Thanks to social media, we have an even greater ability to connect with people and places around the world. Social media, especially instagram, has made it a little easier for us to keep up to date with coffee producers and see what they’re up to. Now, you can keep up to date, too! Here’s just a small handful of instagram accounts to follow:
Kivubelt Coffee, Rwanda
Kivubelt Coffee is located in the Nyamasheke District, a community renowned for its coffee. Kivubelt was founded in 2011 by Furahah Umwizey Tuescher. She wanted to create a model coffee plantation that is sustainable in agricultural practice and is impactful in local employment and empowerment. Under her leadership, Kivubelt has planted over 90,000 coffee trees on their estates, which now employ more than 400 people during harvest months. Furaha has become one of the top growing producers in the region. Kivubelt works with over 500 smallholder farmers, but they also have their own farm, called Jarama, which is one of the largest in the country. Our Kivubelt offering is a dynamic, juicy coffee from the Jarama Farm.
Café Brisa Serena, Timor-Leste
Café Brisa Serena (CBS) is a social enterprise and exporter, and has spent the last 10 years developing smallholder coffee value chains. They work with over 400 farmers in the Letefoho area of the Ermera Municipality. They formalized their special coffee export chain in 2015, and has some of the best smallholder traceability in the world. In 2014, they opened Letefoho Specialty Coffee Roaster as a way to serve coffee to locals, promote high quality coffee produced by smallholder farmers form Ermera, and offer job opportunities for youth to develop their career in the coffee and hospitality industry. In our second year of purchasing coffee from CBS, we selected a velvety and comforting coffee from the Lebudu Kraik group.
Hacienda La Papaya, Ecuador
Juan Peña is a multigenerational long-stem rose producer, but he turned to coffee in 2010 after disastrous weather conditions wiped out his flower fields. Although he is relatively new to coffee himself, his meticulous approach to growing coffee has earned him recognition as one of the most distinguished emerging specialty coffee producers. Hacienda La Papaya is a family farm, and recently Juan founded CAFEXPORTO to help other farmers in his region to export their coffee. We will have two offerings from Hacienda La Papaya this year. Our first release is a bright and floral coffee!
Mayan Harvest Coffee, Mexico
When Rosalba Cifuentes Tovia founded Mayan Harvest Coffee in Bella Vista, Chiapas, she had a vision to put her hometown on the map for specialty coffee. Bella Vista had been growing coffee for many years, but farmers have historically been taken advantage of by predatory “coyote” middlemen. Rosalba’s commitment to quality and paying farmers more for their coffee has allowed Mayan Harvest to grow in a short amount of time. They exported 1 container of coffee in 2016; this year, they are exporting 8 containers! We purchased our first bags of coffee from the community lot in 2018. The following year, we purchased extra to make our own decaf. In 2020, we also began purchasing coffee from the Bella Vista Women’s Group. We currently have Bella Vista Decaf and the Women’s Group coffee available on our menu. Try them side by side!
Belift, Indonesia
Belift Green Beans is an exporting company started by longtime friends Ivan Kartanto, Kevin Soewondo, and Kenny Soewondo. They all grew up in Java, and over the years, they noticed that the quality of Indonesian coffee has improved but still goes unnoticed as a high quality coffee producer to the international community. They established Belift Green Beans with a mission to showcase the high quality coffee from their homeland and have Java gain recognition as a major contender in the global specialty coffee market. Belift exported their first container of coffee to the US in late 2020, carrying coffee from two communities in East Java. As Belift grows, they hope to also work with coffee producers outside of East Java. The 2021 harvest season is about to kick off, so be sure to follow them to see what its like at origin!
