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Cafe Volcan Baru S.A.
Contentment in a Cup
Unless, of course, it's the sense of satisfaction and well-being
that comes from a smoothly-running business. At Cafe Volcan Baru
S.A., perfect coffee is the goal -- and perfect organization comes
from FileMaker Pro, the award-winning database software application
from FileMaker Inc.
Located in western Panama, Cafe Volcan Baru takes pride in its
distinctive product, La Torcaza Estate Coffee. Estate coffees are
the purebreds of the coffee world -- not mixtures, not blends, but
coffees made from beans cultivated on a single farm and shepherded
carefully through the entire process of growing, harvesting,
processing and roasting. The creation of a fine estate coffee is
less a business than a science -- and as with any science, it's
essential to carefully track every step along the way from bush to
cup. That's why in 1999, Conscious Foods turned to FileMaker
Pro.
'Essentially our business is producing great coffee not creating
great databases,' comments Cafe Volcan Baru's Carl Janson. 'But
FileMaker Pro enabled us to easily create our own custom database
to ensure that every step of our coffee production process is
recorded and analyzed so that we can continue to create great
coffee consistently. FileMaker Pro enabled the coffee mill to have
a system of quality assurance unlike any other coffee mill in the
world.'
The La Torcaza Estate coffee farm grows nearly a mile up the slope
of a volcanic mountain-- where the high altitude and the volcanic
soil combine for growing conditions uniquely suited to the
production of fine coffee beans. Once ripened and harvested the
coffee cherries are taken to the coffee mill, just a fifteen-minute
tractor ride away -- the beans are removed from the cherries,
sorted and classified, sun-dried, and aged following the best
traditional methods, with each step tracked in a specialized
FileMaker database.
Once processed, representative samples of the beans are roasted,
and the professional samplers who judge the quality of the final
product record their impressions, using FileMaker Pro. Five
separate databases, containing an ever-changing number of records,
ensure that La Torcaza Estate Coffee consistently offers its unique
flavor with every fresh-brewed cup. Once the quality is approved,
the beans are shipped to roasters around the world.
In the coffee mill itself, members of the Cafe Volcan Baru team
document their work using Palm III handhelds. Each PDA is equipped
with FileMaker Mobile and workers enter their observations and
comments on each batch of coffee. This information is then used to
update the main databases and thanks to FileMaker's Instant Web
Publishing feature, those databases can be easily accessed via the
web -- bringing Panama within a mouse click of Seattle, any time of
the day or night.
In Seattle, members of the La Torcaza team are starting to use Palm
devices and FileMaker Mobile to display information on the latest
coffee lots to the roasters. And this summer, Carl hopes, such
information may become a part of the overall experience of enjoying
a cup of La Torcaza Estate. 'Imagine someone in a Seattle cafe
using a web PDA, being able to see the whole story of how their cup
of coffee came into being in front of them - from the ground to
cup,' he suggests. 'This conjures in my mind FileMaker Pro 5 and
FileMaker Mobile's unlimited potential.'
Like a cup of fine coffee on a pleasant summer morning -- Cafe
Volcan Baru and FileMaker Pro make for an ideal combination.
Contact information
Contact Info for Customer:Carl Janson
Vice President
Cafe Volcan Baru, S.A.
011.507.672.2018
carl@estatecafe.com
Conscious Foods, Inc.
Tel: (206) 679.5229
Fax: (206) 632.2580
http://www.estatecafe.com
Filemaker Contact:
Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com
- Gourmet coffee grower Cafe Volcan Baru S.A. created its own custom FileMaker Pro database to record each step of coffee production. In Cafe Volcan Baru's coffee mill, staff members document their work using FileMaker Mobile on Palm III handhelds; the data is then uploaded to the main database and published over the Web for access from various locations.
- Food/Beverage
- Small Business