Navigating Coffee Sourcing Part II: Quality

A Closer Look At Coffee Quality This is a Continuation of my first blog, “Navigating Coffee Sourcing Part I: Coffee Pricing”. I suggest taking a look at that before diving into this second section, to give a clearer outlook of the overall chain between grower and consumer. Here we are taking a closer look at... Read More

Navigating Coffee Sourcing Part 1: Coffee Pricing

Often times, I am faced with a hard nosed truth: most people just don’t care about where there coffee comes from. As Director of Coffee, someone whose job is literally to care about where coffee comes from, it can be a hard pill to swallow. But for many westerners, it’s simply a part of their... Read More

Producer Spotlight: Fondo Paez

In 2005, Amavida bought coffee from the Fondo Paez cooperative for the first time. In 2019, we bought coffee from the group for the fourteenth year, making this one of our longest-running coffee grower partnerships. It’s time you get to meet the Fondo Paez Cooperative and get to know the power of collective impact in coffee.... Read More

Crossroads: Coffee Review and Collective Impact

At the time of writing, the “coffee market” price for a pound of coffee is sitting at $0.94. The price has been dangerously low for months now—a complex issue of global trade and economics—and it’s making it difficult for many farmers to even break even. Thankfully, there’s already a big effort to fight for sustainable... Read More

Two Kenyan Coffees, from One Farm

October was a milestone month here at Amavida. For the first time ever, we received two different Kenyan coffees from the same farm—Nyeri Hill—and they taste very different. Nyeri Hill AA Nyeri Hill AB Their names are the exact same minus one letter. The packaging is nearly identical. They both are even sourced from the... Read More

Why We Paid In Goats For Our New Coffee: Burundi Nemba

Sourcing specialty coffee is typically a fairly straightforward process, but every now and then you come across specialty coffee beans that you have to jump through some hoops for. Our latest offering, Burundi Nemba, was one of these oddities. We collaborated with Kickapoo Coffee to find and source this specialty coffee through a local Burundian exporter,…

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Muungano Means “Togetherness”

With a medium body and notes of citrus, dark chocolate, and bergamot, our Project Congo coffee, produced by the Muungano Cooperative, does more than tantalize taste buds! Together, we can break the chains of inequality and bring prosperity to communities across Congo! https://amavida.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Muungano.mp4   Learn more about our efforts through http://onthegroundglobal.org Read More

Renewing Prosperity With Project Congo

A better world is being formed out there - and we want to share it with you. We’ve sourced a fine coffee through Cooperative Coffees and the Muungano Cooperative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This 89-point offering has a lemongrass tingle, a deep dark chocolate flavor, and a pleasant bergamot acidity. But this coffee is... Read More

Cooperative Coffees: A Coffee Family

When you think of what a family is, what is your first initial thought? Maybe your mom, dad, a sister or a brother? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines family as a “specific group of people that may be made up of partners, children, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.” Although there are many definitions of what…

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Coffee. Community. Culture. Chiapas.

We arrived in Chiapas, Mexico late on Sunday, January 10th, 2016 and stayed in the region until early the following Sunday, the 17th.  Amavida Coffee’s founder, Dan Bailey, operation manager, Colt Austin, my fiance, Mischa Pawlik and I were there on a delegation with the nonprofit On the Ground Global (OTG). We were there to…

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What I’ve Learned About Coffee: Farming

If I’m just learning about coffee, what do I need to know first? : Farming Blog Post #1 of Many Coffee from my parents’ generation came from a can. The smell of coffee filled the house in the morning and became ambiguous with their morning routine. As knowledge about coffee began to become more important…

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Update on COMSA from Coop Coffees

Unfiltered: This Guy Has Rocked My World by Monika Firl Originally Posted October 8th, 2015 by Monika Firl/Coop Coffees I first met Oscar Omar Alonzo Aguilar and visited his coffee field, “Cual Bicicleta,” during my initial visit to Café Orgánico Marcala S.A. de C.V. (COMSA) in Honduras, together with my Coop Coffees colleagues “Equipo Feminino”  in early 2013. That…

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The Class of a Lifetime: My Trip to Chiapas, Mexico

Ohana Student Travels to Chiapas, Mexico From the beginning of my Entrepreneurship class with Amavida, I understood the creation of Café Pura was to raise funds to travel and give water to the indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico, but the extent of what was awaiting me was unfathomable. This experience was beyond what I could…

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A Life-Changing Trip to Chiapas, Mexico

Getting up before the day starts to begin the long journey to Chiapas, Mexico, I frantically sort through my clothes trying hard to narrow down what to take. I don’t know what to anticipate as I stand in line, sit, and wait. The weight of my carry-on digging into my right shoulder, no cell service…

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Clean Water Projects – Life Changing Work

To all, Mexico is amazing. Working on clean water projects is even more amazing! This is my first blog post and it is little intimidating, because I do not consider myself a great writer. Please indulge me as I express some of my views and feelings about our travels, growers, community, environment, and the wonderful... Read More