In the early 2010s, two brothers, David and Jacob Kennedy, began roasting coffee and expanded their love for coffee into what is now known as James Coffee Co. in San Diego, California. Although started by two brothers, Sarah Girdzius, who leads the wholesale and coffee sourcing front, describes James Coffee…

Bean Voyage has launched a Food Security Initiative in August 2021. Here’s a summary of our Mid-term report published in November 2021. — Bean Voyage, in partnership with The Starbucks Foundation and The Coffee Institute of Costa Rica (ICAFE), is leading the Food Security Initiative for 100 Smallholder Coffee Farmers in Costa Rica. This initiative aims to work alongside smallholder women coffee farmers in Costa Rica to mitigate issues caused by food insecurity.

During the early days of my activism, I attended a BarCamp in Kathmandu, Nepal. Surprised at the fact that an event with a “Bar” in it was happening during the day, I was lured into the event due to the variety of topics that were being discussed — basically, an…

As we celebrate the 200th year of independence from Spain in Costa Rica, we are reflecting on the history and the holdover of colonialism in the country. …

Waking up to the unmistakable outline of the Fuego Volcano, we could only be in one place: Antigua, Guatemala. Abhi, Sunghee, and I (Alice) were on a two-week Guatemala and Mexico sprint to research possible options for Bean Voyage’s expansion. …

A few years ago, Casey Lalonde and Fi O’Brien decided to join forces and set up an all-female specialty coffee roaster, based in the UK. …

Last week, for the first time, we hosted a two-part virtual forum, Moliendo Fino. The two sessions were open to all and addressed topics that will be the focus of our Care Training 2021 programme: ‘Women in the Community’, and ‘Adaptation to Climate Change’. …

For this blog, we spoke to Adriana Vásquez, who is leading Bean Voyage’s collaborative efforts with ICAFE to establish Costa Rica’s first gender policy for the coffee sector. How did this project come about? “The idea for a gender policy for Costa Rica’s coffee sector came about thanks to ICAFE (el Instituto del Café de Costa…

When the COVID-19 pandemic entered our lives at the beginning of 2020, almost everyone saw their work affected in some way. But for smallholder women coffee producers, who can struggle to make ends meet even in ‘good’ years, the disruption stemming from the pandemic posed a real threat to their…