You helped us donate $10,729 to provide clean water access to communities in Ethiopia through Run For Water and imagine1day. We first partnered with both charities in 2017 to fund building a kindergarten and well. This led to an ongoing donation program to build wells annually with Run For Water over the last six years. In 2023 this initiative transformed into Roasters For Wells.
Roasters for Wells is a collaborative project between imagine1day in Ethiopia and five of Vancouver’s coffee roasters (Elysian, JJ Bean, Milano, Moja, and Pallet). The project aims to raise at least $75,000 toward purchasing a drilling rig that can produce 45 new water wells per year in Ethiopia. We have committed to matching donations up to $50,000, fundraising in our cafes and through the sales of Ethiopian single origin coffees during the campaign.
We are very excited to announce that a purchase order for the machine has been submitted, with 59% of the total necessary funds raised from all sources (roughly $185,000 of $308,425 CAD).
Click here to learn more about the Roasters For Wells campaign and donate.
In 2023, our domestic orders shipped via Canada Post became carbon-neutral through verified offsets, reducing greenhouse gas emission by 696 Kg CO2e.
Over $7235 was donated for disaster relief in Türkiye and Syria. During our emergency response fundraisers, our staff voluntarily contribute all tips collected on a specific day to a humanitarian cause and JJ Bean matches whatever is raised to double your impact.
JJ Bean continued to sponsor education for 10 girls in Kenya through CHES, a program we have been a part of for over a decade.
Our staff also helped raise $101 for the Vancouver Food Bank through a latte art competition.
In addition to our official Over & Above program, JJ Bean supports numerous local charitable and community needs through our cafes, fundraising program, food donations, and environmental initiatives. We do our best to keep track of as many of these as possible; you can learn more on our Over & Above page
Cupping takes place on Thursdays around lunch time (1 pm) at the listed location. Times and dates are subject to change, but we'll keep this list updated.
Check back here each month for our cupping schedule.
See you there.
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To our valued customers,
We will be closing JJ Woodward's on Monday July 31st at noon. We have really appreciated your support over the years at this location. We hope you may consider joining us at another location nearby.
Our closest Downtown locations are:
Dunsmuir (425 Dunsmuir St)
CBC (740 Hamilton St)
Park Place (at Dunsmuir & Hornby)
Alberni (1188 Alberni St)
Kind Regards,
John Neate and the JJ Bean team
The artwork on offer sold for $607, beating our original goal of $500. With JJ Bean matching the first $500, we were able to donate $1,170 to UNYA to fund their current and upcoming programs.
We've been partnered with Run for Water for a few years to contribute to fresh water projects in rural, coffee growing regions of Ethiopia, and each year we're excited to hear about the communities impacted by these donations. As of 2022 we have helped to raise $52,906 through our still water sales. The water on offer has changed a few times but the deal is the same, $1 from each carton sold is donated to Run for Water, who in turn use it to help communities find and build clean water sources for their villages.
Pictured above are some of the women of Sizi standing in front of their newly built maternal health clinic which was completed earlier in 2022. They were able to build a fresh, clean water source next to their clinic, providing doctors and patients with safe water for the first time. Local crews hit such an abundant supply of water that the new well will also be able to serve a nearby community.
You can read more at Run for Water's own website by click here.
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Svitlana Lytvak, pictured above, worked as a manager at our Main St location years ago. She has since moved back to Ukraine, her native country, and is living there currently. The text below is an unedited email she sent us once we reached out following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Svitlana's own recommendations of where you can donate are at the end of this page. The groups hope to help the countless volunteers who have uprooted their lives to work and fight for the freedom of their country.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Svitlana's message, and if you are able to donate, we greatly appreciate you doing so. Every little helps when supporting the strength and bravery of the everyday people who are affected by war.
"Thank you so much for your email and support! It means a world to me and my Ukraine. You moved me to tears...
It has been very tough. Never in my life have I woken up to war.... That morning, the 24th of February we will never forget... Missiles strikes, and explosions all over Ukraine: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernigiv, Mariupol, Ivano-Frankivsk, Sumu. I have never felt anything scariest than that.
A peaceful beautiful country (I've chosen to live in and basically left Canada for) in 2022 is been subjected to such hell!!! putin (we call him khuilo) destroys the lives of millions of people, destroys dreams.
This war is not the local conflict between russia and Ukraine. It's a huge world-wide war of ideologies, between a free world, democracy, safety, peace and mid-century style dictatorship with lies, fear, aggression, punishment, and brainwashing. All our history is full of cases of russia trying to destroy Ukrainian history, Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian nations.
17 days... War is continuing. So many people were killed and will be killed. Russia is been absolutely inhuman and cruel. They do massive bombing and attack cities with no military presence. They destroyed residence areas, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, maternity hospitals... They sabotage all humanitarian corridors and kill peaceful people. There are cities that have no water, electricity, gas, no food... Innocent people are dying not only from shooting, but also from dehydration and starvation. In the XXI century!!!
Me and my husband live in the central part of Ukraine, our native city called Cherkasy. It's 200 km away from Kyiv. It's more or less safe here. But most of our nights are spent in our bathroom on the floor because of air raid sirens and possibility to be hit by a missile or a bomb. We used to run a tiny family type coffee roastery called About Coffee (yeah, my dream came true and I am still crazy in love with coffee and all things about coffee!!!), but now our days filled mostly with volunteering, helping at the shelters or local civilian defense, building obstacles and roadblocks, making Molotov cocktails (it's petrol bombs). We are trying not to forget who we were before the war, we still roast just a very few batches of coffee beans to support our Army, lift up their spirits, and we supply few wholesale customers with beans, but it's really hard to run a business in this circumstance. Not to mention that we were planning to open our very own coffeeshop... putin took it away from us...
Although, we are strong and we would never ever give up. We have no fear of putin. He will never break us down. We're trying to stay optimistic and we say "it's one more day closer to the victory".
We are very grateful for all the support that Western countries have given to us already. And I really feel that you and my JJ BEAN family stand with Ukraine. Thank you so much for your support!
Much love,
Svitlana"
The two groups listed below were suggested to us as trustworthy by Svitlana, please take the time to look at the links provided. JJ Bean will be splitting 100% of donations received between the two.
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1. Serhiy Prytula.
Since 2014 he began coordinating a volunteer supply center for the Ukrainian Ground Forces and civilian volunteers. His Charitable Foundation is trusted and fully accountable, run by Ukrainians and goes directly to Ukrainians.
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
2. Maple Hope Foundation – Defend Ukraine Fund
Facebook: Maple Hope Foundation - Головна | Facebook
GiveSendGo - Defend Ukraine Fund: The #1 Free Christian Fundraising Site.
This is local Vancouver initiative. Funds gathered will be used to provide non-lethal support to Ukraine’s defenders. This includes, but is not limited to: medical supplies, body armour, helmets, and radio communication devices.
