Origin Compass

In this final episode, Marisabel Vasquez and Ana Sofía Narvaéz speak with Kimberly Easson, founder of The Partnerships for Gender Equity (PGE). Kimberly has worked for thirty years in agricultural supply chains and development in more than twenty countries around the world.  Are coffee companies creating and executing projects or services in a gender-equitable way? Are there tools to help guide and inform how coffee companies work and help deliver these projects? How can farmer organizations benefit?  She shares valuable insights on diagnostic tools and research studies conducted through PGE that answer these questions while also considering property rights and financial freedom. We invite you to learn more about these tools and how all actors in the coffee value chain can participate and implement.

Have you cupped Robusta? Would you like to learn more about it? This week brings you a different conversation! In this episode, Ana Sofía Narváez speaks with Professor Sunalini Menon from India. She shares valuable information on Arabica, Robusta, and how India's coffee industry has evolved. Mrs. Sunalini Menon is a pioneer in the Arabica and Robusta coffee industry in India. She has been a speaker at major industry events, researched coffee quality, and processing methods, protocols, amongst others. Similarly, she has worked with the Coffee Board of India, the Coffee Quality Institute, the Association of Specialty Coffee, and local organizations and government agencies in her home country. She is currently a board member of the Tata Ltd Group. We invite you to listen to her comments on Robusta, people's perception, its potential, and how to perform sensory assessments. This is a fascinating conversation you can't miss!

In this episode, Marysabel shares her beginnings as a coffee grower, the challenges she faced, and how she paved her way to becoming a well-known coffee grower, businesswoman, and mother. She highlights how sustainability for them means to have a balance between the social impact, economic growth, and especially a united family.

New Year, New Episode! Our very first episode in Spanish. Meet Paola Laguna, a young Colombian coffee professional and entrepreneur. Her passion for coffee and sustainability has led her to undertake different projects with her partner and colleague José Alberto Rosero since 2014. Paola Laguna has been behind successful businesses such as Bourbon Coffee, Colo Coffee, and recently she is focused on her new venture Tropicalia Coffee Co. In November 2021, they opened her new store in Bogotá, Colombia. Tropicalia is a proposal that elevates the experience of coffee in Colombia under the same concept of quality and sustainability, initially through three coffees Privilegio, Esencia, Trópico.  Visit www.tropicaliacoffee.com to learn more.

In this new episode, we are honored to have Phyllis Johnson, Co-founder of BD Imports, Board Member, and Director at the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity in the United States. Her contributions towards women empowerment and equity for more than 20 years have paved the way for more coffee professionals to speak up and share their ideas and stories. She authored the book The Triumph:  Black Brazilians in Coffee.

In this new episode of Caravela Coffee Talks, we speak with Taya Brown, founder of the Del Fuego Project. Taya is a researcher, agronomist, and Ph.D. in Horticulture. She combines her interest and passion for organic food systems and her coffee experience while working directly with small-scale farmers in Guatemala. She shares how a scientific approach, agronomy, access to information, and cupping can help develop communities while empowering farmers to have more ownership and participation in coffee studies, specialty coffee markets, and as coffee consumers.

In this episode, our Relationship Builder, Ana Sofía Narvaez, speaks with Priya, who is based in Thailand and is co-founder of Samadool Coffee. She tells us about how she the Australian market inspired her to start a coffee business in her home country, Thailand. Since they started, they have not only introduced some of Australia to the Thai market, but they have been able to educate coffee consumers in Thailand, through great quality of coffee and outstanding customer service. We invite you to listen how Samadool have adapted to their market and developed a whole coffee industry here.

In this new episode of Caravela Coffee Talks, we speak with Holly Kragiopoulos, co-founder of North Star Coffee Roasters in Leeds, United Kingdom. Holls wears many hats in the business, amongst them Green Sourcing, Relationship with Farmers, and Quality Control.  We had a great conversation about how Holly started her coffee career after traveling and working directly with farmers in Kenya with her partner, Alex Kragiopoulos. They saw an opportunity and a gap back then to connect farmers with consumers, change consumers' mindsets about coffee, and change the way coffee was marketed as a simple commodity. Holly highlights crucial moments for the growth of her career, as well as the expansion and evolution of North Start Coffee Roasters, always putting people over profits.

In today's episode, we are honored to introduce Freda Yuan. She is a Professional Coffee Taster, World Cup Tasters Champion, and Head of Coffee at Origin Coffee Roaster in the UK. She is also the author of Sip ´n´ Slurp a Guide to Expert Coffee Tasting, a self-published book. Freda talks to Ana Sofía, our Relationship Builder, about her sensory journey in coffee and how to make cupping a tool that strengthens your personal and professional confidence. She highlights there is nothing right or wrong when identifying flavors in coffee. Each person has a unique sensory background, and it is a skill that we can develop! 

