AFRICA - Rwanda

FARMS: 400 smallholders delivering to Intango Washing Station

LOCATION: Karongi District - Western Province, Rwanda

CULTIVARS: Arabica Bourbon: French Mission, Jackson, Mbirizi

EXPORTER: Roots Origins Inc.

IMPORTER: This Side Up Coffees

ROASTER: BYBO Coffee

OPERATOR: Selecta Netherlands

SOUTH AMERICA - Colombia & Brazil

FARMS: 20 independent farmers, connected by Argote Specialty Coffee in Colombia and 5 independent farmers in São Jerônimo da Serra in Brazil

LOCATION: Génova, Colón, Nariño, Colombia; São Jerônimo da Serra in Paraná, Brazil

CULTIVARS: Castillo, Caturra, Mundo Novo

EXPORTER: Argote Specialty Coffee; Capricornio Coffees

IMPORTER: This Side Up Coffees

ROASTER: BYBO Coffee

OPERATOR: Selecta Netherlands

rOBUSTA - INDONESIA

FARMS: First Light Farmer Group, totaling around 20 farms

LOCATION:  Candiroto village, Temanggung, Central Java, Indonesia

CULTIVARS: Unique robusta varieties derived from uncontrolled cross-pollination

EXPORTER: Ontosoroh Coffee

IMPORTER: This Side Up Coffees

ROASTER: BYBO Coffee

OPERATOR: Selecta Netherlands

About the Rwandese Station

Intango (pronounced “Inango”) is a small washing station on the edge of Lake Kivu. Once part of a cooperative that won the 2014 Rwanda Cup of Excellence, it became run down as the cooperative dissolved. That is until our friend Gilbert Gatali took it over. Grown up in Canada but Rwandan by roots, Gilbert came back to his African roots as a coffee importer. He then continued to help hundreds of farmers improve their quality as manager of Rwanda's first farmer-owned specialty coffee export company. Finally, after 13 years of managing coffee quality indirectly, he and his best friend Gervais are fulfilling their dreams of running their own specialty coffee washing station. The washing station works with only 400 supplying farmers, but this gives Gilbert the oversight to make lasting impact for all of them.

About the Indonesian farms

Cahyo, founder of First Light coffee. Cahyo Pertama, whose name literally translates to First light is a 31 year old entrepreneur that is leading the youth movement from Candiroto village in the Temanggung district. Coffee has been part of his family although his parents have been spice traders all their life. Originally this village used to have excelsa variety that never really made the cut making robusta this region’s native species. Although coffee wouldn’t be the first choice for many of the youth that are part of his group, finding jobs that could pay bills was getting difficult. More of younger members came together to discuss this and see how they could help themselves find stable alternatives. Since most of them had coffee in their family and it was evident demand for higher quality coffee seemed promising. 20 of them together with Cahyo decided to give specialty coffee a try out of which roughly 10 of them were first time coffee planters. Incomes from coffee allowed them to also improve their ‘image’ in the society, it was profitable and doing it together enabled access to knowledge, resources easily. It is a robusta that clearly can change the bad reputation this variety has.

About colombia

In 2014, This Side Ups Lennart met Juan Pablo through a mutual friend. They hit it off immediately and a partnership was born. In the first year, we helped them obtain hulling equipment and an export license so they could sell this coffee straight to us. Less than two years later, they became independent exporters, created raised beds, helped their friends of the Muñoz family process and export their crop, and already seven groups of field baristas have helped to experiment with cascara, honey, natural, anaerobic processing, and much, much more. Since 2016 the washed crop was fermented, a great tweak that has made the coffee's sweetness more layered. In 2017 we began experimenting and upgrading with greater pace and in direct cooperation with roasters. 2018 brought about the first structural fermentation timing experiments, while in 2019 many of the farmers have spent their premiums on not just raised beds but raised drying “drawers” for maximum space efficiency. 2020 and 2021 saw the establishment of a training center for regenerative transition for any farmer who is interested. In 2022 and 2023 the processing craziness continues and there are even plans to start cacao production. With a mentality and a network like Argote’s, the sky truly is the limit.

