The Usual Suspects

1:05 our coffee is there!

Me!

I have found this Simpsons' site where you can customize an avatar. You can also create avatars of your friends and send them direct to their mails, it's really funny.

Read how at:
www.simpsonsmovie.com

Nice Coffee Samples

This morning i got a couple of samples of pergamino coffee from the 2009 cropping season. Next week me and my team will blend them with other Guatemalan beans to design the Café P11 formula for this year.

Joaquín Torres García's Toys

Celebrated for his work as a modernist painter, teacher, and author, Joaquín Torres García is also known for breaking new ground in the realm of wooden constructions or “maderas.” Beginning in the late 1920s in Paris, Torres García adapted the language of Neo Plasticism from his colleagues Mondrian and Van Doesburg into a new three-dimensional concept for grids and planes made of wood. These maderas informed his simultaneous experiments in children’s toys, which he promoted and sold as educational tools for young minds.

Pictures from Torres García Museum in Montevideo.

Read about the artist at:
The Menil Collection

Storing your Coffee

That perfect cup of Café P11 depends not only on the right preparation you choose; it also depends upon the proper storage of the coffee. Improper storage can result in a poor taste.

Coffee have natural enemies that they must be protected against.
- Heat
- Oxygen
- Light
- Water
- Refrigerators

Another valid point well worth mentioning is that you should only purchase whole beans. Ground beans loose their flavor rapidly.

It is recommended, for that freshest cup, to only store ground coffee for no more than 10 days in an airtight container at room temperature and away from its enemies. Purchasing coffee in lesser quantities will help to keep its full characteristics.

Try the Café P11 experience for yourself and share it with the ones you care, Its your rite, its your passion!

I Love this One

Imprescindible IV

Casa Santa Rosalía

This house with open spaces surrounded by glass walls with view to Guatemala City is one of my favorite works of architect, designer and artist Alejandro Estrada.

Read more at:
www.substancia.com.gt/

Antonio Gaudi's Batllo Bench

I can imagine myself and the one that i love sipping coffee while sitting on this marvelous piece of wood.

Read more at:
www.nova68.com

Principles of Design

These ten principles defined Dieter Rams’ approach to “good design”:
Good design is innovative
Good design makes a product useful
Good design is aesthetic
Good design helps us to understand a product
Good design is unobtrusive
Good design is honest
Good design is durable
Good design is consequent to the last detail
Good design is concerned with the environment
Good design is as little design as possible

Mine are these
Design must be:
- Perfectly functional
- User friendly
- Respectful with the environment
lfp

Goya's Ghosts

Last night i was watching on TV the movie Goya's Ghosts directed by Milos Forman. My mind was transported to year 1996 when my wife, a friend of us and i made the first opening of our fine art gallery showing a complete series of Salvador Dalí etchings based on the Goya's works Les Caprices, some of them i am showing here. The experience was great but art is a really hard business to keep. After almost two years we closed but that ignited my artist solo career.

Posada del Angel

The Posada is a romantic hideaway with the splendor of a Mediterranean villa, captivating architecture and beautiful landscaping. Posada del Angel is set within the Panchoy Valley in historic Antigua Guatemala which is said by many to be the most beautiful city in Central America - others call it the loveliest Spanish colonial town in the world.

Read more at:
www.posadadelangel.com

Mariebelle Chocolates

Maribel Lieberman, originally from Honduras, Says "Chocolate has the power to make one happy, from simply saying the word to tasting it. I love creating a complete experience through my chocolates."

Have you try Café P11 accompanied with bits of chocolate?

Read more about Maribel's recipes at:
www.mariebelle.com

From Spark to Flame

In 2006 i designed this coffee can, it inspired me to create my own brand. As a coffee lover from a country that produce outstanding coffees, i dreamed with a very special and unique blend with a intensely rich taste and a deep aroma, packaged in elegance and the vision of exporting a superb product around the world. Today Café P11 has won international achievement and is experienced and enjoyed by the most demanding and sensitive drinkers.

Coffee Measuring Spoon

The 15 ml spoon measures the exact amount of loose coffee to make the perfect cup every time. An item that no coffee lover will want to be without.

Guatemala National Anthem

Enjoy this beautiful video!

Música: Rafael Álvarez Ovalle
Letra: José Joaquín Palma

¡Guatemala feliz...! que tus aras
no profane jamás el verdugo;
ni haya esclavos que laman el yugo
ni tiranos que escupan tu faz.

