La Colombe Torrefaction: Defining Direct Trade
As one of the early pioneers of Direct Trade, to La Colombe, direct coffee sourcing is more than “finding great beans.” It also must mean to proactively maintain real relationships with farmers, to confirm that their Strictly Earth Conscious and Five Principles policies are followed, and to be present at the wet processing (pulping), wet sorting, drying, milling, dry sorting, and bagging of their beans. For La Colombe, it’s all about relationships.
The following is the confirmed 2011 agenda, which you can follow via a live GPS map and their Scrapbook. Additions will be made during the harvest seasons, including Sumatra and Bolivia.
Check out this video of their recent trip to Haiti.
Brazil – COMPLETED – Cerrado Minas, Lacador – La Colombe recently visited with their Brazilian partner’s, who are commitment to preserving the surrounding ecosystem.
Mexico – COMPLETED – RRegion: Hautusco – Meetings with the owner/operators of La Laja, and two neighboring estates interested in converting to RFA. Participated in the processing of containers, additionally, tour the high altitude dry storage facility where part of our harvest is kept, with an eye toward expansion.
Haiti – COMPLETED – Create links to this country, locate and import America’s only Haitian coffee. Investigated newly emerging co-op’s on the island, and lay the ground work for the La Colombe donated coffee processing plant. (Additional La Colombe staff participation)
Honduras – Region: Capucas – visit the farmers of the COCOFCAL co-op with an aim of further assisting in their coffee processing infrastructure. Participate in the processing of La Colombe containers. Advance our Child Education goals in the area.
Sudan (South) – Todd is interested in establishing a link to this country – the origin of all coffees. Presently, there are no coffees from Sudan in the US. Todd will cross the boarder from Uganda and travel the newly cleared land mine road to the Boma Plateau with hopes of achieving his goal.
African Tour – Todd begins in Ethiopia, tours Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi primarily by road. Emphasis is placed on farmer and processor relationships and on La Colombe sponsored Afrique Children programs in Ethiopia and Uganda. Consideration is being given to filming the tour this year.
Additional trips in consideration: Bolivia, Peru, Sumatra and Southern China.
[...] for a moment: The snow is gone, the Swift River is rushing contentedly along, the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafting through the air. You’re kicking back on the spacious back deck, enjoying a delicious [...]