About the brazilians

Capricornio coffees is located on the line of Capricorn (hence the name!) and therefore quite distant from the Equator, this means that winters are colder and average temperature is lower. The coffees will need to work harder to ripen, which increases the sweetness of the flavor, creating a very distinct coffee. This coffee is a blend especially prepared to achieve a composition of flavors full of fruit, vibrant complexity and a subtile body, and part of the Signature coffees line of the connected Capricornio farms. Signature coffees have taste profiles idealized and chosen by Capricornio Coffees director Luiz Roberto, and validated by the Quality Control team. The aim is to create taste profiles that are repeated every year, offering not only quality, but also consistency, that coffee drinkers recognize every year.

what to taste for

Flavor Stability

At least four times per year, the blend gets extensively tested, tasted and redesigned to guarantee a similar flavor profile all year round, whilst supporting a variety of coffee producers.

Aroma: chocolate, dried berries, slight citric notes, spices.

Body: round mouthfeel with a thick body.

Acidity: hint of orange, grape.

Aftertaste: white pepper, almond, honey.

PROCESSING your coffee

Colombian coffee is a fully washed coffee, meaning the cherries hand-picked, de-pulped, washed with mountain water, fermented for 18-24 hours, sun-dried on concrete patios and on raised “drawers” with high airflow for about 2 weeks, manually sorted at the farm in four separate rounds, hulled and bagged at the Argote family farm. The Brazilian coffee is a pulped natural. The combination of altitude and processing results in a jammy, red fruit profile, with lots of sweetness and a dark chocolate backbone. The Rwandese coffee is a washed arabica coffee. The combination of altitude and processing results in a fresh, citric and fruity profile, with lots of sweetness and a hint of acidity. The Indonesian coffees are natural processed robustas, giving it a very round, sweet and spicy taste, without the hints of tar and rubber so often associated with this type of coffee.

ROASTING YOUR COFFEE

BYBO Coffee uses modern, highly energy efficient hot air roasters with an inbuilt afterburner, leading to lower CO2 emissions than conventional roasting. The machinery uses state of the art roasting software, controlled by a skilled roast master. The roast time is around 10 minutes. After the first crack, the coffee is roasted for a remainder of 25% of the time. All three the coffees are roasted separately, and mixed afterwards, to obtain the best flavor through the individual roast profiles and guaranteeing full traceability from bean to cup.

PRICE BREAKDOWN

€5.37 per kg

is what the farmers get (average of the three origins) for the green coffee price, stated as “FOB” or Free on Board. This is for growing, harvesting, milling and getting the bags onto the ship. Proof and exact price build-ups can be found below.

€1.35 per kg

importing costs. This is customs fees, insurance, warehousing charges, quality control, financing, and regular contact with the producers, all to be done by This Side Up Coffees.

€0.20 per kg

shipping from the Rotterdam warehouse to the BYBO Coffee roastery in Amsterdam.

€1.37 per kg

roasting loss. When you roast green beans, around 15-20% of the mass evaporates. This means that 1kg of green coffee turns out to be 800grams of roasted coffee, which you need to “fill”.

€2.98 per kg

Remuneration for the roasting of the coffee by BYBO coffee. This means running the factory, roasting the coffees to their best quality, paying off the machinery, packaging the coffees and more.

€11.27 per kg

Total price for which the coffees leave the roastery, to be handled by Selecta.

The contracts - proving the price

When you treat your partners as equal entrepreneurs and pay them accordingly, you’re proud of this relationship and you might as well show it all. Attached the buying contract for the three farms, which correspond to the prices allocated to the farmers + exporting partners in the three respective countries. A little legenda:

• €1,00 is $1,08 (per 2024)

• 1 kg is 2,2 lbs (American pound)

To establish a good benchmark, we used the criteria put out by the advice of RVO, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency:

“During the entire term of the Agreement, the coffee producer shall at all times receive at least the applicable Fairtrade Minimum Price per pound minus 25% + the applicable Fair Trade Premium per pound + the applicable Organic premium per pound (Organic Differential) + the additional RWS premium per pound (towards a living income) of ad. $ 0.30.”