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HONDURAS We were headed for Orlando's house—Orlando is a UMF employee—where he was in the process of building a solar dryer. He collected a number of branches around the area and nailed together the frame. The only money he spent was $50 for nylon screens, which would become part of the holding compartments for the parchment coffee. This was a perfect example of what could be accomplished with hard work and only a little money. We set off to El Gringacho to see Patrick's farm, but not before we stopped by Orlando's farm first. Orlando explained that Chimizal had recently been hit with a rare hailstorm that caused frenzy in town. Seeing Orlando's field was agonizing. You could really see the damage the storm had left behind. On top of that, coffee-leaf rust, or la roya, was in full effect. The good news was that Orlando's crops were salvageable and he was doing everything to achieve full restoration. His positive attitude and determination to recover was truly inspirational. After seeing Orlando's field, we made our way up to Finca El Gringacho, which sits at 1,600 meters. The plan was to pick enough coffee to bring back to the UMF beneficio to process and begin fermentation experiments. After two long and exhausting hours, we had finally picked enough cherry for our experiments. We mostly gathered red and yellow catuai. We left El Gringacho and arrived to the beneficio where we wasted no time. The all-knowing paddle would be our first test. We scored a seven, which exposed our novice level of picking. After the depulping, we separated the mucilage-covered coffees into two separate buckets and filled them with water. One would contain just water, and the other, water with some added pulp. These would be our red (pulp) and white wine experiments. We also pitched campden tablets into both buckets, which are primarily used in wine and beer in order to kill any bacteria, and prevent any wild yeasts from developing in the fermentation process. The point of the experiment would be to add controlled yeasts to monitor their effects on the taste and development of the coffee during the fermentation stage. As a bonus, the leftover fluids from both buckets will become tasty coffee 34 barista magazine Antonio Castellanos (le ) and his oldest son Leonel Castellanos (middle) with me, the author, at right, showed us the meaning of hard work. Washing and drying coffee with them was a great and powerful experience. Here we are in their solar dryer surrounded by this year's harvest. wine. Patrick was awesome for allowing us to be part of his great idea. I'm excited to see what results come from the experiments. DAY 5: ANTONIO CASTELLANOS Today would be all about meeting Antonio Castellanos. His is our most exclusive coffee—especially since our customers can't even order his coffee in our café. Let me explain: Palate of Milford, Mich., one of the few restaurants the Mug works with, loved Antonio's coffee so much that the owners decided to commit to his entire lot. Being involved with businesses that care as much about these coffees as we do is a pretty special thing. We approached Antonio's home and I began to get nervous—again, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of meeting a celebrity. Antonio was standing at his doorway to welcome us into his home. He kindly introduced us to the rest of his family, and we sat and started talking. I explained how much we love his coffee and continued to tell him the Palate story. "It makes me really happy to hear that you guys love the coffee," Antonio told us. "For me, it's quality over quantity, and I promise that the next harvest will be better than the last." Antonio drove us to his fields, which were located back in Chimizal. His farm sat on a 20-manzana spread at 1,521 meters. Antonio gifted two manzanas to his elder sons, Eliodoro and Leonel, and that land should be producing by next year. Seven to eight manzanas were Antonio's coffee, and the rest of the manzanas were beautiful pastures for Antonio's cows. His trees seemed to have fought off the coffee-leaf rust quite well. Eliodoro explained that they had taken preventative measures to battle rust organically.