Why coffee you ask? Several years ago, I read an article about the growing number of people roasting coffee at home. Since my baking hobby had started shrinking my pants, I found the idea of roasting coffee interesting. After all, I have always loved coffee, and many of my fondest memories and deepest thoughts have been shared with family and friends over a steaming cup of coffee. So, I took an introduction to home roasting class, and I was immediately hooked! My new hobby quickly became an obsession. I found myself spending hours reading and learning about the different varieties of coffee plants, the regions where they grow, and the people that passionately plant, nurture, and harvest these plants. I realized that coffee for them was not just a vocation, but a way of life that is deeply imbedded in their culture, economy, and society. Whether it be a large finca in Guatemala or the tiniest micro lot farmer in Ethiopia, they all share the same life-long pursuit of growing the perfect beans that will ultimately become the perfect cup of coffee. And, from that coffee plant, the farmers have grown families, communities, churches, schools, health care clinics, as well as saving our rainforests. I ask you, “can coffee save the world?” Perhaps! It certainly has changed mine for the better!
-Kirstie
My mission is simple. It is to bring to my community premium specialty grade coffees from around the world. My promise to you is to always source beans that are responsibly grown and harvested. I promise to take great pride and care into roasting every batch. I promise to continue to learn and grow as a nano roaster so that I can roast the best darn coffee you have ever tasted!
Haiti is a land like no other in the world. Once a pirate haven, the country was formed as a French colony solely devoted to growing cash crops like sugarcane, coffee, and tobacco due to its amazing soil. To grow such cash crops, the early French colonists began to rely exclusively on slave labor to achieve this end goal. The result was the colony became very profitable for the French Kingdom, earning the colony the nickname of the “Pearl of the Antilles”. However, this brutal system led to the world’s first and only successful slave rebellion creating modern-day Haiti. Years of economic embargoes, political instability, corruption, as well as major disasters have put the country on the backfoot since its inception, but as Haiti becomes more stable, companies and consortiums are introducing ways to export Haiti’s natural bounty and highly prized coffee to rest of the world.
Founded in 1659, the French colony was originally named Saint Domingue, and by 1715, the coffee plant was introduced to the island. By 1788, Saint Domingue supplied half the world’s coffee; however, all of this was based upon a brutal slave system that flooded the island with captured slaves from Africa. These morally repugnant conditions fueled the powder keg that became known as the Haitian Revolution. After fighting hard for its freedom, Saint Domingue was renamed Haiti.
By 1949, Haiti became the third largest coffee producer in the world; however, due to the election of Francois Duvalier as President of Haiti in 1957, the country was embargoed by the United States from then till 2005. Along with political strife, Haiti had suffered two environmental catastrophes. First, the lush mountainous soils began to experience erosion and forest loss, and in 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the island nation that left an estimated 100,000 more people dead.
Due to poverty, many of the coffee plants in Haiti have been burned down to make charcoal and cooking fuel. The ones that remain are many of the very same plants cultivated hundreds of years ago. That said, a lot of the specialty coffee in Haiti is the Typica variety, but also Bourbon and Catimor. However, because Haitian coffee farmers typically don’t have access to chemical fertilizers and crop disease control products, these plants tend to yield very small quantities of cherries.
Most of the Haitian coffee beans are grown organically on small farms in “creole gardens” high up in the mountains of the country. The use of organic methods is not by choice; however, but rather due to poverty, and the farmer’s inability to afford expensive fertilizers. The beans are then usually wet-processed which results in a creamy body with various notes of almonds and a sweet finish. Because of the similarities to its Caribbean cousin, Jamaica, Haitian coffees are often named Haitian Bleu, both from their characteristic color and the result of farming co-operatives banding together to sell collectively under that name.
This Haitian Coffee is grown in a town called Zombie Desert (named after an urban legend that witch doctors used the area to raise the dead to do their bidding), and it has one of the only model farms in the area. This cooperative, being smaller in size, is able to produce 600 bags of coffee and pay growers significant prices for their coffee cherries. This coffee is Shade Grown which is a rarity in Haiti to have that kind of forest cover. It is grown by a Coop in the Central Plateau region consisting of 75 farmers where the average size of a farm is 1 hector. The cooperative is paid roughly 300% higher wages than the Fair Trade minimum, not out of charity, but for having an exceptional product as this Haitian Zombie scored a 92 in Coffee Review!
Central Plateau
Organic Limu G2 - Oromia
Fruity with lime citrus, herbal, and floral notes. Chocolaty and complex.
Guatemala Xinabajul Ana Morales
Bittersweet flavors with notes of spiced fruit and hints of golden plum, raisin, spice cookie, and chocolate bar with dried coconut.
Savane Zombie - Central Plateau
A clean, smooth bodied coffee with low acidity, sweet undertones, and floral aromas.
Kirinyaga Kainamui Peaberry
A sweet coffee with notes of brown sugar, molasses, black currant, cranberry tea, melon, and raspberry with aromas of warm baking spices.
Organic Chiapas Tulijá
A very sweet Chiapas coffee with balanced body, mouth-cleansing acidity, and notes of partially-refined sugars, citrus hint, and punchy cocoa nib flavors in the aftertaste.
El Diamante Doña Luz
Notes of honey, berry sherbet, and dark drinking chocolate.
Decaffeinated Organic SWP
A smooth medium-bodied coffee with notes of malt, dark chocolate, cola, and citrus.
Organic Bugisu - Sipi Falls
A medium-bodied coffee with notes of dark chocolate , molasses, and vanilla.