Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jaima on July 16, 2008 at 10:34pm

Origin trips are hopefully in my future, nothing sooner than next summer though. Keep me updated on any trips being planned, so I can be a part of the bigger picture! =) I am excited for the learning experience and travel... wherever it may be! (and i hope for continued learning through continued travel!)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Pablo Castaneda on July 17, 2008 at 7:01am

Hey Guys dont forget our option in Guatemala, you can stay in the HOTEL DE LA FINCA or if you dont want to spend a lot of money and live the real experience we have a house in ANTIGUA so you can learn more about our culture, traditions and of course tour the FINCA. Also you can Visit the children program we support as well in town.

Please visit www.kafesguatemala.com for more information

best regard guys



Pablo Castaneda

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Marcos Croce on July 17, 2008 at 8:55am

Hi ladies and gentlemen,

Do you want to visit an Organic Coffee Farm in Brazil?

Please go to our website www.fafbrazil.com

We just won a Sustainability award from the SCAA ( May 2008, Minneapolis).

Check our videos: Direct Coffee Trade ( Crains Business - Chicago visits FAF with coffee buyers) , Yoga Retreats , Food Science Trip - University of Illinois students at FAF.

We would love to have you at FAF and we can combine a Farm Trip with a beach trip! The farm can hold 25 people confortably.....


you can email me at croceusa@aol.com

Marcos

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Miguel Zamora on July 20, 2008 at 10:10am

A nice and affordable option for trips to visit coffee farms and farmers could be The Fair Trade Coffee Trail project in Nicaragua :
http://fairtradecoffeetrail.googlepages.com/

This is a project implemented by a coffee co-op in Nicaragua (Cecocafen) and a great chance to see how coffee is most commonly grown in the world (by small producers) and see the great relationship between coffee and the environment.

I have not had the chance to visit this project yet but look forward to do so soon since I have heard good tings about it. For more info about this trial you can email: turismo@ucasanramon.com

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Manuel Zarco on July 27, 2008 at 5:56pm

Hello everyone. I've been reading the different options available for a trip and think is a great idea. I'm from Guatemala and I support Pablo's idea. Guatemala is a beautiful country and you could travel to different climates in a week. Please consider your trip to Guatemala and I'm sure you will have a great and unforgettable trip.

Feel free to ask anything you have in mind.
Take care.

Manuel

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ColinO on July 28, 2008 at 9:50am

I don't know if you ever got to any coffee farms, but I was thinking of setting up a trip to Tanzania later this year or early next year, and just wanted to see if there was any interest. My sister and brother-in-law were living in Tanzania a couple years ago and now they are going back, so it seems like a good time to set something up. Hopefully you made it already but if not let me know if you are interested, or if you know anyone else who might be interested.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by graciano on July 28, 2008 at 12:59pm

Hi everybody, my name is Graciano Cruz, I'm an specialty coffee farmer in Boquete, Panama. We'll be really happy to receive any of you in Panama, we're an small coffee origin but with a lot of coffee development in the specialty coffee industry, working with different exotic and traditional coffee varieties, as geisha between others, also working on high cup profile standard for harvesting, processing and selection with Honey process and Naturals.
Our farms and facilities are always open for any visitor and mainly for coffee people, I'm sure the Peterson Family with their famous Esmeralda Geisha, and other well known boutique coffee producers in Panama.
Please let me know any interest and we could help as need it, to make your trip a interactive learning experience for everybody involved, Panama and specially our coffee regions are one of the most peaceful and save coffee destinies to travel world wide.
Welcome to Panama anytime!!!!!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Lanphier on August 5, 2008 at 9:24am

We are organizing a trip to The Cerrado region of Minas Gerais, Brasil to tour coffee farms that we work with. These are coffees that are all at 80 points or higher with an emphasis on sustainable growing practices. Generally, we begin in Sao' Paolo and visit farms in Monte Carmelo, Patrocino, and work our way thru the region. We will stay on various farms and some nights in hotels as well. These are farms that we have worked with and known for literally generations so there will be good accomodation and translators too.
Reply if any interest and as we put together the next trip I will keep you posted,

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike Gregory on August 21, 2008 at 8:00pm

Trabant is planning a trip to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Chiapas this winter, to coincide with the coffee harvest. We will be going down with a group of baristas, students, and coffee enthusiasts. The main purpose of the trip is for participants to get a first-hand look at the process of growing, harvesting, and processing coffee, and to get a better understanding of the social issues that face the people that work with coffee. We will visit coffee farms, cooperatives, mills, and communities of campesinos. There will also be some time to visit Mayan ruins, traditional Mayan towns, and the beach! It is too early to provide an exact itinerary, but below is a sample itinerary:

December 13: Arrive in San Salvador, El Salvador
December 14: Visit the Consejo de Café, a research facility that helps farms produce high quality, sustainable coffee
December 15 + 16: Visit 2-3 Cup of Excellence top 10 farms, a cooperative, and a mill
December 17: Visit the beach (said to be among the world’s best for surfing)!
December 18: Travel to Guatemala
December 19: Visit 2 farms in Guatemala
December 19-21: Visit the not-yet-open eco-resort that will be run by repatriated Guatemalan refugees. Spend time with them hearing their story. Volunteer around the resort.
December 22-23: Visit a mill and a cooperative in the south of Chiapas
December 24-25: Spend Christmas near San Cristobal, an area with a unique Mayan-Catholic flavor. Visit archeological ruins and waterfalls.
December 26: Visit a farm and cooperative near San Cristobal.
December 27: Depart Tuxla Gutierrez, Mexico for US.

