Café Cloudforest Coffee

This specialty coffee is shade-grown and is truly one of the best in the world! The story behind this page starts in a remote mountain valley in the South-American country of Ecuador. Farmers there started an organic coffee co-operative in 1998 called A.A.C.R.I. They created the coffee co-operative to resist attempts by Canadian and Japanese mining companies entering their community and creating l

arge scale open-pit mines. The goal of this coffee co-operative is to improve the lives of coffee growing families. The type of coffee that they produce in Intag is an organically shade grown Arabica high-altitude coffee. They grow their coffee differently than the larger companies, they mix the the coffee plants in with native trees, corn and banana which maintains a bird-friendly ecosystem rather than a mono-crop technique. This is a direct trade coffee meaning that all of the proceeds the co-operative makes goes back to the farmers. By resisting mining corporations and their offer of large amounts of money, this Ecuadorean community has chosen local food production and keeping their environment clean. In a world that values profit over nature, the fight to protect Intag is an inspiration. For anyone who cares about the environment or the fate of the Earth, they should be concerned with the growth of mining. To conclude with a quote often used in mining or petroleum struggles: “Only when you kill the last fish and cut the last tree will you realize that you can not eat money.” By supporting Cloud Forest Coffee you support this communities struggle.