Human Effort Makes The Difference

This is some news from our wonderful coffee roaster Intelligentsia. Through it we learn a bit more about the human beings that grow the coffee we enjoy here at Everyday Joe's Coffee House.

"A little inspiration goes a long way.

I'm inspired by Jair Garcia. I want to hug the guy. He is one of the greatest coffee farmers I've ever known. For those who have not heard of him, Sr. Jair is a coffee farmer from El Tambo, Cauca in Colombia. He has a relatively small farm, just a few hectares, and produces coffee in a traditional way. "Rustic" might be the right word; he ferments his coffee in plastic sacks. And yet he has managed to produce the best tasting coffee (in my humble opinion) from his entire area of Colombia for three years in a row!

How can this be? How does it happen? Jair lacks many of the resource advantages that some of the other growers who contribute coffee to this project have at their disposal. And he's competing with hundreds of small growers every year. We cup the Tres Santos submissions blindly and probability alone would suggest that it is very unlikely he could manage to come up with the highest rated coffee three consecutive years. After all, this is agriculture, and there are so many small variables (some of them uncontrollable) that have an impact on final quality.
Take the Cup of Excellence competitions. There have been 25 held over the last seven years, and there have been exactly ZERO repeat winners, with only a handful of farmers managing consecutive top ten finishes! The fact that he has indeed accomplished what few farmers can is beyond impressive.

I find it thrilling and incredibly encouraging. It is the most powerful evidence I've seen in support of the notion that human effort is what makes the difference between a very good coffee and a truly spectacular one. It is tough for a coffee to crack that "90 point" threshold on the cupping table. Since there are a lot of things that get in your way, I like to think that it is about as tough as a football player returning a kick-off for a touchdown. I guess that this makes Sr. Garcia the Devin Hester of Specialty Coffee. (For those of you who don’t follow the Chicago Bears, this guy has returned lots of kick-offs for touchdowns.)"

~ Geoff WattsVP of Coffee
Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea