Gone is our logo!!!

Hi there:

We have to change our logo. Imagine that we were blamed of taking out business from someone in the south because of our logo!!! We were told we copied their logo. We used a general coffee shaped logo as our logo and a roaster got upset at us. The worse, instead of calling us as we usually do in the coffee business, this roaster hired a lawyer !!!

I think it is a sad thing that people today no longer talk to each other. It is easier to pay a lawyers fee than make a call. We are a small start up company and cannot afford to pay someone to resolve easy  problems....so stay tune for the new logo!!!

From Coffee and Tea to F.I.T

Well is has been almost a month since I last wrote. I started to teach 3 classes at FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology, from the State University of New York. I love to teach and love the classes. The kids are fun to be around and it forced me to get back in touch with fashion, which I left behind when I started with coffee. The good news is that all processes are the same. To source, roast, sell coffee is pretty much the same as sourcing, manufacturing and importing garments. My area of teaching is technology, which is my passion, I guess besides fashion and coffee. I feel very fortunate that I am able to work in the three areas that I love the most. The coffee business is growing, more on the wholesale side than on the web. The WEB is hard specially when we do not have a lot of money to support Google ADs. I have been learning a lot about Google, SEO and all the little tricks of the Internet. Well yesterday on my way to a meeting , I saw Dianne Keaton on the bus...love the bus and the fact that celebrities take the bus as well!!!

Back from Virginia

Well Well things change so quickly in life, sometimes I really believe we should not plan at all. I was planning to move all of our inventory to Green Springs. Sergio  allowed us to use the little house as a distribution center.  I was planning to spend 2 weeks in Virginia making sure everything was fine...instead I started to teach 3 classes at FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology from the State University of New York. I had to come back to teach but Fernanda and  Lia stayed behind to finish the project.  We had a barbecue for our partners, Al, Debbi, Scotty and George. The whole Joy Brazil team was there, including myself, Patti, Lia and Jim...I had the best hamburger I ever had, with meat from Green Springs.  The distribution center is now ready, and I will post picture soon....bow just keep enjoying our coffee..is getting better and better!

Back to the Sao Joao vist.....

Well the people from Java loved the coffee, specially the Bourbon. The yellow  Bourbon is a special species of coffee, a very delicate coffee bean.  The color varies from yellow to pale straw, often with a red center. They are very smooth to drink.  They also tasted the Icatu and the Catuai, a much more common species in Brazil. The following day we went to visit some neighbor's farm. The farm from Paulo Tassinari, and the farm from Olavo Monteiro de Carvalho. Paulo Tassinari is known for his gourmet coffee, a beautiful farm  at a very high altitude. We had to take a truck  up the hill,  to see the plantation from up the mountain. Olavo's farm is more of a horse ranch, even though he has some coffee, it is not his primary business. What we found interesting at his place was the cooperative he has for the farm workers; the wives work with arts and crafts that they later sell in Rio de Janeiro. They also have school for the kids, a great social benefits for the workers. Then we visited a local roaster. It was great for me to start learning the different coffees, the different plantation methods etc.  Sergio's  harvest is hand picked. He test the cherries still on the the branch for humidity. When it is right he does the first harvest, only cherries that are ripe enough are picked.  Every 2 hours, a truck takes the cherries back to be washed, and the process starts. Each tree is picked two to three times during the season. This is the first step in harvesting a good gourmet coffee. Only the perfect cherries are harvest therefore the hope is that at the end of the process, we will only have perfect coffee beans. The season in the highlands of Rio starts in April, way ahead of the rest of the country. Because of his proximity to the ocean ( 145 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro) the season starts before the rest of the country.

Back to where we are!!

I am so proud of where we are today. We just sent out a blast to 5000 people, and the attached ad will be on the program of the Manhattan Short Film Festival.  We will be moving our distribution center to Gordonsville, VA by the end of August.  We just received the first shipment of the "Floresta da Amazonia" products.  As I said to a friend today, even though we still did not make any money, the business is growing and I am very proud of us.   We will use the cottage at Sergio's farm to store everything we are selling.  Right now, I can't barely walk into my one bed room apartment.  My friend Vania said that my home looks like a Turkish Bazar!! It  is exactly what I feel when I walk into my home.  We just got some more of the Carmo de Minas ( everyone loves it) and also some more of the Breakfast Blend and the House Blend. We are doing well, just hope for more sales to come in. 

From Coffee to Fire to another visit with the roaster

Sorry I haven't blogged the whole last week.  Sunday morning after my cup of coffee, we went out to a pic-nic in Central Park. As we walked out of my building, there were 15 fire engines and a crowd of people outside the building. The building right across from me got fire, real fire, like TV news fire. My friend's car was parked across the street, 14.5 feet from the fire hydrant. She got a ticket. We did not know what to do, there were people in stretchers, a lot of curious trying to find out what happened me and the dog!!!!We ended up going to out pic-nic before knowing the car was all right, but seeing all those people without a home, who cares about the car right??? Even the coffee was out of my mind for a while.

Then on Tuesday we travelled to Virginia to visit with the roaster.  We had a great visit with him, and found out he can make flavored coffee for us at Joy Brazil. So soon we will be offering flavored coffee as well. 

Americans love flavored coffee, the issue being is that in order to add flavor to the coffee, one doesn't need such a good coffee bean. The coffee itself will disappear in the flavor, so we need a not so good coffee to flavor.  We have been trying to get some not so good coffee from Brazil and it has been very hard. 

What we found out is that people are holding their coffee inventory in the hopes that coffee  prices go up....so now we have gasoline prices going up as well as coffee....Economics working its way !!!!

The Trip with the Java's To Sao Joao Coffee Farm

The Sao Joao Coffee farm has been producing coffee since 1853 on the highlands of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The farm was founded by Tristao Cunha Camara and follows the expansion of the coffee field into the State of Rio de Janeiro.  The farm has been restored and is one of the representatives of the coffee region in Imperial Brazil. ( The period lasted from 1808 when the seat of the Portuguese crown moved to Rio de Janeiro because of the Napoleonic Wars, untill the beguinning of the republic period in 1889).

We planned to meet the Java's in Rio and then drive to Petropolis, where the farm is. As I was leaving for the airport I got a call from Miami, telling me that the Chief Java did not have a visa for Brazil. 

Because the USA requires a visa from Brazilians, Americans visiting

Brazil are required a visa as well. We called the consulate in Miami and were fortunate enought to be able to get a visa right away. He was a day later than his fellows Java's.

We had prepared a whole typical Brazilian stay at the farm. We even bought a sample roaster so that we could roast and cup coffee.

 The First day was spent in driving   and horse back riding around the farm.   We had collected a lot of different coffees so that we could spend the time doing blends and cupping . The farm produces Catuai, Icatu and yellow Bourbon, which is considered the top of the coffees. Very delicate and hard to grow.