Ours comes directly (that's right, no middle men) from Coffea Roasters in Guatemala.  The coffee farm (or finca) has been in the Solares family for 3 generations.  The location is in Cobán, one of the coffee growing regions (1320m or 4330ft. above sea level).  All the coffee is hand picked by workers who have also lived on the land for generations. 

When Mimi asked Carlos (jokingly) about paying them fair wages, he said (quite indignantly), "these aren’t workers, they are like family.  Most of them have been on the farm since they were little kids and grew up with us.  Of course we take care of them and pay them well.  They are more like part of the land.”   Jose added that they know the beans by the way it feels in their hand and if it doesn’t feel right, it’ll be thrown out.

Once the beans are harvested, they are put through a wet-process.  This consists of the removal of the coffee cherry prior to drying by using water to strip the coffee from the cherry (also called de-pulping).  What’s left is the parchment, which contains the coffee grain that will later become the green bean.  But wait, it’s still not ready to be dried.

The wet parchment flows through channels of water to undergo natural cleansing.  During this process all the sugary leftovers from the cherry is separated from the parchment.  After 8 hours of this cleansing, the beans are dropped into another water bath for a final wash before being deposited onto the patios for sun-drying.  The beans are then dried in the sun for a period of 4 days.

Coffea Roastery does not strip the parchment off the bean, but instead leaves it on to protect it prior to roasting.  Only when an order is placed is the parchment removed and the green bean roasted.

Nothing goes to waste.  The water that is used for cleansing is used for further fermenting the pulp as well as stored for spraying onto coffee plants.  This fermented water becomes a natural pesticide.  The pulp is mixed with the soil to produce organic nutrients.

When we place an order, the green coffee beans (always from the current year’s harvest) are roasted to perfection then express mailed to us.  We receive the coffee in about a week from the time the order is placed to market.  Coffee, like wine, needs about 3 days to rest (10 days for espresso beans) to achieve full flavor, so it’s not really a good thing to have it roasted the same day as you’re going to brew it.

Direct trade coffee is bought straight from the grower, cutting out the traditional middlemen (buyers, sellers, brokers) as well as organizations that control certifications (Fair Trade, Bird Friendly).  It’s much better and the future of coffee because it’s mutually beneficial to the grower and the consumer.

The grower is paid a fair price (as in fair trade) but there are no middlemen to add their cut.