the company buys coffee directly from growers in uganda and burundi who practice sustainable farming.it then sells the product directly to coffee houses like ipsento, and to consumers over its web site. videos let customers see who's behind their coffee, and that personal relationship helps the farmers command higher prices for their crops. the concept is called "traceable" or "relationship" coffee, and elster says it's a win-win for everyone. >> not only does that allow us to get coffee profiles that are more in tune with what the market wants, but the process is very engaging, and it highlights some of the differences of what we provide versus the commodity coffee importer. >> reporter: the untied states imports over 130,000 tons of coffee a month. it comes from roughly 60 nations, and most of it is traded like any other commodity. by the time a cup of coffee like this gets to a consumer like me, it's hard to say where it came from. >> with this coffee, we're getting just tons of chocolate. >> reporter: neil balkcom is sort of a coffee sommelier. he sniffs and slurps the coffee crop

the company buys coffee directly from growers in uganda and burundi who practice sustainable farming.it then sells the product directly to coffee houses like ipsento, and to consumers over its web site. videos let customers see who's behind their coffee, and that personal relationship helps the farmers command higher prices for their crops. the concept is called "traceable" or "relationship" coffee, and elster says it's a win-win for everyone. >> not only does that allow us to get coffee profiles that are more in tune with what the market wants, but the process is very engaging, and it highlights some of the differences of what we provide versus the commodity coffee importer. >> reporter: the untied states imports over 130,000 tons of coffee a month. it comes from roughly 60 nations, and most of it is traded like any other commodity. by the time a cup of coffee like this gets to a consumer like me, it's hard to say where it came from. >> with this coffee, we're getting just tons of chocolate. >> reporter: neil balkcom is sort of a coffee sommelier. he sniffs and slurps the coffee crop

the company buys coffee directly from growers in uganda and burundi who practice sustainable farming.it then sells the product directly to coffee houses like ipsento, and to consumers over its web site. videos let customers see who's behind their coffee, and that personal relationship helps the farmers command higher prices for their crops. the concept is called "traceable" or "relationship" coffee, and elster says it's a win-win for everyone. >> not only does that allow us to get coffee profiles that are more in tune with what the market wants, but the process is very engaging, and it highlights some of the differences of what we provide versus the commodity coffee importer. >> reporter: the untied states imports over 130,000 tons of coffee a month. it comes from roughly 60 nations, and most of it is traded like any other commodity. by the time a cup of coffee like this gets to a consumer like me, it's hard to say where it came from. >> with this coffee, we're getting just tons of chocolate. >> reporter: neil balkcom is sort of a coffee sommelier. he sniffs and slurps the coffee crop

ould we have gone into rwanda and burundi and stopped the murder there. why didn't we do sething about cambodia when ty killed 2 million people. and none of those are a defense for not doing anything in bosnia. they are, hever, an tempt to describe to you the kind of problems we're going to have to face. and so we're going to have to say we can do something about. and some we're going to say awful but we can't do anything about it and i will now shut up. i have lectured far too long, i'm sorry. >> rose: what bring you the greatest satisfaction? >> i think that i will tell you what i have-- still within participation. and that's going-- when you go. >> watching your rformance. >> from the day before, you go in and you see i hope it is as good as i thought 2 was when we did it or i hope i overreacted and it wasn't as bad as i thought it was when we did it you go in, and you can't wait to se it and yo go out and are he late order you could be depressed. >> when you went to college, did you want to be an acker then? you did a little bit of acting in college.