The Fix

This top quality coffee comes to us from Juan David and his family farm Perros Bravos (Fierce Dogs). Located in the lush high elevation mountains of Ciudad Bolivar, Antioquia, the farm is known for its experimental processing, innovative systems, and mentoring programs. While the larger world of Colombian coffee has held onto a steadfast tradition of washed processing, Juan David challenged the norm by building the country’s first natural processing facility.

This coffee comes to us from the Rwenzori mountain range, also known as the Mountains of the Moon, in southwestern Uganda. Coffee cherries are grown and harvested by small holder farmers and delivered to one of the many receiving stations located throughout the mountain range. The cherries are then transported to a centralized wet mill, where they undergo meticulous processing and quality control.

This washed coffee comes to us from multiple small farms in the hamlets around Namura town in the Western Highlands province of Papua New Guinea. The Timuza Coffee Cooperative represents over 200 smallholder farmers from the Kamano tribal group. Farming is done by the whole family and coffee is grown with food crops such as sweet potato, taro, and cassava under casuarina and albizia shade trees.

This microlot comes to us from Karla Portillo and her small farm Finca Planeta Verde in southwestern Honduras. Karla is part of the Café Orgánico Marcala (COMSA) cooperative located in Marcala, Honduras. Marcala is considered the region’s capital of coffee heritage. Karla is a third generation coffee farmer andplans to pass on her legacy to her four daughters.

This washed coffee comes to us from small holder farms located in the Kochere woreda of southern Ethiopia. Kochere is part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) and is within the well-known Yirgacheffe coffee growing area. The iron-rich acidic soil and high altitude of the region are ideal for growing specialty coffee. Farmers hand-pick their coffee when perfectly ripe and deliver the cherries to one of the many local washing stations.

Coffee from Burundi is produced almost entirely by smallholder farmers with an average of 250 trees or less. This coffee is a blend of small lots from across Burundi’s fertile countryside. During the harvest season, the ripe cherries are selectively hand-picked by the farmers and their families and delivered to their local washing station. The cherries are floated, sorted, and moved to tables to slowly dry.

This coffee comes to us from the over 8,000 smallholder farmers registered with UGACOF in partnership with the FarmerHub program and the Kahawatu foundation in western Uganda.In the fertile highlands of the Rwenzori region, small family farms grown coffee alongside plantains, bananas, and other fruit. Farmers selectively handpick ripe cherries and deliver them to their local washing station.

This experimental microlot was grown in the West Valley region of Central Costa Rica. Finca San Cristobal de Llano is a family farm established by Danilo Salazar and now owned by Christian, Greivin, and Pablo Salazar. The family has been producing coffee, bananas, plantains, and peaches in Llano Bonito de Naranjo for over fifty years. For the red honey process, the skin of the cherry is removed, leaving most of the sticky mucilage in-tact. The cherries are spread out to slowly dry in the sun.

This coffee comes to us from the fertile highlands of Bensa in the Sidama region of Ethiopia. Coffee is generally thought to have originated in the nutrient-dense soil of Ethiopia, where it still grows wild. This coffee was grown bysmallholder farmers organized around the Buncho washing station in the Shantawene village. Buncho is one of many washing stations owned and operated by Daye Bensa Coffee.

This month’s coffees are fresh from the La Bastilla Coffee Estates in the north-east region of Jinotega, Nicaragua. Located near Lago de Apanas reservoir in the Cerro Datanli El Diablo nature reserve, La Bastilla is a tropical paradise. The region’s rich and fertile volcanic soil is perfect for coffee cultivation. The estate is divided into fully traceable micro-farms with a variety of different microclimates. Each farm is further divided into lots per varietal and altitude.

This organically grown coffee comes to us from the Aceh region of northern Sumatra in western Indonesia. Permata Gayo is a group of smallholder farmers that was founded in 2006 after the signing of historic peace treaties in 2005. Members use only organic compost to insure consistently fertile soil. This lot was picked when perfectly ripe, de-pulped, and allowed to dry without being washed.

This coffee comes to us from the mountains of Gedeo in the Yirgacheffe growing region of southern Ethiopia. This lot was grown on small family farms in the village of Chelchele where farmers grow their coffee crops and food crops together under the shade of native birbira, wanza, and acacia trees. The ripe cherries were carefully hand-picked and delivered to the Worka washing station to be processed.

This organic coffee comes to us from the mountains of Săo Paulo in southeastern Brazil. This lot was carefully hand selected from multiple organic farms that work with the export company Bourbon Specialty. A peaberry is a mutation that naturally occurs in 5–12% of all coffee grown. Normally coffee beans grow two to a cherry, flat against each other. Instead, a peaberry grows as a single seed inside the cherry and tends to be rounder, smaller, and denser than the typical beans.

Mapache Coffee is a fifth-generation company of producers, owned by Jan-Carlo and Sofia Handtke in the Apaneca Ilamatepec mountain range of El Salvador. Mapache maintains a strong commitment to the well-being of their coffee forests, ensuring that every farm has a canopy protecting their plants and soil. Some of their coffee trees are almost a century old. Picking is done 100% by hand and only the ripest cherries are chosen.

Only perfectly ripe cherries are carefully hand picked and meticulously sorted. The selected cherries are immediately spread out in a thin layer on patios to dry in the sun while being rotated regularly and often. After 10 days of drying, the cherries are transferred into bags to rest for 2-3 days out of the sun before being spread out on raised beds to finish the drying process.

The Duc Trong Mill offers education opportunities and resources for the small farms in the central highlands of the Lam Dong Province. Their Sustainable Management Team provides training in plant propagation, natural fertilization, natural pest management, and forest conservation.