In this episode of Caravela Coffee Talks, you will hear from our former Relationship Builder, Salomé Puentes and Zarah Lawless, co-founder of Calendar Coffee based in Ireland.They speak about how they started Calendar Coffee back in 2018 based on seasonal coffees and building a reputation for unparalleled quality, always being honest and loyal to their story and journey. Zarah shares with us some tips on starting a coffee business. But most important, she shares with us how to successfully keep a business by staying true to your values.   

In today's conversation, you will hear from our former Relationship Builder, Salomé Puentes and Jamie Isetts, Sourcing Consultant and Green Buyer for Square Mile Coffeee. They speak about how Jaime came to become a Green Coffee Consultant, a journey that started somehow working with small-scale farmers in Spain, learning new languages like Spanish and Portuguese. They dive into the role of green buyers, power dynamics, transparency, traceability, standards, and expectations when establishing relationships with producers. The power to change narratives whilst creating a positive impact for all parties in the supply chain.

In today's conversation, you will hear from our former Relationship Builder, Salomé Puentes and Lisa Lawson, co-founder of Dear Green Coffee Roasters in Glasgow, Scotland and the Glasgow Coffee Fest.  They speak about how the wine industry inspired Lisa to build a coffee company in Glasgow and how the coffee industry in this country has grown and evolved since then to the point that is now a mainstream conversation! She also talks about the power of community building, network, and sustainability-driven companies to make the coffee industry better and more sustainable for everyone.  

Amaris is the Director of Roasting for Joe Coffee Company. She is also the founder of The Women in Coffee Project, a project that sheds light on equity and women in coffee as well as focusing on the complex and challenging world of coffee. Her coffee career and path have been uniquely influenced by her Central American roots and heritage, especially thanks to her direct ties to Nicaragua. She has applied her academic degree in English literature, her training, and years of experience in the science of roasting, quality control, and comprehensive knowledge of sourcing specialty green coffee around the world.

Added yeasts can dramatically affect the taste of coffee, and this all happens during the fermentation step. This step, which once was simply a means to remove the mucilage is now understood as key to flavour development. There are many microbes responsible for this and the types of naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria will have a huge impact on the taste of the coffee. If these yeasts and bacteria already exist and can be found everywhere, why would you add a different stain of yeast to the mix? In this episode we speak to Roberto Vazconez, from finca @lugmapata who uses added yeast strains to direct his fermentation, to obtain certain profile results. With the help of Camila Khalifé, Ecuadorian quality analyst and café owner, we interview Roberto about his fermentation experiments. Listen to learn more about what is going on in the fermentation tank when yeasts are added and a case study success story on how yeasts can be used with desirable results.

In this episode we look at the traditional varieties that we most commonly work with at Caravela. The traditional varieties found all over Latin America can all be traced back to either Typica or Bourbon. That is to say that many of the traditional varieties that we see today are either mutations or hybrids of these two original varieties, but what does this really mean? To understand some of the terminology and to help us tell the story, we speak with research technician for World Coffee Research: Julio Alvarado.

In this episode we delve deeper into what makes a good roaster-producer working relationship. Stephen Leighton and Pedro Claros both share their side of the story, telling us what this relationship means for them and how they have arrived at this point. Steven is the founder of Hasbean and has been working with producer Pedro (from Pitalito, Huila) since 2011 but their relationship was not always what it is today. Listen to find out how they have made such a success of working together.

For many roasters, visiting origin is just one important part of the job. However, it is currently a moment when not only is it impossible to travel, but to do so would indeed be irresponsible. This inability to visit the producers one works with has created much discussion regarding the importance of these trips.What are the potential ramifications of not being present at origin? Would the coffees you want become harder to get? Should producers worry that roasters not visiting them could cause a breakdown in their relationship, and that their coffee will no longer be bought? In this episode the Relationship Building team will talk about what we are missing out on and what we can do about this, even if we can only be at origin in spirit!

The logistics of moving coffee is by nature a complicated process, so how is it now in the Covid era?At origin, just moving coffee from farms to warehouses to ports has become a matter of jumping hurdles, while moving coffee across oceans and then on to the final destination has other very specific difficulties.In this episode we speak to Grant Tennille, Caravela’s North American logistics coordinator. Grant offers an overview of the steps and pitfalls associated with exporting and importing green coffee, and then goes deeper into the challenges - real and potential -facing the movement of green coffee and logistics in general.

