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My wife and kids have just left for Kauai for a few days and I'm wondering if anyone knows of a terrific cafe on that island...She would love to hear of a funky third wave joint someplace so she can satisfy her cappuccino needs.

Let me know!

I recently traveled to Boquete, Panama to visit coffee farms in order to educate myself, meet farmers and all of the peopleinvolved in producing coffee there. Boquete is in the state of Chiriqui at the foot of Volcan Baru. David is the capital of Chiriqui.

Panama, January, 2008

Friday and Saturday: I landed in Panama the night of the 11^th and hung out most of the day of the 12^thin the city. I paid a cab driver todrive me around and show me the sights. I saw some great views of the city as well as the canal. He dropped me off at Albrook Airporta couple hours before my flight so I wandered a little. I stumbled upon a small roadside coffee housecalled Kotowa, Coffee of Boquete. Istopped in for a shot and a cup of coffee. It was all right. They ground theespresso to order and the coffee was pretty rich but had been brewed a coupleof hours before. They had preground,flavored coffees for sale in shiny bags. I ended up hanging out at Kotowa in Boquete a bit. I got on a small plane and flew toDavid. From David, I got my rental car anddrove to Boquete. I was planning onstaying with the Petersons on Hacienda Esmeralda so I followed the directionsthat Susan Peterson emailed to me. I gotlost…many times. The journey that shouldhave taken me one hour took three. Ifinally asked three farm workers on the side of the road if they knew whereHacienda Esmeralda was and they didn’t. I asked where Palmirawas and they knew. They needed a rideoff the mountain so I gave them one. Theytook me to Palmiraroad and then into Boquete to drop them off. There was some big drug bust going on so I waited in line on the highwayfor a while but finally made it to the Petersons. I drove a little 2 wheel drive Toyota up some awfulmountain roads in the dark. I mentallyprepared myself to sleep in the back of the car on the side of a mountain witha flat tire in a foreign land but everything turned out all right. Yay! Susan and Price fed me sandwiches and beer and showed me to my casita(little house) which was situated in front of the main house. Susan and Price were so accommodating andpleasant to be around.

Sunday: The next day I woke up to find cows right outside of my window. I hadn’t seen any of the land in daylight so I was blown away by the scenery. It wasamazing! The Petersons have severaldairies in addition to the coffee farms. One of the milking parlors was right across the road from my casita. I went into the house and Susan had brewed a potof Esmeralda Geisha through a Technivorm. OMG it was incredible to drink coffee on the farm. Price had to leave early that morning for anSCAA meeting in San Diegoso I didn’t get to see him after that. Afterbreakfast, Susan introduced me to Abel at the beneficio (mill). Abel showed me the whole process of how theyremove the coffee seeds from the cherries using machines which also separate under-ripecherries from ripe ones. They then drysome of the coffee in huge rotating cylinders heated by ovens fueled by coffeehusks (pergamino). Some of the coffeewas dried on the patio until it reached 11% humidity. Workers continually raked the seeds so thatthey could dry evenly in the sun. Abelchewed on seeds to gauge the humidity level. I tried and guessed that one batch of seeds was at 20% humidity using mymouth. It was 19.9% on the machine. I rule! Abel showed me the cupping lab and whatwas this?…he started setting up a cupping! We cupped the new Geisha Mario 1 and a Caturra from the Jaramillofarm. It needed a little more “reposo” (rest)but it was amazing to be cupping with the foreman at the beneficio. He didn’t speak any English but he spokeslowly so that I could understand his Spanish. The view from the cupping lab was beautiful! I think Folgers would have tasted good inthat setting. Later that night, I wentto a small restaurant down the road called Gordon’s. Gordon was a Gringo who moved to Boquete andnow runs a bar/ restaurant and gives English lessons. He had coffee, bananas and oranges growing inhis front yard. It was karaoke night atthe bar and I had a chance to listen to some real Panamanian folk music. Wow! Just wow! Oh yeah, I shared thecasita with many very large spiders. Wegot along.

