December Love Letter - Joshua

 Happy Holidaze!

It's usual for me at this time of the year not to be aware of what day of the week it is. Besides the litany of holiday responsibilities, many things are happening for us coffee farmers, including coffee picking, washing, drying, bagging, stocking, grading, hulling, roasting, shipping, etc.! It's usual to get in bed with a crisscrossed to-do list but not feel further ahead on personal and business projects. It can be a wearing time of the year for my physical and mental bodies, so I must be wary of the red flags. 

Things I do for a mental and physical check:

• Meditation. Even a five-minute break is enough to set the mind straight.
• Breathing techniques. I enjoy box breathing at 4-5 second intervals to quell anxiety and general nerves.
• Body scan/foam roller session. Do a mental scan from scalp to toes and ask your body whats is going on. You can do the same practice while using a foam roller to investigate your sore spots.
• Morning pages is a free-form writing exercise to let the nagging thoughts and bad experiences out of your mind, so you don't cyclically go through them while trying to focus on your actual work.

I stand behind all these practices as they have saved me countless times. I hope they help you if you incorporate them into your life. 

I'm looking forward to this picking season wrapping up! There are many tasks to do for a finished coffee product that I am looking forward to starting. First, since last year's crop is almost sold out, I have to get a new roast profile done for this year's crop at Pacific Coffee Research. A roast profile is when you roast the green coffee to different degrees and lengths of time to bring out the yummiest and smoothest qualities. Secondly, I have to edit new stickers to go on the old bags because the intricacies of the new crop will be different from last year. The last thing to do in preparation for offering this year's crop is to have a new Coffee Review done. Coffee Review grades the roast that Pacific Coffee Research created on a scale of 0-100. This lets the consumer know how yummy and smooth the brewed cup can be. 

Well, here I go on to the next task! 

Thank you for reading. Wishing you a happy holidaze!

Much Love,

Joshua Boranian