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.
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.
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.)
Holiday Carrier Update 2020
Well, friends, it’s coming up on the winter holiday season here in the U.S.A., which means two things: One, that we’ve almost made it to the end of 2020 (hooray!), and two, that it’s time for you to mark your calendars with service interruptions from domestic freight carriers, so nothing comes between you and your delicious coffee orders.
A Series about Certifications, part 1 – Organics
If you’re curious about certifications, this series is for you: Over the course of several blog posts, we’ll explore some of the existing certifications that are available for specialty green coffee, including taking a look at their mission, standards, and whatever auditing or other requirements are important for you to know.
Join Us on Zoom for “Cafe Imports Office Hours”
Introducing Cafe Imports Office Hours, a casual regular get-together on Zoom so we can catch up, geek out, and talk about coffee together. Click here to read more and find out how to join us!
Harvest Report: Peru 2020. Coffee finds a way…
If there’s one thing we’ve learned these past few months, it’s that coffee will most definitely find a way.
Along with our producer partners, we’ve learned to adapt to Zoom to meetings rather than zoom from place to place on airplanes, and we’ve found other ways to stay in touch and even cup together (apart). In fact, we’ve been able to find a lot of joy from seeing friendly faces on our screens—especially when they have good news to share.