Your mug competition in Colombia, why go there?
With the launch of our competition to win a trip to Colombia with FARO experts, Maxime Fabi, General Manager at FARO, wanted to say a few words about the motivations that drive us to go more and more directly to coffee plantations around the world.
Why Colombia?
Colombia is a key player among coffee-producing countries. It was one of the first countries to seek to capitalize on the added value of a specific geographic area. After all, who hasn't heard of Juan Valdez (we'll be talking about him again in the coming weeks)! However, in the specialty coffee sector, Colombia is somewhat less popular. Ethiopian, Kenyan, and Costa Rican coffees are more prevalent, despite their own distinctly acidic profile.
The idea behind this trip is to see how farmers and wet mill producers are adapting to the demands of specialty coffee to offer more distinctive profiles. Indeed, managing microlots requires much more complex and agile logistics, and that's why we want to see how this coffee giant is adapting to these more specific and targeted demands.
Finally, we also have a portion of Colombian coffee in our Golden Gate espresso. Therefore, we want to find the right beans to complement the natural Ethiopian coffee that will accompany it.
Why go directly to the plantations?
I want to clarify first that visiting the plantations is neither mandatory nor necessary. However, for our ongoing training program, these field trips enhance the knowledge of the entire team. The visit allows us to meet the farmers and understand their unique characteristics. This way, we can highlight these qualities to our customers. It also allows us to differentiate ourselves from the washed and sorted Colombian Exelso coffees available to all roasters year-round.
If we consider the end consumer, the one who will enjoy their cup of coffee, it is much richer and more interesting to take field trips and discover a region, in order to offer the best aspects of it in the cup.
Besides the quality of the cup, what are the advantages for the consumer?
The purpose of the trip is also educational. We don't claim to roast and serve the best coffee in the world, but we take great pride in helping people understand coffee. On this kind of trip, we learn a lot and we want to share that knowledge with those who follow us.
Furthermore, relationships with farmers and exporters are truly long-term, especially when our own customers request the product. If the next harvest is good, we will meet the demand. We have already made a few field trips in the past, for example to Costa Rica and Guatemala, and we have maintained contacts, whereas in El Salvador, we did not renew our purchases the year after our visit.
