Tasting Notes: This is a classic "island profile" coffee - mellow, smooth, low-acidity with a silky body and a nutty finish. Tastes great on espresso, or brewed on any device with a paper or cloth filter.
 
From the Importer: "This coffee comes from a certified organic single estate in the Jarabacoa region of the Dominican Republic. The Ramirez Estate employs over 400 people. 40 percent of the workers are female and many of them are Haitian migrant workers. We pay roughly 300 percent higher wages than Fair Trade to the Estate and they use a decent portion of their profits to create sustainable gas recycling (to reduce emissions), water filtration (to prevent river contamination), and to donate computers and books to many of the local schools. This estate is an example of how a coffee business that becomes successful should operate in its community."
 
Sourcing Notes: This coffee comes to the BOP by way of our friends at Cafe Kreyol, a coffee-importing company based out of Virginia that got its start working with farmers on the vanguard of Haiti's renascent specialty coffee scene. We like working with Cafe Kreyol because their work is transparently driven by a belief in the potential of coffee as a business to make a positive change in the communities of farmers. There is a story of growth and sustainability behind every one of their partnerships. In telling these stories and forging these partnerships, they seem to be honest about the inherent limitations of their impact as they operate within a larger capitalist system of incentive structures. They make tangible promises about investments in infrastructure that lead to sustainable wages; they avoid grand but empty rhetoric about completely tearing down systems of oppression. That combination of humanist ambition, transparency, and humility means a lot to us, and for that reason, as of now, we feel really good about partnering with Cafe Kreyol.
 
To learn more, check out Cafe Kreyol's write up in Roast Magazine
 
Bean Variety: Red Caturra