Our coffee

QUALITY, SUSTAINABLE COFFEE STARTS AT IT’S ORIGIN.

leaf
Brazil
Colombia
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Guatemala
Honduras
India
Indonesia
Kenya
Nicaragua
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Rwanda
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: April to September

Brazil is currently the biggest producer of coffee in the world. The annual production of coffee in Brazil has a huge impact in the global price of coffees and it’s one of the world leaders on coffee technology research. This country has a big reputation for producing low acidity and full (or heavier) bodied coffees, mostly used in espresso blends, but since 2012 they have hosted the ‘Cup of Excellence’ program to promote higher quality single origin coffees. Brazil is also close to our heart at Project Origin, as it was the first country that our founder, Sasa Sestic, travelled to in order to directly source coffee.

Brazil
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: September to January

Colombia is one of the most exciting coffee destinations in Latin America. The country has the Andes mountain running directly through it, creating many peaks and valleys, which in turn creates many diverse growing conditions in each region. This results in a huge variety of flavour profiles in just one country, from delicate citrus coffees to deep juicy berry notes. Colombia is one of the favourite destinations for coffee buyers around the world, as they typically produce two harvests per year (with an early harvest around March to June each year).

Colombia
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: October to February

Back in the day, El Salvador used to produce Indigo, a plant used to generate dark blue dyes. With the creation of chemical dyes in the mid-nineteenth century, the country had to find a new crop to sustain the economy. Luckily for El Salvador, the country was home to the Pacas coffee varietal, and thanks to investments in the coffee industry and in general infrastructure projects like roads, ports and railways, the country began to produce great coffee. Then in 1958, thanks partly to this investment in the industry, the country began producing a variation on the Pacas bean, what we now call Pacamara. Project Origin started our trips to El Salvador in 2012, developing one of our signature profiles, ‘Supersonic’, which we still produce today with our friend Mauricio Salaverria.

El Salvador
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: October to February

Ethiopia is regarded as the birthplace of coffee and has some of the widest genetic variations of coffee in the world. Most coffee is grown as ‘garden coffee’, grown in small lots in backyards. Once coffee is picked, the pickers typically sell their coffee cherries the same day, before washing stations continue with further processing. Some mills can separate the beans by screening them in order to offer a higher quality lot, but separation by varietal is not commonly available; for this reason, much coffee from Ethiopia is referred to as ‘heirloom varietal’. Ethiopian coffee is graded and sold through the ECX (Ethiopian Coffee Exchange), which controls the trade and grading of coffee. Sasa and the Project Origin team have visited Ethiopia many times and we continue working closely with a few washing stations, especially with our Carbonic Maceration process.

Ethiopia
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: October to February

One of the biggest producers of coffee in Central America, Guatemalans have been growing coffee for over 150 years. Given the rugged and mountainous terrain in which most coffee is grown, transporting beans from farm, to mill to port can sometimes present significant challenges. Most of the coffee is shade grown and wet-processed. The most common coffee growing regions in the country are Antigua, Huehuetenango, Coban, San Marocs, Atitlan and Fraijanes. The coffee industry is supported by Anacafé (Asociación Nacional del Café), representing coffee producers big and small and helping with exporting beans around the world.

Guatemala
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: October to February

The institute of Honduran coffee (IHCAFE) works very closely with producers to increase quality and educate producers on how to protect their farms against diseases, whilst increasing sustainability and the profitability of their crops. Honduras also has been doing an incredible job working closely with other producing countries on the development of new genetic varieties; Ihcafe-90, Lempira, Millenio, Casiopea to name a few. IHCAFE has classified six coffee growing regions in Honduras: Copan, Montecillos, Agalta, Opalaca, Comayagua and El Paraiso. Santa Barbara is the name of the mountain located on the region of Montecillos, where Sasa met our great friend and Honduran producer Jorge Lanza. Honduras also has a Late Harvest period (between April to July) and we support local producers during this time with our annual “Best of Honduras” Late Harvest Auctions.

Honduras
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: December to March

India is where Project Origin’s philosophy of coffee sourcing was born. We’ve been working with Thalanar Estate since 2010 and it was at this farm that Sasa found the inspiration to do more at the farming level. We started with paying better prices for coffee and organising fundraising events to pay for project work within local coffee producing communities. Since then, we’ve helped rebuild a community centre, a childcare centre, organised medical services and have helped fund sanitation blocks for the workers at the Thalanar Estate. We have also worked together on things like picking and sorting to improve their coffee quality from 83 points to 85 points plus.

