It is very exciting to be in London and have the chance to meet truly coffee lovers at the London Coffee Festival this weekend. I will try all new coffee recipes and will share tips with professional baristas. And I will tell them about our ethical coffee.
We are currently roasting our first batch of Castillo beans from Armenia, Department of Quindío, Colombia. In the mean time we are running a couple of really cool photography projects one in Medellín, Colombia with photographer Alexander Rieser and one in London by myself. Both projects are aimed to support families by helping them to get better-paid jobs and to support them with practical ideas on how to start up a small business.
The projects also aim to forge links with Colombian families living in the UK. The goal is to strengthen their sense of identity and belonging, a growing awareness of their rightful place in UK society. But all this would be impossible without the direct support from coffee lovers, either by participating in our Crowd Funding Initiative or by buying our coffee. It is about trade not aid, but also about sharing a passion for coffee.
In Colombia we are very passionate about coffee. Coffee is part of our lives. I still remember as a child looking for the right coffee cherry to eat, to me coffee cherries were like little red mangoes with a mixed scent of banana and guanábana, a popular fruit. As an adult I now understand why Colombian coffee is famous world-wide: it has a sweet fruity taste. It is amazing to see the same passion for coffee among coffee lovers in the London Coffee Festival.
It is a beautiful circle: drink coffee and change lives...