No. 73

This time of the year is always full of origin travel for green buyers, and Steve’s diary is no different—he’s just completed a two week jaunt to El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Most will be familiar with the impact of leaf rust in Central America, but new pressures—significantly popular demand for particular varietals—stand to impact production and coffee quality long term. Like all of these origin monologues so far, the rough goes with the smooth—whilst there are good things happening in every corner, there are also a lot of red flags to heed as we enter a critical juncture for the future of specialty coffee.