Hey guys, I guess you haven't heard from me before or know a lot about me, I'm not a barista but a coffee grower and promotor from Guatemala. I had been in this business since I was 18 or so. My family has been in the coffee business for more than 2 generations and I guess the passion goes generation after generation. I had always wanted to share the passion and art of coffee, not as a beverage ONLY but as our culture. We grow in the culture of coffee since we are kids, no wonder why 70% of the population one way or another are involved. Please bear with my english if I messed up.
As I have shared with some of you guys before, I represent several plantations in Antigua and we are trying to get more regions involved. That is why I founded Kafes Guatemala in the United States, to simply represent the best coffees from my country and believe me it has been rough, between the coffee crisis and hurricanes, unless you love the business and YOU ARE NOT HERE for money you will stick around, and honestly it is not easy. I respect the fact that you guys create art with your hands and I love the fact that you love to work only with the best coffees and make awesome expresso beverages. NOT like the big coffee shop chains and their weird names. I'm glad is out of my chest hahahahaha.Anyway...........focusing on my topic. We are ready to provide coffee tours at affordable prices, and actually live the REAL EXPERIENCE, many of you guys contacted me regarding this before and as I share with you one of the plantations I represent and work with, has their own hotel, actually a really fancy one, but yet I wasn't able to understand why you were not interested, until I got it............................pricy hotel in a plantation is not the real experience. It will be if I go to a wine plantation in CA and perhaps stayed in a Marriot hotel right? I want to thank you, for the soooooo many advises you gave me and that helped me to understand your perspective, what is it that an American is looking as a coffee REAL experience.Now we are ready to offer you to stay in a house in Antigua coffee region, a real town house that can hold up to 12 people with all the included services in a really nice and safe area at really affordable prices indeed. You will eat the real Guatemalan food, cook by a real guatemalan cook (not profesionally) , interact with Guatemalans and if you want even practice your ESPAÑOL, you will visit the plantations, learn about the entire harvesting process, you can do the coffee tour even riding a horse, we have zipline tours in the plantation as well all the way from 200 to 720 feet (6 rides all together). Also tour Antigua and simply enjoy living as if you were from Guatemala. That means you better like beans and tortillas. Also we would like you to visit the educational and nutritional program for children that we support as Kafes Guatemala, YES! I believe as a Guatemalan I need to support and help my country change and get better. For more specific information please contact us at www.kafesguatemala.com or simply contact me at my page.muchas gracias.Pablo
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Coffee Kids was delighted to be able to present at the keynote address at the Specialty Coffee Association of America's (SCAA) Conference and Exhibition.We'd like to thank all of our members, partners and sponsors throughout the world who have helped make it possible. We recently put together this video with the help of Machine Hero, a Providence, R.I.-based firm. It features images from our partners in Latin America and interviews with a number of our long term supporters and friends. The video explores Coffee Kids' effect in the global coffee community and how support for Coffee Kids and other non-profits at origin translates to support for the long term future of the specialty coffee trade.Thanks for making our first two decades rewarding and fruitful!If you are attending the SCAA Conference in Minneapolis, be sure to visit us at our booth #1241 and learn how your contributions are making a difference and if you can't make the conference, check out our Web site to learn more about our work.
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So I like wandering around Craigslist late at night. You never know when you might stumble upon that sofa that just screams "you". Not that I've found that sofa, or anything else, but I've always wanted to window shop yard sales in my underwear...So I'm on Craigslist and I'm noticing more and more grave plots up for sale. Some people have foresight... That late night commercial about sparing loved ones your final costs really make an impression on them. They drop a couple of grand for the piece of mind that comes from owning a hole in the ground. So it makes me wonder why...Did they suddenly decide dying wasn't for them?Maybe they found a different hole with a better view?Or maybe they thought, "Fuck the kids, I want a new flatscreen!"Then I think, "Maybe I shouldn't drink espresso when I work a close shift."
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So after several months of driving around, calling agents and visiting spaces, I think we may have found the one. It is an up and coming area, and the community is experiencing a revitalization. We have not signed the lease purposefully until all plans and schematics have been approved by the city. Our architect, Christine Mondoor from evolve architecture, www.evolveea.com is just starting the process. We're working on a budget (who isn't?) and things are really getting exciting, but so scary and overwhelming at times. There's still a few things that needs negotiated with our landlord, but we're overall quite satisfied.
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There is a tradition at my house. On Derby Day, we eat fried chicken and drink Mint Juleps.To be clear, I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I'm not even from Louisville. Maybe its because my brother Nick is a chef there and The Derby is a pretty significant event in his world. More likely, its because it is associated with a pretty good (and rather unusual) drink.So on Derby Day, we eat fried chicken and drink Mint Juleps.OK... its a cliche. I'm fine with that. This year's batch is in the fridge mellowing right now. I actually have a pot of mint on the patio (not in the garden - it spreads like nothing else) that was selected specifically for its julep-compatible flavors - "Kentucky Colonel".I'm writing today to share my recipe. I'm assuming that, like me, many of you out in barista-land are home mixologists as well. And this drink recipe rocks. It is from a five-year-old episode of Food Network's "Cooking Live" with Sara Moulton. I guess it's Bill Samuel IV's... he's the guy who's initials are molded into the Maker's Mark bottle. Guy knows his bourbon drinks, right?I usually make half a recipe, cause I like other bourbon drinks too and the full recipe takes a whole bottle. It uses a home-made mint extract, so it is a little non-traditional. But it is smooth, and minty, and tasty. Too tasty...Here it is, more or less as printed. Enjoy it on Saturday!The Perfect Mint JulepRecipe courtesy Bill Samuels4 cups bourbon (I like Makers for this. b)2 bunches fresh spearmint1 cup distilled water1 cup granulated sugarPowdered sugarMake the mint extract:Place about 40 mint leaves in a small bowl and cover with 3 oz of bourbon. Allow leaves to soak 15 minutes, then gather and wring out in a piece of paper towel back into the bowl (I prefer to smash the bourbon out of them in a small wire strainer, though I suppose an unbleached Melitta or Filtropa paper filter would work... or perhaps an aeropress?). Return the bruised mass back to the bourbon in the bowl and repeat the steep-mash process a few times.Make the simple syrup:1 cup water, 1 cup sugar. Boil, cool, blah blah blah.Mix the drink:Dump the rest of the bourbon (3-1/2 cups) into a bowl or measuring cup. Add 1 cup simple syrup. Add mint extract to taste... about 3 Tbsp, but you may not use it all (I always use it all. I like 'em minty and hate to waste bourbon. I guess you could always add the rest to a favorite customer's mocha tomorrow?) Pour finished mix into an empty bottle and stash in the fridge for at least 24 hours to mellow.To serve:Fill each glass half full with crushed ice. Add a mint sprig, then pack full with ice. Put glasses in the freezer until they are good and frosty. Fill with the mix and enjoy.
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I drink coffee, no actually I sip it, I roast it, I smell it to see what it wants to say. It oily. it's hot, really hot when it comes out. I think about the people all over the world who pick the cherries all day meticulously and there life depends on it. We forget about them sometimes.
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