Updates with Omwani - Aug/Sept

Hi everyone!

We’ve had a busy month with some exciting partnerships developing and lots of new coffees in the pipeline.

As promised, we’ll be updating you every few weeks on what’s in store and diving into some broader, industry-wide conversations. Let us know your thoughts and if there’s anything you’d like to hear more about next month…

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Updates from the team

Goodbye to Livi

Our amazing Quality Control Manager, Livi Collins, is leaving us in October for a new role outside of the coffee industry. She’s spent six years working in coffee and has brought some really valuable expertise to Omwani. We’re incredibly sad to see her go, but really happy for her as she starts on a new career path.

Livi says: “I’ve absolutely loved my time with Omwani. Since starting, I’ve seen us grow and transform hugely, and I’m so proud of where we are now and where we’re going.”

Welcoming two new team members

We’re in the process of recruiting for Livi’s role, as well as a new role in Finance Operations, and look forward to updating you all on that soon. 

While we have a clear idea where we’d like these roles to go, we’re expecting to divide up jobs amongst our team a little differently going forwards, depending on each individuals’ expertise – that’s the beauty of a smaller company at the end of the day.

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Meanwhile, in Africa

Upcoming Kenya trip

We’ll be heading to Kenya from 26 October to 3 November, staying in Kericho, with farm visits, an introduction to coffee farming in the country, insights into processing, harvesting, quality control, production, export and more.

We’d love for you to join us, so if you fancy hearing more about it, take a look at our page on the trip over here!

Coffees that are on the way

• Our Ethiopian coffee is on the way as we speak. We were really pleased to hear the shipment managed to get across the Suez Canal, despite unrest in the area, which means it’s on schedule amid massive delays across the industry.

• Rwanda and Burundi coffee are also both ahead of schedule and expected before Christmas – Rwanda in the next month or two, all being well.

• We’ve been having some really interesting conversations with producers in South Sudan and Tanzania – countries we’ve never previously worked with – and there could be some exciting partnerships with both in the future, so stay tuned! 

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What’s come up in conversation

The co-fermentation debate 

A really big topic in our industry at the moment is co-fermentation – fermenting coffee with fruits, spices and a range of specific microbes and yeast that have been tailored specifically to enhance the flavour profile of coffee.

This has proven to be a bit of a hot debate – some love the idea, some hate it. We understand why but we are unfortunately seeing a lot of the misguided information coming from wealthier estate owners who have had the monopoly on coffee production for far too long, and it concerns us that this is driving a negative narrative for everyone who doesn’t have access to all of the current research. Food safety standards are at the top of the priority tree from the producers we work with and we would hate to see names tarnished due to the worries of already wealthy businesses having new competition.

Specifically Panama, who recently disqualified a number of entries in the ‘Best of Panama’ competition, all of which “were altered coffees masquerading as specialty products” (What?). Following the decision, the Speciality Coffee association of Panama released a statement describing co-fermentation as an “attempt to cheat” by “altering the natural DNA expression” of the coffee (Huh??).

They’re not the first to question how co-fermentation may impact the integrity of a coffee, but we strongly disagree with this argument and the language that was used in the statement.

Co-fermentations are growing in popularity for good reason. With more and more weather anomalies in recent years, coupled with new disease outbreaks, farmers are deciding to grow more disease-resistant crops to combat this - which may often have direct impacts on coffee flavour and quality. We also know first hand that these coffees can and do add value for all involved and we want to champion this.

By experimenting with innovative processing methods, the hope is to strike a balance in the future and find new ways of growing disease and weather-resistant crops which taste fantastic. The dream pairing!

Without experimenting, how will we ever achieve it?

We’ve sold a lot of coffees ourselves which have been fermented with different fruits: pineapple, orange, banana… and one thing we always try to make clear is that it’s not about adding specific fruit flavours to the coffee. The aim is to use the natural material present in other fruit groups to enhance the fermentation process and hopefully unlock new flavour compounds.

A large part of this is education – aimed at the understanding that throwing a pineapple in to mix isn’t for the simple reason of making that particular lot of coffee taste of pineapple, and as we continue to push the industry forwards and have meaningful conversation around what works and what doesn’t, an outright ban seems a little unnecessary and narrow minded for an industry that promotes equity at the forefront of its mission.

If you would like to hear more about co-fermentation from a coffee producer's perspective, our friend Sidney Kibet of Lot 20 has recently written a piece discussing why he is investing in more experimental processing techniques, and how they can add more value in the supply chain for coffee farmers. You can read this article, 'Exploring New Frontiers', by clicking here.

Coffee might not be the most innovative industry, but there are some really interesting ideas arising at the moment, and we’re excited to support them in the hope for a brighter future and as always we would love to hear your opinions on the matter.