This year in Mexico: A story of resilience, relationships, and unprecedented quality.
It is thanks to the resilience and determination of producers throughout Mexico that we are seeing quality like never before from the 2021/2022 harvest.
We’re Hiring!
Cafe Imports Fulfillment, LLC, a specialty importer…
IMPORTANT: Special Note on Freight Accessory Charges
We all know it, that feeling of pure joy as another pallet of our favorite coffees arrives to the roastery. Watching eagerly as the pallet is lowered out of the truck and “look!”, the driver is even bringing it inside for us even though we didn’t request it — nice, right?
“How Freight Has Changed And How We Can Change With It”
For all of us that exist somewhere between supply and demand, freight has become a volatile variable in the equation of expectation over the past few years.
Costa Rica Purchase Planning
We have designed our purchase planning tools with you in mind to make buying coffee with us smoother than ever.
Introducing our Education Team
We couldn’t be more excited to announce the addition of two new faces to Cafe Imports, representing our Education team.
Ethiopia Purchase Planning
We have designed our purchase planning tools with you in mind to make buying coffee with us smoother than ever.
Ethiopia: An Update from Green Buyer Claudia Bellinzoni
For all of us that work in coffee, “Happy Near Year” directly translates to “Fresh-crop Ethiopia season” — a time to taste some of the most beautiful coffees of the year.
Holiday Ordering & Closures
Holiday Ordering Due to increased holiday shipment…
US Domestic Logistics Update
As you have probably started to see with personal parcels and other shipments, the holiday crunch in the US is already beginning. Unfortunately, coffee pallets and samples are not exempt from the challenges this time of year during a pandemic poses. We haven’t even carved pumpkins yet and we’re finding we need to factor in longer than normal delays when getting delicious coffee to you.
Update: Brazil, Logistics
Over the past few months, supply chain issues have been all over the news.
Cafe Imports will not be at SCA Expo in New Orleans.
Our team has been excitedly awaiting the opportunity…
Applications Are Now Open For The Ikawa Giveaway!
We are pairing up with Glitter Cat Barista and Ikawa in giving away a new Ikawa Pro100 sample roaster to support marginalized coffee professionals within our greater community.
Kenya Update 2021
In a normal February — which this is anything but — we would have staff in Nairobi with cupping spoons in hand, spending hours and hours cupping through fresh offer samples in order to put in the season’s buy plan for Kenya.
A Series about Certifications, part 5 – Direct Trade
The mid-to-late 2000s saw the emergence of “direct trade” as coffee-sourcing concept that was designed to be something of an evolution of the certification programs that already existed in coffee at that time, specifically Fair Trade/Fairtrade. The benefits of those certifications seemed evident—organic certs provide environmental protection, Fair Trade provides financial protection—but lacked a component that was especially significant to specialty-coffee companies: cup quality.
A Series about Certifications, part 4 – Non-GMO
This fourth post covers the Non-GMO Project Verified Product certification. While this is not a common certification for coffee products, Cafe Imports has held Non-GMO Project certification since 2016 and we thought it might be valuable to share our reasoning and the requirements for this particular mark.
A Series about Certifications, part 3 – Rainforest Alliance
In the third post of this series, we’ll take a close look at Rainforest Alliance (also known as Rainforest Alliance/UTZ or RFA/UTZ) certification, so you can explore the holistic nature of this program and its in-depth look at the environmental, social, and economic conditions coffee farmers face.
An Update on Sourcing Travel in the Time of COVID-19
To our dearest friends, exporters, cuppers, mill managers, associations, cooperatives and most of all, to the farmers, producers and caficultores of the world — we miss you.
A Series about Certifications , part 2 – Fair Trade/Fairtrade
In the second post of this series, we’ll explore what “Fair Trade” means around the world, the potential benefits and drawbacks, and how to become certified.
Harvest Report: Colombia 2020
At this point, we’re all sick of updates and harvest reports that start with, “What a wild year this has been,” so we won’t make a whole production out of it: Simply put, coffee is never easy work, and these days that’s truer than almost ever before. This year has been a real test of the strength of our relationships, and while there have been a few setbacks, sadnesses, and disappointments, overall we have been shown the true power of commitments, partnerships, and of sticking together—as Cafe Imports founder and green-coffee buyer for Colombia Andrew Miller always says—through sickness and in health, in good times and bad.
Which is to say, yes, there is some bad news—but it’s not all bad, we promise. (Read on.)