Dirk Sickmueller, general manager at Taylor Winch Coffee Ltd., GO's sister company in Nairobi, selected our incoming Kenyan coffees. We asked him what to expect, how the harvest was and what his favorites are.  Dirk Sickmueller: At Taylor Winch, I work with a team, and our main task is to trade green coffee beans from Kenya. We cup coffees, and I’m at auction every week,…

For a week in February, Volcafe Way Farmer Support Organization (FSO) leaders from Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala traveled together, playing host and guest in each other’s countries. They showed off their progress of the last year, considered what they do differently, and looked for successful practices to bring back to their teams. The day after their travels, we caught…

“I find a bit of excitement in telling other people about my country, and letting them know what it is we do here and what Honduras has achieved in the last three or four years,” says Carlos Umanzor, with Genuine Origin sister company Molinos de Honduras (MDH), when asked about his favorite part of his job. “Because, these aren't like other…

Matthew Harrison has a background in agriculture. And while he’s spent extensive time in the coffee fields, he now lives in the coastal city of Dar es Salaam, focusing on field operations and the trading side of the business for GO sister organization Taylor Winch. Last week, he stepped away from the cupping table to chat about coffee, culture and why there’s…

Coffee is a real opportunity for farmers in Uganda, and with assistance from Volcafe Way Farmer Support Organizations, they’re producing some of the country’s best coffees to date. In this conversation, Anneke Fermont, regional sustainability manager at Kyagalanyi (pronounced CHUG-uh-lani) Coffee, Genuine Origin’s sister organization in Uganda, describes finding meaningful work, efforts to end child labor, and the two carefully…

Meeting up with City of Saints Head Roaster Jim Osborn recently, two trends, due for some consideration, were top of mind: the widespread celebration of, if not obsession with, acidity; and the bit of condescension sometimes directed at coffee blends. Osborn, sitting in a sunny window at the City of Saints café near Manhattan’s Astor Place, grinned. “You could almost do…