We always try to make sure that we source our coffee from businesses we'd like to work with on a long term basis. In order to do this we like to make sure that they are committed to working with and supporting farmers through fair partnerships and paying the right price for the hard work that farmers put into creating amazing coffees.
Earlier this year we met John Fratner from a new company called The Green Collection. He came to visit us at the roastery to drop off a sample and to let us know about the coffees he was importing from Colombia. John, originally from the UK, started his coffee journey in Burundi in 1995. He founded and ran a successful coffee roastery and support business in South African and in 2011 bought a coffee farm in Colombia. Over the last 8 years John has developed some amazing friendships with farmers and producers of the Paez community located high in the mountains of the Tolima area.
This year he decided he wanted to do everything possible to share these great coffees with roasters in Europe so started a small export and import business to bring small microlots to roasters like us in the UK. Each microlot is traceable back to an individual farmer and some are just a few hundred kilos in total weight. This traceability and focus on direct trade ensures that the farmers receive the majority of the sale price which is close to double the current fairtrade base price. As it happens, all of the farmers are also organic certified. Our first coffee comes from Finca Emmanuel owned by Camilo Villada Enciso. It's a stunning washed coffee grown at high altitude (1825masl) and the lot size is just 140kg!
Above: Camilo Villada Enciso
We hope to continue to offer a great year round supply of Colombian coffee sourced through our partnership with John. You can read a bit more about The Green Collection on their website.
