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Arroz con pollo, fried yuca, and warm sugar cane tea—a traditional meal in Latin America and one that I would see many variations of in the coming week. Juan, Pedro, and I sat at the dimly lit table, where Doña Maria had bussed our plates moments ago. I thanked her in my embarrassing middle-school level Spanish and she nodded with a grin. Maria Rosa Oidor owns and runs her coffee farm Los Nogales with her husband Antonio Pillimué. Having just turned 60, Doña Maria is an impressive symbol of women in coffee, hiking up mountains daily to organize and direct farm operations.

El Carmen lies in the heart of El Salvador’s main ‘protected highway’ of forest, a part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor System that stretches all the way from Mexico down to Panama. In El Salvador, where more than 80% of the country’s coffee is produced under shade, this eco-system is based mainly in the coffee forest.

Last year, Cartel decided to do something a little different than free coffee for customers on National Coffee Day. We thought it would be cool to reach out to the people on the other side of the coffee story. I started brainstorming ideas (and sending lots of emails) to see what that might look like.

I just got back from my buying trip to Colombia and I am excited to share my experiences. Colombia is a beautiful country (especially where coffee is grown) and it is very safe to visit, in spite of what you may have seen on Netflix.

Maybe you’ve heard about a coffee tasting ritual called ‘cupping’. If you haven’t, it’s the traditional way that coffees are scrutinized side-by-side when buying decisions are made.

Juan Diego, along with his family, owns and operates the magnificent estate, Finca El Culpan. I felt an instant kinship with him after learning that he attended Arizona State University in Tempe—a few blocks from both my home and Cartel’s roastery!