Because we are vertically integrated, we control quality each step of the way.  We do not need to rely on and trust others to maintain our quality standards.  To put it differently, we can't blame anyone else for quality lapses!  We start by buying coffee beans directly at the farm gate, by working directly with the farmer and her/his coffee-grower cooperative.  We have a unique (so far) system of buying coffee based on price per quality, as measured by the SCAA cupping standards score.  When we purchase coffee from our growers we start with a minimum price (usually the Fair Trade price), we then complete payment based on the cupping score of a random sample.  We accept coffee from farmers and/or their cooperatives "en pergamino" (in parchment). We store our pergamino coffee at our high-altitude, cool, climate-controlled warehouse in La Paz, Bolivia.  Our green coffee is only accepted (and maintained) at 12% humidity at our warehouse.

Only when we have enough pergamino coffee to fill a shipping container, and we are ready to export it, we finish processing by removing the pergamino and separating the beans by size according to graded screens and by hand-selecting and removing faults and defects.  Our coffee, even at our lowest grade, is so good because we use these time-consuming but necessary quality-assuring steps.  Ask your current coffee supplier if s/he knows how their coffee was collected and processed.  Most don't even care to know.  Don't accept unsupported platitudes like "top grade" or "only the best".  We follow --and are responsible for-- our coffee beans from the farm gate until it is delivered to our customers.  This is why we can tell you with certainty in which terroir our coffee was grown and who was the farmer that labored and made it its pride and joy.  Cupping is done first by our buyers and then by independent coffee cupping laboratories. Every grower can dispute our cupping scores by bringing an alternative, independent professional cupper score.  So far, we have not had any unsettled disputes, and few independent cuppings!

Any coffee with a score below 75 is rejected.  We ask the farmer to replace it with acceptable coffee, we do not ask for our money back.  The rejected coffee finds its way into the general coffee market. The higher the score, the higher our price.  Thus, our farmers are monetarily incentivized to improve the quality of their coffee because their coffee will not be blended with those from other growers and averaged down.  Because cooperatives provide important services (technical assistance, short-tem credit, moral support and friendship) we provide coffee-grower cooperatives with grants and percentage of sales contributions when coffee is bought directly from one of their members.  Each coffee lot is then labeled and warehoused separately.  We also pay the cooperatives separately when we use their wet-processing facilities.

Almost all coffee in Bolivia is grown by small farmers, who do not have the capacity to grow the minimum commercial international shipment (a 20 ft container with about 40,000 pounds).  Consequently, coffees from several growers are mixed together by exporters until a container is filled.  Because we do our own exporting, we keep coffees separated by grower and grade at origin until we complete a container. Our farmers appreciate our approach and actively seek us when they have an exceptional crop.  Exceptional (high scoring) coffees are kept separate and bagged in 15 kilo vacuum-packed foil bags in Bolivia before exporting them to the US.  We believe this is a better way to supply quality green coffee beans.  Other coffee importers think we are "nuts" for vacuum-packing green coffee beans.  However, our top-quality beans do not have the typical burlap, baggy flavor and/or smell found when beans have been stored in warehouses. Our vacuum-packed green coffee, when opened, still has the fresh, nutty and  flowery aroma of "new crop" beans, even after a year of storage.