This is part of our blog series bringing to life the organic coffees in our Nespresso® compatible Eco Coffee Pod Advent Calendar, featuring entirely plastic free and home compostable coffee pods.
Enjoy them all thanks to our new Organic Origin Selection Gift Box
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DUNI – ANEMOS
Our World First Sail Ship Coffee Pod
This organic coffee is grown by 4 indigenous communities in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada region and sailed over to Europe by a 1920’s Schooner sail ship.
- Species: Arabica
- Varietals: Castillo, Red Caturra, Colombia, Typica
- Altitude: 1400 - 2000 m
- Harvest period: October to April
- Process: Washed
- Drying: Patios
- Sensory profile: A rich coffee with notes of caramel and hazelnut
Whats in the name?
DUNI means thank you in the Arhuaco language and ANEMOS means wind in ancient Greek and is the only transport label in the world that guarantees a decarbonized navigation thanks to sailboats. The Anemos label can be found on all products transported by sail from all over the Atlantic, including Latin America, the Caribbean, the Azores and even our neighbouring county of Cornwall.
It all began with a chance meeting
When Alexandre Bellangé of green coffee company Belco, and Guillaume Le Grand, President and co-founder of TOWT (sail transport solutions) met in 2019, it was the start of incredible things.
Both shared the same vision of wanting to reduce our carbon footprint drastically, efficiently and effectively, while offering real added value for a product that must arrive from a faraway destination.
Skip forward to today and you are drinking the world's first coffee pod filled with Sail Ship coffee.
The green bean was left Santa Marta, Colombia, on December 11, 2021 and spent nearly 2 months at sea on the 1920s sailship pictured above called AVONTUUR. You can see the full journey with maps and photos here (albeit in French).
The sailing saved 3483kg CO2 versus a container ship, which is the equivalent emissions of an 18,000km car journey!
Want to find out more? You'll like our Sail Ship coffee blog.
Meet our growers - The Arhuaco people of Colombia
The Arhuacos' main economic activity is subsistence agriculture and the ASOANEI association in particular was founded in 1995 by an indigenous woman, Aurora Maria Izquierdo, with the aim of using coffee as a vehicle to promote indigenous culture.
It is also a fantastic example of Women taking the leading role in the growing, management and production of Coffee, as you will read below.
ASOANEI has been producing organic coffee for 25 years and brings together more than 600 producer families belonging to 4 different indigenous communities in the Sierra Nevada region, in the north of the country who are secluded and want to keep their culture and heritage protected.
ASOANEI has three collection centers in the villages of Pueblo Bello, Valledupar and Codazzi. Because of bad roads and the excessive transport price from the farms to the collection centers, it is very common for the producers to bring their coffee by foot with the help of a mule or a horse. it can take 6h to 8h walking to get the coffees to the collection centers. From there, the coffees are transferred by truck to Santa Marta, to be milled and exported.
While the difficult access to the farms can be seen as a inconvenient, but to the local communities it represents a barrier that protects their lifestyle.
What is the 'WOMEN IN COFFEE' Mark?
Our Duni Anemos coffee is one of 3 Advent coffees carrying the 'Women in Coffee' mark that aims to positively recognise and promote the extensive role women play in the cooperatives.
Indeed, women play a vital role in specialty coffee sector, generally representing more than 70% of the labour force in the fields, harvesting, sorting the grains among other activities.
However, only 10% of them are entrepreneurs and only 20% are landowners (including joint ownership with their spouses).
But research shows increasing the income of women producers has a direct and positive impact on the education of children and wider community benefits so we’re pleased to say the ASOANEI association is managed and run by women.
In Arhuaco culture, women symbolize Mother Nature, fertility, purity and nature and a program has been set up to provide them with knowledge on new coffee growing practices to empower their role through training.
Thanks to this training, they experiment new processes such as honey process.
The association also plays a social role by allowing producers to have access to micro credits and school aid for their children.
Your support helps us support this wonderful coffee that has so many more benefits than just a great tasting cuppa!