldn’t be seen when I arrived all ill and hunched over a few hours before, but this is a bit special.
I awake feeling a little bit better, I’m not sure if I am talking myself well, as we have a busy day, and tomorrow a chance to crash and relax then, but either way, I’m up and about.
Breakfast is relaxing, and chatting with Alejandro it is as good as it gets. There is something about the eggs in Central America that taste that little bit better. I’d gone to bed so ill last night I had not checked email or charged my phone, so 45 mins of both of these is all Ale will give me before we hit the road.
Our first stop is the mill El Mono. I first visited here with Ale four years ago. Each year there has been improvements. This time a new cupper who has really worked on tightening procedures in the lab. We get to cup some early harvest, and most excitingly an experiment we have been working on for Dale who works with us for barista competition. This is the first time I have got to try it, and it looks like what we expected to happen, has. Which is kind of good as we have built a whole performance around it.
The crop has been so badly hit this year that the mill has been mothballed, with all the processng happening at J Hill a super mill in Santa Ana, this is more of the El Salvador I had been tld to brace myself for.
From here we go to the steak restaurant Ale always takes me to and always complains about. I am not so sure I am ready for food, but I do my best, but I can tell I think I had talked myself well.
From here we hike up to Finca Argentina. Here I get to see what leaf rust can really do to a farm. Heavily hit just as the farm began to fruit, the worst time as you can not spray to stop it attacking. This tied in with a scheduled mass pruning means the farms looks battered. Ale tells me around 80% of the crop has been lost, and its devastating to see. Unbelievable from the joy of the cupping table a couple of hours before.
I get to see where the experiments been happening (I will tell you more about this in the future I promise) and up to my climbing tree. The first time I visited the farm I felt come led (like at La Fany) to climb a tree, and now every visit another climb is mandatory. I love visiting this farm near to the village of Turin, its a secial farm (if not a little more insecure than last time with two security guards needed 24 hours a day now).
Then from here to what will be home for the next couple of days, Ale’s house on the beach. Ale use to be a banker in New York before becoming coffee farmer extraordinaire, and luckily that job paid much better than farming. He also surfs, so the house on the beach was a must. Its a hard life this green buying, but 9 days in and still sick I am so looking forwards to day 10 and a break from the craziness and a chance to recover some.
