Sourcing of goods, raw materials and supporting activities reveals a lot about the company’s ethos.
For a coffee roaster, the sourcing of green beans is of the utmost importance as it will be the invisible force behind flavor and consistency. It also can have an important impact on the well being of people involved in the production of coffee at the origin.
Over the years we have learned that hardly ever great coffee happens by chance. It is an immaculate chain of steps and knowledge at the origin going from nursery to farming, from picking to processing. And finally roasting and brewing makes all the difference. Each of those verbs is a world of knowledge, and we are lucky to work with producers who are proficient in the understanding of soil conditions, micro climates, water and shade tree management, and importance of biodiversity.
As we source high scoring coffees with complex and consistent flavor profiles, we also look that those coffees are rooted in sustainability. For us sustainability means in simple terms that producers are not taken advantage of prices and that they can make a living from all their hard work. We source our beans directly from producers in El Salvador. Direct trade allows producers to get significantly higher pay for the beans as they are able to bypass the commodity coffee market where for years the price of green coffee has been under the cost of production. Fair prices are necessary for the farms to keep operating and they are crucial for the local economies in the rural areas where coffee production oftentimes is the only source of employment.
As equally important to us is the farm’s environmental footprint. We partner with producers who follow shade-grown coffee production and understand the importance of maintaining if not improving the existing environmental conditions at their farm.
Shade grown coffee is grown under the canopy of trees in conditions that resemble forest. The shade trees protect coffee from rain and sun, help maintain soil quality and preserve water reserves, and provide habitat for wildlife and migratory birds. Coffee is a shade loving plant and shade trees improve the growing conditions allowing coffee to ripen slowly and develop its optimal flavor.
Artisan coffee production requires a lot of love for the earth and knowledge to meticulously process with great consistency each year’s crop. Enormous amount of effort goes into producing a pound of coffee. Each coffee cherry is hand picked when ripe, hand sorted, sun dried on patios or raised beds, and along the way numerous hard working people are involved in making it all a possibility. It feels great to remember that when we sip our coffee.