Brazil Trip Report 2019
Brazil is home to an incredible diversity of flavor profiles from both small holders of only a few hectares all the way up to massive estates of over a thousand hectares. In September of 2019, we returned to Brazil to visit with our producer partners. Santo Antonio Estates, a cooperative in Minas Gerais state in […]
A New Era for Specialty Coffee in Myanmar (Post 2 of 2)
We just returned from a visit to our partners in Myanmar! See our first Post 1 here and read on for Post 2. We started off our visit in Ywangan with Su Su Aung, owner of Amayar wet and dry mill, and visited two of the communities she works with, Nwa Pan Kyi and Nyaung […]
The Who, How, and Why of Cupping Competitions
We Atlasians see a lot of value in bringing our coffee supply chain partners together to honor the work of microlot producers whenever possible. We do this in a variety of ways, including open cuppings here in the Atlas lab, cupping at origin with roasters and exporters, and – whenever possible – holding community microlot […]
A New Era for Specialty Coffee in Myanmar (Post 1 of 2)
When the 5-year USAID Value Chains for Rural Development project began in late 2014, the Burmese coffee landscape was vastly different than today, and specialty coffee was nonexistent. For the few farmers who hadn’t cut down their trees and abandoned coffee altogether, their method was strip-picking cherry and selling it to the local market for […]
Kenya and Malawi: A Tale of Two Countries
This August I traveled to Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi to visit several Atlas partners. See blog post about the Tanzania portion here, and read on to hear about the Kenya and Malawi portions. I started this trip in Nairobi visiting NKG Coffee Mills Kenya (Coffee Mills) and Ibero Kenya Limited (IberoKe), NKG’s Kenya dry milling […]
The Vast Variety of Tanzanian Specialty Coffee
This August I traveled to northern and southern Tanzania to visit several Atlas partners to learn about updates, successes, and challenges since significant government regulations surrounding coffee took place in Tanzania in early 2018. In January of 2018, the government made dramatic and sudden coffee regulation changes that threw the Tanzanian coffee industry into disarray. […]
Guatemala and Costa Rica 2019
In mid-March, we spent a few quick and productive days in Costa Rica before returning to Guatemala for the second time this winter. In Costa Rica, we visited our NKG partner CECA and also Santa Elena Estate, one of our longest traceable relationships. Costa Rica is one of the most regulated coffee countries in the world. Inspired the […]
El Salvador and Mexico 2019
We kicked off this trip visiting Beneficio Las Tres Puertas and J. Hill Coffee. J. Hill was founded more than 120 years ago in Santa Ana, western El Salvador. They specialize in wet and dry processing of coffee, as well as supporting farmers to help them improve production, quality, and sustainability. We began working with […]
Introducing the Atlas EXPO Passport: Play Along and Travel with Us!
To celebrate the number of ways we’re participating in this year’s Specialty Coffee Expo in Boston, we’re offering attendees the chance to follow along and win a trip in the process! As a Grand Prize, Atlas is giving away a trip, either to a coffee producing country along with Atlas staff, or to the Atlas […]
Knowledge is Power: Uganda Trip Report
Drew Billups and I just wrapped up Atlas’ yearly trip to Uganda, “the pearl of Africa” to visit current and potential coffee producer partners with friends Mollie Moison of Twin and Kate Burnett of Bridgehead Coffee. The assumed birthplace of Robusta, Uganda is home to an estimated 20 million smallholder farmers and 1.5 million coffee […]