Mazelab Green Bean Sourcing

the red gold #mazelaborigin

Bangkok, see you soon. We’re bringing a small part of our shelf. Coffees we kept coming back to, coffees we love, and coffees we wanted to share in person. May 7–9 WOC Bangkok BITEC, RV92

El Salvador #mazelaborigin

The difference between cloud and mist is just how close you are to it. I kept thinking about that yesterday. Some moments are like that. You feel them but it’s hard to explain them to someone else. That’s why I like taking photos. It’s the only way I know how to keep those moments and actually share them. I visited @rigoherreracgle geisha paradise with no expectations and ended up in one of the most beautiful geisha gardens I’ve seen. I spent two days with his team. Being there felt like one of those moments. Something you don’t fully get from the outside but once you’re in it, it stays with you.

Back at the farm I visited on my first trip, feels nice in its own way. I like coming back here everything feels familiar but different at the same time. Working on something new here, let’s see how it turns out soon. #mazelaborigin

#mazelaborigin

This is a topic I feel many people do not talk about openly. Buyers rarely bring it up, but producers mention it to me quite often. They say that some buyers prefer not to see children at the farm. I understand the concern, but I also want to share my own view and experiences. I come from a Vietnamese culture, where it is very normal for children to follow their parents. We learn by watching and helping with small things at home or around the family’s work. It's part of our culture and part of staying close to our family. It is not considered labour but simply daily life. So when I visit coffee farms and see children around their parents, it feels familiar to me. The parents go to pick cherries and naturally they take their kids with them. They cannot just leave them alone. In many places there is no childcare, no neighbour to watch them and the farms are often far from the village. Bringing the kids along is simply the safest and most practical choice. The children are not working in the sense of being hired or forced but they're just present. Sometimes they play. Sometimes they try to help because children like to copy what adults do. Often they create more mess and damages than help, but that is normal for kids right? The producers understand this. They give them food and allow them to stay near their parents. So when buyers say they don't want to see children at the farm, I know it comes from a place of wanting to protect them, but it may not fully match the reality of the farmers daily life. Every culture is different. Every community has its own way of living. What looks unusual from the outside can be completely natural within that environment. Of course everyone agrees that real child labour is wrong. But a child simply being present at the farm with their parents is not the same. It is family life, the culture, safety and practical needs. I just hope people can look at the situation with understanding and give space for the cultural context behind it.

#mazelaborigin

#mazelaborigin

Before coffee I had gone to many tropical fish farms and to the Amazonia spent time with native communities and fishing. Those were not only work, they were about discovery, connection, and learning from nature in its most basic form. Green coffee sourcing feels similar. It reminds me why I'm doing all of this. It's not about having green coffee to sell to the roastery. It's about that rush of adrenaline when I discover something really special. That surprise that I did not expect, the one that I had been waiting silently for. And then I see it, I taste it and it just finds its way into the heart. It's sentimental, it's pure bliss.

After two seasons working with Yaneth's coffee, we finally got to meet her in person. She is the wonderful woman behind Pergamino, the finca which we got to bring to the attention of the world when it was still a unkown name to most. We had prepared her coffee carefully, together showed her work on the competition platforms and watched others fall in love with it too. And meeting her in person brought a whole new feeling. Her personality is contagious, so warm, upbeat and alive. What impresses me the most is how fast things are progressing. The greenhouse is four times as big as it was in the initial year. That kind of advancement, in such a short period of time, that says a great deal about her dedication. And actually reminded me again why I do this. Coffee leads us to individuals like @yanethdelucich and @lililu12 and her whole family, individuals who put heart into every step. And I feel very blessed to be part of her tale from the beginning.

This release has been a long time coming, and we’re finally excited to share it, three washed coffees from Finca El Socorro. Geisha, Maracaturra and Purpuracea (a rare natural mutation of Maracaturra). This is our first year working with Juan Diego and from the start, it felt right. Visiting the farm, seeing the level of precision, it was clear why El Socorro has won Guatemala’s Cup of Excellence multiple times. One of the things that stood out was their approach to washed processing. They use hot water after milling to speed up fermentation, which Juan says helps keep the beans dense and leads to a cleaner, more expressive cup. A couple of months after we visited, Juan and his whole family came to see us in Czech. It’s not often you get to work with people who are this committed to what they do and still take the time to build real connections. We’ve been waiting for this one, and now it’s here.