Willem Boot has worked in coffee since he was 14 years old — as a roaster andcupper, and then a roastery owner. In 1998, he founded Boot Coffee, a San FranciscoBay Area consulting company whose mission was to advise roasting companiesand coffee producers on quality improvement strategies. Over the years, hedeveloped an impressive portfolio of clients, from high-quality specialty startups torenowned coffee-producing countries. His passion is the geisha coffee farms hestarted in Panama and Ethiopia and his quest to find the mother-source of geishain Ethiopia. He’s also a licensed Q-grader and Q arabica instructor.
By Kim Westerman
STiR: You wear many hats in the coffee industry. Which one is your favorite?
Boot: My preferred activities focus on the livelihoods of coffee farmers in countries like Colombia, Ethiopia, and El Salvador. I truly enjoy the creation of innovative coffee development concepts that improve quality and increase the income of coffee-farming families.
STiR: What captivates you most about coffee?
Boot: Tasting and savoring it. The flavor of coffee can be so overwhelmingly rich and astoundingly mesmerizing. The impact of the variety and, in general, of the terroir on the flavor profile is an aspect I find highly intriguing.
STiR: Tell us about owning coffee farms in Panama. Why did you choose this growing region as the place to plant coffee trees?
Boot: My brother and I started procuring Panamanian single-producer specialty coffee lots for our roasting business in the Netherlands back in the 1990s. At that time, I already realized that Panama coffee was like a diamond in the rough. I was a judge in the legendary 2004 Best of Panama competition, which featured geisha coffee produced by the Peterson family for the very first time. I fell in love with the flavor of geisha and ultimately decided to become a geisha producer myself. This year, after many years of hard work, we won top awards at the Best of Panama competition. Our best geisha lot, Finca Sophia washed geisha, received an average rating of 95 points.
STiR: Are you able to get down there now during the pandemic?
Boot: No, I haven’t been able to visit Panama during the pandemic and it breaks my heart. Fortunately, we have an excellent team of farm employees who are truly dedicated to their work and to our joint mission to produce stellar quality coffee lots on our coffee farms, Finca La Mula and Finca Sophia, and on our newest farm, Finca La Cabra, which is named after the Spanish word for “goat.”
STiR: Congratulations on this year’s BOP showing! What do you think was special about this year’s crop?
Boot: Our coffee lots from Finca Sophia won first place (washed geisha category) and second place (natural geisha category). At an average elevation of 2000 meters, Finca Sophia is one of the highest coffee farms in Central America and during the past years, we invested abundant resources in the health of the soils and the overall biodiversity of the farm’s ecosystem. This year’s crop was a reflection of that effort. We also won seventh place with a washed coffee lot from Finca La Mula, which has been the result of careful processing, specifically innovative drying practices.
STiR: What are the biggest challenges facing the coffee industry now, from your perspective, and what are the most pressing actions we can take to address those challenges?
Boot: The major challenge is greed. Millions of coffee-farming families across the globe continue to live in poverty. It’s a bitter and harsh reality given the fact that the proliferation of specialty coffee has created immense wealth among a select group of roasters, traders, and brokers around the world. I truly cannot comprehend why a significant part of the specialty coffee community has become desensitized to the needs of coffee-farming families. Heartbreaking. What’s up with that? The second major challenge is caused by climate change and by the inability of coffee farmers to deal with its devastating impact.
STiR: Tell us about Coffee for Peace. What is this organization’s mission, and how did it come about?
Boot: Four years ago, we received an invitation by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) to prepare a comprehensive proposal for the revitalization of the coffee sector in Colombia’s prolific conflict zones. This all happened during the aftermath of the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the militias of the FARC guerilla. Our proposal was based on producer-focused quality improvement combined with innovative export facilitation of fully traceable coffee. We won the bid to execute this ambitious program and, right now, we’re working with close to 20,000 coffee farming families in six different departments of Colombia. Most of the communities where we work suffer from the impact of the coca- producing and -trafficking mafia. Coffee For Peace was established as a brand to unite producers and coffee buyers around the basic message that every bean of traceable specialty coffee can help to sustain the peace process in Colombia. We are proving the message that the production and sales of traceable specialty coffee can beat the economics of coca-narcotics. Coffee For Peace was born from my desire to create a fundamental impact on the livelihoods of farmers. Ultimately, peace and coffee have a lot of things in common. Peace is considered a universal right, while coffee leads to almost universal enjoyment.
STiR: Your lab at Boot Coffee offers many educational opportunities, including Q-grader certification courses. Why do you think the Q is a valuable certification to pursue?
Boot: I’ve been a Q-instructor for many years. The “Q” provides students a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience a week filled with highly intensive training sessions and in-depth exams. It’s challenging, humbling, and memorable all at the same time. The major benefit is the strengthened confidence you’ll feel after the Q. It also offers the best opportunity to rethink your quality standards and protocols. It’s both fun and frightening because the Q requires you to train and test your sensory skills. By the way, don’t underestimate the 100-question theory exam!
STiR: You also offer online courses. How are those going, and what makes it possible to offer online education successfully?
Boot: At our campus in California, we have trained many students who traveled to our facility from countries around the world. Some years ago, I realized the importance of offering courses to a less privileged audience though digital media. We launched our online coffee education program, Coffee Pro, in 2014. Recently, we also started teaching coffee webinars featuring live instruction by our campus director Marcus Young, who is a coffee expert pur sang [to the utmost degree]. The secret to success of these online programs always depends on our ability to teach the subject matter in a profound and entertaining manner.
STiR: What do you think of all the experimentation going on in coffee today, particularly in processing? Are the anaerobics and yeast-fermented coffees a passing fad, or are they here to stay? What are some other promising experiments you see coming in the future?
Boot: Actually, I love these processing experiments, and I also like to conduct trials myself at our new farm La Cabra in Panama. With these experiments, the conscientious producer strives for repeatability, which is a fundamental rule in coffee processing. I am sure that these experimental coffees are here to stay. Our most rewarding experiments focused on the drying process of the coffee beans by blocking out most of the UV light and by extending the drying process significantly. I expect that more producers will start focusing on drying solutions.
STiR: As a coffee drinker, what is your favorite origin outside of Panama?
Boot: Ethiopia! I adore their coffee!
STiR: What are your thoughts about California as a growing region?
Boot: Romantically, it’s a great idea; economically, it’s a bad idea. Overall, the quality of California coffee is quite good, but I prefer, by far, a good glass of red wine from our beautiful Golden State!