WHOLESALE - DIRECT TRADE: A VIEW FROM ORIGIN

“By far, the best proof is experience.”
- Sir Francis Bacon
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)

Sarah cupping coffee in Lima, Peru

As a recent addition to Intelligentsia’s Quality Control Department, I had the opportunity to travel to Peru with Geoff Watts and witness some of our Direct Trade work. During my eight day stay, I was able to assist at a cupping school, train local baristas in Lima and sit down for meetings and meals with coffee farmers in northern Peru. The intensity of the work was high, but the outcome was very rewarding. Needless to say, the work that I participated in made a colossal impact on me.

Although I had never doubted the honesty of the flyers, bulletins and posters speaking of Intelligentsia’s work at origin, I had also not considered the reality of it. It is one thing to hear of travels and relationships with our growers and quite another to experience it. Just as I read novels and articles about Americans traveling to developing countries, forging relationships and spurring adventures, I imagined the same scenario with our coffee buying – mysterious, magical, and so remote from anything I’ve ever witnessed myself. To me, our Direct Trade coffees were glamorous.

My first reflections upon my visit to Peru were much like that of my reflections upon the first year of marriage. It’s real, it’s raw, it’s exposed and in that disillusionment, it becomes far more beautiful than before. The five-hour bumpy road trips are truly five hours and truly bumpy. The face-to-face meetings with the growers and the meals in their homes do take place. Most importantly, the things Geoff presents to us here are the very exact things Geoff presents to the growers. Nothing is lost in translation, nothing is given a different angle and everything is put on the table.

A graduating class of cupping students esquela de catacion in Lima, Peru.

A makeshift picnic during a construction roadblock.

Geoff Watts signing a transparency contract with Cenfrocafe.

Another thing I had the opportunity of witnessing was the sheer innovative spirit of our Direct Trade buying strategy. As Geoff and the president of Cenfrocafe signed their Transparency Contract, I was struck by the willful risk Intelligentsia was taking. It was the first time in our buying history that we, ourselves, became the importers. Besides becoming direct importers, we also promised to purchase one container of coffee produced by Cenfrocafe’s growers. Understandably, to Geoff this might have been old hat, but to new eyes, this was putting a huge amount of trust into the hands of Cenfrocafe. We became dependent upon them to produce excellent coffee. They became dependent upon us to purchase their coffee. The relationship was formed.

If there is anything that I feel Intelligentsia’s employees and customers should know about Direct Trade is the unglamorous nature of it. There are no trumpets and streamers to pave the way to excellent coffee, just hard-working individuals who willfully traverse the unfriendly territory of coffee growing lands to work with hard-working farmers who look forward to the day they receive electricity in their homes. You get sticky and dirty, work long hours, sleep in buses, and cross paths with some mighty frightening looking bugs. It is this hard work that produces relationships and improves coffee. There are no short cuts to our Direct Trade work and that is the true beauty of it.