Thanks to your contributions, last year in 2021 Run for Water helped to provide clean water to 5,700+ residents in Hawo, Ethiopia. Our Over & Above program aims to give back to the people and communities that provide us with the coffee that we love so much. That’s why JJ Bean partnered with Run for Water in 2018, to help bring clean water to the coffee growing regions of Ethiopia. $1 from each bottle of still water sold in our stores is donated and matched by Run for Water. With our latest donation at the end of 2021 we have raised close to $50,000 and every cent has been put to good use. Last year four clean water sources were built in Hawo, giving some residents access to clean water for the first time in their lives.
Pictured here are Hajara and Ashu, they both live in Hawo, Ethiopia. To them clean water means access to education. Rather than missing school to walk together to fetch water in the nearby river, a clean water source was constructed in 2021 right outside their classroom.
This is Foziya Kedir who no longer has to walk for 2 hours to collect river water every day. Foziya is working towards being an engineer so that she could build water systems and schools for rural communities like hers.
JJ Bean’s Over + Above program exists because the farmers who produce the coffee we enjoy so much also happen to live in some of the poorest areas of the world. While we are committed to always paying excellent prices for excellent coffee, we feel we can do more to make a positive difference in coffee growing countries over and above our basic responsibility as coffee roasters.
You can learn more about our our Over + Above program on our About page.
We then merged the Torrefazione Coloiera roastery in Richmond with our Powell Street roastery and we got the wonderful Manjit Biring, who had been working with TC since 1993. Manjit still works with us full time at Powell and she is our longest-serving employee. She has been a ‘mother’ to many generations of workers at Powell.” - John Neate Jr.
"This year is our 25th year of serving the good people of Vancouver with coffee, food, outstanding customer service, and amazing spaces. We are the largest independently owned & family-run coffee chain in Canada. We would like to say we are the best, but that would lack some humility. After all, the best must be determined by you. Over the next few weeks we will be offering a little history on how we started, and honouring some of the people that helped us get here. We have employed thousands of wonderful people over the years, so believe me, choosing just a few is difficult.
My family’s relationship with coffee began in Vancouver, back in the 1920s. My grandfather, Francois James Neate (affectionately known as Gumpy) started roasting for Nash Tea & Coffee, Trade Roasting, and Nabob. In time he saw an opportunity for something better and had the desire to be out on his own. Having established himself in the trade, he struck out with a passion tempered by experience that still runs in the family to this day.
In 1945 F.J. Neate & Co. (a.k.a. Neates Coffee) was formed. My father, John Sr. joined the family business in 1951 and together they prevailed through thick and thin, including a devastating fire in 1969 that burnt the roasting plant to the ground. Remarkably, Neates Coffee continued to grow, steadily building a reputation for a quality product and genuine customer service.
In 1979 I began my apprenticeship in the world of coffee, working alongside my father until Neates Coffee was sold in 1990. The new owner (Nestlé) closed down the local roaster and starting roasting Neates Coffee in Toronto. For our customers in Vancouver, part of what made our family coffee special went missing.” - John Neate Jr.
The Neates blend back then was Brazil, Colombian & Guatemala. Coincidentally, those are the primary components of our JJ blend today.
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Since our partnership with Run for Water began in 2018, you have helped us donate almost $45,000 to their organization. These donations have changed lives by providing access to clean water to rural communities of Ethiopia. This year the community of Hawo will have access to their first splashes of water by this coming Fall. Last year in 2020, we supported the community of Buluk in rural Bale with a spring cap system. In 2019, three clean water points were constructed in the rural coffee-growing region of Yirgalem, allowing farmers and their families to drink clean water for the first time in their lives. $1 from every still water bottle sold funds clean water. You can learn more about this ongoing project at runforwater.ca/jjbean
Foziya Adem, 12, pictured at the water station constructed in her home town last year. Before this station was constructed, Foziya would go to the river several times a day to collect water. Direct access to clean water means that children in these rural communities can have more time focus on their education.
"This river is our main source for everything. We use it for drinking, cooking and washing our clothes. I also use it at my restaurant. The water appears clean when you look at it, but it is not. A lot of animals use this river and many of us have been exposed to different water-borne diseases. We hope to get clean water and to also send our kids to school without any problem. My kids have missed school sometimes because I get tired of coming to the river every day." Meko Kabeto, 39.
Meko Kabeto, and Amane Mamu, both run small restaurants in Hawo. They have been coming to the river to collect water 6-8 times a day since childhood. They and their families deserve easy access to safe water.
In more local news..
On July 16, 2021, we held a tip donation day, the tips from each JJ Bean location were counted and donated to the Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society. JJ Bean matched the first $2,000, which was added to the final sum. In total $6,604.65 was donated. Thank you very much for any contribution you made to this. The VACFSS works to support Indigenous children, youth and families in the Vancouver region by providing restorative, holistic and culturally-grounded family services. You can see more about their organization here.
JJ Bean’s Over + Above program exists because the farmers who produce the coffee we enjoy so much also happen to live in some of the poorest areas of the world. While we are committed to always paying excellent prices for excellent coffee, we feel we can do more to make a positive difference in coffee growing countries over and above our basic responsibility as coffee roasters. You can learn more here.
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Grand Opening celebrations will run Monday June 21 through Saturday June 26 as follows:
MONDAY | 50% OFF BAKED GOODS
Max two items per person, no drink purchase necessary.
TUESDAY | $2 TRADITIONAL DRINKS
WEDNESDAY | 50% OFF LUNCH ITEMS
One item per person, no drink purchase necessary.
THURSDAY-SATURDAY | 30% BONUS VALUE
Added on all gift card purchases over $20.
These promotions will only happen at JJ Dollarton (391 N Dollarton Hwy, North Vancouver), while supplies last.
We said it was easy being green. Then it wasn’t. So we’re trying again...
* In-store purchases only, French press or drip coffee, all day while supplies last.
We're also matching online donations up to $2000 for the Environmental Youth Alliance. You can purchase a donation amount in our online store through April 22.
Founded in 1989, EYA is a registered charity based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. EYA supports youth facing barriers to develop the skills and confidence to become environmental stewards and leaders. EYA provides free, land-based education and employment training programs engaging youth in hands-on projects to restore wildlife habitat and improve access to nature in Vancouver’s Eastside. EYA’s main programming site is located in Strathcona Community Gardens on the edge of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, with other restoration projects taking place in and around East Vancouver. 700+ youth are engaged annually from Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.
You can learn more at eya.ca
Dear customers,
With the rapid escalation of global events and growing concern about the COVID-19 (“coronavirus”) pandemic, we wanted to inform you that we are taking all available precautions on your behalf and increasing new measures as necessary.
JJ Bean exists to honour people. As with any crisis, our primary concern is the health and wellbeing of everyone connected through the coffee chain, from producers to our customers.
Some of the measures we are taking during this time to minimize potential spread of the virus:
We strongly encourage all customers to be considerate of our baristas, bakers, and other guests and consider purchasing whole-bean coffee or gift cards for future use at jjbeancoffee.com rather than in-person. If you are visiting a café, we need your help:
We are extremely grateful for the loyalty and support JJ Bean customers have shown over the years, and hope we can continue to serve you for years to come.
