Shared Source is a green coffee agency that facilitates robust, transparent and equitable exchange between criteria-driven roasters and small producers. We practice a model that empowers these artisans to farm regeneratively and to make a real living from coffee.

It’s parchment season! Our small team is busy evaluating samples, supervising dry milling, and coordinating transport logistics. In Colombia and Guatemala we pay farm-gate prices, purchasing coffee in parchment directly from producers to ensure that they receive a fair price that reflects quality- both in the cup, and in their sustainable agricultural practices. Buying in parchment means that we manage the dry milling process as well: from density sorting to loading trucks, we’re deeply involved. These bags pictured in Colombia have now been loaded onto the truck, and they’re at the port to ship out later this week. This will be our sixth (and last) container out of Colombia- until the fresh pickings return in fall! Need Colombian coffee before then? Reach out to receive samples!💌

We’re still reflecting after a week in Guatemala, where producers are worried and uncertain about their future in coffee production with low market prices. Those who have diversified income sources without depending entirely on coffee are those who will fare the best- for example, Amelia, Homero and their son Billy process coffee at their home, while their daughter manages a small cyber cafe from inside their home. They were able to save enough to build space in their home for this additional business only after having migrated to the United States to live there for several years, far away from their families. Market prices don’t cover their cost of production, especially not the cost to produce quality coffee- this includes additional paying workers more to only pick ripe cherries, floating to sort out immature and overripe cherries, and carefully calibrating their wet mill to screen out cherry pulp from the fermenting beans (… and the list goes on). If they can earn a profit, they’d love to invest in shade cloth or raised beds to assist with even drying- but for now, whether or not they’ll have money to reinvest in their farms and processing remains to be seen. Here at Shared Source we’re carefully evaluating how much coffee we can buy, so we can let farmer partners know what our purchasing intentions are. Let us know about your volume intentions so we can calculate our purchases even better- feel free to send an email, send a courier pigeon, hire a skywriter- whatever your preferred method, we’d love to hear from you as soon as you can.

⚡️Fresh crop Colombia microlots are in!⚡️ This container represents the best of our work: the cultivation of long-term relationships with producers to pay transparent prices for high-quality lots. We’ve worked closely with Yamid Quinayas and his mother Edilma pictured here for many years now, and they know that they can count on us to return season after season to purchase their coffee. With the confidence that we’ll return to pay fair prices, they’ve taken extra steps to invest in the quality of their production, including processing varietals separately (like Yamid’s 100% Tabi lot that just arrived) and building a new two-story dryer with the help of a zero-interest loan from us. Edilma’s coffee has been added into our micro-regional blend, Amigos del Huila- which happens to be tasting better than ever right now. Coffees from Yamid and Edilma are available now- Get in touch if you want to join us in our support of the Quinayas family.

Amigos! Come join us in a rare opportunity to cup with Andrew and Michelle together during Andrew’s flash visit to Portland. We’ll have fresh hot microlots from Colombia being unloaded in Seattle right now, and a few other surprises too. And amigos in Seattle? The trip down is not far at all. If Andrew can come to Portland from Melbourne (via Colombia at that!), you can travel from Seattle. We can’t wait to share these lots with our friends, new and old. Plan to be there, and see you soon! ⚡️✨🥄

Jairo Nuñez and Yominson Trujillo’s coffees are just a few of the Colombian microlots that are about to land in Seattle later this week. We’re committed to purchasing from smallholder farmers who are transitioning towards farming without the use of chemicals- if you want to join us in supporting Jairo, Yominson, and many other farmers in Colombia by buying their coffee, let us know! We have a few stunner lots still available- hit us up, hello@sharedsource.co.

Primed and ready to go! Harvest is beginning in Huehuetenango as we speak.
For those unaware, the coffee berries are fed into this guy, sometimes with the aid of water. Upon entry, the rotation of the toothed drum against the metal surface results in a sheering action, which liberates the seed from the skin. The machines can be altered to be most efficacious with smaller or larger seeds, depending on the requirements. This is part 36 of 87 individual processes that get us from soil to green coffee. (Okay, I made that number up, but you get the idea).
#pasoapaso

Strengthen the ranks of
criteria-oriented green
buyers and get in touch.

hello@sharedsource.co