Editor’s note: Barista Magazine is thrilled to be sponsoring the Barista & Farmer Coffee Reality TV project happening right now in Puerto Rico. Publisher Ken Olson just arrived in Puerto Rico to join the group for the second half of the event, which brings 15 Italian baristas together at Hacienda San Pedro to work the farm, learn from agronomists, and participate in challenges, and Ken will write about it here on the blog and in the December+January issue of Barista Magazine.
While Ken gets acclimated, the wonderful journalist Davide Agazzi has once again written an account of the most recent activities at the Barista & Farmer project. Here is his fourth installment. (To read his first report, go HERE. To read the second report, go HERE. And go HERE for his third report.) And be sure to check out the video, too!
November 6, 2013
Jayuya, Puerto Rico
The focal point in the morning of the third day of this first coffee reality show was the meeting between the 15 italian baristas and the Puerto Rican recojedores ”pickers ”all of whom for the first time, worked together on the finca. Each contestant was paired with a local farmer with whom they would share the responsibilities of picking of the coffee along the rich rows of the Hacienda San Pedro. The winners of this challenge were Serena Bernardini, Carmine Iannone, and Angelo Segoni, who respectively selected and collected 25.5, 21.5 and 20.5 kilos of coffee cherries.
On the way back from the finca, three baristas were selected to watch the processing, while the rest of the participants went back home to Casa Barista to eat and rest.
The activities of the day continued in the academy of Hacienda San Pedro, with a lesson on new and old technologies held by Filippo Mazzoni of Cimbali, a sponsor of Barista & Farmer. The lesson consisted also of a practical part, where the participants were tasked with rebuilding an espresso machine that had been completely disassembled.
The subjects of this lesson were then incorporated in the following challenge, which played out like the flag game: the baristas, divided in three teams, had to answer questions regarding the previous lesson while following the classic rules of this popular kids game. The winning team was made up of Elisa Molle, Simone Dessi, Angelo Segoni, Pierangelo Chiarelli, and Aldo Verrengia.
The day ended with an Italian meal cooked by the baristas with ingredients that had brought from home. Dinner was offered as a present, for hospitality and collaboration, to the Atienza family, to the film crew, and to all of the staff of the Hacienda San Pedro, with a spirit of cultural exchange and conviviality.