Monday: This was one of the most significant days on my trip. Susan took me to the Jaramillo farm to work and hang out with my newbuddy and foreman of the Jaramillo farm, Poldo. Poldo and I hiked all over the farm. He showed me all of the different sections of the farm including Mario’svalley where the Best of Panama Geisha is grown. According to Poldo, very few outsiders hadever seen this valley in person. I was alucky boy. It was gorgeous. The Geisha plants carpeted the whole valleywith hundreds of native trees poking through. He also showed me another section of the farm that had Geisha and Catuaigrowing in the same section. He had metaste the difference between the two in cherry form. The difference was amazing! The Catuai left a sweet, round, refreshingaftertaste while the Geisha left a slight sting down the back of my mouth andthroat. Later, we rode around on histractor and ran errands for the farm before lunch. The tractor only sat one so I sat on thefender and held on for dear life. Thetractor was Poldo’s car. We even drovedown the highway on it. I had lunch atthe nursery with all of the Ngobe kids. They workers lived in tiny cement shacks and the kids wore tatteredclothing. They were dirty and had littlesupervision but they were happy and it was easy to tell that they were loved. They took care of each other. We had rice and half of a sardine for lunch. I was a guest so they chopped up a littlecabbage for me. The kids loved my cameraso I let them take a bunch of pictures. After a short after-lunch soccer game and photo shoot with the kids, itwas time for me to do some cosechando (harvesting). I strapped on my bucket and went to work on asection of a field near the nursery. Itwas awful. It was important to pick onlythe ripe cherries and to twist them off to avoid injuring the plant. No stripping of the branch was allowed. So much work and care go into harvesting onEsmeralda. Since coffee cherries don’tall ripen at the same rate, the pickers have to circulate between differentsections of the farm for months on end and keep picking the same trees. I picked 4.5 lbs. I only worked for a little bit and a coupleof the kids from the soccer game came over and made fun of me so I didn’t picka lot. I was busy beating up littleNgobe kids. Not really. I met back up with Poldo to pick up all ofthe coffee from the day at a couple of receiving stations (recibideros). Everyone else picked way more than I did. They laughed when we weighed my bag. After that, I helped load all of the bags intoan old army truck to be taken to the Palmirabeneficio. Some of the bags weighed 165lbs. These weren’t the only bags thepickers brought. They would drop off abag then go back down the road to grab the rest. Families picked together and the man wouldcarry the sacks to the recibidero. Thewomen were very good at picking because of their nimble, small fingers. We probably loaded 50 bags (give or take acouple). By the time we got back to Palmira, I was so beatand sunburned I couldn’t work anymore. Iwas also covered in a layer of coffee juice mixed with mud. I found a whole new “mud” reference tocoffee. What a mess. I got cleaned up and had dinner with someneighbors of the Petersons.

Tuesday: I got up early to drive to Volcan, on the other side of Volcan Baru, to visit Finca Hartmann. This journey should have taken2 hours but took me 3 because I get lost in Panama a lot. I finally made it. I was greeted by Alice Hartmann who spoke Englishvery well. She gave me a tour of theirbeneficio and explained how everything worked and how they take special care tobe good to the forests around them. Theywere situated on steeper terrain than Esmeralda so it seemed like they usedmore machines and had less room for drying patios. Panama can get pretty humid so theyhave to use the large cylindrical ovens instead of depending on patios. Their farm was heavily forested. It was beautiful. Everything was clean and colorful. They had some sun drying racks out in theyard they were using for experiments for some of their customers. Times are tough because they could probablymake way more money using their land for dairy or beef but she said that theywanted to grow coffee so they get by and make it work. I saw Senor Hartmann and waved. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him but helooked great for his age. He started thefarm about half a century ago. I told Alice that I would do my best to sell as much of theircoffee as I could in the US. We exchanged email addresses and I drove toCerro Punta, a very fertile, mountainous area opposite of Boquete on the VolcanBaru. They grew everything there! Strawberries, onions, potatoes, beans,orchids, hummingbirds and oranges where just a few of the crops that thrived inthis area. After that, I drove back toBoquete to hang out at Kotowa and wander around town.

Wednesday: I got up early and went down to one of the few coffee houses in Boquete, Café Ruiz. I was having a pretty good cappuccino when I looked into the back door of the warehouse and noticed that they were roastingcoffee. I asked if I could have atour. It was cool. They are one of the top producers in the areaand I got to tour the facilities. I alsogot to meet Senor Plinio Ruiz, 86 years old, who still works and drives his cararound. Between his broken English andmy broken Spanish, we had a great conversation. I also met Maria and Plinio Jr, Plinio’s kids. It was great! They sell 10% of their coffee locally and the rest all over theworld. Sr Ruiz wanted my opinion of hiscoffee. They asked me to cup coffee withthem but I had an appointment to cup some more Geisha samples back at Esmeraldawith Rachel and Abel. What anhonor! I drove back out to Esmeraldawhere we cupped three Geishas and a Catuai. One of the Geishas needed two or three more months of reposo in thewarehouse. It lacked the floral qualities that Geisha usually has but it hadnice acidity. It was a little out ofbalance though. The others were gettingpretty close. They were more round, hadgreat acidity and great floral aromas. The Catuai was good but very obviously not Geisha. It was a very balanced cup with chocolate andnutty tones. I had the opportunity topractice cupping with numbers. I haven’treally had very much experience scoring coffees. I decided to stick to descriptors on theflavor wheel but I looked over and it was all in Spanish so I just slurped andnodded.

