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dent], I had not been out of the country, and I found out I could go to China for the same price as a semester at school, including flight. It was a flight. Indianapolis-Chicago–Los Angeles–Honolulu-Japan (overnight)-Shanghai, then six-hour bus to Hangzhou. I think there's [a] daily [direct flight from] Minneapolis to Shanghai now! It was amazing. China was open for travel, yet no one was there yet. I spent five hours walking the Temple of Heaven one February day and no one else came in it. I imagine there are thousands of tourists a day now. I also felt like I was a witness to the closing of a chapter of history when I was there. I was in Xian, where the terra-cotta warriors are, and wandered into a small restaurant that served only dumplings. It was amazing. This very old woman dressed in a traditional Chinese outfit hob- bled into the place. I looked down to see that the reason of her hobble was that she had bound feet. She sat down and started talking to me, but unfortunately, I could not follow most of what she was saying. I think that the bind- ing of feet had stopped in 1911, with the Chinese revolution, so this woman was out of another era. Experiences like this are just beyond description. SA: And today? JL: I've been traveling [as a green buyer] for 14 years now, and still love it, but we've now got Piero [Cristiani], who's doing amaz- ing things in Costa [Rica] and Ecuador, along with many other origins; Lucho [Luis Arocha], who joined about a year ago, assist- ing in Costa [Rica] and Colombia, Brazil, along with other origins. Andrew has been rocking it in Colombia and Mexico, and recently, Joe Tynan joined us in dual role of Aussie sales and sourcing, too. We have ded- icated people for each [producing] country, but we talk as a team, along with sales input and [the] sensory department, too. For the trips, they blur together. I'd say, we have at least two people at origin each day of the year, if I had to look it up. So, we travel 700 days a year? SA: As for the larger specialty-coffee indus- try, do you have any predictions about what's on the horizon? JL: Prices: up. [I] still think [the] world [will be] determining where top-end coffee should be priced. A low-average bottle of wine still makes a $4 glass (assuming 3.5 glasses per bottle) and coffee—even "expensive coffee"— is nowhere close. At origin, I think that processing is still at its infancy. We are working with some farms that have controlled sealed fermentation, con- trolled yeasts, etc. It will be amazing to see where this goes. SA: What's up for the future of Café Imports? Do you have any projects on the horizon to tell us about? JL: If I told you, I'd have to kill you. Just kidding. We are working on expanding our water activity research. [We] have a project with Dr. Borem going on. [We're] continuing to refine our cupping standards. I have desire to make different cupping forms, [and] have a few in the works. [We're] working on creating drying and other best practices manuals, not to dictate to origin, but to share when producers ask for it. We're looking into drones with a Square attached to it, so we can fly coffee from origin directly to roasters and have them swipe their card for payment (kidding). We're hoping to get solar panels on our roof soon—[the] engineer says we might need some more supports first. Personally, seeing the next generation of Café Imports continue to grow is one of the top goals. [I] want to slip out the back door and have no one notice, someday. 87 www.baristamagazine.com