Sincerely,
John Neate (“JJ”)
On behalf of JJ Bean
We arrived in Medellin early on Monday morning. I would have been excited had I not eaten a curious item on the flight in from Panama City. It was called a “ham and cheese bun” but went down as one warm, gelatinous whole. This unfortunate breakfast sent me down a path of digestive upheaval that never righted itself for the duration of the trip.
After driving through the East Tunnel (the longest road tunnel in Latin America) and checking into the ultra-hip Click Clack hotel, we sallied forth to get coffee at a Pergamino cafe. There we met our friend Stephen Hurst of Mercanta (one of our importers) and Pedro Echavarria of Pergamino. Pedro, together with his father and brothers, runs an impressive operation. Pergamino has a number of third-wave cafes throughout Medellin but they also produce coffee at their own farms, and they mill and export green coffee all over the world.
In the afternoon we visited the Pergamino dry mill where green coffees are hulled and sorted to prepare for export. Pedro picked up some amazing sandwiches from a spot nearby for lunch. The Banh Mi with chicharron was insane. Come to think of it, I think I ate chicharron every day of the trip.
On the cupping table, a variety called Chiroso was a favourite for its floral, tea-like qualities. They don’t know exactly what Chiroso is. Some think it is a natural regression of Caturra (or maybe Bourbon). In any case, we loved tasting expressions of it from a few different farms. Some cups tasted of green tea, some of black tea; all were floral.
That night we ate some amazing Japanese fusion with Mercanta and Pergamino folks at Moshi restaurant. The Brazilians among us argued about which Brazilians were the “true” Brazilians. We laughed a lot.
We hit the road early next morning to visit farms. Our first stop was one of Pedro’s family farms, Finca Camelia. Most of the farm is planted with Colombia variety, but there is Chiroso up at the top at 6000 feet. We drank some amazingly fresh orange juice while taking in the breathtaking views.
We stopped for lunch on the way to Urrao for Bendeja Paisa, a huge platter with red beans, white rice, ground meat, chicharon, fried egg, plantain (patacones), chorizo, arepa, and black pudding (morcilla), all washed down with the ubiquitous Aguila beer. Some of us had a stew version of this called cazuela. The combination of this immense lunch and the winding roads to Urrao worked a nauseating devilry upon Jesse (though the chief culprit may have been the generous quantity of aguardiente he consumed the night before).
Our next stop was Finca La Falda in Urrao. We were really excited to see this farm as we had purchased La Falda in the past. After crossing some rough terrain (including a river) in the four-by-fours, we had to get out and walk. The skies opened and deluged wet wrath upon us as we trudged across the valley to La Falda. I learned that my rain jacket was not waterproof. We had to cross a river over a foot “bridge” that was essentially a few pieces of wood strung together with some wire for handrails. Jesse said, “Hey, at least there’s some barbed wire to hold onto if you slip!” The wire is electrified when not in use. Thankfully, we were expected.
After making our way up an eroding clay hill we arrived at the farmhouse looking like drowned rats and met Jose Arcadio Rueda and his lovely wife. There we had a nice cup of coffee, hand ground by John himself, and Jose showed us his operation. He produces 80 bags a year, fermenting his coffee in brand-new stainless steel tanks and drying in a covered greenhouse. The extended fermentation (five days!) may account for the overt fruity notes in Jose’s coffees. La Falda is real success story. The quality of Jose’s coffee has made him one of the most successful producers in the region. Getting back down the mudslide and over the river proved to be problematic for some of us, so we were sent back across by sitting in a cable car meant for transporting parchment coffee across the valley.
That night we ate at a nearby restaurant/store. I had my first arepa with fresh cheese. Certainly not the last! We stayed at a “farm hotel” that night, where the dogs seemed intent on keeping us awake.
Next morning we visited a small producer in Urrao named Frei David Moreno. Frei is part of a group of small producers in Pavon. There are around 45 producers in the area. A really cool thing about Colombia is that most small producers process their own coffee at their own little farms. Like Frei, they have a hand pulper, ferment the coffee in small square tanks, and dry the coffee on a little covered patio. This way each producer has control of the quality of the processing. Frei David has around 4 hectares, 1 hectare of which is planted with coffee. The rest is planted with other things, like lulo fruit. The lulo was sour, but the hot aguapanela (unrefined cane sugar dissolved in water) was very sweet!
On the long drive back to Medellin, one of the trucks drove into an unsuspecting ditch and had to get pulled out by friendly passersby. The driver shall remain nameless. It was all very exciting.
When we got back to the city we were excited to spend an evening of fun with Stephen and his lovely wife Alda. It took us a while to find their place on foot because John and Neto were arguing over the best way to get there. But we finally arrived (sweating), took in the beautiful views of the city from the apartment, ate some burgers, and quickly engaged in a competition to see who could make the best caipirinhas. The winner shall remain nameless.
The next day we were up early for a flight to Bogota. Brandon (relentlessly called “Hollywood” by our team) and Amanda from Royal Coffee (another importer that we work with) greeted us, together with Federico (“Fede”) from Azahar Coffee. Like Pergamino, Azahar operates their own beautiful and successful cafes in Bogota and also mills and exports specialty Colombian coffees. That night Fede took us to an amazing restaurant called Mesa Franca. My “Ronhatten” (rum Manhattan) housed a sphere of crystal clear ice. I think I saw my future in it…
The next day we boarded a small 9-seat propeller plane for Planadas in south Tolima. The view from the plane was utterly spectacular. Green mountains and valleys and rivers for as far as the eye can see. We landed at a military base in Planadas, and knew that we were in a different place altogether. This was a remote area that has history with FARC. But the buildings were colourful and the people were delightful. Josue Enciso and his son Emanuel were there to greet us. After some soup in a little restaurant we hopped on the back of a jeep and made our way through the mountains to the town of Gaitania. The locals were already staring at us, and it didn’t help that John was yelling that he was George Clooney from the back of the jeep! We are thankful that John is still with us.
After a quick stop in Gaitania where we would say the night, we hopped back into the jeep and continued via mountain dirt roads to Finca Roma in the San Pedro Region. The farm is called Roma because all roads in the region lead there. At Roma, Josue introduced us to the leaders of ASCI SP, an indigenous coffee growing community. The name is an acronym that translates to the “Indigenous Coffee Producers Association of San Pedro.” Meeting ASCI SP was thrilling for us because we buy their organic coffee for our Eastside blend, but we had never met them before. There are around 70 members of the association. They are currently building a mechanical dryer, as harvest time coincides with the wet season. They also have plans to build a school for teaching English to give opportunities to their children.
After we met everyone we had some coffee, and we were stunned. Emanuel made us a Chemex of a natural Geisha that completely knocked our socks off. At Roma, Josue is constantly experimenting with different methods of processing. The coffee is fermented anaerobically in bags or buckets, not tanks. They use an eco-friendly de-mucilager that removes the mucilage through friction, allowing them to use almost no water in the process. They have plans to build African-style beds to better control their drying. The whole operation is extremely impressive, especially given the remoteness of the area. The mountains are extremely steep, and some producers in the area still bring the coffee down using donkeys.