Thursday: Today Rachel took me up an insane road to Canas Verdes (green canes) in the Isuzu Patrol. This is the highest point onEsmeralda. Back in a remote canyon laystheir highest grown Geisha. We hiked upto where we thought the Geisha was. Itasted a cherry off of a tree and said that it didn’t taste like Geishacherries. Rachel called Daniel and hesaid that the Geisha was further down the hill. Poldo had taught me how to taste and tell the difference. Thanks Poldo! We found the Geisha section of Canas Verdes. There was little to no fruit on thetrees. It will produce fruit in a yearor two. We were at around 1800 metersabove sea level. Coffee doesn’t reallygrow much higher than that, or so I thought. We went to dinner with the rest of the family and they invited me to theSCAP (Specialty Coffee Association of Panama) meeting/cupping the next day. I said “Yes, I would love to come to a meeting/cuppingthat may influence the entire coffee world with you tomorrow”.

Friday: I got up and went with Daniel and Rachel to the SCAP office in Boquete. I was supposed to meet up with Graciano Cruz (Ninety Plus developer and producer of Honey Bean, Aurora and Nectar) thatday so we decided to meet at the SCAP meeting. He showed up and decided that we should go do fun stuff until the cupping. We ended up missing the cupping but he showedme some amazing things. First he took meto see his drying beds at Garrido coffee beneficio. They smelled amazing. They were pulped and dried by the sun on bamboodrying racks about 4 feet off the ground. Some of the newer beans were still sticky. I see why they call them “Honeys”. We did lunch and headed up to his house to havean after-lunch coffee. His house isright in front of a coffee farm with an amazing view of the mountains. He started adding the water to the press potand said, “Ed, do you know what this is?” “It’s Nectar and Auroramixed, that’s the way to drink it man!” as he laughed maniacally. It was delicious! I was sitting on the porch in front of afield of coffee plants drinking Auroraand Nectar. Unreal!!! After that, Graciano and I drove to LosLajones and a couple of other farms. Hewas growing Geisha in completely forested land at 2300 meters above sea level! It looked nothing like a coffee farm. He had planted bamboo between each row ofcoffee. As the coffee and bamboo grewtogether, the bamboo could be used as wind protection for the coffee. You couldn’t even tell there was coffeegrowing there. The views werebreathtaking! We drove down to DonaBerta where we checked sugar levels of beans near the drying racks. This place had broken-down old cement boxesfor pickers and their families to live in. Graciano had only owned the farm for a short time and he was redoing theplumbing and paint the week after I left. Graciano’s theory on when to pick a coffee cherry is to let the beanripen to a deep purple. They have themost sugar and as long as no water is used during the processing, fermentationwill not occur and it will produce a sweeter cup. I think he is on to something. I know I have consumed gallons of Los LajonesHoney Bean. Many other farms in the areause a lot of water and electricity to dry their coffees but Graciano uses man-poweredpulpers, bamboo and the sun. He learnedabout this method in Africa and is applying it in Panama. He initially started because he wanted theNgobe Bugle people (the indigenous people of the mountains of Boquete) to beable to grow and process coffee on their reservation without having to usepower or water. He found that it workedfor some of his farms too. That night wejoined Graciano’s kids and their friends for some singing and hanging outbefore heading back to the house to sleep. This was another of the most significant days of my trip.

Saturday: I woke up before Graciano, and made another pot of Geisha and sat on the porch with Gabriel, Graciano’s youngest son. Ican’t even type the words to describe the incredible sense of appreciation Ihad for the setting I was in. We werejust waking up to another sunny day on the porch in a coffee field, drinkingGeisha. Later, we met up with Jose DavidGarrido of Garrido Coffee and Ninety Plus. Graciano had things to do so Jose David and I drove all over theplace. He showed me many different farmsincluding Mama Cata. He told the storyof the naturally processed Geisha. Basedon a dream, he decided to take an inventory of everything in his beneficio, includinggarbage. A day or two after that,Graciano Cruz and Joseph Brodsky (Ninety Plus and Novo Coffee Roasters) showedup and asked Jose David if he had any Geisha that was still in the cherry. He did and he knew it. They roasted and cupped it. It blew their minds. Jose David had more to show me but my stay inBoquete was over. I had to leave forDavid to fly back to Panama City and back to New York the next day.

