Who Makes Your Coffee?

This story is published in cooperation with Willamette Week and Love Preferred Coffee Co.

Coffee drinkers, here’s a question for you: when have you ever seen or heard from the farmer responsible for your daily caffeine fix? Chances are that most of you answered “never”. No shade there. It’s easy to pluck bags of specialty-roasted coffee beans off the shelves of local grocery stores without a second thought. In the coffee industry, or any industry, transparency is sacrificed in favor of getting the product in the hands of consumers by any means possible.

But for Portland-based, micro-lot Colombian coffee producer Love Preferred Coffee Co., transparency and making sure you cultivate a lasting relationship with the person behind your daily cup of joe are non-negotiable. So is flavor. And yes, it’s possible to check all those boxes.

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Love Preferred Coffee Co. was founded by Enrique Sanchez-Rivera. Sanchez-Rivera hails from Cali, Colombia in the Valle del Cauca of Colombia. His great great grandfather, Don Heraclio Uribe Uribe, founded the municipality of Sevilla, Valle del Cauca, considered now the coffee capital of Colombia. He recalls learning about the process of drying coffee with his great grandmother, Isabel Uribe, and his grandmother Matilde Rivera Quintana, at the family farm, El Paraiso. With such personal ties to the coffee industry, Sanchez-Rivera cares deeply about coffee farmers and has been dubbed the Chief Farmer Defender.

It’s an apt title, since Sanchez-Rivera ensures uplifting coffee farmers and promoting the humanization of these often obscure and underappreciated individuals are at the forefront of his business. Love Preferred Coffee Co. quite literally puts its money where its mouth and morals are.

One example of such is the Farmer Dividend Coffee Program, which guarantees 2% of revenue generated from the sale of coffee is returned to the farmers in the form of a dividend (duh). In addition, buyers and subscribers can use a slider on the Love Preferred Coffee website, and leave a tip directly to the farmers when adding a product to their cart. The dividend program may be the first of its kind and gives farmers a leg up by allowing them to continue to improve their growing processes with financial backing. It’s not the only way Love Preferred Coffee Co. gives back either.

Aside from helping farmers financially, another way Love Preferred Coffee Co. sets itself apart from traditional coffee companies is through its mission to connect you (the consumer) with the farmers and coffee harvesters. The local business allows you to “meet” the farmers via mini-bios on their website, and through short-form interactive videos hosted on Instagram. By interacting with and informing yourself about farmers and harvesters when buying from Love Preferred Coffee Co. coffee, you’re supporting a more equitable coffee industry and empowering both farmers and customers to have a positive impact on the world.

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But don’t take it from us. Take it from the farmers and their families who have directly benefitted from Love Preferred Coffee Co.’s business model. The Posada Family is a legacy farm that grows their beans in the Concordia municipality in the department of Antioquia, Colombia.

“I want to give them a heart-felt thank you for having remembered the working team here at Guayacán cafe,” one harvester shares with a smile. “Of all the people [who have] visited he’s been one who has remembered the result he’s obtained from our coffee due to the work of us, the farmers…We are very thankful.”

Moises Chica, who runs the Chica family farm in the Sierra Nevada of Colombia alongside his brother, echoes similar sentiments as the Posada family.

“[Love Preferred Coffee Co.] is the only company that has truly been able to provide us with support. We’ve been able to receive that incentive for our quality and traceability,” Chica says appreciatively. “With these resources we are going to improve our facilities to thus obtain a better cup profile and improve our knowledge.”

Luis Carlos Ortiz, second-generation coffee grower producing high-quality beans from San Agustín municipality in Huila department, Colombia, is also thankful for the company’s equality efforts.

“I want to thank the company Love Preferred Coffee Co. for this monetary recognition,” Ortiz speaks directly to the person filing as he stands proudly next to his coffee plants. “They are the only ones who have given me this incentive for the sale of my coffee, which I will use to fertilize it and make it better everyday. ”

These are only a few of the farmers that have felt the impact of Love Preferred Coffee Co.’s efforts supporting small and medium independent farmers. This local coffee business facilitates a more conscientious approach toward coffee for all, allowing you to get to know and build a relationship with every single one of its coffee growers. Think about that when you’re making your morning cup of Love Preferred Coffee Co. coffee, and smile.

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Did a certain bag of coffee catch your eye? Navigate to the website to begin your learning journey, before heading to Instagram (or YouTube) to hear how your purchase makes a difference in the farmers’ own words. Don’t stop there. Continue learning about each new bag that grabs your attention, interacting with Love Preferred Coffee Co. ‘s content, and sending your thanks directly to farmers.