Finding coffee—and friendship

11th April 2008

I love this coffee world, and recently I found an example that shows why.

Himalayan coffee

For my 40th birthday, I decided to go to Tibet for a quiet and relaxed holiday trip. To enter Tibet, you have to pass through China or Nepal; I took the decision to go via Kathmandu, Nepal. Two days before leaving I was surprised to find that the internet mentioned coffee in Nepal. I found that incredible, as I already knew that the average altitude there was 3,000-4,000 metres. In reality, the phenomenon of Nepal is that the country has an enormous variation in altitude—unique in the world—from 70 up to 8,000 metres! Six of the 12 greatest peaks in the world over 8,000 metres are in Nepal, including the famous Everest (Chomolungma). But much more surprising than this was the coffee brand name I discovered:

MOUNT EVEREST SUPREME
Fine Himalayan Highland Arabica Coffee
Produce of the Kingdom of Nepal

Knowing that to obtain a Tibetan visa I had to stay one day in Nepal and that the biggest plantation in Nepal is situated only 75 km from Kathmandu, I sent a short email to the company, asking if it was possible to visit. Twenty minutes later, I got a call from Ujjal Rana, the owner of the biggest plantation in Nepal. He took me out for the whole day, but you know what was most interesting? He was not selling me his coffee! We just talked the whole day long about everything (coffee included!) as if we were two old friends who had just met each other after 10 years apart.

Ujjal (above)—a businessman with vision and very sharp marketing skills—told me stories about leopards near the plantations (where they became natural guards for the coffee trees), and about waters from the Himalayan mountain Ganesh Himal used for washing his coffee, and about the extraordinary Lumbini valley near his village, Nuwakot, where the present king’s dynasty was established. (This area is also well known as a holy place—the Buddha’s birthplace—and maybe that is the reason for his coffee’s success).

Nuwakot village

I think good marketing is one of the reasons why all of the exports from Ujjal’s company Plantec are going to the UK, Germany, Japan, Italy and Switzerland, to well known speciality coffee importers who have been re-ordering the coffee every year since 2001. Plantec has already received a proposal from Starbucks about for acquiring Mount Everest coffee, but today’s production is not sufficient enough to feed the Seattle giant.

But what I want to say is that the coffee business is not about coffee beans—it is about the people involved in coffee magic. I’ve noticed that these people are quite similar everywhere: a little bit fanatical about coffee, ready for adventures, ready to help out and, always, they are people with big hearts.

Sergiy and his new coffee friend Ujjal

Every time I travel to a different country around the world I’m sure that I can call on anybody from the coffee community in that country and I will get help. It makes me feel I have great power, and that I am involved in an interesting game and a worldwide enthusiasm for that energetic word (and drink)—coffee. The whole world can be called “a coffee nation”—maybe we should let the United Nations know about this!

I love coffee not only for its taste or caffeine effect and not only for its geographical origins, but first of all because of the people that I meet around the coffee world and the feeling between these people. I think they give a bit of their hearts to the coffee beans they grow. That is why I have such a feeling of having many friends in different countries, even if I don’t know all of them yet . . .

In May, I’m going to Peru for a vacation and my wife is not asking me if we will see Machu Picchu; she is asking if we are going to see any plantations and meet some people there.—Sergiy Reminny, SCAE National Coordinator Ukraine