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Young plants grown in shaded conditions

Why It Is Important To Be Rainforest Certified

Rainforest Alliance Certified

The Rainforest Alliance works with sustainable coffee farmers to improve their livelihoods and the health and well-being of their communities.

Rainforest Alliance is a non-government organization that is working in 60 countries. The basic purpose of this organization is to promote sustainable farming that keeps the environment safe and helps the farmers to gain more profit. They are trying to create a world where human beings and the environment prosper in harmony. An American environmental scientist, Daniel Katz, is the founder of this alliance which began in 1985. The Rainforest Alliance works with all groups of farmers whether they have small, medium, or large farms.

The basic purpose of this standard is sustainable agriculture, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and social responsibility. It is a product-based certification and is not a certification of the farmers. This standard includes the protection of wildlife, ecosystem conservation, protection of waterways, and its guidelines about the use of agrochemicals. Their basic purpose is to reduce the use of agrochemicals as they harm water-living animals as well as pollute the environment.

1888 Coffee’s Family Reserve is grown on a micro lot on their farm and meticulously cared for from plant to package. Every bean purchased is of the highest quality and will have earned a 100% Rainforest Alliance certification. Founder’s Premium also contains over 30% Rainforest Certified coffee in its blend and all beans are from its high mountain farm.

The standards that the Rainforest Certification upholds conserves biodiversity, ensures that soils, waterways and wildlife habitat is protected and that farm workers enjoy decent housing, access to medical care and schools for their children. Farms must commit to a process of continuous improvement and are audited each year in order to maintain their certification.

88 Butterfly – Diaethria anna

By following these standards 1888 Coffee is also preserving the species of the beautiful 88 Butterfly that can be found in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca & Chiapas. The butterfly’s nickname comes from the two 8s that appear on the front of its wings.

Sustainable coffee is the coffee that is certified as fair trade, organic, and Rainforest Alliance. In 2001, there was a downfall in process of coffee and then the idea of sustainable coffee came into existence.  As per the report of the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) IN 2003, sustainable coffee provides opportunities to growers who face difficulties in process and production conditions, that otherwise can keep them in the phase of poverty.

Sustainability is the basic focus of Rainforest Alliance Certification and sustainability is for the environment as well as the grower. It provides a state of equity to all the growers and all the growers can trade in the same market and make themselves economically stable and create a suitable environment for other creatures. Rainforest certification is the name of the economic and social welfare of society.

By shopping for products bearing the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal, consumers can support a healthy environment and help to improve the quality of life for farm families. To learn more about the Rainforest Alliance, visit rainforest-alliance.org.

handpicked coffee cherries

Why Single Origin Coffee is Preferred?

single-origin coffee

Hacienda Las Animas

Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Coffee may be of a single type of beans or a mixture of different beans that come from the same origin, and sometimes a coffee blend is made up of coffee beans that come from different origins or countries. Single-origin coffees may come from a single farm, multiple farms from the same country, or just a blend of the coffees grown from that country. Nutrition-wise, coffee may contain fats, proteins and carbohydrates. It may also contain many antioxidants such as neochlorogenic acid, ferulic, and caffeic acid.

Single-origin or single source coffee’s name itself defines a coffee that is planted in one specific origin or country. In other words, single-origin coffee is the coffee that does not contain part of coffee grains that are growing in any other origin or country.

Single-origin coffee is preferred due to many reasons. Consumers are often interested in where their coffee is coming from. Drinking a single-origin reveals the coffee’s story, people and farm behind each cup. This factor makes it easy for the retailer or manufacturer to make value-added coffee if they use a single-origin coffee. It makes it easy for customers to discover the place from which their favorite breakfast beverage comes from.

Another reason would be single-origin coffee gives a specific bold taste and is not changed with season or time. People often prefer their favorite coffee to have a consistent taste rather than a variation in taste with time.

Safety and quality have become two important aspects for selecting food and beverages. Quality is something that depends on consumer preference, and safety is something that ensures that consumables are prepared by using safe methods.  There are much more chances of adulteration in coffee that is not of a single-origin, as they are prepared by using different blends. Some companies use additives or adulterants to increase their profit.

From seed to roast 1888 Coffee’s Founder’s Premium is produced in only one region in Veracruz and is shade grown. Blessed by high altitude along with tropical sun and rain, the land’s rich, volcanic soil provides the ideal environment for the cultivation of its Arabica beans.

Harvesting coffee

Do Hand Picked Cherry Beans Lead To A Better-Quality Coffee?

Handpicked Cherry Beans

Production of the best quality coffee requires several careful processing steps. A delightful specialty coffee needs distinction and special care at each step of the production and supply chain.  There are countless steps and decisions from seed to cup whose true potential is determined by extensive research and experimentation. The first step for transferring cherries to our cup is harvesting. The final coffee product should be made from the ripest cherries.

Hand picking and mechanical picking are the two commonly used methods for the harvesting of cherry beans. Coffee producers can mechanically strip harvest the cherries or opt hand pick mechanism. The selected method affects the social impact, production cost, and quality of the final coffee product. In hand-picking mechanisms, only fully ripened cherry beans are picked manually by the labor and filled in the baskets hung around their waist while the mechanical method involves all beans stripping in a single move by machine regardless. In the mechanical method, all the cherry beans are picked whether these are ripened or unripened.

Hand picking of the cherry beans leads to the production of better-quality coffee in comparison to the mechanical picking beans product. In hand picked method, only the fully ripened cherries are picked with a chance of minimum harvesting of unripened beans that’s the most important for the quality of the final coffee product.

Moreover, the quality of coffee is significantly influenced by the texture, size, and shape of the raw beans. Hand picking provides much better control on these parameters in comparison to mechanical picking, hence resulting in better quality coffee. In contrast, in mechanical stripping, as discussed earlier, the cherry beans are stripped by the machines regardless of the ripening stage that results in the lower quality final product as opposed to the hand-picked cherries product.

The proven, all-natural coffee-farming techniques of 1888 Coffee used to cultivate the evergreen coffee plants have been refined and perfected over more than 75 years. To this day, coffee beans are handpicked and gently roasted in small batches to produce the premium coffees offered by the 1888 Coffee Company.