After a magically restorative bowl of bean stew (with sausage and chicharron!), we hopped back on the jeep and visited some of the ASCI SP farms, passing beautiful adobe brick houses along the way. At one point a very large drum of liquid was placed on the back of the jeep. This turned out to be chicha, a boozy, cloudy, fermented sugar cane drink. Fede really went at the chicha hard, which made the windy road back somewhat uncomfortable for him but amusing for us.
That night we returned to Gaitania and checked in to the hotel, before watching some locals play soccer and eating cheesy street arepas. The bathroom in our room consisted of a toilet and an exposed pipe coming out from the wall for a shower. When the “shower” was turned on, it sprayed cold water over every surface of the bathroom, including the toilet. I had never encountered this interesting arrangement before. There was no hot water, but we were filthy and sweaty from the farms so we needed to shower. The trick was to do one body part at a time. Neto, Nicolas and I stayed in one small room. I confess that I slept in my clothes. There were loud noises during the night: banging, clanging, and unearthly screaming.
The light of morning couldn’t come fast enough. After my customary breakfast of Pepto Bismol tablets, we were on our way to Finca La Leona, a farm owned by Josue’s brother Afraino. This farm was a little larger than others we had visited, producing a whole container of coffee. La Leona was like something out of a romantic painting of a coffee farm. We walked among the immaculately straight rows of coffee, chewing on raw sugar cane cut with a machete. The coffee at La Leona is traditionally wet-processed. No water is added during fermentation, and the coffee is dried on greenhouse patios.
After La Leona we had to rip back to Planadas to catch our little Cessna back to Bogota. The landing strip was barely long enough for take-off, which was a little unnerving. But then the real excitement began. After take-off, the pilot wheeled around, came screaming down to just above the landing strip for a fly-by (for reasons that escape us), and on the way up from the base the second time, we hit a vulture (Requiescat in pace)! One wonders what might have come to pass if the vulture had connected with the propeller instead of the wing.
To say we were grateful to land safely in back in Bogota is an understatement. In our excitement, we made the neanderthal-like decision to hop out of the van before it arrived at the hotel during a torrential downpour of apocalyptic proportions (Hollywood and Amanda wisely continued on to the hotel). But we needed a coffee! The hot shower in the hotel that afternoon was perhaps the greatest shower in memory.
The next day was Sunday, and a day off. We took the opportunity to walk the Camino Peatonal a Monserrate up to the shrine dedicated to El Señor Caído. Unfortunately the rest of Bogota had the same idea. Think of doing the Grouse Grind, up stone steps, pressed up against thousands of people. We thought John wouldn’t make it and that we would have to send him down in the gondola, but in the end he said he would rather die than face the shame of not finishing. The view from the top was spectacular and worth the effort. We couldn’t get into the church at the top as it was bulging at the seams with pilgrims. The whole experience made me think of something out of the Middle Ages. That afternoon we made for the centre of old Bogota and took in the sights, after some much needed coffee and a delicious lunch at Azahar cafe.
The next morning we were up early for another internal flight to Armenia, where we visited the Azahar dry mill operation and cupped a bunch of coffees. On the cupping table we were attracted to some extended fermentation and natural process coffees. This surprised us, as we usually stick to traditionally washed coffees. But these were both really clean and extravagantly fruity. A number of them had tropical, pineapple-like aromatics. Look out for these beauties in the coming months!
We had lunch in a really cool restaurant called Helena Adentro in an amazingly colourful town called Filandia. Margaritas were a specialty of this place. I’m surprised we didn’t clear them out of their supply of limes…
The next day we flew home to Vancouver, full of memories and a renewed passion for coffee that these trips inevitably birth in us.
It’s impossible to capture all the good-natured ribbing, the quantity of pisco sours consumed, the pool games lost and won, the new friendships forged, and the amount of laughter and team bonding that these trips produce.
At the end of each origin trip one sentiment remains: gratitude. We are so thankful to be able to roast and serve coffees that are not really ours at all. They are the product of good, hard working people, half a world away, and they come to us through the efforts of exporters and importers who are making a real difference in people’s lives all through their part in the journey from crop to cup. We are thankful.
JJ Bean is proud to operate in two cities committed to leading Canada’s environmental initiatives. The City of Vancouver aspires to be the greenest city in the world by 2020, and the City of Toronto is working to divert 70% of landfill waste by 2026. In the past we have taken steps to reduce our carbon footprint, but we will take bold action to avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle.
On October 1st, 2018, we will be raising our drink prices while introducing some new initiatives:
Some of the things we already offer:
Some of the things we have planned through January 2019:
There will be further improvements as more options become available to us. We are excited to see the impact that we can have together, partnering for a more sustainable future.
For more information about social responsibility, visit our About page.
This summer JJ Bean Coffee Roasters raised over $70,000 with imagine1day to build a kindergarten in Haro Dumal, Ethiopia.
Thanks to the generosity of customers and other partners, the original $37,000 fundraising goal was almost doubled and the original project vision has been expanded to include construction of another school and bringing clean water to Tsigeba with Run For Water.
imagine1day joined Ethiopia’s commitment to see every Ethiopian child receive access to quality education free of foreign aid by 2030. It’s an incredible goal that can be achieved within the next decade.
]]>JJ Bean x imagine1day have partnered to build a kindergarten in Haro Dumal, Ethiopia. Haro Dumal is located in Oromia, a coffee growing region JJ Bean has been buying coffee from for 20 years. imagine1day has prioritized this community because of the high number of children in the community and the lack of facilities. Of 172 children in the age group, only 68 are enrolled in school. The children who attend school do not have a classroom so they sit on the ground or on rocks under a tree.
imagine1day joined Ethiopia’s commitment to see every Ethiopian child receive access to quality education free of foreign aid by 2030. It’s an incredible goal that can be achieved within the next decade. 100% of money donated will go directly to this kindergarten, thanks to Chip and Shannon Wilson’s generous endowment. Join our imagine1day campaign and see how they’ve impacted Ethiopia for yourself: https://imagine1day.org/events/jjbean-x-imagine1day/
The cost of this project is $30,000USD. JJ Bean has seeded $15,000USD to begin construction and we are fundraising the balance through the help of like-minded individuals and organizations. If you love JJ Bean coffee, you have enjoyed a lot of Ethiopian coffee over the last 20 years. Please consider joining us in this special project. We appreciate your support.
Here are ways you can support our project this summer:
- We’re donating $2/lb of whole bean sales of Kochere, Ethiopia single origin coffee (launching June 2) to the project, so every purchase helps this project.
- You can make donations at the cash register any time this summer, or online through https://imagine1day.org/events/jjbean-x-imagine1day/
- On Friday July 21st, our baristas and bakers are donating all tips to the project. (This is usually where we say we’ll match dollar for dollar, but we’ve already donated our half to get construction started! We wanted construction to finish in the same year that our customers donated so they could feel the tremendous impact of their generosity.)
