At the Coffee Hound, as many of you know, we are strongly committed to bringing the highest quality products to our customers. This means we strive to keep abreast of trends in the industry and work with partners that possess a similar commitment to quality. Among these partners are Costa Rican micro-lot coffee farmer, Alfonso “Poncho” Granados, and Ben Carlson of the Long Miles Coffee Project. Together they allow us to offer what we consider to be some of the finest coffees available, including our Costa Rica La Loma, Costa Rica El Malagueno, Burundi Nkonge, and Burundi Musumba. This fall, we proudly add to this esteemed list Ben Weiner of the Gold Mountain Coffee Growers.

In Nicaragua, Gold Mountain maintains their own farm in addition to working with several partner producers that agree to uphold Gold Mountain’s commitment to high quality and superior standards. Among other things, this entails treating coffee farms like wine vineyards. Plants are maintained with the utmost care. “Ripeness Police”, using wristbands the color of the most perfect cherries and Brix Refractometers to ensure proper sugar content, make certain only the ripest cherries are picked. Farmers are trained to recognize and protect against coffee rust. Natural pesticides are used to combat the coffee borer beetle. And, a human component is maintained in the sorting of beans and removal of parchment and other materials after processing.

Additionally, Gold Mountain, also works to improve the lives of those in the community in which they operate. Not only does this mean assisting with maintaining the quality of crops and fairly compensating farmers and workers for their products and labor, but offering them lines of credit, giving free computing classes, assisting individuals with medical needs when possible, and helping provide local schools with running water, textbooks, libraries, and other educational facilities.

Gold Mountain even purchased, and now helps protect, a nearby rainforest, home to three-toed sloths, howler monkeys, tree frogs, toucans, orchids, finches, and numerous other plants and animals.

For these reasons and many more we are proud to say that this fall, through our partnership with Gold Mountain, we will be offering two fine drinks. The first is a Nicaraguan coffee. The second is a coffee cherry tea, also known as cascara.

For updates on these two great new products, please check back at the Coffee Hound Blog, follow us on Twitter @coffeehoundil, and like the Coffee Hound Facebook page.

To learn more about Gold Mountain Coffee Growers you can follow them on Twitter @GoldMtnCoffee and like the Gold Mountain Coffee Facebook and Instagram pages. (Some photos courtesy of Gold Mountain Coffee.)