Ethnic Fest and cultural celebration via coffees of the world

As many of you know, this past Saturday Two Rivers held their annual Ethnic Fest event. It’s basically a day-long street party that showcases a variety of live music, ethnic foods, arts and crafts vendors and community interaction as thousands of people fill the street. It’s a long, busy day for us at the shop and one that is also very enjoyable as we invariably get to meet new people and even sneak out periodically to enjoy a little bit of the party ourselves.

The core mission of Ethnic Fest is to celebrate different cultures, and it does that fairly well, given the size and resources of the community. And yet there’s a great deal of room for this wonderful event to grow, and to celebrate even more of the many and diverse cultures of the world. That thought occurred to me the following morning as I opened a small packet of roasted Guatemalan coffee beans, set my grinder to a course grind and made a small two-cup press pot (a simple method of brewing that many believe is the single best way to release and enjoy all the good stuff in a coffee, and one that I’ll discuss in a future column).

This particular Guatemalan coffee is from the Rio Azul Cooperative, located in the rural town of Jacaltenango near the Sierra Madre Mountains in western Guatemala. The 180-plus hardworking individuals and families that make up the cooperative have built a reputation for growing and producing high quality coffee. The coffee farms outwardly appear more like natural jungle than what we would recognize as farms, with the coffee trees growing seemingly haphazardly amidst shade trees and other flora. The members all live within a few miles of the co-op wet mill, where they carry the sacks of picked coffee to be processed.

Rio Azul produces approximately 160,000 pounds of green coffee a year, an impressive number considering that each coffee tree produces only around one pound of cherries per year. Many of the co-op members are organic certified and more than two dozen are also beekeepers who produce over 15,000 pounds of honey annually. This is traditional, “old school” farming at its finest.

The coffee I was drinking was evidence that this co-op was doing something right. The aroma was lovely, with a kind of wet earth and sweet grassy smell. The taste was rather bright, with a nice acidity and a fairly light mouthfeel. The aftertaste left a faint lime or lemon citrus impression. The package suggested that I might discern notes of cinnamon and mango, but I confess that those were beyond the sensibilities of my palate.

One of the things I enjoy about coffee is learning about its place of origin and the people who produce it. Specialty coffee, more than any other product I can think of, is a business of cultural connections and relationships. It is worth noting that, generally, when you buy coffee that has come from small farms and co-ops you are truly supporting and having a direct positive impact on those farms and families. Furthermore, greater numbers of coffee roasters and retailers are making direct connections and building personal relationships with coffee workers like those of the Rio Azul cooperative. These relationships help foster higher quality coffee and better standards of living and working for the folks who produce it.

As I sat and drank my Rio Azul coffee I read and learned more about this beautiful country and the hardworking people who grew, picked and processed the cup I was enjoying. This tiny area of the world is just one of hundreds that produce outstanding coffee, and each has its own unique story to tell. What better way to introduce people to even more of the cultures of the world than via a drink that virtually everyone knows and consumes each day? It got me thinking; so don’t be surprised if you see a strong coffee element at next year’s Ethnic Fest.