Monserrate is a community of 28 families some two hours down a bumpy dirt road from La Plata. The town itself consists of a single street draped along the top of a gorgeous ridge with a commanding view of the lush green valleys on either side. At the highest point in town sits a brick-clad church and bell tower.
The coffee grown here is Caturra and Typica varietal. Each family has its own de-pulping and fermentation set up, along with raised drying screens protected from the rain by parabolic roofs of transparent plastic. The drying areas are set up on a slight incline, so that both ends of the tunnel can be opened to allow airflow across the coffee.
Since every family contributes coffee for export, each fermentation and drying process has to be done perfectly, or it could compromise the entire shipment. Happily, the whole community takes great pride in their work, and the results show very nicely in the cup.
This sucks. This is the type of marketing that works on me. I like stories. Tell me a story about the coffee and I will want to buy it. A church? There is a brick-clad church near the coffee? And a gorgeous ridge? lush green valleys? I want to be there. I want to travel to Columbia just for one slip of this coffee. I want to spend time with those families. I will even graciously volunteer my time to help them de-pulp their Caturra varietal.
No one knows what any of this means. Just use technical or foreign words and people will take it as the gospel. It works in church. That's all this is. The orthodox church of white, college-educated, urban consumerism.
More, more. give me more. Make me feel good about myself because I work too much and all I want to to is travel and escape monotony and discover a cause that is true to the real me, the inside me me me, I'm discovering who I am, I'm I'm me me me figuring stuff out with my my my life.
Just give me a cup of coffee and call it a day. I'll make up my own story about it.
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