Two weeks ago we returned from Guatemala with a renewed sense of purpose.  Our trip clarified our vision and pushed us to rededicate ourselves to our mission: connecting our love of coffee through community while supporting organic agriculture.

For those of us with decades in the coffee industry, traveling to coffee-growing communities at “origin” was a professional and personal pilgrimage. Having spent years at this end of the coffee chain where we roast, package, brew, and serve a product that only grows in distant lands around the equator, the chance to walk through coffee farms, smell jasmine-scented coffee blossoms, and rake coffee parchment on sun-dried patios was a full-circle experience for us, a dream come true.

We are indebted to our incredible hosts, Brian and Thomas from InterAmerican Coffee, who planned the perfect itinerary fit for the geekiest of coffee geeks: small-holder farms, coffee estates, big cities, small towns, professional cuppings (tastings), and café-laced colonial cities.

While reflecting on our trip, Brian said his favorite moments were watching our team huddle on long bus rides to strategize about how we would use our experience to build a better company and ignite progress for our industry.

In the coming weeks, that’s exactly what we’ll be sharing with you on this blog: the ways in which Guatemala impacted us and how you can partner with us to push our industry forward. Stay tuned.