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A FIRST TRIP TO ORIGIN REVEALS COFFEE, AND ITS PEOPLE Author Sam Penix is famous for the "I [coffee] NY" ta oo on the fingers of his right hand. Sam, who owns the successful Manha an cafés Everyman Espresso, embarked on his first visit to coffee source in February with Counter Culture Coffee, the company that supplies Everyman Espresso. THE HUM OF SEVERAL DOZEN SUITCASES on tile seems to send the taxi drivers lined up outside the airport in Managua, Nicaragua, into a frenzy, like chum in the water. I have nowhere to be anytime soon, but I suddenly feel the need to rush. The sliding doors open, and a blast of warm, wet air hits me. It sinks in that I have successfully exchanged the sludgy snow of New York for Managua's warm, thick breeze, and I feel almost like I've gotten away with something. On a barista's first trip to origin, it's safe to assume there will be a few moments that drift between magical and sobering. On my travels in late January of 2013, attending Counter Culture Coffee's Origin Field Lab held in Nicaragua, I found myself romanced by a lush paradise and nagged by some harsh realities that left me stranded in the real world. I came down with a painful stomachache almost immediately after checking into my hotel. Relieved that I had planned to arrive the night before the rest of my crew, I drank lots of water and slept between watching dubbed episodes of MacGyver and CSI: New York. As the others in my group started to arrive, we claimed a poolside table and began the process of introductions over a bottle of Flor de Caña, the official rum of Nicaragua. The group was led by Counter Culture coffee buyer Kim Elena Ionescu and Lydia Troxler Iannetti, director of the company's Counter Intelligence education program. Also on board was coffee-buyer's agent Hannah Popish. Hannah and Kim have been working on a few interesting research projects probing the impact of microlot selections from both an economic and social standpoint. I was really jazzed that everyone in the group was so interesting, on top of being generally awesome. We boarded the bus and headed for Cusmapa in the northern region of Madriz. I found myself glued to the windows of the bus, studying the foreign terrain. The city of Managua is encapsulated with a band of intense poverty. As the bus approached the city limits, the struggle was obvious. Emaciated cows and horses were tied to posts alongside the highway, where piles of burning trash supplied an oppressive aroma of smoke. My heart sunk in my chest with the weight of my own privilege. In contrast, the bus ride into the mountains was marked with incredible vistas that lifted my spirits. Wispy white clouds filled the periwinkle sky, grounded by tropical forests that blanketed the mountains. I was certain someone was going to lose a camera out the window of the bus. I looked out over the terrain, and I felt such an incredible buzz come over me because I knew in those mountains, deep in those forests grew the plant that supports my modern life. We stayed in a cabin owned by Fabretto, a nonprofit organization named for its founder Rafael Maria Fabretto, a Catholic priest. The organization has an appreciable presence in the same region of Nicaragua that is home to the Cinco de Junio coffee cooperative. We arrived at the Fabretto house in the evening, just after dark, so it was difficult to make out the landscape surrounding the cabin. I awoke the next morning with excitement, knowing that today we would venture into the field. As I stood up and peered out the window, I realized we were completely surrounded by lanky leafless plants. A feeling of sadness started to settle in the pit of my stomach as I registered the fact that the spindly frail plants that surrounded the cabin were coffee. I had heard mentions of a fungus called roya, or coffee leaf rust. I had been under the impression that this was a disease isolated to low-elevation farms. I still had NICARAGUA www.baristamagazine.com 37