Coffee, an iconic beverage within the lives of many people, has a story. A story that transcends far beyond beans in a bag. Coffee is the sole source of income for many across the globe. The process of growing the coffee plant is not one for the faint-hearted.

We believe that those who grow and produce great coffee should be able to earn a decent living. With holistic renewal of coffee-reliant communities in mind, we aim to connect farmers with the training and means necessary to provide superb coffee that earns the highest possible price through direct-market trading. 

Coffee Growing Community works with farmers to optimize farming and production practices. We also assist in identifying outlets for coffee that pay appropriate prices and that reduce stages in the sales cycle. You can partner with us today to help these communities in big ways. To get started check out the many stages of coffee development below.

Deep in the rolling hills of southeastern Mexico, you can see Doug Cooper and local coffee farmers make the trip from the city of Chicontla to the local coffee fields

Here, Doug Cooper talks through the basics of what it takes to pick good coffee, and we meet Chencho, a local from Chicontla who’s been laboring in the coffee fields with his family for years.

At the end of the day, the laborers return from the field to the campo – a centralized location that serves as home base for the farmers. They’ll weigh the day’s yield, and record each picker’s amount for compensation.

After the sacks of ripe cherries are weighed and recorded, it’s a rush to get the fruit down the mountain to the beneficio for processing. It’s critical that the bean is removed from the pulp of the fruit within hours for the best tasting coffee.

Finally, the processing can begin. The farmers load the ripe, picked coffee cherries into an Eco-pulper. The machine carefully strips the pulpy portion of the fruit away from the bean, and removes the chaff, without damaging or marring the bean. Now the drying process can begin.

Part of the challenge in self-sustainability in coffee reliant communities is helping them control their product – their coffee – throughout the entire process. Controlling everything from seedling to the roaster-ready bean allows for the most profit, and the best outcome for the local growers.

In the past, family growers and co-ops, like the Ixtlacalli co-op in Chicontla, have only grown the coffee and then sold the ripe, picked cherries to a beneficio or processor at a very low price. By returning portions of processing back into the local grower’s hands, they’re able to control quality and consistency, as well as earn a higher margin on their product. Coffee Growing Community is partnering local co-ops to purchase equipment to allow them to capture and control the entire process so that quality and market value are optimized.

At the same time, through shared resources, hundreds of thousands of older coffee plants are being replaced with new, more vigorous varieties to insure the best health of the plants and quality of beans.

A final step in preparing farmers to sell their coffee at the highest possible value is training them to taste their coffee, understand the flavor profiles within their product and the changes and improvements needed to make it consistently extraordinary coffee wherever it is roasted and served. CGC introduces farmers to cupping practices, coffee market standards/requirements and conventional coffee trade knowledge.

We aim to help coffee producers improve their farming practices so that the quality of their product can earn the status of specialty coffee. This is done by establishing direct trade relations which provides new outlets for farmers to sell their coffee at higher prices and earn a reasonable income.