It is no secret that Elida Natural Catuai is one of my top coffees on this planet. I remember tasting it the first time sometimes in 2012/2013 and it blew my mind. The green beans smelled like candy and the fruitiness of the cup was like drinking a liquefied strawberry cheesecake but with 0 calories. One might say, it is the real way of losing weight with coffee. Replace your deserts with Elida Natural…
First time I met Wilford Lamastus was at the SCAA Convention in Portland, OR. I was pitching Coffee Courses and Wilford appeared in our booth. After a short while I realized who he was, run after him and started a long rant how I love his coffee, what he does, how his coffee changed my life, while I was constantly bowing like Japanese do, except I am not Japanese and I looked like a crazy person. I remember Wilford was very polite about it and slowly backed away while thanking me for my kind words.
When I was filming this video I’ve asked Wilford. “Do you remember how did we meet?” Luckily for me, he had no reminiscence of this “performance”.
On this trip, I have interviewed Wilford and Thatcher (Wilford’s dad), but Lamastus family works together and everybody has their tasks. I did not have a chance to talk to Wilford Jr, who is very involved in the third wave coffee scene and I had no chance to talk to Velia, Wilford’s wife. Maybe next time I can remedy that.
I hope there will be next time because the coffee world needs real coffee stories. It is tempting to look at the shiny, trendy and cool stories and neglect the real mud and blood stories of coffee farmers. No, I do not mean trendy words like “sustainable, farm to cup” or whatever. Or images of farmers on your product websites, but truly appreciating what coffee farmers do for us and sharing their stories so every consumer realizes, what does it really take to have our morning cup of coffee.
