Contrary to some romantic stereotypes, we don’t bushwhack with machetes through virgin forests to “discover” a trove of hidden, ruby-jeweled coffee cherries just waiting to be processed and purchased. The reality, while slightly less adventurous, is much more fulfilling: We source coffee through relationships, connections, partnerships—be it word-of-mouth, an introduction from a mutual friend, an NGO or USAID (RIP) project, or a connection at a convention.
For us, coffee is not only about sparkling cupping notes or sky-high scores (through certainly those are nice), but about adding value to the supply chain. It’s about highlighting newer producer groups or underrepresented origins such as DR Congo and Myanmar, and doing the extra work to include dozens of microlots in a container, to highlight the work of specific farmers or allow a smaller roaster to offer an exclusive coffee lot.
If you hang around us long enough, you’ll hear someone at Atlas say, “There’s a home for every coffee.” And that’s because there is! While we care deeply about quality (we’re not a specialty coffee importer for nothing) and we’ve found that consistent quality has led to improved pricing and loyal buyers, we don’t believe in “cherry picking,” or only buying a group’s fanciest microlot, without also considering that real, lasting economic impact means also considering their larger mid-range lots.
Returning to our romantic fantasy, no producer group exclusively produces 90-plus coffees, but rather a wide range of coffee quality in terms of bean size, density, and cup quality. Coffee is, after all, an agricultural product
Think about your oldest and closest friendships. When you’ve hit a low point or rough patch, did they abandon ship? They probably (we hope!) stepped up to support you. It’s the same for coffee relationships. If Atlas or our producer partners have a tough year – perhaps Atlas miscalculated our needs and over-purchased, or a cooperative didn’t quite get their milling equipment up to spec resulting in inconsistent results – we work together as true partners do. We ask questions, we offer feedback, we listen, and we stick around.
As often as we can, we connect roasters to buyers so they can form a personal connection. Price discovery with producers is a conversation rather than a demand. If a coffee arrives tasting more like gym socks than kumquats and rose hips, we’ll let you know (and offer a gym sock–appropriate discount).
As part of NKG, we have the privilege of working with a global network of coffee partners, which includes dozens of sister export companies around the world, all of which have deep networks, their own long-time relationships, and ongoing, farmer-benefitting programs.
If that all sounds about right to you, we hope you’ll get in touch, ask some questions and get to know us and our coffees better.