I write this from my hotel room while traveling on coffee business, so I will not have a new installment on The Long Road to Quality. For an updated, consolidated version of The Long Road, written so far, please click here.

Juana Mamami Huanca from the San Ignacio cooperative is a first generation coffee producer. She began producing coffee on her farm at the age of 16 and now at only 23 years of age she has earned second place in the Cup of Excellence in Bolivia. To the right is the only photo we have of her, sadly. Juana participated in the 2005 competition but did not manage to take home a Cup of Excellence award. For the past two years she has worked to improve quality always with an eye towards competing again. Her farm covers fifteen acres of lush hillsides in the Carrasco La Reserva region of the Caranavi province at an altitude of approximately 4,900 feet above sea-level. “I always planned to participate [in the competition]” she said, “and now I plan to increase my production and my quality of life.” She is now working to establish an additional acre of coffee. The farm has an abundance of shade trees. Production is carried out without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides but does not have organic certification. – text from Cup of Excellence. The lack of certification is typical for very small farmers: it has been beyond her means. The price we paid should go a long way towards correcting that. Certification takes at least three years to get.

The price is on special sale of $15.00, down from $34.95, per 8 ounces. Click here to order or call 866 GHH-JAVA.

Marco Aurelio Ortega is a very small Colombian farmer deeply attached to the earth and its life-forces. He uses only natural inputs and applies no chemicals to his farm, growing medicinal and aromatic herbs, fruits and many different trees on his tiny 3 acre farm. He has even contoured his farm on the steep slopes, at 6,000 feet, something I am told again and again in Colombia that small farmers cannot afford - yet he has done it simply because he feels that erosion control is worth the effort. Marco Aurelia will be applying for organic certification, which practices he has long applied out of his own convictions.

Mr. Ortega produced 6 micro-lots this past summer. They were all exemplary (we picked his coffee out blind again and again). It is 100% of the Caturra variety at its best. Ortega's craftsmanship brings out delicate complex flavor notes of great clarity reminiscent of Burgundy. Villa Flor is a coffee that combines great delicacy with real spine. The cup has refined acidity that is all sweetness and light around a Brazil nut core, with a touch of wintergreen, mixed with tropical fruit aromas from hot to cold. $15.95 per 8 ounces. Click here to order or call 866-GHH-JAVA.

I love spring. Spring drives me crazy. We are briefly running out of some of our great coffees: Mamuto, La Minita, Maria Santos, La Esmeralda, several of our Cup of Excellence winners from last year…. I am impatiently awaiting the arrival of new crop coffees. Most coffees are grown north of the equator and are harvested during our winter. They have now been properly conditioned and are beginning to reach our shores. Here is a rundown: