AFRICAN GREAT LAKES BOX FEB. 2022
AFRICAN GREAT LAKES BOX…
… showcases single-origins beans from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Uganda, which are all located in the riparian region of Lakes Victoria, Malawi, and Tanganyika. This month’s roasters are all black women-owned businesses - KAHAWA 1893 (Berkeley, CA), SIP & SONDER (Inglewood, CA), BOON BOONA COFFEE (Renton, WA) - working actively through transparent relationships to support the livelihoods of female growers in each origin country.
Image: KAHAWA 1893
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From the Roaster:
“Kahawa” means “coffee” in Swahili - our language - and 1893 is when our story begins. While coffee’s origins can be traced back to ancient forests in Ethiopia, coffee had to travel around the world before it made its way back to Africa, in 1893.Women provide 90% of labor but own 1% of land
My grandfather was a driver for the colonial government, and managed to get his hands on some seedlings to start his own coffee farm. Growing up in a community of coffee farmers, I witnessed the inequalities within the coffee industry - women provided 90% of the labor, but didn’t own land.
After studying abroad in the USA, I returned home with some ideas on how to bring Kenyan coffee to the world in a way that benefits our women farmers the most. I invite you to help me ensure that women farmers reap the rewards from their hard work.
Founder,
Margaret Nyamumbo
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From the Roaster: This coffee is not just delicious, but it is promoting peace in Congo, where mineral resource conflicts have taken a toll. Coffee production provides an alternative economic activity to conflict minerals. The rich volcanic soil that produces half of the world's cobalt used in smart phones and electric cars, also what makes Congo coffee uniquely rich in flavor.
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TASTING NOTES
Orange-blossom-like Florals, Cherry, White teaORIGIN
Democratic Republic of the Congo
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From the Roaster: "Boon" and "Boona" are both words that mean "coffee" in different languages of East Africa. And at Boon Boona, we're committed to sharing the unique coffee and coffee traditions of this region — and to supporting coffee growers and our local community in the process.
Today, Boon Boona has formed long-lasting, sustainable relationships with coffee producers, exporters and importers in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, and many more African nations, with a focus on supporting woman-owned growers. This means that we're not only able to source some of the best coffee from Africa, but we're also able to share a larger share of our profits directly with the growers, while helping develop the African coffee industry.
In keeping with the spirit of East African coffee shops, we also work to foster a community environment at our café, and we're proud to provide an inclusive space for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized individuals.
We're constantly thinking up ways to support our local community, from providing pop-up space to artists, non-profits, and small businesses; to handing out free coffee at Black Lives Matter events; to bringing crucial resources like King County Libraries and the King County Health Care Plan Finder into the café so people can easily access them. -
From the Roaster: In Solidarity with Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Union (Kasese, Uganda)
Climate change continues to hit farmers around the world hard. Floods caused by unusual rain patterns have severely damaged many farmers in Western Uganda and Congo earlier this year. Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Union (BJCU) from Western Uganda is among the affected. They lost a significant amount of their harvest as well as essential coffee processing equipment.
Boon Boona Coffee and Atlas Coffee importers are collaborating to support BJCU’s recovery from the disaster and to promote their quality product: Owemba.
Bukonzo Joint has been setting the standards for both coffee quality and coffee cooperative management in Western Uganda for a decade. They began as a rural micro-finance society in 1996 and have grown into a Union with 5,500 farmers and 72 producer groups. They started to grow specialty coffee in 2010/2011. The benefits of producing high-quality coffee was embraced by most of the members quickly and now the Union has 20 micro-washing stations that produce some of the best coffee in Uganda.
Processing Method: Fully Washed
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TASTING NOTES
Owemba is versatile. It has interlayered dark chocolate and dried fruit notes with medium body and acidity.ORIGIN
Kasese District, Western Uganda
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From the Roaster:
COFFEE | COMMUNITY | CULTURE
Established in 2017, Sip & Sonder's flagship location was the first specialty coffee house in Inglewood, California. With a coffee roaster, creative space, and multi-purpose event space on site, Sip & Sonder is much more than your ordinary coffee shop—we are a Black women-owned coffee house and roastery where coffee, community, and culture truly connect.
'Sonder' is the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. As an entrepreneurial and creative hub, we are a space where creatives, entrepreneurs, freelancers, curators, and everyone in between can simply exist, grab a cup of coffee, connect, create, and put sonder into action. Through our mindfully curated coffee program, we invite our communities to be part of a global conversation with a product that is sustainable, traceable, and intentional.
BE YOU WITH US, wherever you are.
For the Community. For the Culture.
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From the Roaster:
The Nile is Sip & Sonder's single origin light roast coffee from Rwanda, showcasing warm notes of cinnamon, red ripe fruit, and apple pie. This coffee originates from the Gasharu farm, which is close to Nyungwe National Park, the furthest source of the Nile River. With each sip, let sonder flow freely like the Nile River, from the crop to your cup. -
TASTING NOTES
Cinnamon, Red Ripe Fruit, Apple PieORIGIN
Gasharu, Nyamasheke, Rwanda