A Peaberry is a single oval bean appearing in place of the usual two flat-sided beans. Tanzania is the world's largest producer of exceptional sun dried Peaberry coffees.

The Hope Project operates in the Rural Mbeya Region of Tanzania, producing some of the finest arabica coffees of East Africa. Most if not all of this coffee had always been processed at home by the farmers. But many farmers lacked water or processing equipment, and this had a severe adverse effect on coffee quality, consistency and the prices that they could command in the market.

The Hope Project has tackled this problem by setting up 23 coffee washing and drying mills in the heart of the region. Where water is plentiful, traditional disk pulpers have been installed. Where it is scarce, ecopulpers, which need less water, are used. Boreholes have been drilled to improve the water supply.

The Hope Project ensures that farmers benefit from premium prices for their high quality coffee by paying a price which is proportionally higher than the market price they would otherwise receive and making a second, quality-related payment to farmers after the harvest.

The Costa Rican coffee from CoopePalmares is a fully pulped natural sun dried coffee. The project to produce an African natural style coffee involved 12 growing districts, approximately 20 coffee growing families per district. Additionally 20 international coffee roasters were invited to Costa Rica to witness the process, cup the coffees, and critique the results.

I have received the last container of coffees from the CoopePalmares pulped natural project. While in Costa Rica cupping the coffee was a fairly straightforward process. Although there were many coffees to cup, I had no control of the roasting and considered it to be somewhat inconsistent. Here in the shop the differences in character between the two coffees becomes fully apparent. Our first container, "San Rafael" I found somewhat lighter than expected, just a touch thin.

Palmares Especial is a thicker, chewier, more robust Costa Rica coffee. In my excitement I called my importer and purchased every available pound of this coffee left in North America. This amounted to an additional 21 sacks of Palmares Especial, enough to last through the end of the year.

Peru is a land of contrast: high mountains, dense jungles, and barren deserts all within close proximity. Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, and to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. Northern Peru is primo coffee growing country, the weather is characterized by high temperatures all year long and heavy rains from October through March.

Peruvian Organic coffees are revered for their delicate acidity and sweet round cup. The finest organically grown coffees are exquisite, especially those from small farms and co-ops. 2009 Peruvian harvest is just beginning to land in the states, and I've passed up some first crop offerings while waiting for the more mature mid-harvest green. This is by far the best to date.

Fazenda Aurea is located in a region called Serra do Salitre, a high plain in Cerrado Miniero, in the state of Minas Gerais. Minas Gerais is in the west of the southeastern subdivision of Brazil, the second most populous of the 26 states of Brazil, and fourth largest by area in the federation. This is no Micro Lot, it's a big farm that produces a lot of this coffee.

Sumatran coffees are processed in a unique way. From the point the coffee is picked and the cherry skin pulped off, the process follows the way it is done for most washed coffees produced around the world. As with these other washed coffees, fermentation is complete when the mucilage or fruit surrounding the parchment (or pergamino) has dissolved and the fruit-free parchment rinsed off. At this point, the bean within the parchment still has very high moisture content.

In almost all washed coffee origins throughout the world, before the parchment is hulled, it is dried, either in the sun or in machine dryers, until the moisture content is down to around 15-13% at this point the coffee is ready to ship, store and roast.

So herein lies the difference; in most places, the bean is dried in the parchment and the parchment or pergamino is milled off the beans when they are dry… not in Sumatra.

Invariably newcomers to my shop ask for my " favorite coffee" and more often they ask for my "most popular coffee". While the answer to this question has little to do ultimately with what appeals to you personally as a coffee drinker, the answer to this question is soundly irrefutable. Guatemalan coffee is a crowd pleaser, it embodies the essential answer to the question, "What makes a specialty coffee extraordinary?".

Needless to say each year I wait with great anticipation for new crop Guatemalan coffee. When something as bright and floral and complex as San Juan Pixcaya arrives in the shop, it's almost shocking. I recommend that you run, do not walk, and get your hands on some of this immediately. If you're not impressed by the bright, almost iridescent floral quality of this coffee, allow it to cool in your cup. A great deal of this sweet floral essence of this coffee can be attributed to acidity. Keep in mind that when cupping coffee, acidity is what gives coffee it's bright, lively fruit and wine flavors and floral aroma. This is never a bad thing! After careful examination, I would consider this coffee similar in its floral aspect to an African Yirgacheffe, or Sidamo.

Today I have the pleasure of introducing an outstanding, high-grown (1,500 meters plus) certified organic, Fair Trade coffee from the UDEPOM Co-op. Unión de Ejidos Profesor Otilio Montaño, Mexico (UDEPOM) Co-op is a collective of 608 individual family farmers, each tending a small coffee farm of between 1 – 10 hectares (2 – 20 acres) of ridiculously steep rainforest in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost State which shares a border with Guatemala.

Chiapas is a region that has traditionally suffered from poor infrastructure, unemployment, high illiteracy rates, and low life expectancy. Local coffee farmers from diverse ethnic groups formed UDEPOM to combat these problems by seeking stable, fair prices for their coffee by directly accessing the US market. The co-op pioneered organic agriculture in the area, and the indigenous Mayan co-op members use traditional knowledge as the basis for their organic farming methods.

Lempira is home to the majority of the country’s native ”Lenca” population (the indigenous Indians of Honduras) and boasts of some of the most temperate and fertile land in Central America. The average daily temperature is between 76-87 degrees Fahrenheit, with nightly averages of 60-67 degrees. The climate and rainfall is lush and tropical, ideal for coffee, as well as an assortment of papaya, coconut, avocado, mango, lime, guava and other productive trees.

Lempira is rugged, and it is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. The highest mountain peak in Honduras, Cerro las Minas, is in Lempira. Due to these conditions, as well as the agrarian lifestyle of the Lencas, Lempira produces some of the world’s finest high altitude cloud forest coffee. The area is picturesque with abundant pristine mountain water and air, with breath-taking cloud forest views.

Santa Adelaida (pronounced ad-a-LAY-da) co-op began in 1980 , high on the Bálsamo mountain range, 30 kilometres south of San Salvador, collectively owns about 860 hectares of land, and grows coffee on 650 of them. Their organic coffee is grown without chemical inputs of any kind, and is monitored strictly by independent specialist organizations that certify, every year, that the coffee beans are in compliance with the standards required by organic produce markets.

Santa Adelaida cooperative is dedicated to protecting the environment by producing coffee without agrochemicals, while increasing income and consolidating social programs for its members, who have historically been marginalized, have little education and are stunted by poverty. It's a perfect undertaking, an ideal match with their cooperative vision. Today the co-op maintains three schools, a medical facility and housing for their 250 members' families.