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transparency and traceability, that they could give you the driver's license number of the driver who drove a specific bag of coffee from the farm to the mill. I realized that the producer is in control of how the coffee is treated and to whom it is sold, a power that can be used for both for either progressive or corrupt means. In my travels I heard of a coffee cooperative run by ex-combatants, guerillas who fought against the military and paramilitary during the 30-year civil war and genocide in Guatemala. Their website only had directions on how to get there (which required two buses and a hitchhike in the back of a pickup). That ride up the mountain, in the back of a pickup, squeezed in with 20 other Guatemalans, warm wind in my hair, coffee trees blooming on either side of the highway, the scent thick in the air, sun about to set, being exhausted but holding on for dear life, is another of my top coffee moments. Santa Anita is a communist cooperative of 30 families created by the When I met up with Wille Yli-Luoma (pictured), owner and head roaster at Heart in Portland (and my boss), who was on a sourcing trip with an importer, my lifestyle did a complete turnaround. me she didn't speak any Spanish, only Quiche. They had traveled there as a family from their home eight hours away. I asked to take her photo and she agreed; my heart broke and burst for her at the same time. She is the reason I was traveling, she and people like her who help make the coffee what it is. The unthanked and underpaid. I said one of the few Quiche words I knew, Montiosh, which means thank you. Coffee is a big business, and there is a hierarchy. Also, this hierarchy is generational. Mills and farms are passed down through generations. The engineers at most of the farms I went to were following in their father's and grandfather's steps, loyal to that farm. Poor families travel across the country to work the harvest every year, generation after generation, especially if they are treated well by the farmers. Not all origin trips are like the experience I had at the farms in El Salvador. There is so much that we don't see about life and business practices down there, and origin trips can sometimes be misconstrued to be more about adventure than coffee, equivalent to a trip to coffee Disneyland. I had been traveling around on my own for two months, como la gente was sort of my theme, which means 'like the people. ' I was hitchhiking and riding chicken buses, trying to live closely to the people, to hear their stories and see what their lives were like, what they enjoyed and worried about. When I met up with Wille Yli-Luoma, owner and head roaster at Heart, who was on a sourcing trip with an importer, my lifestyle did a complete turnaround. Staying at a fancy hotel in the city and eating extravagant meals, the importer was selling both coffee and the idea of Guatemala. In one day we visited three farms, rode in a private plane, the back of a pickup, on horseback around one of the farms, in an SUV, and then rode around another farm on 4-wheelers. That day we only cupped three coffees. At one of the farms, by asking one of the workers, we found out that multiple varietals and day lots were blended, and all these coffees weren't even dried in the same way. When on an origin trip, you only see what the importer or producer wants you to see. Not all producers are transparent with their coffee practices, while others are. The Pacas farm in El Salvador is run by the grandchildren of Alonzo Pacas who discovered the Pacas varietal. They keep such detailed records for both I left for Guatemala thinking that "origin" was a beautiful, happy utopia, where the air always smelled like jasmine, children ran around chasing butterflies while their parents smiled and picked coffee, while visiting roasters posed for photos with their arm around a farmer. I thought origin was a simple way of life. I didn't realize the complexities and imperfections of the process. Although we are well intentioned and think we understand the process of direct trade relationships, our experience of coffee and the industry is rather limited. I learned a great deal during my travels, but for the most part I saw how much more I have to learn about our industry. In the end, I learned that life at origin is beautiful, but also real, with poverty and corruption. Some producers just want to sell coffee, others are working to progress the industry while holding true to their values. We are all searching for quality, in every step of the process. We search for quality not just in the bean, but in the transparency, traceability and dignified treatment of the workers. Coffee is a livelihood, it's a lifestyle, it's a culture. Seeing it firsthand has only deepened my appreciation and curiosity. leftist URNG-MAIZ political party and ex-combatants after the civil war. I showed up, and was the only gringa besides an elderly radical German woman named Claudia. I ate meals cooked on a wood fire stove in a dirt floor kitchen, sat and talked with Lidia and Alonzo (who were called Thelma and Rene during the war), listening to stories from the war, and how they had built their community and coffee farm from nothing. Sergio was the Commandante of Frente Luis Ix'mata, and is now in charge of APCASA (the official name of the association), and he told me that during the war the people cared for the combatants, providing them with food and medical supplies while they were in the mountains. Now, he wants to take care of the people. APCASA has made it their goal to learn as much about coffee as possible, conducting research, talking to people in the industry, and taking samples to the capital to be tasted at Anacafe, Guatemala's national coffee association. Sergio, who is missing a finger on his left hand, gathers workers from other small farms in rural communities and holds workshops on how to compost or plant tree nurseries. Even though APCASA dries their small cosecha on plastic tarps spread on the ground, depulps coffee with a hand crank depulper in the chicken coop, and uses hand crank hullers, they are still able to export Certified Organic and Fair Trade coffee to the USA. Although they have a long way to go, these ex-combatants put as much hard work and fight into their coffee production as they did into fighting the injustices during the war. Spending time at Santa Anita was truly an eye opening experience into the other end of the coffee industry at origin. FIELD REPORT GUATEMALA & EL SALVADOR JAPAN SCAA, PORTLAND, OREGO