This was one of the most amazing times of my life. I thought I would learn mostly about the growing methods and science of coffee farming when I was there, but I feel like I learned a lot more about the people behind the coffee. I wanted to thank each and every cosechero(picker) for carrying those 150 lb bags of cherries up the mountains everyday. I wanted to thank that driver whopicks up all of the cherries 3 times a day to take them to the mill. I wanted to thank all of the mill workers andoffice workers. I wanted to thank of allthe farmers and producers for taking such great care to make sure every detailis covered and that they make the best cup possible. Thank you Susan, Rachel, Daniel, Price, Poldo,Abel, Graciano and Jose David. I’ll beback to visit soon.

So 2 days ago we try to roasting on automatic Brambati 30 kilo roaster. That was 2'nd time roasting for me & it was unbelievible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We roast brazilian santos. But we've notice something strange. Briefly we've 3 temperatures - 1st one in in begining (before we put coffee in roaster, it was 300 C), 2nd one is temperatire at the begining of roasting (it was 375 C until temperature on top of drum do not grow to 190 C), 3rd one at the middle of roasting (it was 320 C until temperature on top of roaster do not grow to 210 C) & 4th one is temperature when roasting are stop (it was 320 C). Total time of roasting was 14,35 min, color of beans are №11 of Agtron Scale (Medium "Full City"). We try to roast coffee for filter-machine & taste of coffee are nice, but little bittle dirty. BUT i heard that temperature of drum at the begining must be around 200 C... Also i heard that high temperature of roasting give flat taste of espresso... Can somebody tell me something about that?

I'm pleased to announce that we (Pacific Bay Coffee Co. & Micro-Roastery) will be hosting the 2008 WRBC the Gaia Arts Center in Berkeley, CA , March 28-30.

In addition to the competition special events include:

• Pre-Competition Training on March 1^st with WRBC Home Girl Heather Perry, Coffee Klatch, 2007 USBC Champion & 2nd place, 2007 World Barista Championship. Co-hosted by Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Saturday, March 1, 9am-5pm, at Pacific Bay Coffee's Roastery, Berkeley, limited seating, register now.

• 2008 Emcees: The barista community’s own Sarah Allen of Barista Magazine & Jana Oppenheimer of Franke Coffee Systems will emcee. They will be playing some games of their own with the audience and I'm sure, provide lots of laughs during the event.

• Special Awards (in addition to the top six overall finalists)

o Best Espresso Award will be given to the barista receiving the highest score with the highest score on their espresso

o Best Signature Drink Award will be given to the barista receiving the highest score on their specialty beverage

o Most Promising Newcomer will be given to the first time competitor with the highest overall score.

o The Barista’s Barista Award - Competitors will vote for the most beloved competitor who has been the friendliest and most helpful during the competition weekend.

• The 4th & Clover Machines – showcasing regional roasters coffees. Competitors and WRBC standards trained baristas will demonstrate their skills by preparing free espresso and cappuccino throughout the weekend. New this year, Clover will serve single cup brewed coffee from participating roasters on the Clover machine. Limited edition WRBC 2008 3 & 6 oz collector cups will also be available. All tips from the 4^th Machines & Clover will be donated to Coffee Kids. Roasters – reserve your time slot now, first come first serve!

• Crafting Espresso, a Roaster’s Perspective presented by Mike Perry, Klatch Roasting & John Laird, Pacific Bay Coffee Co. & Micro-Roastery, Friday 9:30 am

• Coffee: What Makes it Taste that Way presented by Kenneth Davids, Coffee Review, Saturday 9:30 am

• Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Sensory Skills Class & Test presented by Joseph Rivera, Director of Science & Technology, SCAA Saturday 10:30 am & 2 pm. Register now- limited seating, first come first serve.

• The History of Barista Competitions presented by Sarah Allen, Barista Magazine. Sunday, 1pm ish, while the finalist scores are being calculated

• Event Art Exhibit: The Painted & Photographed Bean: A Coffee Art Perspective The call for artists is out!

• Welcome Reception/Smackdown – Fri. March 28 at Pacific Bay Coffee Co.'s Roastery in Berkeley – details TBD

• Saturday Night Party, March 29, Ritual Roasters in San Francisco – details TBD (the local subway, BART is ½ block from the WRBC venue The Gaia Arts Center in Berkeley and 3 blks from Ritual in San Francisco)

• WE NEED VOLUNTEERS - Sign up forms will be available on the website in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can also send me a email and I'll happily add you to the list and give you more information. info@wrbc2008.com

Who is coming? Who is competing?

More details can be found on the website: Western Regional Barista Competition

Ernesto Illy

July 18th 1925 - February 3rd 2008