Catalyst Trade

This was a month or so ago, and these are founder .bayou’s hands. The site? Basha Bekele’s farm, Bensa, Sidama. The cherries? Hand-selected by Zele and our Lead Processing Specialist .fesseha for the special lots they produced as part of the vertical integration partnership we have with Basha. We’ve worked directly with Basha since 2017, and supported him since 2014 at the washing stations where he brought his cherries.

Stay tuned. Those samples are landing on our cupping table in Kansas City TODAY… tribute to the kind of longstanding partnership you can have if you keep showing up and putting in the work.

Happy birthday to our hardworking Charley Austin! He’s celebrating by heading deep into the hills for cupping and conversations with our Peruvian partners along with a table-wide toast of Jamaica liqueur for breakfast!

Pictures here at the processing plant for Programa Huellas, where many of our single-producer microlots are processed.

Here’s the thing. It all looks so glamorous from outside, but coffee sourcing is actually made up of a lifetime of long days spent meticulously tracking details like water activity and weight loss—sample after sample after sample.

This is why we have stopped worrying about competition. Anyone who is willing to put in the WORK should benefit from the skinny profits and the joy of success.

Our friend and partner Angel is exactly our kind of coffee person. Today in his Jaen lab we are sweating happily amidst the samples and the smiles.

Today we are headed back to our friends and fellow cupping obsessives in Peru. As the airport in Jaen is closed, we'll be flying from Lima to Chiclayo where our friend Angel will pick us up and we'll grab some incredible ceviche before turning inland. (Slide 2)

Follow along with us as we finalize lot selection for our customers! If you want to jump in with the 2023/24 harvest, now's the time to let us know.

Growing up on coffee farms, factories, and washing stations, you come to recognize the bittersweet tang of fermenting coffee cherries and the way the sun grasps at you in the hot harvest days. You know exactly how to maintain your balance, both along the concrete edge of a washing channel in Kenya and also inter-culturally, where smiles are language and laughter your best negotiating tactic.

You probably declare "I will NOT work in coffee!" But nonetheless you can find a peaberry faster than a Q Grader and you plan to have your own cafe when you grow up.

As your parents figure out the shape of the future, you figure it'll all work out because you are infinitely resilient and, after all, Orange Fanta comes in nearly every country you've ever visited.

Growing up on coffee farms, factories, and washing stations, you come to recognize the bittersweet tang of fermenting coffee cherries and the way the sun grasps at you in the hot harvest days. You know exactly how to maintain your balance, both along the concrete edge of a washing channel in Kenya and also inter-culturally, where smiles are language and laughter your best negotiating tactic.

You probably declare "I will NOT work in coffee!" But nonetheless you can find a peaberry faster than a Q Grader and you plan to have your own cafe when you grow up.

As your parents figure out the shape of the future, you figure it'll all work out because you are infinitely resilient and, after all, Orange Fanta comes in nearly every country you've ever visited.

2015. Our beards were redder and our smiles younger. The weight of business, the pandemic, parenting, and the constant pain and struggle to find the horizon had not settled upon us quite so thoroughly.

We were SO YOUNG, though obviously by the calendar only eight years have passed.

We were astonished by the breadth of the world, by the glory of finding ourselves seen and heard by people of all backgrounds and creeds.

We visited Northern Peru for the first time, meeting producers and coffee pros who would become our partners, including Dionisio Aguilar. And we began to visualize a greater movement of coffee equity than we had yet tapped. We were calling it Catalyst, and it became a mighty container.

Now, in 2023, with our beards almost white and our smiles cut deeper in our faces, we reconsider the container. The passion and the absolute determination to add value to the greater coffee value chain remains untarnished. We've learned a lot about business, and coffee business in particular.

The next container is coming soon. For now, we remain grateful for your attention and your support all these years, allowing us to craft new things in specialty coffee.

I remember the texture of the mud on my boots the first time I visited Dionisio's farm in San Martín, Peru. May, 2015. That mud clung brick-red and sticky to everything it could touch, as stubborn as hope itself. The bus took us as far as it could and then surrendered to the inevitable—we hopped out and started walking. Or, rather, trudging.

Half a mile or a mile, I couldn't say. The jungle lush and heavy in my nostrils. And then we broke out into the clearing overlooking Finca La Encañada, aptly named for it is enchanting beyond belief.

Chickens and ducks scurry about for the farm-grown corn and dogs roam through the open-air kitchen. The river nearby hums with life.

Dionisio has been a friend for years and I have visited plenty since, but that first time will always be rooted in my mind. I'm eagerly anticipating returning in about ten days, sourcing this coffee for our dedicated Dionisio buyers!

(We are sourcing Perus right now, and closing bookings in October—message us or email at [email protected] if you want to be included!)

— Emily McIntyre, CEO

I remember the texture of the mud on my boots the first time I visited Dionisio's farm in San Martín, Peru. May, 2015. That mud clung brick-red and sticky to everything it could touch, as stubborn as hope itself. The bus took us as far as it could and then surrendered to the inevitable—we hopped out and started walking. Or, rather, trudging.

Half a mile or a mile, I couldn't say. The jungle lush and heavy in my nostrils. And then we broke out into the clearing overlooking Finca La Encañada, aptly named for it is enchanting beyond belief.

Chickens and ducks scurry about for the farm-grown corn and dogs roam through the open-air kitchen. The river nearby hums with life.

Dionisio has been a friend for years and I have visited plenty since, but that first time will always be rooted in my mind. I'm eagerly anticipating returning in about ten days, sourcing this coffee for our dedicated Dionisio buyers!

(We are sourcing Perus right now, and closing bookings in October—message us or email at [email protected] if you want to be included!)

— Emily McIntyre, CEO

Join us as we eagerly watch the bids in our Innovation Lot Auction in partnership with .coffee. Link in bio to join!

Set your alarms for Tuesday ☀️ It's Auction Day!
The coffees are stateside and supply is limited.
Which of the 2023 Ethiopian Innovation lots belong on your menu?

https://www.catalyst-trade.com/pages/innovation-lots-1