we knew you when...

tomorrow will be a good day. it is a big day for my friends at finca vista hermosa as they participate in their first cup of excellence. we are praying for a huge day for them in particular and, of course, for the continued push upward of super-premium coffee into the consciousness of the consuming public from a commodified morning necessity--basically, the coffee-as-fuel ethos--to something truly special, cared about and paid for based on quality, not gimmicks or hype.

we are praying for the advent of quality as the sole qualifier of price. and, guatemala being among the best of the centrals in cup quality year over year, we keep our fingers crossed to see huge gains in prices paid for quality tomorrow at auction.

am i rambling? maybe. i guess i'm mostly just nervously excited for my friends and want them to do well and gain more fans. it's the same way when you discover a great uberunderground band and want everyone to know you knew them way, way before all others by sporting their t-shirt. i feel a little this way about fvh and am insanely proud to have my name associated with fvh, if even on such a tiny scale as brown is able to produce.

whatever. go fvh! we knew you when...

oh my

did you see this? at a cool $130/lb GREEN (probably in the neighborhood of $200/lb landed), what do you suppose the retailers will charge for this? and how much of it do you suppose they'll really play with to determine proper profiles? especially if you only got one bag of it.

i guess my thought is that now that the gesha has proved itself three years running, will we continue to see the gold rush to plant gesha all over the world as has already begun to happen? or, in the vein of latter day coffee explorers such as novo's brodsky, will people step up, show some creative moxy and get out there to look for the estimated hundreds (!) of as yet unknown african cultivars still undiscovered?

sadly, i think i know the answer. yes, i've had the esmeralda. yes, it is indeed almost physically and viscerally stunning. but i'm just afraid, as with most other things of this nature, that people will simply try to waltz down the winning path laid down by someone else, coffee's version of a bad pop song duked over a thousand times along the same tired old formulas.

fvh!

for those of you who follow the cup of excellence program, you'll understand what a big deal it is for my friends down at finca vista hermosa to score a number 8 ranking in the upcoming auction. to get chosen alone is a huge distinction. to crack the top ten...well, that's just downright sick. i noticed also that the 2006 winner, el injerto, ranked 6th.

best of luck to the martinez family as they take their farm to the next level. scoring a beautiful 87.53 at an international level is a huge accomplishment for this great farm and group of people i have come to love.

in related news, this crop represents the 50th anniversary harvest and, if the coe auction is any indication, it will be a very special one indeed. to help fvh celebrate, brown has been finalizing some commemorative t-shirts that not only will look cool on your back but will go for a good cause. when our shipment arrives we intend to offer the coffee and t-shirt as a fundraising gift pack to help fvh in their local sustainability efforts. keep your eyes peeled for the finalized details on that.

there are a lot of storylines and strands weaving through this post. i guess the other to toss into the mix here is how edwin and fvh are to be commended not only on their commitment to quality and sustainability, but to innovation and hairbrained innovation. the frozen greens project comes to mind. the gps/gis project with tristan comes to mind. and the sheep, my goodness, the sheep! there are more to come. hats off to a class act in the industry i am proud to be associated with. i'm gushing like a schoolgirl. i should stop. but three cheers to greatness in the cup.

just one quick pic

...to give you a picture of what's to come. i have a ton of pics from my recently concluded trip to guatemala, some of which are already up on my flickr account. this one is of yellow catui from the farm of el injerto, last year's cup of excellence winner for guatemala.