Asia-Pacific
A Farmer's Legacy: The Rise of Yunnan Coffee
Hu XiXiang's journey from rubber and tea technician to coffee cooperative leader illustrates the perseverance and community focus driving Yunnan's coffee sector.
Section
Coffee Origins
32 stories
- South America
Rondônia’s Robusta Revolution: How Amazonian Coffee Grew Without Clearing Forest
In Brazil’s Rondônia state, public breeding programs, agroforestry and Indigenous-led quality projects turned canephora coffee into an economic engine while planted area shrank — a model that challenges assumptions about farming in the Amazon.
- South America
Cultivating Specialty Coffee on Brazil's Industrial-Scale Legacy
FAL Coffee is blending high-tech farming and meticulous processing to draw nuanced flavors from Brazil's volume-driven coffee heartland.
- Central & North America
How Collaboration and Experimentation Shape Costa Rica's Coffee Sector
Producers and buyers in Costa Rica are reshaping the coffee trade through joint problem-solving, new processing methods, and a shared drive to improve quality and returns.
- Central & North America
Geisha at the Top of the Hill: Notes from Finca la Mula
A climb through Panamanian rain to a geisha farm, a cup poured from airpots, and a question about whether wildness should ever be tamed.
- Central & North America
From Corporate Ambitions to Coffee Rows: A Daughter's Unexpected Path
A father's removal from the United States pushed his daughter into a role she had never planned on: running his Big Island coffee operation. Six years on, she has reshaped it and speaks openly about the immigrant workers who sustain American agriculture.
- Central & North America
Rebuilding Puerto Rico's Coffee Identity from the Ground Up
A new university program aims to revive the island's coffee heritage by teaching sustainable production and connecting quality beans to markets.
- Africa
From Whispered Legend to Shelf Staple: The Real Story of Congolese Coffee
Long overlooked by roasters and importers, coffee from the Democratic Republic of Congo is gaining ground as both a standalone offering and a blending partner — though logistics and cost remain hurdles.
- Coffee Origins
Sleeping Among the Coffee Trees: How Growers Are Turning Plantations into Inns
Coffee farmers are opening their farms to overnight guests, offering tours and lodging to educate visitors and supplement their income, though the dual role of grower and innkeeper comes with its own challenges.
- Asia-Pacific
Sulawesi's Coffee and Cocoa Farmers Struggle to Recover a Month After Disaster
A month after the earthquake and tsunami, farming communities in Central Sulawesi face destroyed roads, halted trade, and uncertain futures. Here are four ways the coffee industry can support their recovery.
- Asia-Pacific
The Blue Coffee That Tells a Story of Sumatra
Grown near a volcanic lake in North Sumatra, Blue Batak coffee reflects the resilience of smallholder farmers and the challenges they face in a changing climate.
- Asia-Pacific
The Local Faces Cultivating Myanmar's Specialty Coffee Sector
A look at the farmers, processors, and agronomists shaping Myanmar's coffee industry, and how development partnerships have connected them to international specialty markets.
- Asia-Pacific
From Cherry to Cup: Three Indonesian Processors on Progress and Pressures
Interviews with Klasik Beans, Java Halu, and Tuang Coffee explore how Indonesian specialty coffee has evolved, and what inflation, rainfall, and supply-chain manipulation mean for the producers behind it.
- South America
How One Brazilian Family Farm Used Avocado Trees to Reshape Coffee Growing
A São Paulo family's decision to plant avocados alongside coffee led to better coffee quality, healthier soil, more wildlife, and a second income stream—though yields fell by nearly half.
- Asia-Pacific
India's Coffee Scene: From a Hard Sell to a Craft Revolution
A wave of homegrown roasters has shifted Indian coffee from a commodity to a craft, with cafes, home brewing, and farm-level experimentation reshaping consumption.
- Africa
Bringing Specialty Coffee Home: How One Nairobi Roaster Is Reconnecting Growers With Their Own Harvest
In Kenya, where tea dominates the cup and instant coffee is the norm, Wangeci Gitata-Kiriga is building a roastery that pays export-level prices for local beans and hands the best brews back to the people who farm them.
- Africa
Tanzania's Coffee Renaissance: Growers Unite to Shine on the Global Stage
A group of farms in northern Tanzania is joining forces to raise the profile of the country's coffee, long eclipsed by its East African neighbors. Through shared learning and a focus on quality, they aim to put Tanzania firmly on the specialty coffee map.
- Central & North America
Farm-to-Cup Coffee Shops in Central America Put Local Communities First
In El Salvador and Guatemala, coffee growers are opening their own cafes to serve coffee from nearby farms. These businesses shorten the usual long journey from producer to drinker and give local customers a closer look at how their coffee is made.
- Central & North America
From Pasture to Prosperity: How Two Americans and a Mountain Community Built a Coffee Farm Together
Bill Bayer and Mike Pannell set out to plant coffee on a remote Costa Rican mountaintop. With help from residents of La Potenciana, the venture became a lesson in rural revitalization rather than a quick path to retirement.
- Africa
Mama Claude's Fields: A Portrait of Perseverance in Burundi
A coffee and tea farmer in Burundi shares her daily life, from skipping meals to picking tea with practiced skill, revealing the resilience behind every harvest.