Si mañana tu suelo sagrado
lo amenaza invasión extranjera,
libre al viento tu hermosa bandera
a vencer o a morir llamará.

C O R O

Libre al viento tu hermosa bandera
a vencer o a morir llamará;
que tu pueblo con ánima fiera
antes muerto que esclavo será.

De tus viejas y duras cadenas
tu forjaste con mano iracunda
el arado que el suelo fecunda
y la espada que salva el honor.

Nuestros padres lucharon un día
encendidos en patrio ardimiento
y lograron sin choque sangriento
colocarte en un trono de amor.

C O R O

Y lograron sin choque sangriento
colocarte en un trono de amor,
que de patria en enérgico acento,
dieron vida al ideal redentor.

Es tu enseña pedazo de cielo
en que prende una nube su albura,
y ¡ay de aquel que, con ciega locura,
sus colores pretenda manchar!

Pues sus hijos valientes y altivos,
que veneran la Paz cual presea,
nunca esquivan la ruda pelea
si defienden su tierra y su hogar.

C O R O

Nunca esquivan la ruda pelea
si defienden su tierra y su hogar,
que es tan sólo el honor su alma idea
y el altar de la patria su altar.

Recostada en el ande soberbio
de dos mares al ruido sonoro,
bajo el ala de grana y de oro
te adormeces del bello quetzal.

Ave indiana que vive en tu escudo
paladión que protege tu suelo;
¡ojalá que remonte su vuelo,
más que el cóndor y el águila real!

C O R O

¡Ojalá que remonte su vuelo,
más que el cóndor y el águila real,
y en sus alas levante hasta el cielo,
Guatemala, tu nombre inmortal!

Pavina Shot Glass

Bodum's insulated double wall espresso glassware is made from durable Borosilicate glass, strong heat-resistant glass that weighs less than traditional glassware and also resistant to temperature swings and scratching.

Read more at:
www.bodum.com

Pantone Coffee Mugs

Design and coffee hand on hand with these Pantone Coffee Mugs. Available in sets of ten, each mug sports a different Pantone color and will make any office or kitchen sparkle with color.

Read more at:
www.w2products.com

Imprescindible III

Roasting Coffee with a Popcorn Popper

An easy way to get the job done at home. I think worth to read it.

Read more at:
coffeegeek.com

New Café P11 Catalog!

We have published (on line) a catalog of our coffee brand, Take a look and tell us what you think.

Read more at:
Café P11 New Catalog

A Trip to...Part 7 (Final)

At the end of the day with one of my boots ripped we went to the casa patronal to talk about coffee, international market, the Japanese people who were at the finca last a week and the fortunate we were living in this beautiful land. As we went back home the sun went down leaving the blue mountains with orange red skies and a sight full of fresh aroma of nature.

A Trip to...Part 6

The beneficio sometimes may sound as a large facility with cutting edge technology, in our case is like a small open barn with diesel operated machines, but the work that is made here is vital for producing quality coffee. Here the coffee fruit lose its pulp and through the entire process is selected by size and quality, in a matter of minutes the clean coffee beans drop in an small pool that is irrigated with warm water to accelerate fermentation. After this stage is completed in a couple of days, coffee beans will sun dry for a week at the patios. Then packed in sacks again and carried to the dry beneficio.

Coffee Drinks Illustrated

Read more at:
CRAM Magazine

A Trip to...Part 5

At the end of the day all the workers gather at the beneficio. David weighs each sack of coffee that will be threw into a big basin where Juan Diego take data and review the entire operation. Then coffee pushed by a jet will pass to a pool where the water will separate the good berries from the not so good ones. Take note that this process occurs immediately after berries have been cropped ensuring its best qualities.

New Website!

We have completely redesigned our website!
Take a look, you will like it.
Visit:
www.cafep11.com

Drum God

A Trip to... Part 4

There i meet David, the caporal of the finca, who is in charge of the picking up process. He showed to Juan Diego a sample of the berries just to be sure everything is ok, an everyday routine that ensure quality. Remember that not all berries are at its best stage at a given time, so these workers have to pass several times at the same fields of coffee in the next weeks until the last bean have been picked up. As you have seen, the topography of this lands require a hard effort, that only you can achieve by hand, there is no place for machines here.
When they have filled up their sacks, a four wheel drive truck will come to carry the coffee to the beneficio, a facility where the coffee berries are processed taking all its pulp away and leaving only the clean beans...