One of the most emotive and responded to blog posts I have ever done was this one here, on the plight of the amazing farm Machacamrca. http://www.hasblog.co.uk/no-machacamarca-this-year

It was a truly sad event, the farm taken from the family by the local community, in an unlawful land grabbing episode, that shocked the family and me.

Machacamarca de Berenguela is an old farm in Sud Yungas, Bolivia, that has belonged to the Andrade family for over 150 years. Its more than 100 hectares are located on top of a small mountain, looking out towards the high snowy peaks of the Andes as well as the rugged foothills that spill onto the tropical plains of the Beni. The adobe walls of the old farmhouse are a meter thick, and the ancient chapel (with a resident ghost) plus its belfry with heavy bronze bells crowns an open and serene landscape.

In the 18th and 19th centuries Machacamarca was a traditional coca-leaf producer, but in the middle of the last century Victor Andrade drastically altered the productive scenario by planting groves of citrus fruit and various forest tree species. Coffee, however, was always present “for home and family”. Grandmother Maria, daughter and grand old lady of this land, did not conceive “store-bought” coffee, preferring to personally roast and grind her coffee in a small wooden mill each morning in order to have her coffee “as God meant it to be”.

Towards the end of the 1990′s, with the precipitous drop in the citrus market and a problem with the citrus trees, the cultivation of coffee was expanded in earnest by planting varieties known for their quality and resistance in the shade of tall “siquili” trees, favored by hummingbirds and honeybees. Slowly the Andrade family has sought to improve its product, convinced that superior-quality coffee is one of the answers to the environmental drama of the Yungas valleys, seriously threatened by indiscriminate cutting-down of the forest and the proliferation of coca-leaf plantations.

We first stocked this coffee from the 2007 Cup of Excellence lot, and it very quickly became my favourite of that year. It also proved to be one of your overall favourites regardless of its Cup of Excellence price premium.The relationship is strong between the family and has bean, culminating in me spending the week in July 2010 living with the family, picking the coffee and helping with processing. It was one of the most stunning weeks of my life, and the hospitality of Mario and Maria was amazing.

When I visited last year, I met up with Lupe to see if we could help in any way with the issues, and I have kept in touch regally. The reason to bring this up on a blog post now is I received an email from Lupe this week. I must get at least one a week with people asking for an update, but this is the first time I have been able to respond with a positive update

So this is in Lupe’s words

Hi Stephen,
Thank you for your note. Actually, and perhaps miraculously, we have made advances, and I have a meeting set for next Wednesday, to discuss the terms of return of the property. A month ago we were able to go on an inspection with judicial authorities, and the house was completely sacked, I mean completely, with even the light fixtures, the toilets and washbowls torn out. Some things have been returned (to a storeroom in the community) and were sealed by the District Attorney, but they may be a bare 10-15% of what was there. Fortunately they did not destroy the coffee plants (at least that I could see), nor burn and cut down many trees. I hope we will be able to return in June, and assess the damage further – in terms of the coffee, it will mean another year’s setback at least, as this year’s crop, if there is one, will be tiny. However, coffee is amazingly resilient, so with judicious pruning and organic fertilizing, next year may see a small but exportable crop. I shall let you know next week, after the meeting, what perspectives we have. Thank you for your concern… Lupe

So good news !! Not great news but progress, that we may see this amazing coffee, again.

I will keep you posted

We get asked about how to prepare espresso a lot, what the best recipes are for our coffees, what good extraction is, what you are allowed to like and what you’re not and in all honesty these are tough questions to answer.

In reality, and as with roasting, we don’t think the craft of the barista is a black art, or a mystery – it’s just a combination of using tools and methods effectively and adjusting these to develop the end product in line with your taste.

Earlier in the year we ran some training sessions, more will be following shortly, but one of the best things to come out of it was this free ibook – if you have an iPad you can download on the iBookstore now. The book is very much work in progress and designed to run alongside coaching of physical things like tamping and levelling but we’re pretty happy with it as a starting point and looking at ways that we can help communicate those points too – we would be happy to hear your thoughts.

This book doesn’t mean you’ll make perfect tasty coffee, but it should help you understand how you can relate an espresso you’ve mades taste to it’s preparation and quickly and easily repeat, adjust and increase enjoyment.

Now I know some of you will be unhappy its only on the Ipad, and yes we will look to see if its possible to get it on some other platforms in the future, but Apple gave us the tools, and the ability to produce this book for free. Add to this the fact we all use ipads here because we like apple, its always going to be the platform we use. Sorry if you don’t have an ipad (for many reasons) but please don’t be angry at us.

You can download it here

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/hasbean-espresso/id600457138?mt=11