Women-Grown Coffees On Our Menu

Despite gains towards the goal of gender equality, many challenges remain. Discriminatory laws and social norms remain pervasive, and women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. In 2019, women held 28% of managerial positions worldwide and 35% of women worldwide between 15-49 years old carried a disproportionate amount of unpaid domestic work. One tangible way in which we stand for human rights and align around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is being committed to empowering women across our supply chain. In 2020, we bought 40% of our coffee from women-owned businesses. This year, we’ll increase that goal. Plus, we continue to maintain a women-led management team.

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to some of the women behind the women-grown coffees currently on our menu. La Coipa This lot features the work of three women farmers from the Asprocafe Alpes Andinos cooperative located in La Coipa, a town in northern Peru. Their names are Esmérita Vasquez Ramirez, Maria Nieves Tantalean, and Esperanza Coronado Delgado. Asprocafe Alpes Andinos is a fairly new cooperative, currently representing about 150 members. Of these 150, only four women are registered as heads of household, one of whom produces enough coffee to sell in isolation, and we are thrilled to showcase the other three of them with this offering. A little more than half of the final lot comes from Esperanza’s farm, Las Fresas, while Esmérita and Maria contributed about one quarter each from their farms - La Esperanza and El Limón.

Sin Net Chaung

Sin Net Chaung is a community in southern Shan State, Myanmar/Burma. This is our second year featuring this community, which was introduced to us by Soe Thinzar, Sales and Quality Control Director for Shwe Thaung Thu, an association of several coffee-growing community leaders in Shan State. Building this relationship allowed us to connect with Su Su Aung, the owner of Amayar Mill, where this lot is dry-processed. Su Su donates 10% of her profits to income-generating and development projects for the community, and we are sincerely thrilled to support her.

Isabela Marcos Gaspar

Isabela Marcos Gaspar is a sixty-eight year old coffee farmer in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. She established her farm in 1990, began selling to the local market three years later, transitioned toward organic in 2004, and received certification in 2009. Throughout this evolution and through the present, Isabela has invested in effective shade management, organic composting, processing improvements, soil conservation, and protection of local plant species. She is currently overseeing a renovation to her on-farm processing infrastructure in order to increase both her yields and the quality of her product. Hers is precisely the type of narrative that underpins so much of the lovely coffee we have the opportunity to drink today.