Highlighting Carlos Guerra: Legendary Coffee Exchange Participant
Enjoy our interview with Roaster and Honduras Barista Champion Carlos Guerra, who won an Ikawa Pro 50 through the Legendary Coffee Exchange at the 2023 SCA Expo.
The Legendary Coffee Exchange
Since 2021, we’ve been hosting the Legendary Coffee Exchange, a community-driven coffee swap with the goal of drawing human connections across the industry. Facilitated by Cafe Imports, roasters worldwide contribute a bag of their coffee in exchange for another roaster’s offering. Everyone will taste their new coffee and then contact its roaster to share their thoughts and feedback, but more importantly, meet another passionate coffee professional. What’s more legendary than exchanging coffees and making new friends?
This year’s Legendary Coffee Exchange occurred at the 2023 SCA Expo in Portland, Oregon. 88 roasters came by the booth to drop off their coffee and pick up a new one, and all the participants were entered into a drawing for an Ikawa Pro50 Sample Roaster (a special thank you to Ikawa for partnering on this year’s exchange)!
On Sunday, the last day of the Expo, we drew the winner’s name – Karla Calidonio of IHCAFE in Honduras. We set out across the show floor to give her the news. After finding her, she told us she gave her spot to a roaster in Honduras, Carlos Guerra. She insisted that he receive the roaster, so we gave him a call to share the news.
Carlos Guerra: Coffee Roaster and Barista Champ
Carlos wasn’t at the Expo when we called him, and he sounded wonderfully surprised to be winning an Ikawa Pro50. Once he got to the Expo floor, we all got to know each other, took photos together, and packed his new Ikawa into a travel case bound for Honduras. At that time, Carlos didn’t have a sample roaster. We were touched that someone could win the Pro50 and immediately put it to good use at their home roastery.
A few weeks ago, we caught up with Carlos for a wonderful conversation. We wanted to learn more about him, and find out how the Ikawa was treating him. He’s been in coffee his entire life working with his parents on their coffee farm. Over time, the family opened a cafe in Copan Ruinas where they began roasting and serving their coffee, among other locally-produced goods. He is an exemplary ambassador of the coffee industry in Honduras, and it was a pleasure to learn more about him, his career, and his coffee.
One of the greatest aspects of specialty coffee is the shared passion that connects individuals across the globe. We’ve always been honored to continue hosting the Legendary Coffee Exchange after hearing stories of new friendships that have formed. The LCE provides an opportunity to try something new and support one another. Openness to one another inspires us, grounds us, and reminds us of what drew us into this industry.
If you participated in this year’s Legendary Coffee Exchange, don’t forget to connect with your swap! We know they’d love to hear from you. Thank you again to Ikawa for partnering. Thank you to Carlos for being so gracious with his time and story. And thanks to you for watching! Keep being legendary.
Earlier Posts
Learning to Cup in Hawaii: The Kona Cultural Coffee Festival and the HCA Coffee Competition
Cafe Imports’ sensory analysis director, Ian Fretheim, is so curious about cupping that he’ll happily travel to the most remote place in the world to study it. (It helps that the world’s most remote landmass also happens to be Hawaii.) He’s had some thoughts about both Hawaiian coffee in general as well as our industry-wide cupping practices after coming back from the Kona Coffee Festival and after serving as head judge in the 2019 Hawaiian Coffee Association Cupping Competition. Climb into the mind of Ian Fretheim here.
Mexico Harvest Report 2019
There are lots of coffee-growing regions with potential, but when we think of untapped opportunities to invest in producers and make a real impact on quality and recovery, we can’t help but think of Mexico as a perfect example of what “potential” means from a coffee source. There are good varieties, a strong cooperative culture, and more streamlined logistics—so what has kept Mexico from truly shining as a growing region?
