Genuine Origin

Ethiopian coffee is cherished by coffee roasters and coffee drinkers across the globe, and for good reason! Ethiopia is widely recognized as the birthplace of coffee. The storied coffee origin even has its own coffee legends and mythology. While Ethiopia only produces 3-4% of the world’s coffee supply, it has an outsized reputation. The variety and character of the coffee…

Espresso has been around for over 100 years now and its popularity only appears to be increasing. According to the National Coffee Association of America, the consumption of espresso-based beverages has gone up by 50% in the past eight years. There’s also a burgeoning market for home espresso hobbyists, who are willing to spend significant sums of money on their…

Nicaragua pulses as the largest country in the heart of Central America. Here, coffee continues to surpass all expectations, despite the political unrest, natural disasters, and warfare that hinder progress. Geographical advantages, innovation, and the remarkable resilience of enterprising producers are putting Nicaragua back on the map for its potential as a specialty-coffee country. Genuine Origin is excited to be…

Coffee in Costa Rica is as advanced as it gets. Smallholders here are highly motivated to keep Costa Rican coffee on the map for innovation, diversification, and a reputation for premium quality. They pay extensive attention to technical advancement, particularly in agriculture and coffee processing, and farmers don’t hesitate to experiment with new varietals and fermentation techniques. With Costa Rica’s…

Hotels, taxis, groceries — lots of industries have been “disrupted” and are now far more efficient, transparent and user-friendly versions of what came before them. Genuine Origin is a start-up, born from a 200-plus-year-old coffee company, because a handful of folks believed green-coffee buying was aching for disruption — for a far better version of what it's been for centuries. So, 65-lb. boxes a person can lift…

“I got in touch with the IWCA chapter here in Guatemala, called Mujeres en Café, and I started talking to Celeste Fumagalli, who was then the president. We started talking, and we arranged a field trip for all the producers to learn about the Volcafe Way.” Maria Renee Morales, assistant manager at Peter Schoenfeld, GO’s sister company in Guatemala, recently…

Riley Thomson is based in San Jose and, after years in the field as a farmer support technician, now oversees the Volcafe Way Farmer Support Organization (FSO) in Costa Rica—a country he moved to as a boy, from Canada. Riley attended Costa Rica’s prestigious Earth University, which focuses on providing its global student body with sustainable-agriculture expertise they can apply…

For a week in February, Volcafe Way Farmer Support Organization (FSO) leaders from Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala traveled together, playing host and guest in each other’s countries. They showed off their progress of the last year, considered what they do differently, and looked for successful practices to bring back to their teams. The day after their travels, we caught…