Ethiopia Kolla Bocha
We're very excited about our new single origin offering, Kolla Bolcha, via our wonderful partners at Red Fox Coffee Merchants. An exceptional Ethiopian coffee, Kolla Bolcha came about partially because of the investment of the nonprofit organization Technoserve. Ten years ago, the Agaro region where Kolla Bolcha is grown was not known for high-quality coffee. What changed?
With the help of Technoserve, the farmers in Agaro were able to purchase a Penagos coffee pulper and began to adopt a washed process for their beans, rather than the natural process they used previously. The end result of the collaboration between the Ethiopian farmers and Technoserve is the coffee we enjoy today.
The farmers of the Agaro region are far from the only coffee growers who have benefitted from the assistance of Technoserve, which is why we'd like to highlight this exceptional organization and give consumers an awareness of who they are and what they do.
Technoserve was founded by American businessman and philanthropist Ed Bullard in 1968, while he was volunteering in Ghana. He realized that by providing underprivileged producers with access to funding and information (i.e. giving them access to the privileges he himself enjoyed) they would be fully capable of producing high-value products on their own.
Ed's intuition proved to be correct. Since the organization's founding, Technoserve has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of producers in developing countries through training, funding, and market access. The organization has focused much of its effort toward empowering women in particular.
So successful has Technoserve been at achieving its mission, that in February of 2020, it was awarded the National Coffee Association's Charity of the Year award. Additionally, major nonprofit watchdogs Charity Navigator and GuideStar have consistently rated Technoserve highly. Technoserve also partners and coordinates with other aid organizations, notably USAID.
Snowy Owl is proud to recognize the efforts of Technoserve and to serve coffee that has been facilitated in part through their efforts.
Finca El Jardin: The Next Generation of Coffee Growers Bring a New Vision for the Future
On Finca El Jardin, residing deeper than the roots of coffee plants are the roots of family tradition. In 1918, Pablo del Cid’s great grandfather acquired a farm in the Fraijanes Plateau region of Guatemala. For over 100 years the del Cid family has managed the property that hosts complex and lush soil. Unwaveringly, the family has relied on its tried and true process of growing coffee, even though C Market prices have spiraled downward leaving it all but impossible to maintain a profitable coffee business. That is until Pablo boldly challenged tradition and took a lonely journey to bring the coffee of El Jardin to the next level.
Maintaining resilience and forging a new path for the Del Cid’s relationship to coffee is the foundation of Pablo’s pride, Quality Coffee. On his own micro-lot, Pablo experimented with processes to elevate the grade of his family’s coffee — studying the ins and outs of speciality coffee, trucking in high quality water, instituting new harvesting processes, tweaking, risk taking, and capitalizing on his mental stamina.
Growing up on the farm with his dad, Pablo learned the skills of fruitful harvesting. Still, harvesting coffee that meets the standards of speciality roasters was another challenge. Pablo pursued relationships with European roasters, but struggled to enter their markets. He went on to study in Sweden, researching speciality grade coffee and what it would require for his coffee to make it into the cups in curated shops. In Sweden he met his partner, Eva. Eva has played a dynamic role in supporting the development of Quality Coffee, and surprisingly, she was not a coffee drinker before meeting Pablo.
Remaining informed and involved with the intricacies of each process has led to Pablo’s success. Pablo and his team only process coffee from ripe cherries, which is not the norm in the surrounding area. With the help of local carpenters and blacksmiths, they’ve built greenhouses with raised beds and outdoor patios to dry their coffee. Refusing to take short cuts, Pablo has often chosen growing, harvesting, and processing methods that take longer, are more difficult than those used by traditional coffee farmers in his area, and are, at times, viewed with suspicion by previous generations of his family for contradicting traditional methods.
After a seven year hiatus, Pablo mastered his processes and is the first of his family to bring coffee to the United States. Quality Coffee is a story of perseverance, unyielding endurance, and giving back to the community. Despite conflicts that arose from blazing his own trail, Pablo intentionally invests in the local community to support the cultivation of more brave pursuits from the rising generation. Portions of Finca El Jardin have been donated to build a school in collaboration with the town’s Mayor. The school is named after the original owner of the land, Pablo’s great grandfather, Eusebio del Cid. Before the pandemic began, the school had 300 students from grades seven through nine. They hope that through the success of this and other coffees that this farm produces, they will be able to help contribute more towards the mission of ensuring all students have the supplies they need. We are proud to offer Finca El Jardin to our customers in store and online, and remain dedicated to providing our customers with coffee they can feel good about drinking.
