Yes, you read that right: our festive feature Ho Ho Jo! is already coming back for the 2024 holiday season!
Brought to Equator Coffee Roasters from the remote western Guatemalan town of Jacaltenango and the Sidama region of southern Ethiopia, our classic Christmas coffee blend will be available for purchase in-stores and online starting from today, November 14th, until December 19th.
History Of The Rio Azul Cooperative
Coop Rio Azul has a rich history of yielding some of the best coffees exported from the Huehuetenango area. Their goal is to ensure greater financial stability and independence for their hard-working farmers, as well as to provide them with the technical resources needed to increase their coffee yields and shade tree management. The cooperative’s members all live within a 1.5 hour walking distance to Jacaltenango’s centralized wet mill to allow them full and precise control over the coffee’s numerous processing stages to ensure its high quality. The members pick coffee for the first half of their days and then deliver it in its cherry form to the wet mill in the afternoons to be de-pulped, fermented, washed, and sun-dried. This coffee is later transferred to Guatemala City to undergo the final stages of processing and preparation for export in an organic dry mill. (1)
Coop Coffees has been partners with Coop Rio Azul since 2006 and continues to import their coffee.
History Of The Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union
The Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, or SCFCU Fero Cooperative, was founded by Khami Tsacaleja, who inherited the farm from his father and has been working on it for over three decades. (2)
Khami maintains the fields that his father had sowed for the trees through the careful practices of composting, planting soil retention barriers made from useful crops, including the perennial “miracle” grass Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides; 3), pruning, stumping, hoeing, and more.
Khami likens the cooperative as a form of savings account for the farmers to either store their coffee profits or to collect their earnings immediately. The farmers also get a second payment following the completion of their harvest so that their income keeps them afloat during the season between harvests.
For more info on these producers/cooperatives, check out our blog post on the Ho Ho Jo! last year here.
Tasting Notes And Flavors
The Ho Ho Jo! is a washed process 100% Arabica organic FLO-certified light-medium roasted blend (our roast level 3). Grown at an altitude of 1500 to 1950 m above sea level, its bright citrus and sweet milk chocolate tasting notes will have you living in the nostalgia of Christmas morning with every soothing sip.
It's the most wonderful time of the year! Get yourself and your loved ones in the holiday spirit with the Ho Ho Jo!
References:
- CoopCoffees. (n.d.). Rio Azul. Retrieved November 11, 2024, from https://coopcoffees.coop/rio-azul/
- CoopCoffees. (n.d.). Sidama Union. Retrieved November 11, 2024, from https://coopcoffees.coop/sidama-union/
- Orchard of Flavours. (n.d.). Vetiver, a true miracle grass. Retrieved November 11, 2024, from https://www.orchardofflavours.com/vetiver-a-miracle-grass
