The GPS

Girls from Idaho mostly aren�t fantastically savvy big city freeway drivers. I can point my mountain bike straight down a trail and hit speeds that might make some people puke, but there�s something about bobbing and weaving between 5 lanes of traffic while going well above the 65 mph speed limit that makes me a little uncomfortable. I was on my big adventure to visit my coffee supplier last week, though, so I sucked it up and became best friends with the voice on my $9 per day GPS. If you don�t know where you�re going and the digital voice inside a plastic box that�s plugged into your cigarette lighter can tell you how to get there, listen. She knows�you don�t.

Within 15 minutes of arriving at the coffee importer�s office, I was already nose deep in coffee having my �taste receptors calibrated� by my guide and expert in the coffee import business, Craig. As Craig put it, he wanted to be sure that I was able to detect general flavors in the same way that he did so that we would speak the same language when it came to coffee and the desired direction I wanted to take with my offerings. I was a little nervous to say the least, as I wondered what would happen if I couldn�t taste what I�m supposed to? What if he says it tastes like oranges, but I think it tastes like cheese? Even worse, not orangey-cheese? I can�t drop my parents a note to tell them that I�d like to trade my sense of taste and smell in for something more genetically correct, can I?

Luckily, I didn�t have to worry, and the little challenge showed that I was living on the same planet as he was (albeit he described flavors in amazing sentences of poetry, while I used broken units of food descriptors that came to mind while imagining the food in my kitchen). At the end of the day, after tasting more, test roasting, tasting, combining, and tasting again, we had my coffee blends figured out! The next day I worked with the in-house roasting specialist to try to roast my own coffees. We did roast after roast all morning to watch how each coffee from different origins changed and behaved while being roasted, and tried different batch sizes to understand the nuances of the roasting machine�s performance. By lunch time, we had all my coffees on the table to taste, with a coffee tailored to almost every coffee drinker. There was the fruity cheery morning coffee, the rich and earthy coffee, the darker bad boy coffee, the green planet eco-happy coffee, and the decaff from that same family. A few of you have already tasted the samples I brought back, and I can�t wait to hear how they tasted to you!

While taking a quick break for lunch, a man entered the front office of the importer. Someone in the group around the lunch table said �we�ve hired you a boy, and he�s here now�. I practically choked down my bite in confusion as I flashed on the story that Craig had told me earlier about some men he was working with from Central America who ordered up some �ladies� as a kind gesture once while on a trip to coffee origin. Needless to say, on that trip the offer was graciously declined, but luckily for me, I didn�t need to do the same, as it was actually the experienced barista there to train me�.phew. I spent the afternoon pulling shot after shot after shot out of the espresso machine, followed by milk foaming pitcher after pitcher after pitcher. By the end of the day, I could create an espresso shot with the perfect red-brown crema on top, and pair it with a velvety smooth pour of milk. I�ll still be practicing every day to get as good as he was at the little �rosetta� on top, but luckily, I have access to a lot of coffee and milk.

On my way back to the airport, my car was filled with the amazing aroma of freshly roasted coffee, and a real satisfaction in having learned more than I knew when I came. If you can believe it, I didn�t plug in my GPS to guide me back. She told me how to get there, but I wanted to get back without her help. It was a fitting end to a great learning experience for me as I pulled in to the car rental return area. My amazing teachers and guides showed me the road, gave me a map, and have sent me on my way. I�ll surely seek their help again in the future, but for now I�ve been cut loose to explore on my own with my new bag of tricks.