A Closer Look at Tega & Tula Specialty Coffee Farm in Keffa, Ethiopia
Single-farm traceable certified-organic coffees are hard to come by from Ethiopia, but Cafe Imports’ strong relationship with Tega & Tula Specialty Coffee Farm in Keffa, Ethiopia, is a special exception to that rule. Read more about T&T and its primary owner, Ahadu Woubshet.
Now Streaming: An Educational Coffee Processing Video Series
Coffee people are naturally curious, and we are no different at Cafe Imports: We love learning new things about this amazing plant, seed, and beverage, and we’re passionate about sharing any information we have on our Education page and through other free, accessible resources-like the brand-new Coffee Processing video series, which debuted last week on the Cafe Imports YouTube channel!
El Salvador Harvest Report 2019
It’s been another season to celebrate forward momentum and growth in El Salvador, senior green-coffee buyer Piero Cristiani reports after the end of the recent harvest. After several years of struggle following an outbreak of coffee-leaf rust, this small but strong producing country is boasting a bigger yield and stellar cups of Pacas and Pacamara, the latter variety “a national treasure of El Salvador,” Piero says.
Chalatenango Best Cup 2019
In March of 2019, we held the first-ever Best Cup cupping competition and live auction event in the small but mighty coffee-growing region of Chalatenango, El Salvador. This video tells the story of the Best Cup competition and our history working in Chalate, and hopefully inspires you to reserve your seat at the next auction event.
The Cafe Imports Coffee Variety Glossary and Gallery – Free educational resources available now
In the mood to take a deep dive into coffee varieties? We’ve got just the thing for you: The Cafe Imports Coffee Variety Glossary and Photo Gallery.
Knowledge Talks featuring Ever Meister
Just last month, Cafe Imports editorial manager Ever Meister visited four cities in Australia as the featured speaker in the most recent outing of Toby’s Estate Coffee’s “Knowledge Talks” series. Rather than give a straightforward lecture, she opted to create more of a conversation with the audience about coffee traceability and marketing ethics—two of her very favorite things to talk about and puzzle through, as anyone in the Cafe Imports office will tell you. Click through to watch the full video of her presentation.
Carmo Best Cup 2018
Best Cup is designed to highlight the great work and vast potential for high-end specialty coffee within a particular microregion, and Carmo de Minas is a perfect location for that kind of signal boosting: CarmoCoffees, a developer and exporter of specialty lots there, works with more than 2,000 small- and medium-size farms in Carmo de Minas and has been one of the most active supporters of farmers transitioning from a focus solely on volume to one that takes quality into account.
Harvest Report: Costa Rica 2019
While Costa Rica accounts for just about 1 percent of the world’s total coffee volume, it has a huge place in our hearts (and our offerings sheet) at Cafe Imports. In this year’s harvest report, we’ll take a trip around the country’s growing regions with Oxcart Coffee: Cafe Imports Latin America, visiting some of our longest-term producer partners to find out how the 2018/19 cycle performed, and to get a sneak peek at what fantastic new-crop top lots will be arriving in our international warehouses shortly.
Our 2018 Progress Report
At the end of each year, we take a look back over how well we have lived up to our mission, stayed true to our values, and kept up focus on the guiding principles that inspire and motivate us at Cafe Imports: Quality, Service, Education, and Progress. This year’s Progress Report is condensed into a single analysis of our engagement with our communities, our educational outreach, and our efforts toward the development of ever-better coffee quality. Click to read the full report.
Water Activity in Specialty Green Coffee: A Long Term Observational Study by Ian Fretheim
We know that water is wet, but that fact alone isn’t enough to capture water’s immense power. That power is evident in coffee, not simply in the cup but also in the seeds themselves: Water activity (Aw) is the relative equilibrium that exists (or doesn’t exist) between the vapor pressure inside a food or a coffee seed as compared with the surrounding humidity or environment. In perishable foods, it is a significant measure for the sake of safety and the prevention of food-borne illness, but in coffee, it’s a significant measure…why, exactly? Click to find out.