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International Coffee Day

Our little Moka comes to us from El Salvador where it was planted alongside Java, Maragogype and others in an experimental garden on Finca San Joaquin by the Pacas family who were looking for varieties that showed good disease resistance. Finding disease resistant coffee varieties in the top of everyone’s mind, particularly in the wake of the Coffee Rust outbreak that began in 2013 and swept through all of Central America, up into Mexico in North America and as far south as Colombia and Peru. It has been devastating, many coffee farmers lost well over half of their crop in the first years and are still trying to recover. For some producers it was a total loss and many will not resume coffee farming.

Understanding the importance of strong genetic resistance to diseases, organizations like World Coffee Research are focusing on heirloom varieties found in Ethiopia and Yemen to try to mitigate coffee disease epidemics in the future. The fact that these heirloom types can also taste amazing and unique is what will keep the specialty coffee industry moving forward. Please enjoy this taste of coffee history in this amazing cup in celebration of International Coffee Day!