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...

Known as the "Heart of Africa", Burundi is a land-locked and resource poor country. Their predominately agricultural economy employs more than 90% of the population, with its primary exports being coffee and tea - making coffee the heart of Burundi, providing hope for a better future.   A relative newcomer to the specialty coffee world, Burundi's coffee production started in the 1930's and was privatized in 2009. Primarily comprised of small-holder farms, each farm averages 100 to 200 coffee trees.   Greenco Burundi carefully manages the coffee cherry selection, processing and export of coffee at several washing stations, including the...

Fazenda Primavera is the fulfillment of the dream of producer Ricardo Tavares, and is an example of the greatness of specialty coffee production in Brazil. Tavares converted the 980 hectares of land from traditional coffee production to specialty coffee, and added a state of the art drying patio, 14 electric dryers, and equipment for processing natural, pulped natural, honey and fully washed coffees. Farm operations are focused on social and environmental sustainability - production techniques minimize environmental damage, they use a power plant to recycle water used in de-pulping to produce energy, and coffee pulp is composted and used as...

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...