Through our recent partnership with the Green Coffee Vault, the Coffee Hound has been put in connection with the La Loma Farm in Costa Rica, a small, family-run micro farm. The Coffee Hound is one of the first shops to purchase coffee from La Loma since they became a “micro” lot, a certain lot on a larger farm that splits from the farm to concentrate on the quality of the coffee in that certain lot. A sizeable portion of specialty coffee comes from these micro-lots. However, it is not always easy to make a living on these mirco-lots. In Costa Rica, the price of coffee is below the cost of production—driven so low by big farms—making a living as a coffee farmer has become increasingly difficult.

But according to the farmer Alfonso “Poncho” Granados, their partnership with the Coffee Hound literally saved the La Loma farm. Since we are buying Ganados’ high quality coffee at fair prices, La Loma will continue to produce the high quality coffee that will be featured at the Hound in the near future.
 
Granados (pictured above with his family) is the first farmer that we have partnered with through the Green Coffee Vault, a private Direct Trade coffee facilitation group in Kansas City, Missouri. Green Coffee Vault goes to coffee growing countries, finds the best farms around—like La Loma—and connects them to small roasters and shops, like The Coffee Hound.