- We’re bringing back the magnets and postcards! Illustrated by our baristas, you can make a donation and have a reminder of the project with all proceeds going directly to the project.
- Donations over $500 will be entered into a draw for a free trip to attend a school opening in Ethiopia with imagine1day in October, and receive a tax receipt by imagine1day. (Obviously you’ll need to use one of our envelops and include your name, address, and phone number!)
About Over + Above
Our Over + Above program supports coffee growing communities beyond paying producers excellent prices for their coffees. This year we finish a five year commitment to provide education, room, and board to nine girls in East Africa through CHES, and just agreed to sponsor 10 more through 2022. We participated in our sixth home building project with Habitat For Humanity in 2014, sponsoring 50% of costs and sending 12 JJ Bean staff to Guatemala. Our customers and suppliers contributed the other 50%. We are truly grateful for your continued support in these special projects, all of which are only made possible by your generous gifts.
JJ Bean takes on all administrative costs for Over + Above, so your donations go directly to the projects that we support.
Before & After
]]>Many of you know that we purchase coffee from Carmo Estate in Brazil on a yearly basis for our Espresso JJ and for our single origin offerings. What you may not know is that Tulio and Lu Junqueira are some of the most generous and wonderful people on the planet. My words could never adequately express what we experienced with these amazing people in Brazil, but hopefully the following report (and especially David’s pictures) will give you at least a little glimpse of our time there.
Even through half-shut eyes at the end of a long red-eye, the sight of Saõ Paulo from the air was astonishing. The biggest city in the Americas seemed to stretch on to infinity. We were thankful that Tulio was at the airport to pick us up. After hugs and a quick rest at our hotel, we set out with Tulio to explore some of the city on foot, especially the historic square near Saõ Paulo Cathedral. The party really started after we picked up Lu and headed to Paulista Avenue in the heart of the towering concrete jungle. Lu wanted to show us the Museum of Art, one of her favourite buildings and a modern architectural landmark.
I’ve been hearing from Neto for years about the quality of food in Brazil, but the fact really hit me at the steakhouse on our first night in the country. We had the pleasure of meeting João and Thiago at dinner, two of the Junqueira’s sons and a couple of really nice guys! While hearing about their work and families, David and I ate some of the best steaks of our lives. Perhaps even more profoundly, we tasted our first caipirinha, the national cocktail of Brazil (half a lime quartered, muddled with sugar, topped with ice and drowned in a local sugarcane spirit called cachaça). From that point forward, David and I set out to drink a caipirinha at every possible opportunity.
One cannot go all the way to Brazil and not see Rio. Fortunately, Tulio and Lu were happy to come with us to be our tour guides, translators, foster parents, and dinner dates. I hesitate to say too much about this part of the trip because it will only make your hearts jealous and your mouths water in vain. Rio is a magical place to visit. Highlights include the stunning view from Pão de Açúcar, taking the train up to see the iconic Cristo Redentor (with a carton of Carmo Estate Cold Brew in hand!), walking Ipanema beach and the Copacabana promenade with their unique mosaic pavement designs, drinking caipirinhas and eating a delicious lunch in the bar where “The Girl from Ipanema” was written, and eating way too much at Fogo de Chão Churrascaria. Did I mention we had a caipirinha or two? By this time in the trip, a common refrain amongst the four of us was, “I love Brasil!” I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.
Finally we arrive at the purpose of our trip, visiting Carmo Estate in Sul de Minas. I passed out when we got into the car in São Paulo, but when I awoke we were driving through a land of rolling green hills and cattle; we were in the state of Minas Gerais. It reminded us a little of the Okanagan but greener, with coffee instead of vineyards and palms and citrus instead of pines. When we arrived at Carmo Estate, Tulio came alive. He put on his farmer’s hat, stood up straight, and beamed with pride. “For me, this is the best place on earth,” he said. Before crossing the road to see the farm and the main drying patios, we had delicious farmhouse lunch of beef with onions, rice, beans, and an addictive crispy fried root vegetable. The dessert was pudim de leite condensado, a flan made from sweetened condensed milk and sugar syrup. I cannot express in words how much I loved this dessert. Muito bom!
Carmo Estate is a beautiful and very well-run farm. The soil is composed of red and yellow clay, which Tulio says is perfect for growing coffee. A number of varietals are grown on the farm, including Bourbon, Mundo Novo, Catuaí, Catucaí, Acaiá and Icatú. Tulio feels the yellow varietals taste better at Carmo Estate. Unlike in Central America where the coffee is hand-picked when ripe on a number of passes, the coffee at Carmo is harvested in the traditional Brazilian manner, all at once. Once 80% of the coffee in a given area is ripe, all the coffee in that area is harvested and sorted afterwards, where the greens and over-ripes are separated from the ripe cherries. This year, about 40% of Tulio’s coffee will be harvested by machine, and the rest by hand. The cherries are processed on the same day that they are picked. First, the cherries go into a sorting machine where the coffee is cleaned and ripes are separated from the greens and raisins. The coffee then travels by water to the processing station. Here, the coffee destined for pulped natural processing is mechanically demucilaged by forcing the coffee through a sieve. The pulp of the ripe cherries comes off easily. Tulio’s version of pulped natural is essentially washed coffee without fermentation, as all the mucilage is removed before drying . He also produces very high quality dry processed coffees. Unlike the rest of the Americas where coffee is traditionally fermented and washed before drying, 80% of coffee is Brazil is processed using the dry or natural method. This means the coffee seeds remain in the fruit while drying, becoming almost raisin-like on the patios. When we cupped at the farm, David and I preferred the dry processed coffees. They were very full-bodied and rich, with low acidity, heavy chocolate flavours and a hint of winy fruit (quite unlike Ethiopian naturals, which are wild and berry-like). Our preference for the naturals will be reflected in our buying this coming year and we are very excited to see how these coffees will enhance our Espresso JJ and single origin offerings.
Once the coffee is processed, it is dried first on the patio down to 11.5% and finished in the mechanical dryer. The coffee is milled on site where the parchment is removed, and then sent to the warehouse where the green is sorted, the defects are removed, and the coffee separated into screen sizes. Tulio is proud of the fact that each lot is completely traceable back to the specific area of the farm, the varietal, and the date it was harvested.
Tulio hires an agronomist who comes to the farm about once a month to advise him on the tending of the trees, treatment, nutrition, varieties and other aspects of growing coffee. About 44% of the farm is left as a natural forest reserve, which is home to lime and guava trees along with 33 natural springs and a number of creeks. Many birds make their home at Carmo Estate. When I was putting my bags in my room when we arrived, there was a toucan in the tree outside my window!
While we were at the farm, we had the privilege of helping Tulio and Lu with an experiment surrounding fermentation. We dried samples of a mechanically demucilaged coffee and a true pulped natural alongside a number of samples that were fermented before drying for 12 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, and 48 hours. We are interested in hearing about the results!
