Piero Cristiani<\/a> tends to have the best and most uncanny luck when it comes to running into the right people at the right\u2014if often weird\u2014time. (Ask him about the time in Costa Rica when his rental blew a tire and he hitched a ride with a friendly passing stranger who turned out not only to be handy in fixing a flat but also one of the top producers of Natural coffees in the area.)<\/span><\/p>\nWhile there\u2019s romance and a great story behind those types of magical random encounters, there\u2019s also something to be said about the relationships that form and blossom in ways there are totally predictable, totally designed, and perhaps from the outset seem a little, well, almost boring.<\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Para 3″ background_layout=”light” border_color=”#686868″ max_width=”1000px” text_font_size=”16″ background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ saved_tabs=”all” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n
Our relationship with Roger Dominguez from Marcala, Honduras, started just like that, in a totally nondescript way that is surprising if only because of how totally unsurprising <\/i>it was.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI met him at SCAA once, maybe three or four years ago,\u201d says Piero. \u201cIt was one of those things where he just dropped a sample off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Photo” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Roguer_Dominguez_2018_Community_Coffees_Web-9.jpg” module_alignment=”center” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Para 4″ background_layout=”light” border_color=”#686868″ max_width=”1000px” text_font_size=”16″ background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ saved_tabs=”all” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right: A partnership that began with a totally conventional cold call. So conventional that it actually happened at a convention, which is an environment most green-coffee buyers will probably admit is too chaotic to really be effective in making sourcing connections.<\/strong> At the end of every Expo, however, our green team really does round up all the samples from the weekend, and they really do cup every single one. <\/span><\/p>\nMost of the time the coffees are good but there aren\u2019t many that stand out. In Roger\u2019s case, however, Piero put down his spoon and took notice. <\/span><\/p>\nHe laughs: \u201cOne in a hundred, it works!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Photo of Roger” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Roger_Dominguez-1-2.jpg” module_alignment=”center” max_width=”75%” animation_direction=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Roger’s Farms + Processing” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ background_layout=”light” text_font_size=”16px”]<\/p>\n
Roger is a young producer who inherited his father\u2019s midsize farms, which came into the family in the early 1990s. He has three parcels of land in Marcala, all between 3\u20135 hectares, at good altitude for the region, above 1,300 meters. He grows a small variety of heirloom types, mostly Bourbon, Catuai, and Caturra, and he\u2019s specific about his wet-milling and drying. After the morning harvest, cherry is depulped the same day, fermented dry for about 18 hours before washing three or four times, and then laid on raised beds to dry for upward of two weeks. <\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Quality” background_layout=”light” border_color=”#686868″ max_width=”1000px” text_font_size=”16″ background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ saved_tabs=”all” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n
One of the things Piero is most excited about when it comes to Roger\u2019s coffees is their consistency in quality\u2014not only year to year (this is our third buying from Roger), but also simply in terms of the longevity of current crop in the warehouse. Coffees from Honduras have historically been somewhat unstable, falling off quickly between pre-ship and arrival sample, and more aggressively the longer they sit spot. Not Roger\u2019s, though.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe coffees cupped out really good off the bat,\u201d Piero says, \u201cbut the cool thing was that the arrivals were really good as well, like right on point, basically.\u201d <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nWhile we were sorry not to see Roger at Expo again this year, he and Piero have been happily working together and staying in touch between visits. Through their developing partnership, we are able to buy more of not only Roger\u2019s coffees, but also lots that he is buying in cherry from nearby smallholders, which are blended by cup quality and profile to create a sort of \u201ccommunity coffee\u201d offering from Marcala. \u201cWe went from one to three containers from him this year,\u201d Piero says, with plans to expand as Roger continues to grow his own production and the quality of coffee he is sourcing from his neighbors. <\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image admin_label=”photo” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Roguer_Dominguez_2018_Community_Coffees_Web-1.jpg” animation_direction=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image admin_label=”photo” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” src=”\/\/cdn.cafeimports.com\/images\/Roguer_Dominguez_2018_Community_Coffees_Web-1-2.jpg” animation_direction=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”outro” background_layout=”light” border_color=”#686868″ max_width=”1000px” text_font_size=”16″ background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ saved_tabs=”all” module_alignment=”left”]<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a moral to this story, it might be a piece of gentle advice to go through life expecting every stranger you encounter to become a friend, and to stay open-minded every time a new person (or a new sample) crosses your path.<\/strong> You may never know when you\u2019ll need help fixing a flat or filling a container, and you never know where you might meet just the right stranger for the job.<\/span><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”photo” _builder_version=”3.0.86″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” animation_direction=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every stranger might be the friend you haven\u2019t met yet, and in coffee, the way we meet each other is sometimes simply a matter of pure chance and in unusual circumstances. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-honduras"],"site_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.cafeimports.com\/europe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}