Scotty Carlile and Damian Schmitt, two local cyclists who from February – December race mountain bikes, road bikes and cyclocross, mostly in the Portland area, aspire to build a cohesive team to race nationally.

In March, six of us from thump — and Finley — traveled to Portland to watch the U.S. National Barista Competition and visit some notable coffeehouses.

On November 18, Hazel, Kent and Finley zipped over to Portland and back for an evening “Meet the Producers” event, hosted by Stumptown. The guest of honor, Aida Batlle, is a rarity in the coffee producing industry — a woman(!) managing not one, but three, of her family’s coffee farms. We tasted her award winning [...]

Last month, Kent and Hazel took a field trip to Portland for the opportunity to meet two of Stumptown Coffee Roaster’s premier direct trade coffee producers, Guatemalan Cup of Excellence winners Mercedes and Arturo Aguirre Jr, of Finca El Injerto and Luis Pedro Zelaya of Semillero, Antigua.