JNP Coffee produces and trades Burundian specialty coffee to improve the lives of coffee farmers by sharing premium prices with them and enabling women to become self-sufficient. To help support that mission, we are building partnerships with craft brewers and new farmers’ groups, finding new terroirs, and appearing on new forms of media, including podcasts and webinars.
Recently we partnered with two brewers, Springdale Beer Co. in Framingham, Mass. and Casa Agria Specialty Ales in California, for some very special beers. Casa Agria’s coffee bean stout beer, Black is Beautiful, is part of an initiative to fight racial injustice and promote inclusion in the brewing industry. Casa Agria donates profits from the beer to the ACLU Legal Defense Fund.
Image from Casa Agria Specialty Ales
Mocha stout
On Thursday, Oct. 30, I had an Instagram Live conversation with Joe Connolly of Springdale Beer Co. Joe is using JNP Coffee’s high-quality green coffee beans roasted in Brooklyn to create a Burundian bean mocha stout, BRIG.
Read about our partnership with Joe in Worcester Magazine.
Our brewery partners display a description of JNP Coffee on those cans of beer containing our coffees.
Images from Springdale Beer Co.
New terroir, cherries
I’m delighted we have found a new terroir in Karuzi Province, east of Ngozi, where our Ubuto coffee is grown. Grown in an area new to coffee cultivation, Ubuto features a pillowy body and the effervescent combination of citrus and floral flavors.
We have another new coffee, Incuti, which is being grown near a high-altitude rainforest. A new group of farmers there have joined our Dushime™ premium program that shares the market premium commanded by high-quality coffees. Incuti produces a cup of coffee brimming with silky notes of spice and lime. As the coffee cools, a strawberry-like acidity becomes more prominent.
Burundi, Rwanda women topics of coffee webinar
I was excited to be part of Royal Coffee’s webinar on women coffee producers of Burundi and Rwanda Nov. 5. Royal Coffee said Burundi and Rwanda, two of the smallest countries in East Africa’s coffee- growing region, produce and supply them with some of their favorite coffee beans during the fall and winter.
Furaha Umwizeye Teuscher of Kivu Belt Coffees in Rwanda and I discussed the roles of women in coffee as indicators of social changes in our countries. We also traded stories of how we’ve worked to overcome supply chain challenges during the pandemic. Watch for a JNP Coffee social media post with the link soon!
Podcasts Tell Our Story
JNP Coffee was featured in a podcast on Quality Variations that tied in with an article published in Roast Magazine. You can find the podcast, narrated by Lily Kubota, here.
I also was mentioned in podcasts about the youngest Q grader, in a CoffeeIs. Me episode, and in Keys to the Shop. Earlier this year, Keys to the Shop also featured me in their series on sustainability, where I offered my perspective on the critical relationship between producers and consumers.
I was thrilled to appear in a Seed to Cup podcast for Sprudge magazine’s Podcast Network, guest hosted by Michelle Johnson, where I discussed the gender-sensitive development strategies of JNP Coffee. You can hear it here.
Just released last week, a Point of Origin podcast from Whetstone magazine on Black Coffee includes my comments on what makes Burundi an ideal coffee supplier and the unique challenges facing the women on the ground.
Are you taking on new initiatives in new ways during this season of change? If you’re interested in
becoming a new partner with us or in purchasing a micro-lot of our exceptional coffees, call me at 858-518-7437 or email me at info@jnpcoffee.com. We have year-end special pricing to make way for the first shipment of the new harvest arriving in Oakland quite soon!