Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/609699
C O L O M B I A THE HORSES WERE SKITTISH, dancing from side to side on the pavement as, one after the other, we climbed atop our own. The ani- mals were rough and beautiful, like the countryside they would carry us through, and we sat tall in our saddles, settling into the height. Climbing up from the town of San Agustín, Huila, explained Alejandro Renjifo of Fairfield Trading, we would ride past homes belonging to the members of the Asociación Los Naranjos. Those members were pro- ducers whose coffees we had cupped that very morning in Fairfield's offices in the center of town. Our intrepid leader for this first half of the annual Café Imports Origin Trip for the Regional, United States, and World Barista Champions, Alejandro easily herded our rowdy group and sent us up the mountains at a swift trot. Like I said, our steeds were jumpy, and some ran faster up the foothills than others. Astride his small but sassy mount, Noah Namowicz of Café Imports darted ahead of the group, with Sam Schroeder, Northwest Regional Barista Champion from Olympia Coffee Roasting, right on his tail. My horse ran at a quick clip along- side World Barista Champion Sasa Sestic of Australia, and we chatted in between long stretches of silence as we took in the scenery: simple, angular houses painted bright colors, with windows lined with roughly constructed flower boxes. We tipped our hats at the many motorbikes carrying two, three, and sometimes four passengers down from the clouds, and we commented occasionally on the unusual natural beauty within which we found ourselves. It wasn't just the novelty of being on horseback; this part of Colombia is special. A protected bioma, or nature preserve, leans right into the farmlands owned and worked by the members of Los Naranjos, and is the reason behind the region's bizarre swings in climate, and the explosion of bright colors of flowers and birds. Higher and higher we trekked. Ryan Soeder, the North Central Regional Barista Champion, who worked for Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago at the time of his win (now with Sunergos Coffee in Louisville, Ky.), had joined Sasa and me, and he rode with an ease that belied his lack of experience. Maybe it was that Ryan forgot all about the horse altogether, so taken was he with the landscape surrounding him. As with a few others in our far-flung group, this was Ryan's first glimpse of coffee fields in the flesh, and he was awestruck. He peered so hard from behind his round spectacles, he appeared to be commit- ting every color and shape, every vista and shadow, to memory. This is what Café Imports has delighted in doing for the last five years through its World Barista Championship (WBC) and United States Barista Championship (USBC) sponsorship. The Minneapolis– based specialty-coffee importer, which also has offices in Australia, Costa Rica, and Germany, surprised the coffee community when it announced its intention to bring the six United States Regional Opposite page: Top, Alejandro Renjifo of Fairfi eld Trading guides the group of baristas gathered in Colombia for the Café Imports Origin Trip through a cacao farm in an eff ort to show them the parallels in farming these very diff erent crops. Li le Samuel, right, is amused. Below: A er hiking to a waterfall in the mountains where coff ee from the Los Naranjos cooperative is grown, the champion baristas cavort on a makeshi bridge over the river. From le , Sam Lewontin, Radames Roldan, Sam Schroeder, Ryan Soeder, Lem Butler, Sasa Sestic, and Nuova Simonelli's Gianni Cassatini. This page: The group on this epic journey through some of Colombia's most celebrated coff ee-growing regions was treated to farm visits and cuppings with both Fairfi eld Trading and Banexport. 29 www.baristamagazine.com