This coffee is a blend of two incredible southeast Asian coffees: one from the Kariappa family in Chikamagalur, India, and the other from 13 smallholder farmers in Da La Pin, Myanmar. Each coffee contributes unique flavors from origin, combining to deliver a truly complex Balanced profile.

KAMBIHALLI ESTATE, INDIA
We were lucky enough to host some of the Kariappa family at our roasting facility in Brooklyn recently! Though we were only able to get a small amount of their delicious coffee this year, we look forward to featuring their coffee as a single origin next year!

This estate is run by four amazing women of the Kariappa family: mother Nalima and sisters Maanavi, Anusha and Tejini. Kambihallli Estate was passed on to their father C.P. Manu Kariappa, and with his early passing it was left to his wife and daughters. The family has grown sustainable, shade grown, handpicked and sun-dried specialty coffee in the Bababudan Giris (western Ghats mountain range of India) since 1948, and today they've grouped their 100% women run coffee projects are under the umbrella "Halli Berri". According to the family, they are breaking barriers of traditional patriarchal coffee communities!

As the Kariappas say, "Our coffee is grown under the canopy of jungle trees in harmony with the natural forest landscape. The iron rich soil in our area coupled with the high altitude and low temperatures allow our coffee cherries and farm fresh produce to mature slowly creating our unique ‘Halli Berri’ taste. Our conscious practices ensure we support 296 species of Migratory Birds on our plantation (National Geographic Survey, 2014) and maintain ecological boundaries for the welfare of the fauna living amidst our forests."

Though they currently source coffees from their two familly-owned plantations, their vision is to bring other women-run plantations under the Hali Berri umbrella, in order to enable more women farmers to gain a fair price for their coffees.

DA LA PIN VIILLAGE & SHWE TAUNG THU CO-OP, MYANMAR
Like so many of the specialty coffee-producing villages in Myanmar, Da La Pin has had a quick ascension to the top, having only began specialty coffee production (and made their first-ever sale!) in 2018. The 13 members of this coffee group, led by head farmer Moe Kyaw Thu, are a dedicated team that is committed to continually expanding their expertise, improving quality, and increasing the output of speciality coffee. The Da La Pin farmer group is part of a larger cooperative called Shwe Taung Thu, and this coffee is one of the most impressive lots that we tasted from the co-op's member villages.

The mountainous areas around Da La Pin, and the larger Ywangan and Pindaya towns make up the ancestral homeland of the Danu people - and together they form the Danu Self-Administered Zone in Shan State. This Zone is also home to the Shwe Taung Thu co-op and each of Ywangan’s coffee-producing villages.

The larger Shwe Taung Thu Cooperative, founded in 2018, was Myanmar's first registered community-based specialty coffee producer association. It now includes 18 communities and 400 members - and 70% of those members are women farmers. The coffee is also wet dry milled at a women-owned processing facility.

Smallholders within the Shwe Taung Thu co-op harvest ripe cherries early in the morning, and all cherries are then brought to collection depots in each individual village. Deliveries are meticulously inspected, graded and sorted — and only fully ripe cherries (between 95% ripeness levels and above) make it onto raised drying beds. Each lot is separated by day and, after slow drying is complete to ~12% moisture levels (between 16-30 days depending on the village altitude), they are sent across town to Amayar Women’s Processing Facility in Ywangan for further wet and dry milling.

Ma Su Su Aung, the founder of the 100% women owned and run processing facility, is the fifth generation of a Danu family that’s been involved in coffee since the 1930s (going back to her great, great, great grandparents). The women in her life, in particular, influenced and mentored her in learning the coffee trade - this led her to build and open the first mill and coffee washing station in Ywangan in 2017.

An institution in Ywangan, Amayar supports higher incomes and year-round job opportunities for women and youth – not to mention is a massive money and time saver for independent co-ops across the region to have a top-tier local mill.