Seasonal Coffee Menu
These stand-out offerings allow the coffee curious to explore the best tastes of the season. Dive into the flavors and the stories that highlight how our sourcing relationships are bearing (delicious) fruit.
Women in Coffee Series
Organic Double Shift
Colombia | March 2025
Light Roast
Rich & Complex
Black Cherry, Cocoa, Molasses, Herbal
Farmer Co-op: ASPROCAFE Ingruma
Origin: Caldas, Colombia
Elevation: 1,350-1,800 MASL
Equal Exchange delegations to origin connect coffee farmers with our customers and staff. It is a unique opportunity to see the work Equal Exchange does firsthand. We learn more about coffee’s technical side, but even more, it is about human connections that are often very personal.
Double Shift features the journey of Equal Exchange’s Production Supervisor, Anna Filiatreault, to Colombia to visit the group ASPROCAFE Ingruma.
Anna has been an essential part of our Massachusetts roastery’s production team for 9 years, leading a team of 4 to organize and pack roasted coffee, but she had never been to visit a coffee farm. It was a powerful and transformative experience.
Anna visited 3 different farms, hiking, harvesting coffee, and seeing how coffee cherries are depulped and dried. She shared, “Picking coffee is hard. I picked and ended up with a tiny amount. I think about how much we roast here; it must have taken many farmers, many days…. it must have taken them forever! I now think about every bean that they pick.”
On our delegations, we opt into spend the night in the home of a farming family to join them in their daily rituals, share food, and experience a day in their life. Anna’s host was Martha Emilia Henao, a coffee farmer, retired nurse, and mother of 2. Martha is fondly known by some as “Mrs. Colombia” for her non-stop energy. Anna said, “She does everything—harvesting coffee, tending her fruit trees, caring for the chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigs, and bee hives.” Martha was always on the move, with a smile, and a caring and nurturing way. In the short time Anna was there, she could see how much Martha loved her farm and enjoyed tending to all parts of it. “She likes farming organically. When you see her farm, everything is organized how she wants it, there are no pesticides. She likes living clean. She chooses a minimal and natural way to clean her household and surroundings. Her compost is amazing. No waste; everything is used, reused, and recycled. She even captures the methane from the pigs and uses the gas to cook.”
When it comes to coffee, Martha works hard not just at cultivating the coffee but also on the additional steps after harvesting—depulping, fermenting, drying, and sorting. She is proud of her coffee quality and told Anna that the best coffee always goes to Equal Exchange. “They make sure.”
Anna is of Filipino descent and loves to cook. “My parents owned a restaurant, and I grew up watching my grandmother in the kitchen.” In her Colombian homestay, Anna enjoyed time in the kitchen. Through non-verbal communication, some basic Spanish, and the occasional Google Translate, Anna learned from Martha how to prepare traditional arepas and chicken stew. Anna remarked how resourceful Martha was, “She used what she had: corn for the arepas, oregano and onion from the garden and all the parts of the chicken. Nothing went to waste. Scraps went to the pigs.”
In addition to a shared love of food, Anna was surprised by how much she and Martha had in common in their cultures: “food, hospitality, religion (Catholic), and core beliefs: more giving than taking.”
Anna left with a deep sense of gratitude and understanding of all of the work coffee farmers do each day. She doesn’t look at coffee the same anymore. She returned home and immediately prepared some of Martha’s recipes: chicken stew, homemade arepas, and hot chocolate. These meals are one way Anna keeps the connection close to her heart.
In reflecting on how she is different from this trip, Anna says,
“I am more appreciative of the work the farmers do. It’s hard work. I thought, ‘Oh, we are just going to see coffee,’ but this experience fed my soul. I am more appreciative of my work. I am also giving hope to people. I think about how many lives we are impacting. It’s a circle. Every bean is life.”
For more information about selling this coffee in your store or cafe, call (774) 776-7333
Organic Cold Brew
Ethiopia | D.R. Congo
Full City Roast
Fruity & Bright
Raspberry, Chocolate Ice Cream, Blueberry
Farmer Groups: Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union & SOPACDI
Origins: Ethiopia, D.R. Congo
Varietals: Bourbon, SL-14 & SL-28
Elevation: 1300-1888 MASL
This cold brew coffee blend was specifically designed to be smooth and chocolatey, but it also tells the story of co-ops in Africa that have formed a new bond across geographic and cultural borders. The origins of this blend are exquisite, each reaching elevations that surpass 1,500 MASL. On these high slopes, farmers work hard to cultivate great quality beans. In 2011, we began working with the small farmer co-op SOPACDI and were excited to introduce the US specialty market to coffee from the DRC. Beth Ann, our Quality Manager, noted that this young co-op didn’t have a cupper on staff, and she offered to help them find and train one. Over the last 2 and a half years, we have supported both this person and this vital function through training and crossborder exchanges with our producer partners in Ethiopia. Here is how that work has unfolded:
2012: Beth Ann travels to DRC to help identify a copper for SOPACDI: Dunia ‘Moises’ Muhindo.
2013: Moises travels by bus to Uganda to work on roasting and cupping with Beth Ann and Anne Marie, the cupper from Gumutindo co-op.
2014: Beth Ann returns to DRC to work with Moises on intermediate cupper training.
2015: Moises flies to Ethiopia to meet Mike, Equal Exchange’s Coffee Quality Coordinator for a 4-day seminar with Quality Manager Dame Regassa of Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union.
For more information about selling this coffee in your store or cafe, call (774) 776-7333
