Bill's Story

I have been in love with the idea of coffee for some time now. I think it happened the moment I realized I could create coffee; I can produce a product that is unique to the world. It appealed to my creative instincts, the idea of taking a simple seed –a coffee bean, and with a little time and some heat, metamorphosing it into not only the world’s most popular beverage, but a brew with a totally unique flavor profile of my own creation.

My first venture into the world of coffee was in a country that I have had the occasion to frequent for many years, Peru. I have traveled there as the director of my Rotary club’s “Soy Cow” project in Lima. As a group, we have created, sponsor and support two small machines in Lima that turn soy beans and water into nutritious soy milk. My job is to travel twice a year to oversee this project which provides needed soy protein to over 1,500 young and elderly people every day. It was while I was on one of my yearly missions that I had the opportunity to travel to the high jungle in what the coffee world calls the “LaFloridia” region of Peru. This area had been a prime producer of coffee until the mid 1960’s when the large farms were broken up by the government edict to be returned to the peasant population.

Of course, things did not quite work out as planned and Peruvian coffee suffered a severe decline for many years. In the past few years, there have been the beginnings of a renaissance with small producers joining together in an effort to improve their situation. I had the privilege to help the village of San Sebastian, a small group of indigenous people who live literally at the end of the road.

The only way to get to San Sebastian is by car or bus, over the top of the Andes Mountains to the city of Rio Negro, another community that is not on the map. Then a 4x4 is needed to go up the mountain to this village with a population of about 150. This adventure was my first and most fulfilling trip to date, not to experience the thrill of discovery, but to help people who I had never known existed in a part of the world most people never get to see. A footnote to this first trip was my elevation to the rank of Chief and presentation of the badges of office, a beaded bracelet and a tiger tooth necklace. I was unable to convince the village elders to quit hunting tigers, so far.