5-7-09

Six months ago, Counter Culture started working with our partners at the SPREAD project and RWASHOSCCO, as well as with our friends from Intelligentsia, to sponsor a Roast-Your-Own-Coffee program in Rwandan coffee-growing communities. A great irony of the coffee trade is that most coffee farmers—even some of the world’s most dedicated and talented coffee farmers—are not able to actually taste the coffee they work so hard to produce. Time and time again, we’ve seen that when coffee farmers are able to taste and evaluate their own coffee, they are able to use that immediate feedback to not only better develop quality, but also to better communicate about coffee with partners like us. It’s a good thing.

Launched in February, this program empowers Rwandan coffee farmers with the tools needed to mimic the Ethiopian coffee ritual: kits made up of a bicycle inner tube for removing the parchment from the coffee, a basket for winnowing the parchment away before roasting, roasting pot, and a mortar and pestle for grinding roasted coffee

Counter Culture's Sustainability & Producer Relations Manager Kim Elena Bullock provided an update on how these efforts may help to improve upon the ironic downside of traveling to coffee growing regions.

Read Kim Elena's full update in the Development at Origin portion of our Sustainability coverage.

Thanks,
Nathan