Where'd That Coffee Go? Some Updates from Origin

When it comes to having more direct relationships with coffee growers and producers, we do so with a lot of intention. Our goal is to continue to grow together and alongside our partners, and one of the ways we do this is to commit to buying their coffee every year. Sometimes though, this doesn’t always pan out for various reasons. There are two coffees this year that haven’t appeared on our menu and some of you have noticed: the Bella Vista Community lot from Mayan Harvest, and beans from Kalsada Coffee in the Philippines. So, what happened?

Mexico Bella Vista – Mayan Harvest
Since 2018, we’ve featured the Mexico Bella Vista community lot coffee from Mayan Harvest on our menu every year. It’s been a customer favorite for its comforting and rich flavor profile of milk chocolate, dried fruits, and almonds. In the past, we purchased both the community and the women produced through one of our importing partners, Royal Coffee. This year, Royal let us know that they only had the women’s group coffee. So, we proceeded with contracting that coffee through them, and while getting in touch with the Mayan Harvest team and asking them if there’s another way to get their community lot. 

Even though they were experiencing some challenges that were causing delays, Mayan Harvest was hopeful that they would still be able to export a container of the community lot and be able to sell directly to roasters. They just needed a little more time to be able to sort out logistics. We waited patiently for things to follow through. At this point, we had gotten so used to extensive shipping delays throughout the last few years of the pandemic that this hiccup seemed normal. But after a few months had passed, Mayan Harvest had to make a tough call, and told us that they wouldn’t be able to bring anymore coffee into the US this year.

Dennis, one of the coffee buyers at Mayan Harvest, explained that the price of green coffee in parchment–a natural layer that protects green coffee and is removed prior to export–had doubled! While Mayan Harvest pays coffee farmers higher prices for producing high quality coffee, this significantly increased price made it difficult for Mayan Harvest to purchase coffee in volume. There were a lot of uncertainties in logistics as well: there was still a lack of shipping containers available at the time, and even after they had secured containers for their other coffees, getting the ball rolling on that was slow moving. Although we’re sad to not carry this coffee this year, we’re still happy to have the women’s group coffee and some community lot coffee we decaffeinated early on.

Rosalba Cifuentes, Founder of Mayan Harvest Coffee, and her husband Dennis Wirsig showing us their micro mill during 2019 trip to Bella Vista. While still in use, Mayan Harvest has outgrown this mighty but tiny mill and works with a local dry mill to process coffees for export.

Philippines – Kalsada Coffee 
As an emerging origin for specialty coffee, there was a lot of excitement when we first carried Philippine coffee in late 2018. We’ve featured various washed and natural coffees from different Kalsada Coffee mills to highlight the variety of coffee that the Philippines has to offer. Over the past several years, they have slowly increased the amount of farmers they work with, improved their processing methods, and have produced more coffee year after year. The Kalsada team was hopeful for a fruitful 2021-2022 harvest. In fact, they had prepared for it by building more drying space for what was expected to be the biggest harvest yet. But as the time for picking came closer and closer, it started to become clear that coffee production would be low. Tere Domine, Kalsada Co-Founder and Country Director, noted that a lot of farmers throughout the Philippines were experiencing low yields. High typhoon winds and rains in the previous year damaged coffee trees, and farmers who were able to bring coffee to the mills were only able to harvest 10-20% of what they harvested from the previous season. The cherries they picked this time around came from young trees that were 4-7 years old. The rest of their trees grew leaves instead of coffee cherries. 

Building drying beds in Benguet, where Kalsada operates 3 mills. Their drying structures are adapted to withstand typhoons and maintain the quality of their coffees during rainy harvest seasons.

The growth and fruiting habits of the tree cause biennial bearing, in which one year a tree can produce a heavy crop, but a lighter one in the following year. This seasonal biennial bearing in coffee is the worst that Kalsada has witnessed in the farms where they work. By practice, biennial bearing can be avoided and a regular annual bearing pattern can be attained through proper pruning practices and fertilizer application, which is a practice Kalsada farmers are still learning. While Kalsada was still able to export a small amount of coffee to the US, we decided to not purchase any for Andytown this year since what they had available didn’t meet our minimum purchase requirement. We want to make sure we have enough to last us a for at least a few months so that our customers have enough time to enjoy the coffee! That said, we’re hopeful for the upcoming harvest and are excited to see what Kalsada has in store.

Drying what they can: new coffee drying beds in Benguet being used at a fraction of their capacity during last season’s harvest

We appreciate the customers who have reached out to us an inquired about these coffees. It’s a sign to us that you not only enjoy our offerings, but that you’re with us on our coffee sourcing journey and support us in our goals for continuing our relationships with producers. We’re looking forward to serving these coffees to you in the near future!