The next day we visited the office and the little medical clinic at the farm. This is Lu’s territory. Lu is a doctor, and the health and safety of the workers at Carmo Estate is her special department. She makes sure everyone complies with safety regulations and that anyone needing medical attention gets proper treatment.
Lu also oversees the social responsibility of Carmo Estate. The Junqueira’s are firmly committed to helping improve the lives of the people that work on the farm and those that live in the nearby village of Sobralada. 15-20 training courses a year are offered to employees so they can grow in their knowledge and experience. When workers wish to buy their own land, Tulio and Lu pay for 50% of the land and for the wood supplies for building houses. They also give interest-free loans and rent pieces of land to workers so they can grow and sell their own coffee. Along with providing social housing, the Junqueiras also donated the land for the village clinic and daycare. It was clear to us that Tulio and Lu really love the people they employ and who live in the village. Not surprisingly, their employees are extremely loyal to them.
At the end of the week Dircéia Mendes from SMC, the company that exports Carmo Estate Coffees, was able to join us at the farm. She is another gem of a human and it was good to catch up with her and talk about our plans for importing Carmo Estate Coffees this fall. She may or may not have put a bottle of cachaça into each of our suitcases.
Right before we left Carmo Estate for the airport in São Paulo, Tulio called us outside to plant a tree with him. Earlier in the week he had showed us the tree that he planted with John and Neto in 2014, and now he wanted to plant one with us. Trees have special significance at Carmo Estate. There is a large coffee tree at the entrance to the farmhouse. Each of the Junqueira’s children was christened at the farm, and the water from each baptism was poured onto this one coffee tree. The tree ended up growing so large, they had to move the gate!
To say that Tulio and Lu were generous hosts is an understatement of offensive severity. Yes, we love the quality of Carmo Estate coffees. But it is so gratifying to know that we are purchasing this coffee from people who love what they do and who are committed to honouring people as much as we are. It is a wonderful partnership and a beautiful friendship. All we can say is obrigado!
]]>Written by Grady Buhler, Coffee Quality Leader at JJ Bean (September 2015)
Going forward, we have decided to include the name of the importer when communicating information about our coffees. When JJ Bean acts as the importer, we will include the name of the exporter.
As a whole, the specialty coffee industry in North America, of which JJ Bean is a part, has contributed to the propagation of a story in the popular imagination about how specialty coffee is sourced. The story goes something like this:
Surrounding this basic arrangement, the following may or may not be the case:
In most cases, roasters buy coffee from importers. The importers are the ones doing much of the leg work of cupping huge numbers of coffees, regularly dealing with farmers and exporters, arranging shipping, dealing with containers, and taking on much of the risks associated with coffee buying. The importers take care of the logistics, and then send samples of green coffee to the roaster. The roaster then cups the samples, buys bags of coffee from the importer, and takes the credit.
Aside from simply buying coffee from farmers and selling it to roasters, importers are involved in a number of behind the scenes operations that keep the industry going. They help farmers with processing, transportation, and marketing their coffees. Often importers are an essential banking partner with farmers, with crop financing playing a big part in what they do. Importers buy coffees from farmers when the farmer is ready to sell, not just when there is roaster demand. Importers are very often the people that farmers can rely to be repeat high-volume customers they can depend on. And importers are often the ones that aid roasters in having relationships with producers in the first place.
There is no official or agreed upon definition of what “direct trade” means. When a roaster claims to buy direct, it may mean that they are in some kind of communication with the farmer, usually through an importer. It may mean that the roaster has visited the farm. In some cases, a roaster may use the term “direct” to mean that they are involved in the negotiation of the price of the coffee with the farmer. In very rare cases, direct trade may mean that the roaster is actually acting as the importer. In order for that to happen, the roaster needs to be doing enough volume to justify importing full containers of coffee. In all cases, exporters are involved in the process.
At JJ Bean, the only reason we know any farmers at all is because we have been introduced to them through importers or exporters. Without wonderful people like Bob and Max from Royal Coffee, Leah and Christian from Mercanta, Brandon from Olam, Badi from Caravela, Roberto and Genaro from SERVEX, Maria from SMC, and a host of others, we could not do what we do.
JJ Bean only consistently acts as the importer for two coffees. The reason we are able to do this is because we need multiple containers of these coffees for our high volume blends. Even in these cases, we do not use the term “direct” in our literature because we feel it unnecessarily devalues both the exporters and the other coffees we source in different ways. When we buy smaller amounts of coffee for single origins, even when we have a valuable relationship with the farmer, we purchase the coffee through an importer.
Going forward, we will be listing the importers (or exporters if we are the importers) of our coffees as a very small way we can honour those who enable us to roast some of the very best coffees in the world.
]]>We will be compiling a short piece from each member, sharing what the trip meant to them. In the meantime, here is a compilation of photos from our very own Stefan Feldmann, Retail Manager at JJ Yaletown.
]]>Words by Grady Buhler, JJ Bean Coffee Quality Leader. Photos by David Long, JJ Bean Roasting Supervisor.
The trip started off on the right foot with our connecting flight to Dallas being cancelled due to freezing rain. The result was that we eventually got off the plane in Guatemala City at 6:30am feeling like we’d been run over by a truck (except for JJ, whose spiritual gift is sleeping literally anywhere). Our good friend Genaro Batres from SERVEX picked us up from the airport and we were on the road to Quezaltepeque in no time. Fortunately the ever-gallant Genaro had a pot of freshly brewed new crop coffee for us in the truck! What a guy.
After around three hours of inappropriate touching in the back of the truck, we arrived at ADISQUE Co-op. Coffee from ADISQUE makes up the largest percentage of our Eastside espresso, and is also a component of Espresso JJ. JJ Bean buys around half of ADISQUE’s highest grade of coffee, which works out to a third of their total production. It was a pleasure to meet the President of the Co-op, Avelino Perez, and the Agriculture Manager, Toribio Aldana. Much of our conversation (translated by the remarkable Genaro) centered on the growing challenges of combating leaf rust, a disease that is devastating coffee farms in Central America. Because ADISQUE is certified organic, they may not use conventional chemicals, relying solely on copper sulphate and calcium carbonate to fight the rust. While we were at ADISQUE, JJ committed to donating $2000 to the Co-op for purchasing copper sulphate. We brought home a sample of this year’s harvest of ADISQUE and it is cupping out beautifully!
ADISQUE, or the “Asociacion Desarrollo Integral Sostenible Quezaltepeque,” has worked hard to be a positive presence in the region. The co-op is located in an area with high poverty and mortality rates. Many of the locals are subsistence farmers of beans and corn. ADISQUE has helped to alleviate poverty in the region through the production of high quality organic coffee. Formed in 1995, the co-op focuses on education for adults through night and weekend school.
That evening we had dinner with Genaro and his father Louis Roberto with their lovely wives back in Guatemala City. The ceviche was delicious. Genaro and Roberto own SERVEX, the export company we work with in Guatemala. They are wonderful people.
