Information forthcoming

On the world scene, Congo is a volatile political area.

With valuable mineral, gold and diamond natural resources, many factions vie for power. Kivu area is directly affected and smallholder coffee farmers suffer. The very fact that they are able to export coffee to the United States, is an indicator about the growing stability in East Congo. As a whole, a lot more infrastructure is needed to firmly re-establish the coffee trade, such as rebuilding mills, training and education for its populace and to install a Fair Trade pricing model.

SOPROCOPIV (Solidarite pour la Production et la Commerciaistation des Produits Industriels et Vivriers) is a cooperative operation. About 900 farmers contributed to this lot. The average plot of land per farm is about 0.5 hectares. Processing is fully washed, de-pulped by hand within 24 hours of harvesting at the collection center, fermentation is for 24 hours in clean water, and parchment is dried for about 3 weeks out in the sun.

Because of the tumultuous infrastructure, finding quality coffee from this area has been very difficult. We believe we have found some really nice gems though. We have found that the Lake Kivu region can produce really stellar cups due to its altitude and varieties if proper care is taken during the harvest and processing. We are excited to see these coffees develop over the years!

In general, coffees from Congo are somewhere between the brighter, cleaner African coffees and funky, earthy Indonesian coffees. This Limited Edition offering has notable citrus with loads of fruit, a complex cup and nice acidity.