All dates and activities are subject to change, but this gives you a good sense for the trip. Airfare should be around $1000. We will be booking the van, lodging, and donations to groups we visit, etc as a group. Similar trips charge between $750-$1450 for a WEEK long trip, and our goal is for the cost of our TWO week trip to fall in this range. Please email tatiana@trabantcoffee.com if you are interested in coming. Space is limited.

Confirmed stops include El Borbollon Mill, Finca Bosque Lya, Finca Malacara, Finca Vista Hermosa, Finca El Injerto.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alex Negranza on August 23, 2008 at 10:18pm

Count me in!

Mike G said:

Trabant is planning a trip to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Chiapas this winter, to coincide with the coffee harvest. We will be going down with a group of baristas, students, and coffee enthusiasts. The main purpose of the trip is for participants to get a first-hand look at the process of growing, harvesting, and processing coffee, and to get a better understanding of the social issues that face the people that work with coffee. We will visit coffee farms, cooperatives, mills, and communities of campesinos. There will also be some time to visit Mayan ruins, traditional Mayan towns, and the beach! It is too early to provide an exact itinerary, but below is a sample itinerary:

December 13: Arrive in San Salvador, El Salvador
December 14: Visit the Consejo de Café, a research facility that helps farms produce high quality, sustainable coffee
December 15 + 16: Visit 2-3 Cup of Excellence top 10 farms, a cooperative, and a mill
December 17: Visit the beach (said to be among the world’s best for surfing)!
December 18: Travel to Guatemala
December 19: Visit 2 farms in Guatemala
December 19-21: Visit the not-yet-open eco-resort that will be run by repatriated Guatemalan refugees. Spend time with them hearing their story. Volunteer around the resort.
December 22-23: Visit a mill and a cooperative in the south of Chiapas
December 24-25: Spend Christmas near San Cristobal, an area with a unique Mayan-Catholic flavor. Visit archeological ruins and waterfalls.
December 26: Visit a farm and cooperative near San Cristobal.
December 27: Depart Tuxla Gutierrez, Mexico for US.

All dates and activities are subject to change, but this gives you a good sense for the trip. Airfare should be around $1000. We will be booking the van, lodging, and donations to groups we visit, etc as a group. Similar trips charge between $750-$1450 for a WEEK long trip, and our goal is for the cost of our TWO week trip to fall in this range. Please email tatiana@trabantcoffee.com if you are interested in coming. Space is limited.

Confirmed stops include El Borbollon Mill, Finca Bosque Lya, Finca Malacara, Finca Vista Hermosa, Finca El Injerto.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by HENRY HUECK on August 23, 2008 at 11:58pm

come join us at the ramacafe conference, we are having the Barista Champs from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica here and Mireya Jones and Ellie Matuzak along with Stephen Morresey ...we will have a blast!
There is a field trip on the fourth of September to a 4 certification farm...
www.ramacafe.org
com visit with us and more than 400 other producers.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Guillermo Narvaez on August 24, 2008 at 12:32pm

Something to consider when visiting coffee farms is to go during harvest. In Central America this is somewhere between late October to mid-February. Also visits might be best coordinated with cooperatives (small growers) or coffee grower's associations that represent a wide diversity of growers (not all are the same and some of the larger growers have become quite good at putting together tours that are more like marketing junkets... luckily they are not selling timeshare condos, at least not yet). Ideally it would be nice to visit different kinds of farms (recall that 75%--plus of all coffee comes from farms that are less than 20 acres in size), mills, and if you go to Costa Rica, a visit to CATIE's coffee collection would be great as they have something like 400 different varieties and hybrids. They even have samples of liberica and excelsia species (as well as arabica and canophera of course).
Costa Rica would be an interesting place as it is easy to get around, has relatively low crime (though oddly enough and quite against common wisdom, Nicaragua is even safer. Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have become a bit too risky to go about the countryside on ones own--I know that I will anger someone with the comment, but I did grow up in Honduras, visit often enough and still have a lot of family there).
The thing that makes Costa Rica interesting is that there are a number of growers that are experimenting with different forms of processing coffee, not only washed (as the majority of Central American coffees are washed), but with natural and honey processing as well (SweetMarias has an interesting bit on this, see http://www.sweetmarias.com/CostaRicaFeb08/CostaRicaFeb08.html).
So the other things to ask are: how long do you want to go for? what to take? how much do you want to spend? lodging? transport? (I think that a translator is important, but you should find someone who knows coffee as well).
If money is no object and want to have a pleasant touristy experience I suggest going to Selva Negra in Matagalpa Nicaragua (www.selvanegra.com).
If you want a more technical visit, I think that you should arrange something with the growers Tom Owen mentions on his website (http://www.sweetmarias.com/CostaRicaFeb08/CostaRicaFeb08.html), else you can contact ANACAFE in Guatemala and similar organizations in the other growing countries (keep in mind that they will steer you to their showcase farms). You could also attend an event like Ramacafe in Nicaragua (early September), Sintercafe in Costa Rica (November), and a number of other similar events in growing countries. If you are interested in more social aspects of coffee production you could contact roasters like Deans Beans (http://www.deansbeans.com/coffee/tour.html) as they have tours a couple of times a year. Also the other coop roasters (http://www.coopcoffees.com/) Equal Exchange (http://www.equalexchange.com/), Rainforest Alliance (http://www.rainforest-alliance.org) and the Community Agroecology Network (http://communityagroecology.net/).

Now, if you are interested in a one month (or portion of) whirlwind tour through a number of coops farms in Nicaragua with a couple of side trips to Honduras and Guatemala with a half-crazy anthropologist finishing field research, then let me know and we can split diesel costs (I have a Hyundai Galloper that has driven into some of the most remote farms in Nicaragua and survived... though I did have shocks and steering rods replaced). I am planning to be there from early September to early October.

One sad thing about coffee growing regions, is that you rarely

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• Next ›
• Page