Up and at ‘em at 6:30am for the 4.5 hour drive north to La Libertad. I was really looking forward to today because we were on our way to Finca La Providencia in Huehuetenango, a coffee I have loved and purchased for many years. The owner, Max Palacios, welcomed us to a delicious lunch of chicken stew at the farm. It’s so nice to know that a coffee we admire so much is produced by such a warm and friendly man. After a cup of coffee and possibly a nip of Zacapa rum (not our last of the trip), we took a tour of the farm and mill.
The kids at this farm were delightful. They tried to get as close to us as they could before David raised is camera, causing them to scatter and squeal with delight. A couple of the boys kept imitating my ‘gringo’ mannerisms; it was good to get a taste of my own medicine.
Max employs around 1000 pickers during harvest time. He pays them way above average, almost double minimum wage in Guatemala. Around 70% of the trees on the farm are the Caturra variety. La Providencia has features common to many high quality producers, including mechanical dryers and tile-lined fermentation takes. Only ripe cherry is accepted at the mill, and the farm is Rainforest Alliance certified.
Before heading to our hotel in a very small town, we stopped in at Finca Santa Rosa Buenos Aires, owned by Gustavo Alfaro. Gustavo was working as a Biochemist in South Africa, but when his father died he left everything to take over the family farm. Gustavo’s dream is for the farm to become a destination for roasters and their clients to come and learn about coffee. The environmentally focused farm includes much natural forest that is home to diverse animal life. We walked upstream through a portion of the forest that is home to thousands of monarch butterflies; a heavenly sight!
Gustavo’s Mundo Novo variety won 4th place in the 2012 Guatemalan Cup of Excellence.
The next morning started with breakfast at Finca El Injerto with our friends Arturo Aguirre Sr. and Jr. After loading up on huevos, frijoles and the best fried plantains (all washed down with mugs of El Injerto!) we set out to take a tour of the farm. I’ve already written quite a bit about this majestic farm in other places so I’ll restrict my treatment to El Tanque and the varietal cupping.
We are very fortunate to be able to buy a very special micro-lot of Bourbon variety from El Injerto called El Tanque. On this trip, Arturo Jr. took us to the area of the farm that produces El Tanque. Only 30 bags of this special coffee is produced by Bourbon trees at 6,000 feet, and all 30 bags are destined for JJ Bean. The area is named after a small “tank” of rainwater that stands under a rock face in region no. 212 of the farm. The portion of the farm that produces El Tanque is exotic and beautiful, like something out of Tarzan. While we were there the trees were in full cherry, almost ready to be picked. Only the second picking of the trees makes it into the micro-lot, as the second picking is of the highest quality and the most uniform. It is impossible to describe our elation at the thought of standing on the very spot where coffee for JJ Bean is growing. What a life!
Later in the day we cupped a number of different varieties with Arturo Jr., including his Yellow Catuaí, Red Catuaí, Pacamara, Bourbon, Maragogype, Geisha, and a new hybrid of Ethiopian Heirloom and Caturra. We had a little competition (shocking) to see who could pick out the most varieties on the table. I won’t tell you the score, but we were all quite proud of ourselves!
All of our serious coffee talk and cupping at El Injerto was balanced out with a large measure of tomfoolery and laughter, especially over supper. Even Arturo got in a few hilarious zingers (of which I was the unfortunate but deserving recipient), and the steadfast Genaro was ridiculous enough to be dubbed an honourary member of the JJ Bean family. The Zacapa had nothing to do with it.
After a good night’s sleep at El Injerto we had breakfast and took a closer look at Arturo’s wet mill and drying patios before hitting the road for the long drive to Antigua. Before leaving the region we stopped in at the Slow Food Presidium in La Libertad for a presentation and some more cupping. We have purchased coffee from this co-op in the past.
The rest of the drive to Antigua is a blurry recollection of extremely high speeds, hairpin turns, Coca-Cola, stinky onion-ring chips, and carsickness. Add to that some sleep deprivation and a whiff of Montezuma’s Revenge, and you’ll have a sense of the general tone of the day’s travels. But the only time we cried was from too much laughter! Pulling into the amazing city of Antigua was like arriving at paradise. It was time for some margaritas.
Ricardo Zelaya has the best laugh in the coffee industry, and he employs it often, to our very great delight. Our friend Christian from Mercanta picked us up from our hotel today and soon we were having coffee with the gregarious Ricardo at his farm, Finca Santa Clara. Santa Clara is an immaculate farm, with the rows of coffee and shade trees spaced flawlessly in long, perfectly straight rows. We explored the farm on ATVs, taking in the beautiful views of Antigua along with some pretty epic sunburns. David got the worst of the burns, and of course we didn’t let him forget it.
Thanks to Mercanta, Santa Clara is a coffee we look forward to buying year after year. Christian and Ricardo are currently doing some interesting processing experiments at Santa Clara, including some natural process coffees. Ricardo has built a beautiful greenhouse that enables him to control the temperature of the drying on raised beds. It will be interesting to cup the final results of his experiments.
That afternoon and evening we cupped 21 coffees at Mercanta back in Guatemala City with Christian. The coffees from Antigua were some of our favourites, cupping out with rich chocolate and fruit in good balance. After cupping we needed to balance out our systems with some beer, food, and lively conversation… and beer. There is never a dull moment when Christian is around.
On our final morning in “Guate” we met Arturo Jr. and the indefatigable Genaro at the El Injerto Café in Guatemala City (is there anything El Injerto can’t do?). We said goodbye to Guatemala over a Chemex of Pacamara and a French press of Bourbon. We pledged our love to Genaro and vowed to see him again one day (fortunately he’s coming to Vancouver in April).
My thoughts upon arriving home have been very similar to my feelings after our last trip to origin: I’m humbled! After being in a coffee producing country it becomes increasingly difficult to talk about “our” coffee. Like I said after our last origin trip, we didn’t plant or cultivate the coffee. We didn’t tend the trees or do the picking, milling, or drying. We’re not farmers or agronomists!
We are incredibly privileged to be able buy some of the best coffees in the world, and we feel a responsibility to roast and brew these coffees for our customers in a way that honours all the hands it took to get these coffees to Vancouver. And at the end of the day, that is what JJ Bean is all about: honouring people through great coffee.
Neto Franco and I arrived in Pouso Alegre (specifically Heliodora) to see Carmo Estate on June 11. Tulio Junqueira greeted us enthusiastically and straight away we went to view his farm. Carmo Estate is 220 hectares (545 acres) of beautiful mountainous terrain with dozens of mountain springs bubbling up throughout the property. The Junqueira family has been growing coffee in this area for 150 years. Tulio is fifth generation but in no way is he complacent to do things as they were. He is innovative and adaptive to the needs of both specialty roasters and to the changing needs of his people. Yields on this farm are 40 bags per hectare—more than twice the national average.
