by Omar Latief / Mar 02, 2023
Legend has it that when Kaldi, a goat farmer from the 9th century, found his goats acting suspiciously jittery, he traced their liveliness to their consumption of mystery berries, also known as coffee cherries. And so the progression to modern day coffee slowly began...
by Omar Latief / Mar 02, 2023
With over 500,000 farmers spanning across 2.2 million acres, coffee production in Colombia is deeply woven into culture. Unlike other areas that mass-produce, you'll find most of the coffee in Colombia is shade-grown and hand-picked, making it some of the highest quality coffee in the world.
by Sean McCartney / Dec 16, 2022
Thanks to the rich volcanic soil and lush vegetation, coffee thrives in Nicaragua. After the revolution in 1979, cooperative organizations drove reforms that granted thousands of small land plots to former migrant laborers. But, spurred on by growing concerns about the massive ecological impact of coffee production, growth slowed as land was depleted. In 1992, coffee trees covered more Nicaraguan soil than any other crop.
by Sean McCartney / Dec 16, 2022
Coffee was first grown along Ecuador's coast in 1860, but only became a major commercial focus after cacao crops were threatened by disease in the 1920s. Ecuador was soon well-known for low quality beans used in instant coffee. But as global coffee prices plummeted in the 1980s, so did coffee cultivation.
by Nicholas Johnston / Nov 21, 2022
As the story goes, when Sufi saint Baba Budan was making his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca, he was enamored by a dark drink he encountered in Mocha, Yemen. Unable to legally leave Arabia with raw coffee seeds, he smuggled 7 seeds hidden within his beard, later planting the first 7 trees in the shady slopes of Chikmagalur in 1670.
by Nicholas Johnston / Nov 21, 2022
Arabica was the first coffee planted in Costa Rica toward the end of the 1700s. Although widespread cultivation in the country was slow, Costa Rica eventually became the first Central American country to have a coffee industry.
