Kenya + Ethiopia, February 2019
Our February 2019 visit to Kenya and Ethiopia ended up being at the tail-end of the harvest season in both countries. It’s a fantastic time to cup available lots and explore new areas, with the peak of the crop coming through the dry mills and dry weather making for favorable driving conditions. Day 1 in […]
Brazil Seed to Cup
Brazil is always an exciting origin to visit and our September trip this year was made especially so due to sheer amount of activities we packed in. It was a true seed to cup experience including a visit to an experimental varietal garden containing heirloom and exotic varieties destined for research and development, a micro-lot […]
Colombia – October 2018
Our autumn visit to Colombia is one of the highlights of our travel year and centers around our annual “Lo Mejor de Monserrate” micro-lot competition. Early October is a terrific time to cup coffees from what is the main crop in many areas of southern Huila, and there is usually a fair amount of harvesting […]
A Diamond in the Rough
Within minutes of crossing the border from Gisenyi, Rwanda to Goma, DR Congo, the road infrastructure disintegrates, the building architecture changes, and the foothills of Virunga National Park, home to a quarter of the world’s 880 remaining mountain gorillas, rise in the distance to the north. It’s rumored that various members of government are responsible […]
Kundwa! Atlas Heads to Rwanda to Visit Partners Old and New
During our visit with our partners at Abateraninkunga ba Sholi (“Sholi” translates to “mutual assistance”) Cooperative, each interaction—from talking to the general manager, to members of the women’s association, to the women sorting parchment—served as living proof of what living and working cooperatively can look like. They even have an RFA sign on their premises […]
Honduras Las Capucas + Alliance for Resilient Coffee – March 2018
Each March we look forward to spending a few weeks with our producer partners in Honduras. The COCAFCAL cooperative in Las Capucas, Copan is one of our longest-standing producer relationships, and 2018 marks the 11th (ELEVENTH!) year of COCAFCAL’s “Te Van a Conocer, Compa!” micro-lot competition. COCAFCAL has created a coffee eco-tourism oasis in the […]
Join Atlas in Rwanda and Burundi
Do you enjoy rustic travel? Do you have a soft spot for exceptionally delicious coffee? Yeah, us too. If you answered ‘yes’ to both questions, then we should be travel companions! Grab your passport and your cupping spoon to journey along with Atlas to Rwanda and Burundi, known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, […]
Navigating Conflict in Coffee Producing Regions
The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar raises serious questions for all of us who buy Myanmar coffee. While Atlas is not working in Rakhine State – We work in Mandalay State and Shan State, which are further east – we want to be abundantly clear about why we continue to support smallholder farmers in that […]