Carmo grows many varieties of coffee—Mundo Novo, Catuai, Catucai, Acaia and Icatu, in different areas throughout the farm. These are fantastic Brazilian varieties but the showcase of Carmo Estate is the Yellow Bourbon, which is in a totally separate area of the farm. The Bourbons mature earlier in the crop year so it’s easy for Tulio to keep the Bourbon separate from the other varieties. All the coffees are milled on site using the pulp-natural method. The coffee is either dried on their spacious patios or in mechanical dryers, depending on drying conditions. Additionally, the coffee is rested in wooden silos at their own warehouse.
Tulio, along with gentle prodding from his wife Lu, has committed to the wellbeing of his team. Many of his people have built homes on the farms, children have access to on-site schooling, and there is healthcare, adult education projects and strict adherence to safety standards. We observed hearing protection, air masks and safety signage everywhere we went.
Tulio has a wonderful three-bedroom house on the farm, which he shared with us for two nights. We enjoyed wonderful meals, coffee, and a desert that is alone worth going to the farm for, Pudim de leite condensado—condensed milk, melted caramel sugar in a flan style—kind of like crème caramel but better.
We observed the first mechanical picking that I have seen. He uses two methods: picking machines that look like weed eaters with vibrating rakes on the end, and a special machine dragged by a tractor that uses vibrating Teflon wands to gently (perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit) coax the coffee off the branches. Weed-eater-style mechanical pickers are passed through each branch, taking off many old leaves as well as the red cherries, which fall onto the ground onto tarps. The coffee is then placed onto sifting screens and thrown in the air to allow the leaves to blow off the top and junk to fall out the bottom. The tractor-driven mechanical pickers catch all the coffee, convey it into a truck, and separate the coffee at the mill.
Mechanical picking is problematic if there is rain during the picking season. Rain causes flowering and buds soon after. Mechanical picking damages flowers and buds but in Brazil it rarely rains during the picking season. The advantage to mechanical picking is that it only shakes off the ripe berries, which is not always the case with hand-picked coffee. The other advantage is that the pickers using hand-held mechanical pickers can pick almost twice as much as hand pickers per day. This allows Tulio to pay them more than a Central American picker would receive and it allows him to afford the health and safety features that are unheard of in most farms. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t sound as sexy as hand-picked.
From there we drove to Rio, enjoyed three days there, then two days at Fortelaza and saw Brazil tie Mexico in a first round match. I would love to do the Rick Steves blow by blow but would probably be better at describing the perfect Caipirinha. (Portuguese pronunciation: [kajpiˈɾĩj̃ɐ]). This is Brazil‘s national cocktail, made with cachaça (sugar cane hard liquor), sugar and lime. (use an ‘old fashioned’ glass, cut half a lime into 4 pieces, add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar or simple syrup, muddle, fill the glass with crushed ice and then add two ounces of cachaca). It’s made with all sorts of different fruit but lime is still the best.
This was followed by three days in Buenos Aires. Think big red wine (Malbec, of course) and beef—for three days: glorious! Eat at Paraje Arevalo (sorry, I am doing the Rick Steves thing).
Okay, back to coffee. We arrived in Lima at 1:30 in the morning, and slept in the airport as we had a 6:30 a.m. flight to Chiclayo. We met Dietrich (Dito) Eppe from Sucafe and Jorge Grandez from Perhusa. Dito is the person helping on the sales side of Perhusa to develop the specialty side of coffee in Peru and Jorge is an engineer working with Perhusa on the education, logistics and development side of things. Perhusa is the largest exporter of green coffee in Peru. They also export many other agricultural products and have a small chain of cafes.
We started off by visiting the Perhusa Beneficio (mill) in Chiclayo and met the key people followed by a cupping. Peru produces between five and six million bags of coffee but this year because of coffee rust they will only produce about three million. Of that five million there are about 200,000 specialty bags available. JJ Bean’s favourite specialty coffee in Peru is from the San Ignacio area and in particular we have been buying coffee from El Chaupe. El Chaupe co-op (eight families) produces 236 Quintales (100 lb bags) in an area made up of 75 hectares.
Peru’s farms are very small (82% of all farms are four hectares or smaller and 67% are two hectares and smaller) and the farmers lack access to education about producing great specialty coffee. Perhusa has invested people and considerable resources to help move these farmers from just producing coffee to producing great coffee. Earlier this year we made a donation to buy the materials to make raised-bed drying ‘hot houses’. The area has very little flat ground for traditional drying patios and to add to their problems, it rains almost every afternoon during the harvest. This means that the green coffee has the potential to dry unevenly and be susceptible to mould. The raised beds will allow for drying in 1/4 of the time of the traditional patios and eliminate mouldy coffee.
Jorge and Dito took us from Chiclayo to Jaen, about a seven hour ride Northeast. In the morning we drove three hours to San Ignacio followed by two more hours to the El Chaupe area. There we were met by some of the co-op members who met us with gumboots and additional transportation (horses and mules). We didn’t understand the gumboots until we saw the mud. An interesting side note was that they had to go to all seven stores that sold gumboots in San Ignacio to find my shoe size. Unfortunately they could not so I needed to wear a size too small—I still feel my toes! These poor animals had to go down 30% slopes (think Grouse Grind) in 10 inches of mud followed by going up 30% slopes with the same mud. Neto started walking instead of getting on a horse. I realized after about 30 minutes that it was safer to walk.
We got to the village about two and a half hours later and were received by all eight families and their kids (who got the afternoon off from school). They greeted us with placards of appreciation, huge smiles and speeches. We were introduced to everyone in the village, reviewed the drying beds and took hundreds of pictures. While we were waiting for the outdoor fire to boil the chicken we took a tour of the property followed by Neto entertaining them with his football skills. Did I mention that we got to try the local chicha (home brew)?
The farm is beautifully located high in the Andes on volcanic soil, perfect conditions for great coffee. The locals are learning about what it takes to prune, fertilize and protect against rust. In Jorge’s words, Peruvian farmers are not real farmers, they are collectors. In other words, they just wait to collect the coffee every year, but do not understand that they have to work during the whole year, preparing the soil, pruning and fertilizing in order to harvest great coffee. That is why Perhusa has a program that is teaching the farmers how to be real farmers. This program is led by Jorge with the assistance of two field engineers that work side by side with the farmers: Hugo Diaz and Jose Agurto. Perhusa guarantees purchase of the coffee produced and provides the fertilizer (guano from the Guanay seabirds from the coast of Peru) that also contains the nutrients to fight rust. They also provide the know how to harvest and process the coffee.
Perhusa organized all the purchases of the materials for the drying beds and hothouses that we purchased the materials for, and they provided the design and supervision for their construction. This was not a small project given the isolation of this community.
We enjoyed a meal with our hosts and finished things off with dancing with the locals. We came away feeling blessed (versus being a blessing) to this community. They treated us with such thankfulness and graciousness that humbled us.
We look forward to seeing continued quality improvements on the Chaupe coffee. We also look forward to a continued relationship with Dito who, along with Jorge, were unbelievable hosts to us.
We returned to Lima via San Ignacio and Chiclayo and then a day later came home to sleep in our own beds—thankful for all that we enjoy in Vancouver and ever more grateful for all that the people from Peru and Brazil do to provide JJ Bean with incredible coffee.