Cory Brunson of Spoke 'n' Beans shows off the Bob-o-Link bag he uses to transport coffee from The Easy Chair/Nova Roast to your door.  The bag protects the returnable, re-usable jars of coffee to reduce breakage.  Hey, the coffees are delivered via bicycle, so there is risk involved.  Cory also announced this afternoon that the Spoke 'n' Beans gang have acquired a trailer for the bike, so they can deliver more with each trip.  Find out if they are coming to your neighborhood and support this effort.

For ordering info, go to Spoke 'n' Beans.  All coffees available there are roasted at the Easy Chair in Blacksburg through partnership with Nova Roast.

Greetings Bobolinks! I had a great experience in my first visit to Brazil and to everyone who was a part of the trip, thank you for your companionship, positive energy and the unique perspectives you all brought to the journey!

We are in the process of editing and uploading the photos from our Brazil trip.  As soon as the full gallery of images is finished we will post a link here.  We are also planning a Blacksburg area event complete with slideshow and videos, cachaca, caipirinha and, of course, coffee from the FAF region.

Who are these people and why do they call their coffee Bob-O-Link?  Find out here:

We're back in Charlotte, looking for some BBQ to wash the taste of airline - dare I call it food - from our mouths before the last leg of the return trip. Thought I'd pick up where I left off I spent Monday traveling to the Houston Dept of State office and trying to communicate with the Brazilian Consulate - they don't take phone calls. I won't go into the details, but after a pretty much wasted day, I was on the plane and hoped to have no more problems during the rest of the trip Monday night with my original passport. Mac picked me up at the airport and we caught up with the crew at the second of three Sao Paulo coffee shops we were to visit. Ended up missing the first day of the trip that was spent at the Brazilian trade show. Would've preferred to be there, but I caught up before leaving for the coffee farms and meeting the farmers was what this trip was all about anyway.

Paulley wanted me to post a picture of my housing in Houston when Continental put me up for the night.

Brian
Nova Roast

What do you get when you visit with some of the most dedicated and friendly Brazilian coffee growers you can find?  A heart that is heavy when it realizes that I have to head back to the US tomorrow.

Cachaça
Cinnamon (leaves)
Ginger
Sugar
Cloves

Best served in Brazil near a wood stove with coffee farmers and friends.

Sunburned and pleasantly exhausted from a day of touring Bobolink farms and potential Bobolink farms with Marcos Croce of Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza.  The landscape is almost overwhelmingly beautiful as are the people who live in it.  I hope we can do some serious work to sell these coffees when we return to Virginia because the work being done here by FAF and the individual farmers deserves a matched effort from the roasters and importers on this trip.

I probably don't need to explain the lack of updates from Houston to FAF.  We've been driving pretty hard, covering five farms in two states over 5 days.  The good news is we have thousands of pictures and a ton of video to edit when we return.  The hard kilometers down rutted, dusty roads were worth every bump just to arrive here at FAF.  We've seen modern processing and huge commercial farms.  Today we will see small farms and learn about a different approach to coffee and we will enjoy more of the generosity and hospitality of the Brazilian people.  And probably sip a few caipirinhas.

Waiting for the Rev.  Waiting to hear from Brian.  Hoping he hasn't had his mail forwarded to Houston.  Took a ton of photos from the coffee show here in Sao Paulo.  Trying not to enjoy ourselves too much, despite the valiant efforts of BRASC and NUCOFFEE and the Brazilian people.  Watched barista competitions, got a demo of Bunn's crazy one-cup brewer and had cachaça shots at a hole-in-the-wall we are calling Ten Points.  Waiting for the Rev.  Houston?