Moredocofe is one of the oldest and most prestigious private farms in Shakisso, Guji. The owner, Ato Haile Gebre literally wrote the book on coffee in Ethiopia. No – he actually did. Haile was one of the main architects of the cooperative system in Ethiopia several decades ago, basing this on his more than 60 years of experience as a coffee farmer.
The Moredocofe farm was founded on land owned by Haile’s grandfather. Over the years, the estate grew to encompass nearly 500 hectares of natural-growth semi-forested land. Coffee grows in harmony with nature, with wild animals and birds living scattered throughout the gently rolling hillsides. This coffee is a standout example of coffees from Guji. The cup offers notes of deep stewed fruits, intense sweetness, and a complexity of characteristics which one doesn’t see every day. Oh, did we mention that is it also Bio/Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified?
As in previous years, we focus on the washed grade 2 for this organic coffee from Moredocofe. The estate wet-processes its own coffee and dries it under the sun on raised mesh beds. The farming lands are healthy and well-managed, leading to happy trees and happy coffee. The wet process brings out all the beautiful characteristics you hope to find in an Ethiopian coffee. Sweet citrus attributes paired to a floral refinement and a lively, crisp acidity, rounding out to creamy chocolate. It has that spicy tail we love to find in Guji coffees.
]]>Gakenke CWS’s manager is called Gratien Nankwahombaye, a passionate man who started working at the washing station in 2013. He’s very strict on quality, focusing on having the farmers deliver only fully ripe red cherries. Farmers in the Kayanza area tend to already have good selective picking habits, which makes Gratien’s work a bit easier. After cherry intake, the cherries go through flotation and a first picking. Cherries are wet-processed under constant supervision. The pulping, fermentation time, washing, grading in the channels and a final soaking is closely monitored. Gakenke washing station has a cherry processing capacity of about 750 metric tons. The station has 2 flotation tanks, 10 fermentation tanks, and 2 soaking tanks. The drying field has 150 raised beds.
After soaking, the wet parchment goes to shaded selection tables. The selection team takes out parchment with any sign of damage. Drying takes between two to three weeks on African beds. The moisture level is monitored closely, and on very sunny days, the parchment is covered to prevent damage. When asked what the most crucial moment is for the quality of the coffee at Gakenke, Gratien replied that quality starts off-season, on the plantations with his farmers.
Gakenke CWS has 2685 registered farmer members, spread over 22 collines in Gatare commune, Kayanza province. These are organized in groups of 30 people, headed by a farm leader to facilitate communication and organization with the washing station. The farmers typically have an average of 300 trees. In Burundi, wet mills can typically reach farmers in a radius of 3km. If the washing station is located too far away, farmers will sell to middle men, often at a disadvantage. To prevent this, Gakenke and other Greenco CWS have 12 collection centers. These centers allow them to reach farmers at up to nine kilometers distance from the wet mill without compromising the quality.
At the washing station, farmers can get organic fertilizer from reconverted coffee pulp. To promote farm renovation, producers can get subsidized young coffee plants at the washing station. Each station has its own nursery.
Hatuhei is produced by 10 small holders reside in Hatuhei village in south west of Asia’s newly independent country, East Timor. The farms are located at an altitude of 1500m-1700m above sea level. The village name of “Hatuhei” comes from a local Mambae language meaning “Green stones”. While villagers are not sure of why the village was named so, there are abundant nature and water to make their lives rich.
Being led by Senhor Armindo Maia, Hatuhei members pay great degree of attention to harvest only fully ripe cherries and avoid contamination of defective ones.Only fully ripe cherries are hand-picked and the harvest finishes just after lunch to process all the cherries within the same day. All the harvests of the day go through a floater selection to eliminate insect damaged beans followed by a de-pulping (wet-processing) with a traditional pulping machine that each farmer possess. After the cherries are removed, parchments are sorted again with a floater selection and fermented for 36 hours. Parchments are then washed, sun-dried on drying tarpaulins.
The coffee is then transported to the capital and port town of Dili. All the green coffee beans are then sorted with the colour sorter and by hand. The green coffee beans are then packed in Ecotact bags and jute bags to be exported.
]]>An these events started when our founder, Ross, made his first espresso in 1993. In a small cafeteria with regular customers that liked the coffee for its taste, but also for getting together with friends while standing at the bar, exchanging Good morning and genuinely asking "How do you do today?"
In other words, it was the experience, the aura that was created by this small cup of espresso that changed Ross for the future. He realized that it is not important how much coffee you drink, but rather what coffee one drinks, where, with whom and the good wishing to one another that it triggered.
After years of working in corporate world, Ross found our that the "moon and the starts" are in the right direction to start doing good through coffee. So, once the decision was taken, he went back to Italy.
In Italy he found friends, who were dedicated to the Italian style coffee and, surprisingly, so much into and supportive of the third wave coffee culture and the way how it changed lives of coffee farmers. And together with these friend, our founder became train in the depths and secrets of the Italian espresso and the changing world of coffee, i.e. who to choose and cup green beans, how to blend them and roast them. All in the Italian style, with an Italian heart and soul.
After his training finished, he got back to his family in the Netherlands and started roasting coffee there. He established the brand Be Good Coffee in tribute to all these customers of the small cafeteria back in 1993 that tough him that coffee is a social event that gathers people around it and makes them good to themselves, but also to others.
And here we are...
We can enjoy now a 30ml coffee drink that brings Italy and the Netherlands in one synergy that is full of flavors, aromas, joy and friendships. A synergy that seems to be a simple proof that all this experience is not about quantity but for the quality of time we have for ourselves and the others.