Limited Edition: Papua New Guinea Eastern Highlands Banz A
Elevation: 1585 – 1768 masl
Varietals: Arusha, Mundo Novo
Milling Process: Fully Washed
Drying Process: Patio and solar dried machine
Harvest Time: April – September
Approximately 30 small-holder farmers contribute to the coffee from this lot located at an elevation of between 1585 – 1768 meters above sea level. They bring their coffee to the Jiwaka Kofi Mill in Banz, located in the Waghi Valley. The combination of this high elevation and extremely fertile soil create a complex cup. This cup gives notes of brown sugar, dark chocolate, and a touch of grapefruit.
Burundi Coffee from JNP; Aligning our Hearts and Minds
For a nation which culturally prefers tea, Burundi has made a name for itself in the specialty coffee world.
Located in Central Africa, Burundi is a small landlocked country, and one of the poorest in the world. According to the World Bank, the average GDP per capita in Africa was $14,923, in Burundi, it is $293. 80% of the population lives in poverty, one of the highest rates in the world.
Coffee was brought to Burundi from the Belgian colonists in the 1930s; in the last few years, it has grown to be the nation’s largest export. Over 90% of the population is employed by the agriculture industry. Located on the equator in the northern part of the tiny country, the Ngozi Province’s mountainous region is conducive to dynamic and bright coffee. Grown at heights of 1,200 to 1,950 meters above sea-level, Burundi beans create a phenomenal cup of coffee.
Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, the founder of JNP Coffee, is working to change that reality. Originally from Burundi, Jeanine operates JNP coffee from Massachusetts, but makes regular trips to Burundi. Her mother’s family owned a coffee farm in Burundi, allowing her mother to go to school. Through such a strong personal connection to coffee and the opportunities the export can create for Burundians, Jeanine named the coffee product “Bavyeyi.” In the native Kirundi language, “bavyeyi” means “family.” In reference to her own family history, Jeanine works to ensure that the women who grow and cultivate the coffee receive equitable payment.
The success of Jeanine’s initiatives for the women in Burundi is a dream come true for her and her partners.. When Jeanine visits women growers, they always take time to dance together in celebration.
Jeanine and women growers sort through and select the ripest beans for drying
A country with a long history of political instability, violence, and poverty, Burundi continues to be a place where women are fighting for rights to own land.
Sorting through the cherries after they have been naturally sun-dried before they will be depulped and sold as green beans to roasters.
Jeanine has also partnered with numerous organizations and founded initiatives aimed at educating women and overcoming societal stigmas against female education. In Burundi, women cannot own property. In the current coffee market structure, women cannot directly receive payment for their work.
JNP Coffee sources the majority of her coffee from women who are members of the Burundi Chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA). The IWCA aims to support and empower women in the coffee industry. Formed in 2003, there are currently 25 operational chapter countries. From Mexico to Vietnam, the IWCA seeks to provide women the opportunity to lead prosperous and sustainable lives.
Through sourcing its coffee through the IWCA, JNP Coffee provides payment and premiums directly to the women farmers. In the Burundi chapter, there are over 600 women growers who benefit from a direct premium payment system. On average, women reinvest 90% of their income back into their families and community. While the laws surrounding female ownership of land are in the reformation process in Burundi, the partnership with the IWCA ensures that women receive the payment they deserve, today.
We met Jeanine a few summers ago, when she and her family came into the Brewster cafe while on vacation here on Cape Cod. After just a few minutes of chatting, we realized this was someone who knew more about coffee than we did; we were immediately impressed by her women empowerment initiatives at source. She left us samples, and the rest is history. Nowadays, Jeanine is a very well-known name, and has elevated Burundi to coveted status of excellence in the world of specialty coffee. Big roaster names, such as Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia, would scoop up all of her green beans if she let them. She doesn’t; she cares about the small companies like ours and reserves enough beans Snowy Owl Coffee to share with our supportive customers. For that we are more than grateful.
Through the partnership with JNP Coffee, all Burundi coffee at Snowy Owl is grown on small production lots without genetic modification. Washed in fresh mineral-rich spring water and prepared and processed in the same day, the Bavyeyi bean is natural, fresh, and organic.