We sent a team of three to Honduras on a sourcing trip earlier this year, so they could learn more about coffee and its producers. Stefano Bizzarri, Antonio Madeddu and Pearl Café Manager Juan Pablo Martín Riba spent a week visiting spectacular places, meeting memorable people, and tasting coffee, including the Honduras El Jaguar.   We met with Don Victor Barahona, who works as the president of the board of COHORSIL (La Cooperativa Cafetalera Siguatepeque Limitada). Although COHORSIL started as a group of vegetable farmers that wanted to diversify into coffee, Don Victor shared with us that they have been...

The Abateraninkunga Ba Sholi Cooperative, or Sholi Cooperative, meaning Mutual Assistance, was founded in 2008 by 30 women determined to invigorate Rwanda’s coffee market and their local community. Today nearly half of the members are women, and they are living up to the meaning of their name - their coffees have won the Rwandan Cup of Excellence Award for quality, resulting in lots being sold at a premium. The coop has used these premiums to improve infrastructure - a second washing station, a community center, a regional health center, and a wastewater management facility have all been added to the...

This exceptional micro-lot is exclusive to Caffè Umbria this year. Nestled in the upper valley of the Magdalena River with its rich volcanic soil, near the eastern edge of Huila, Finca Buenavista produces the prized Caturra variety of coffee on 2 hectares of land owned and run by Laureano Joven. Joven is part of the micro-lot program at ASPROTimaná, where exemplary coffees are processed separately then offered only as a micro-lot. This gives farmers the opportunity to achieve both higher recognition and a higher price. This region is known for producing some of the most distinctive coffees available, and received...

Nicaragua is making a bold comeback in the coffee industry - after the devastation of Civil War and Hurricane Mitch in 1998, coffees from this region have been dominating Cup of Excellence competitions. In 2018, the top 5 winning coffees were produced in Nueva Segovia. The lush Nueva Segovia region boasts near perfect growing conditions - shade, fertile volcanic soil, high elevations, and organized producers who pay careful attention to cultivation and processing. In fact, most coffee in Nicaragua is shade grown. Most of the coffee from this region is produced by small family farms averaging just three hectares (about...

Ethiopia is universally recognized as the birthplace of coffee, and produces some of the most complex and exciting coffees in the world. This coffee from the neighboring woredas (districts) of Gelana and Abaya is no exception, highlighting the unique character and diversity of flavors found in Ethiopia’s micro-regions. Produced by small-holder farmers, the Gelena Abaya is washed, like most coffees produced in the southern zones where water is available. With few exceptions, all coffee exported from Ethiopia flows through the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, where it is graded and traded anonymously, identified only by its region, processing method and cup quality....