Catalyst Trade

This was a month or so ago, and these are founder .bayou’s hands. The site? Basha Bekele’s farm, Bensa, Sidama. The cherries? Hand-selected by Zele and our Lead Processing Specialist .fesseha for the special lots they produced as part of the vertical integration partnership we have with Basha. We’ve worked directly with Basha since 2017, and supported him since 2014 at the washing stations where he brought his cherries.

Stay tuned. Those samples are landing on our cupping table in Kansas City TODAY… tribute to the kind of longstanding partnership you can have if you keep showing up and putting in the work.

Growing up on coffee farms, factories, and washing stations, you come to recognize the bittersweet tang of fermenting coffee cherries and the way the sun grasps at you in the hot harvest days. You know exactly how to maintain your balance, both along the concrete edge of a washing channel in Kenya and also inter-culturally, where smiles are language and laughter your best negotiating tactic.

You probably declare "I will NOT work in coffee!" But nonetheless you can find a peaberry faster than a Q Grader and you plan to have your own cafe when you grow up.

As your parents figure out the shape of the future, you figure it'll all work out because you are infinitely resilient and, after all, Orange Fanta comes in nearly every country you've ever visited.

I remember the texture of the mud on my boots the first time I visited Dionisio's farm in San Martín, Peru. May, 2015. That mud clung brick-red and sticky to everything it could touch, as stubborn as hope itself. The bus took us as far as it could and then surrendered to the inevitable—we hopped out and started walking. Or, rather, trudging.

Half a mile or a mile, I couldn't say. The jungle lush and heavy in my nostrils. And then we broke out into the clearing overlooking Finca La Encañada, aptly named for it is enchanting beyond belief.

Chickens and ducks scurry about for the farm-grown corn and dogs roam through the open-air kitchen. The river nearby hums with life.

Dionisio has been a friend for years and I have visited plenty since, but that first time will always be rooted in my mind. I'm eagerly anticipating returning in about ten days, sourcing this coffee for our dedicated Dionisio buyers!

(We are sourcing Perus right now, and closing bookings in October—message us or email at [email protected] if you want to be included!)

— Emily McIntyre, CEO