XS7: War and Relationships Brought Centrals to San Francisco The Exchange Coffee Podcasting Network

I think the biggest reason that Centrals didn’t return to Europe at pre-war volumes is that several years before the war, the coffee industry in San Francisco got fed up with the fact that they couldn’t buy more Central American coffees even though they were interested in quality and willing to pay for it. They understood that the difference between them and the industry in Europe were the relationships, so they started sending delegations to Central America to spend time, not like tourists and not in the big cities where the large roasters like Arbuckle’s had buying hubs, but further down the supply chain.