India
Main Harvest: May to October

Indonesia is one of the largest coffee producers in the world, located within an ideal geography for growing coffee; close to the equator with varied altitudes. This creates many micro-climates, supporting a range of flavour profiles and coffee varietals. Indonesia is known for the wet-hulling process, which results in a dark, opal-green coffee with a low-acid, earthy and heavy-bodied profile. In this method, the farmer picks the ripe coffee cherries, pulps off the skin and either dries it immediately for one day, or lets it sit overnight in a bucket (with our without water), then washes it the next day and dries it. In either case, the coffee is partially dried with some or all of the mucilage and then sold at a local market to a coffee processor. They receive coffee at 40-50% moisture content, then dry it to 25-35%. After this, it’s run through a wet-hull machine, where friction strips away the parchment, leaving the bean to emerge swollen and whitish-green. Then it is dried on the patio to 11-14% moisture, ready for sorting, grading, bagging and export.

Indonesia
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: October to February

Kenya might not be the largest producer of coffee and can often be overshadowed by it’s neighbour Ethiopia, but this African nation produces some incredible coffee. Most of the cherries are processed with the washed method, but Kenyan naturals are starting to come of age and creating some unique variations on the classic Kenya profile, usually associated with blackcurrant/”Ribena” style flavours with higher acidity and body. Coffee in Kenya is produced by smallholders, estates and co-operatives, with most coffee sourced by Project Origin coming through high quality mills run by co-operatives. Beans are graded based on screen size rather than quality, so that the larger beans are listed as “AA”, followed by “AB”, “PB” and so on.

Kenya
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: October to February

During the 19th century, Nicaragua’s government heavily subsidised investors to help the coffee industry flourish. This helped international buyers to purchase farms in order to start producing coffee, however this resulted in much of the profits leaving the country or going to a small number of local landowners. In more recent years, coffee producers have also had to deal with dictatorships, natural disasters and wild variations in global coffee prices, all affecting the industry in a negative way. 2016 was the first year we started importing coffees from this amazing destination, with so much potential still to be fully explored. Our local partner, Claudia Lovo, works with several farms in Nicaragua and helps them with quality control and to understand the global market. We were so amazed by Claudia’s passion and knowledge that Sasa bought a farm in Nicaragua, so that Project Origin can continue building relationships with local producers and workers.

Nicaragua
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: October to February

Panama didn’t always have the reputation for coffee it holds today. As a matter of fact, they were producing very little coffee and struggling to compete in the international market until not long ago. One of the most unfortunate events was a fungal outbreak that struck in the 1960’s and started to kill most of their plants. The entire coffee community was looking for a solution as quickly as possible. Don Pachi smuggled himself some geisha seeds from Costa Rica in a desperate move to find something that resisted the fungus. In 2004 the first Geisha varietal won the Best of Panama auction and got sold for a record price of USD$20 per pound. Panama’s high altitude and its rich volcanic soils became the ideal combination for growing this amazing varietal, and today Panama is a symbol of exceptionally high quality geisha coffee.

Panama
Explore our Farms & estates
Main Harvest: April to September

Across both the rugged Eastern and Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea lay many small coffee farms, providing a significant proportion of income not just for these regions but for the country as a whole. The industry in PNG is made up of mainly smallholders with only a handful of larger estates and plantations. High altitudes combine with an equatorial climate to produce excellent coffee growing potential, although transportation from farm to mill to port continues to be one of the biggest problems, with limited road infrastructure to remote farming communities. Most coffee from PNG is processed with the Washed method, although mills are starting to provide Honey and Natural processed coffees as well.

Papua New Guinea
Main Harvest: March to August

Coffee was first planted in Rwanda when it was a Belgian colony during the 19th century, and in later years coffee became one of the first crops to be exported to other parts of the world. Things looked promising for the coffee producing industry until the mid to late 1990’s, when a brutal civil war threw the country into turmoil and devastated lives as well as many local industries. After the genocide ended in 2000, Rwanda received an influx of international aid, including large investments in the coffee industry, and in 2004 the first washing station was built. Beautiful Rwanda and its people have been to hell and back, but the amazing terroir and climate continue to make the country a fantastic coffee destination.

Rwanda

 Quality Scoring

Our coffee green beans are judged on a 100-point scoring system that assesses body, balance, sweetness, clarity and acidity. Coffee scoring 80+ points is considered specialty coffee.

quality-score
quality-score
quality-score
big-bean

Interested in purchasing green coffee?

Check out our most recent product list to see what’s in season. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, we’ll be happy to assist.

See Product List