COLOMBIA
Founded in 1995, ANEI is an association of indigenous producers located in northern Colombia near the border with Venezuela in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region. ANEI’s primary mission is to promote and support the cultural preservation of the indigenous peoples Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kogui.
As is common in Colombia the coffee is initially processed by hand on the farm to parchment and then sold to the co-operative for further processing. It has a soft and faintly sweet or toffee malty fragrance, the acidity is smooth and soft and slightly citric, and the cup is medium bodied with a malty, sweet vanilla flavour and a lingering aftertaste.
The coffee grown is predominantly Colombiana and Typica at altitudes ranging from 1200m to 1800m.
HONDURAS
COSAGUAL
COSAGUAL was founded in 1994 in the municipality of Gualcinse, in the department of Lempira, with the purpose of finding direct solutions to the commercialization problems of coffee that many of the producers had in the zone.
Process: Washed and sun dried
Tasting Notes: Aroma of chocolate, biscuit, nutmeg and dry fruit fragrance. Flavour of dark chocolate, butter and hazelnut. Medium long round body. Well balanced.
We roast this as an easy going and low acidity medium roast single origin.
COMSA
Founded in 2001 by 69 farmers of Lenca origin, the COMSA (Café Orgánico Marcala S.A) collective set out to encourage quality and organic, chemical free agriculture in a market flooded with high chemical input, low quality and low value commodity coffee. Farmers often could not cover the costs of production. Over the last two decades they have built their volumes and their quality and now the 1200 members produce specialty grade organic coffee and own their own warehouses and processing plant as well as running a primary school and organic farming education for the surrounding region.
Process: Naturally Processed
Tasting Notes: Full, fruity (blueberry and apricot) aroma. Rich, full bodied coffee with rounded lactic acidity, stonefruit and cocoa flavours and a lingering finish.
We use this coffee in our Labradoodle to give it the fruity notes.
GUATEMALA
Based in the Barillas region of eastern Huehuetenango, ASOBAGRI is a co-operative of K’anjob’al Maya coffee farmers. ASOBAGRI has used revenue from fair trade sales to promote literacy, diversify crops and income, support sustainable agriculture, invest in quality control, promote gender equality, and support healthcare.
The coffee has a fruity, almost floral aroma, with a reasonably bright, lingering acidity; the flavour is of sweet cherries or other red stonefruit with a touch of vanilla. It has a good medium body and a lingering sweet aftertaste.
The farmers grow Typica, Caturra and Bourbon coffee at altitudes ranging from 1200 to 1600 metres above sea level
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Commercial coffee production started in Papua New Guinea on 18 large plantations in the 1920s with seeds brought from Jamaica’s Blue Mountain. Plantations still exist in PNG but it only account for 15% of the total production. Most coffee now comes from small-holders who tend to their coffee gardens, as they call them locally. The small-holders are subsistence farmers (meaning they live of their land) growing coffee along with other crops. Each garden might have anywhere from a couple to a couple hundred trees of coffee and parchment deliveries can range from 25 – 65 kg. Coffee is currently grown in 15 of the 19 provinces in the country, and half of the rural population have a direct connection with coffee production.
Highlands Organic Agricultural Cooperative (HOAC), Purosa Region
In 2015 Daniel Kinne, a coffee farmer, chairman and founding member of PNG’s HOAC, came to New Zealand to speak about his farm and business. Specifically he spoke of the difference that a fair trade relationship is making in the lives of the communities connected with HOAC, the challenges they face, from access to clean water, to the lack of sealed roads in the remote highlands where coffee grows best. HOAC has looked to fair trade to provide the support that the government was not providing, and in turn grown their farming expertise and business acumen.
Coffee Profile: Washed Typica and Arusha grown at 1300-1750m ASL
Tasting Notes: Aroma of bakers chocolate, biscuit, dry fruits and toffee. Frangrance of caramel, roasted nuts and chocolate bar. Low acidity with blood orange lingering finish. good round to heavy body.
TIMOR-LESTE
Coffee cultivation on East Timor was originally established over 400 years ago by Portuguese colonists but leaf rust destroyed all production until a new coffee varietal called Híbrido de Timor was introduced in the 1900s. In the wake of the war for independence from Indonesia in 1999, a group of farmers established Cooperativa Café Timor (CCT) to market their coffee internationally. The average small producer cultivates coffee on less than one hectare of land. Coffee is sourced from the family-owned farms in the Ainaro, Ermera and Lequisa districts of Timor-Leste. Through a free healthcare initiative, CCT has funded the operation of seven rural clinics, three mobile clinic teams and eleven community healthcare teams that have treated more than two million patients since 2001.
Coffee Profile: Washed Bourbon and Timor hybrid
Tasting Notes: Aroma of chocolate, nutty, malt, with almond on
break with brown sugar. Flavour of chocolate, nuts,
apple skin and cooked fruit. Slightly drying finish.
Medium round body.
CONGO (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF)
SOPACDI is a co-operative of coffee farmers in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They are based around Lake Kivu in a part of the country where coffee production has been in decline since independence from Belgium in the 1960s. In recent years there have been significant periods of upheaval and violence, causing many coffee farmers to flee. However in the face of all their challenges the farmers of SOPACDI are able to produce coffee of outstanding character and quality.
The coffee has a rich and complex aroma; it is a very full bodied coffee, with well-rounded berry fruit acidity. It has fine tobacco and cedar flavours, complemented by an almost blackcurrant note. It has a long, lingering cocoa aftertaste.
Predominantly Bourbon is grown at 1450 to 2000 metres and the coffee is pulped, washed and dried both on the farm and at central washing stations
SUGAR CANE DECAF - COLOMBIA
The decaffeinated coffee that we use in our Ghost Dog is from Popayán, Colombia. This area is located in the department of Cauca at 1700m ASL. The so-called Meseta de Popayan is sheltered by the Andes mountain range which helps generate homogeneous climatic and altitudinal characteristics. The result is a balanced cup profile with floral and caramel notes.
We collaborate with approximately 65 growers who contribute to this program and with whom we build long-term relationships. This program encourages farmers to focus on quality and based on quality assessment we provide up to 20% premiums above the market price.
The caffeine is removed using ethyl acetate (EA) extracted from sugar cane (also grown in Colombia) and water which dissolves the caffeine and enhances sweetness. Following steaming and soaking in this solution, residual EA is removed to below 5 ppm (international norms require <20 ppm). EA is a substance naturally present in most fruits. Note that a ripe banana contains 20 times more EA than this decaffeinted coffee when green. Roasting will further drive off any remnant EA as evaporates at 70 deg C. This process ensures that at least 97% of caffeine is removed leaving a still delicious cup of coffee.
We like the fact that this coffee is grown, processed, decafeinated and sold to us by Colombians rather than travelling the globe before arriving on our shores.
