Highwire Blend

The Highwire Organic Coffee Blend is made up of the following Organic coffees:

Colombia Planadas (Washed process)

We have worked with the leading Fair Trade Organic cooperatives in the Planadas municipality in Tolima since 2015. These young and vibrant groups have become well known and well respected for their consistently exceptional coffee quality and intense focus on developing their community.⁠ ⁠

Tolima, from the early-1960s until around 2012, was a dangerous and disrupted area due to the strong foothold that FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a rebel paramilitary force) held in Tolima, Huila and Narino. The mountainous areas near where Bilbao is located were essentially run outside the legal and economic structures of the rest of Colombia, and crime including the drug trade were rife throughout the region.

Over the past decade, the regional has stabilised and new, younger and more energised coffee producers have become established in the Central Colombian mountain range around Planadas. This remote community has overcome incredible adversity over the past thirty years to become examples of sustainable and ethical coffee production.

Peru Chope Womens’ Cooperative (Washed process)

Superstar producer Nelida Zurita founded the Chope Womens Group in 2016; a group of “Mujeres emprendedoras e innovadoras” (enterprising and innovative women), which is comprised of 47 women-lead or entirely women-owned farms located in the western regions of San Martin, not far from the town of Moyobamba.

The Chope Womens Group produce only FairTrade and Organic certified products that are the backbone of the local agricultural economy. All of the members are subsistence farmers who live on the land they farm; their produce is their livelihood and they have a respect for the land and ecosystem that is greater than any we have seen across Latin America. Aside from coffee, the group also produces their own line of Organic Yoghurt products, as well as fresh vegetables and fruit, which are now being made available to the Moyobamba community through local markets and grocers. Nelida’s focus is on improving the resilience and livelihoods of her fellow women, and building a sustainable system of year round income derived from the land that they love and respect with intense passion.

2019 was the first time that the Chope Women’s coffee has been specifically separated from the men’s for export, and we are proud that Dukes is the exclusive and permanent partner for this group – purchasing 100% of their production output – every year on-going.⁠ 

Ethiopia Setamo Cooperative (Natural process)

The Setamo Cooperative is located in the Dara region of Sidamo. Dara is one of the local regions that is famous for producing exceptional coffees under the Sidamo banner, and the Setamo Cooperative has been servicing the smallholder coffee growers in the region since 2001.

The coop collects and purchases coffee cherry from over 800 local smallholder farmers – each of which has on average less than 1 hectare of cultivated land – and proceeds to blend, process, dry and export the coffee on their behalf. The members of Setamo will deliver tiny quantities of cherry to the mill daily and are paid a premium price guaranteed by both Fairtrade and Organic standards. Year-round, organic compost is used regularly and a minimal intervention approach to coffee growing and pruning is prevalent among the community, that has been farming coffee naturally for decades.