'Minga' is a South American term which means "coming together for the common good", whether to finish a harvest or build a house. This spirit is what we are always striving to cultivate at Caravela: working with producers to help them improve over time, and helping roasters find better coffees, cultivating long-term relationships that will help us all thrive over time.Since the novel coronavirus drastically changed the world we live in, we have been encouraged and inspired to see a minga mentality emerge all over, from producing countries to roasteries and cafes around the globe. In this episode, Caravela's Relationship Building team discuss the impact of Covid-19 at origin, as well as hearing first hand about the amazing things that are happening in response.

In this episode of Origin Compass, we take a closer look at Peru as a coffee origin. Ana Sofia, Relationship Builder based in Guatemala chats with Peru’s Country Manager Miguel Sanchez, they both talk about their experiences working in coffee in Peru, the culture, the successes, and the challenges.Listen if you are interested in Peruvian coffees and want to know why with this origin has so much potential, that we will only start to see more of in the coming years.

In this episode of Origin Compass we look at how a focus on agronomy impacts coffee producers. In producing countries we see agronomical assistance come in many forms. Who is offering the assistance and their motivation behind this will often dictate how useful it will be to producers.Starting off with an overview with regards to why agronomical help is essential at origin, we later focus in on the Caravela approach and why agronomy is so important for our model.Listen to all this plus an interview with our Peca Coordinator Hector Calderon as to what he feels are the important areas in terms of helping producers achieve goals and become sustainable farming businesses.

Listen to the latest episode of Origin Compass. Here Salomé speaks with our new North American sales manager Rich Futrell about his initial Caravela origin experience. Reflecting upon his recent visits to Peru and Colombia, we also gain insight into what it's like to view the work we do from an outsider's perspective, as Rich notices aspects of our export operations that may seem unremarkable to the seasoned Caravela employee at origin. Listen to this interview to learn more about our work with producers and experience a bit of origin for yourself, wherever you are.

This episode of Origin Compass is a little different. At Caravela, it is of paramount importance that our customers know where their coffee comes from. But this is not only about location, name of farm and name of the producer, but it is also about the story behind each farm and everyone involved. For this reason, any time anyone buys a single farmer lot, we like to give all the credit to the farmer and tell their story. Although many of these stories seem similar and many producers come from traditional coffee-growing families, the motivations are always different. A couple of weeks ago we received a request to create a brochure regarding a coffee grower in Nicaragua. While we were reading the interview that was carried out by our PECA team, we decided we wanted to find a way and space for Edwin Duarte to tell his story himself in more detail. Edwin's life hasn't been an easy one, he went from having it all to having nothing and, in the end, his love for coffee helped him find himself where he is today.

Entrevista completa en español con Ratibor Hartmann, usada en el Podcast "How Geisha ruined coffee". Ratibor habla sobre sus experiencias produciendo cafe y como ser exitoso con las variedades y procesos exóticas.

In this episode, we talk to Peter Ebdrup from The Coffee Collective and producer Jaime Andres Casallas, on how they forged their partnership. Both speak at length about what they have learned, their respective challenges, and ultimately what has led to the continued success of this enduring relationship. Listen to two stories describing very different worlds, and why each could not survive without the other.

In this episode hear about how the exotic variety boom has not been all that positive for small-scale producers and why. Also listen to an abridged interview with Ratibor Hartmann regarding how he has made his success in the exotic variety game.

Listen to the original edited interviews in Spanish that were translated for the podcast “how SHE makes the difference at Origin”. These interviews were recorded in working locations, including warehouses, the Coffee Producer and Roaster forum in Guatemala City and in Caravela’s Bogotá cupping lab.Escucha las entrevistas originales y editadas en español que se tradujeron para el podcast “How SHE makes the difference at Origin”. Estas entrevistas se grabaron en espacios de trabajo, incluyendo bodegas, El Foro de Productores y Tostadores en la Ciudad de Guatemala y en el laboratorio de catación de Caravela en Bogotá.

In this podcast, in a series of translated interviews, we showcase the stories of various hard working and successful women based at origin. Although working in the same industry they have all come from very different backgrounds and have had great success professionally and personally with coffee. Listen more to hear a snapshot of their lives and how they overcame various obstacles to arrive at where they are today.

Discussion about the effectiveness of community-focused projects in the Central American coffee industry.

Sierra de las Minas, Chiquimula, Guatemala.

La Palma, Chalatenango, El Salvador.

San Francisco Morazan, Chalatenango, El Salvador.

Chiquimula, Guatemala.

Presentation relationship building team presentation

Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

La Palma, Chalatenango, El Salvador.

La Palma, Chalatenango, El Salvador.

Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

San Marcos, Guatemala.