A powerfully rich coffee with notes of cocoa, brown sugar and walnut combined with a lusciously full body. This coffee is produced by a group of 244 small family farmers around the town of La Plata in the southern Huila region.The farms are located on the steep slopes of the Cordillera Central with an average size of 2 1/2 hectares.
Blue Batak derives its name from the indigenous Batak people who grow coffee south of a massive and ancient crater called Lake Toba in northern Sumatra. Our special preparation Blue Batak beans come from Rainforest Alliance certified farms surrounding four communities, Lintong Nihuta, Siborongborong, Dolok Sanggul, and Onang Ganjang.
The Dota co-op is located in Santa Maria de Dota, Costa Rica. Allegro began sourcing coffee from Dota in the '90s — making it one of our longest standing relationships. 87% of the Dota valley is a forest preserve. A graduate from Earth University, Ortencia, is in charge of the co-ops environmental program which includes earthworm composting, bio-gas production, water conservation, and shade management. The farm also runs a small test organic farm to teach the members how to grow coffee with ecologically-friendly methods. Funds from the sale of our Dota coffee go to support the Earth University scholarship program.
Allegro has sourced coffee beans from El Valle farm since 1998. Through three generations, the women of the Gonzales family have followed traditional and sustainable farming practices, including the use of shade trees, manual weeding, natural pest management, and water recycling. In 2009, Cristina Gonzales had her family farm certified as Rainforest Alliance, thus expanding the impact of their environmental practices. This certifcation also assisted with expanding Cristina's already sound social standards, like improving and increasing worker housing.
The growing area that lies between Mt. Kenya and the Aberdare Mountain range yields the world's finest coffees. These exceptional coffees are typically grown on tiny half acre farms by members of cooperative washing stations, or on small independent family farms. The elevation of these farms runs between 5,000-6,500 feet, and they are blessed with rich red volcanic soils. Much of these coffees distinctive flavors are due to the types of varietals grown here called SL28 and SL34. Our Grand Cru mark represents a rotating selection of the top lots sold at the weekly auctions in Nairobi and direct purchases from a couple of individual family farms – Mamuto and Ndaria.
The aroma of this coffee conjures up images of the rich compost from a forest floor - moss, crushed leaves, and wild mushrooms - offset with a sweet butterscotch finish and almost chewy body. The best coffees from Sulawesi – formerly called Celebes – come from an area known as Torajaland on the northern petal of this orchid shaped island. Coffee is grown here in tiny backyard gardens alongside tropical fruit, cocoa, and clove trees which add to the dimension of inherent flavor notes in the beans.
The Adado community is located just south of the Great Rift Valley in the region of Yirgacheffe. The small-scale farmers here grow their coffee intermixed with fruit trees and false banana, a main food staple, in garden-size plots behind their traditionally round thatch-roofed homes. The high elevation of the Yirgacheffe region and specifically of Adado at 7000 feet contributes to the intense aromatic characteristics of the coffee. Our lot was produced using a natural sun-dried process. This means the coffee cherries were harvested and allowed to dry around the beans inside. This method helps develop a deep body and tones of dried fruit and spice in the cup.
The Grapos cooperative is located near the town of Tapachula in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. There are a total of 888 members in this group. The farms surround both El Triunfo and Tacana Volcano biosphere reserves. The farms both work as a buffer around these endangered biospheres and the co-op works directly in these areas on conservation projects.
This balanced coffee offers smooth body and pleasing brightness with undertones of sweet juicy raisins and dark chocolate. The co-op members of St. Adelaida grow their Bourbon variety coffee using organic methods under a dense forest of shade trees — consistently producing one of the best organic coffees in all of The Americas. The co-op which began in 1980 as a result of agrarian reform in the country, maintains three schools, a medical facility and housing for their 250 members' families.
