#todd carmichael

It was never about the money, and don’t say it’s about principle.

When you break up and enslave families you have no principle.

"The reason for doing something like that must live inside you or it will get inside you. If you're doing it to be cool, you'll never make it. If it's who you are, you will do it and finish it." - Todd Carmichael  | Read more about Todd in this months Philly Current Homegrown issue! Out now!

I like coffee. I really, really like coffee. I like coffee so much I ditched the desk job after a dozen years to try to find my way in the coffee business. I'll be sharing my thoughts, opinions, rants and raves about coffee and the business of coffee here. From time to time, I'll probably post about something other than coffee. I do have other interests after all.

           While I don’t have a lot of time to watch T.V. these days, the new show, Dangerous Grounds, has caught my attention.  The show began its eight episode run back in November and appears Tuesday nights at 9 pm on the Travel Channel. 

     The show’s star, Todd Carmichael, and his cameraman visit some of the most exotic, remote, and potentially dangerous places on the planet in search of the perfect bean.  The first episode I watched, Dangerous Grounds: Bolivia was enough to make me hit “record all episodes” on my DVR.  In Bolivia the best coffee grows in the shade high up in the Andes Mountains.  As of late though, the most valuable crop in Bolivia has become the coca plant.  This is the same plant that is used to make cocaine.  Because of this, many of the mountainsides have been cleared, destroying native vegetation and causing more harmful erosion, to make room for the coca plant.  This in turn makes the coffee plants Todd is searching for, much more difficult to find.