I hope that you are ready now to enjoy one of our coffees here.
Talk to you soon,
TheStoryTeller
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Due to that, the questions that we pose are: What can we do to correct the situation? What futuristic tool will promote sustainability in the coffee industry for the generations to come and how can we begin to implement it already?
Our answer to these questions is simple: we need to find ways to redistribute any excess value at the end of the coffee supply chain back to the most deprived participants - the farmers. That is why we decided that:
We will give back to farmers not 50c/kg, not a dollar or so/kg, not a minor increase in the purchase price at the origin, but all our net profits that the roasted coffee blends under the trademark Be Good Coffee generate. We do that to sustain and grow their business through the times of climate changes.
If you would like to support our program "ALL PROFIT BACK", you can purchase any of the participating, all natural, coffees here.
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Estrella Naranjo coffee is sourced from six distinct mountain ranges in the zone of Naranjo: Barranca, Cañuela, San Juanillo, Los Robles, Lourdes and Sabanilla. Our # 101 coffee is coming from Los Robles, West Valley area in Costa Rica.
Cherry is harvested from each of the different ranges and processed separately through Coopro Naranjo R.L. main mill. Coopro Naranjo producer members who deliver cherry as part of the Estrella Naranjo program receive a quality differential for their coffee. The project is being implemented by the cooperative for the first time in the 2017/18 season.
Producers of Estrella Naranjo are selected to participate in the program based on the quality of their coffee. Superior quality is assured through the selection of strictly ripe cherry from only the center of the harvest. Agronomists from Coopro Naranjo visit participating farms in each of the ranges during the season to check maturation levels and determine the ideal point of harvest based on brix measurement.
Quality is controlled at the farm, receiving station and mill. Each delivery of cherry is measured, sorted and processed separately at the Coopro Naranjo mill ensuring full traceability to the specific mountain range. The coffee is pulped using advanced demucilagers to ensure consistent and efficient processing, or naturally fermented using traditional washing tanks. The natural fermentation process is used upon request and the expected volume of this type of processing is 3,300 bags in total for the season.
The Estrella Naranjo project offers a competitive price for participating members and seeks to reward those who work hard to produce coffee of high quality. The project is open to all producing members in each of the ranges whose farms are located between 1300 and 1700 MASL. It offers an opportunity for member producers to access new markets and incentivizes the production of high quality coffee, especially for those who may not be able to produce micro
lot quality due to location or altitude. The concept of the project is to source consistent volume of traceable, quality differentiated coffee whilst supporting member producers and promoting sustainable and superior production.
Edubino Erazo has been growing coffee for over 4 years and lives on their farm with his family where he has for last 6 years dedicated himself to growing organically. This change came about after previously working growing and harvesting coca which led to him becoming poisoned from the fumes & chemical associated with the illegal trade. He is based in the municipality of Argelia in Cauca where he is part of the ASOPROA growers’ group who are part of the Cosurca cooperative based in Timbio.
Cosurca work closely with ASOPROA working in the communities
on both agronomy and social projects to help them move forward post conflict.
On the farm the coffee is planted among banana and guamo, orange trees with lemongrass grown too.
Edubinio has worked hard to improve the quality of the coffee as well as the drying
structure he uses to dry their coffee. During the harvest from May to September the coffee is hand selected every 8 days and then pulped on the same day of collection. Here it is left to ferment for 12 - 15 hours before then being dried in a parabolic drier for 8 – 10 days.
The pine trees in this area make for stunning views not generally associated with coffee farms in Central America. This farm is purpose-built to grow specialty coffee and the main crop is Catuaí with some Catimor and even a few micro-lots of the rare Java, a somewhat mystical varietal from Indonesia which results in floral, Ethiopian-like, notes in the cup.
Silvio Sanchez studied agronomy and alongside his mother, saved up, took a loan and bought a secluded but excellent piece of land in this mountainous region of Northern Nicaragua. The plantation is well-organised with neat rows of young coffee trees. Only four years have passed since the first seeds were planted and last year the first few bags of coffee were harvested. Both quantity and quality will increase tremendously as the plants are even more developed.
]]>Hatuhei coffee is produced by 10 small holders reside in HatuHei village in south west of Asia’s newest independent country, East Timor. It became independent on 20 May 2002 and is the only Asian country to be located completely in the Southern Hemisphere.
The coffee farms are located at an altitude of 1500m-1700m above sea level. The village name of “Hatuhei” comes from a local Mambae language meaning “Green
stones”. While villagers are not sure of why the village was named so, there are abundant nature and water to make their lives.
Being led by Senhor Armindo Maia, Hatuhei members pay great degree of attention to harvest only fully ripe cherries and avoid contamination of defective ones. Only fully ripe cherries are hand-picked and the harvest finishes just after lunch to process all the cherries within the same day. All the harvests of the day go through a floater selection to eliminate insect damaged beans followed by a de-pulping (wet-processing) with a traditional pulping machine that each farmer possess.
After the cherries are removed, parchments are sorted again with a floater selection and fermented for 36 hours. Parchments are then washed, sun-dried on drying tarpaulins.
The coffee is then transported to the capital and port town of Dili. All the green coffee beans are then sorted with the colour sorter and by hand. The green coffee beans are then packed in Ecotact bags and jute bags to be preserved fresh for longer period.
If you would like to taste our East Timor Coffee #83 you can order it HERE.
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