Witnessing Friendship and Trust in Nicaragua

Farmer to Farmer Trip to Nicaragua, July 10 -17, 2011

I recently had the privilege to travel to Nicaragua with one of our roaster members, Joe Lozano, from Third Coast Coffee, who shall be called “Chepe” in the rest of this article.  Yes, we talked about managing risk in the current market, and yes, we conducted cupping workshops and farm visits which worked out great, but witnessing the “amistad y confienza” (friendship and trust) that Chepe has developed with our partners in Prococer was a highlight for me.

We started our trip in Matagalpa with meetings with the staff of Cecocafen, the umbrella organization that processes all of the coffee that Cooperative Coffees purchases from Nicaragua. Cecocafen was founded in 1997 and currently includes 2,637 families and up to 18,000 people under their umbrella.

On the third day of our trip, we arrived in the morning at Sol Café, Cecocafen’s quality lab, to conduct a cupping workshop.  We were greeted by 8 people from Prococer that had been travelling since 3am to get to Matagalpa for the workshop.  We arrived to a loud, “CHEPEEEEEEE!” from Denis Blandon, Commercialization Manager for Prococer.  This was my introduction to the power of the relationship that Joe has built with Denis and others from Prococer in his previous three visits to Nicaragua.  To be fair to Jim from DOMA Coffee and Brad from Larry’s Beans, they did ask about you two as well, but their eyes get a special twinkle when they see their good friend, Chepe!

On a visit two years ago, Joe and these same 7 promoters participated in a cupping workshop.  The promoters are all young benefactors of the cooperative’s grant program.  This program is partially funded by the Fair Trade premium and helps ensure that the children of some of the members get a chance to finish school and go to university.  They have grants to continue education in fields that will also bring a return to the coop like business and agriculture. One of the objectives of our trip was to follow-up and assess the current cupping skills of this group of promoters, two years after Joe’s first visit.

 Joe brought coffee for cupping (roasted by Third Coast Coffee) from Nicaragua, Brazil, and Sumatra.  The promoters, as well as Cecocafen’s cupper, Uriel Chavarria, were excited to cup coffee from other origins.  We set up the cupping to first give them a chance to observe and sense the differences in the three coffees and finally with a blind triangulation to test their ability to identify the unique coffee in a set of three and if possible, identify the origin.  The day ended with requests for another visit in January to help cup coffee from several projects they are currently developing. After the workshop, we travelled up north with them to Jicaro, to meet with more of the Prococer staff and visit some farms and communities within the coop. 

Upon arrival at the offices of Prococer, and after warm greetings all around, the head of quality, Roge, grabbed Chepe, anxious for him to see his “lab”.  At first Joe had not been quite so popular with him, after having pointed out the need for better set up, systems, and practices.  But this time, Roge was proud to show Joe all of the improvements that he had made since Joe’s last visit.  He was also keen to discuss more issues and learn more from this special visiting expert.

We spent a couple of more days visiting farms and communities within the Prococer family, and we left feeling that we, as well, were part of the family.The skids of my induction to the family were greased by the trust and friendship earned over the years by Chepe.  Thanks for a great trip, Chepe, and to our trading partners in Nicaragua!