Every organization lives by values or principles whether they are written down on a website or not. Most often they end up being the "unwritten rules" of the company. At Loam Coffee we're no different. We're guided by a set of principles and values (even "unwritten rules") that acts as a filter of sorts for how and where we get involved. Here's what we know (and what you know) ... we're into both coffee and mountain biking. Pretty basic and obvious.
What we're also interested in is how this intersection of coffee and mountain biking influences not only what we're involved in but even where we buy our beans from. There are a lot of places to buy green coffee beans from as there are importers bringing in coffee from all over the world and then there are direct-trade relationships. One of our unwritten rules is that we want to buy coffee from regions with a developing / growing mountain biking scene. That could be on a district, regional, or state level (Oaxaca, Mexico) or country (Costa Rica). That may sound a bit vague but said another way, we're interested in buying coffee from regions where there's also a growing mountain biking scene.
For example, for our Fire Hydrant we've recently switched offering a Bolivia Amor de Dios coffee to now we use a Peru Chasqu Organic coffee. We know that in general there are epic mountain bike rides, adventures, and races in both countries. Great riding may not always line up with specific regions where we source beans from, but who doesn't want to go on a 3 to 5 day mountain biking adventure along old Incan trails in the high arid mountains of Peru?
We're also excited to now be involved in two multi-day enduro races ... in Costa Rica (Trans CR Enduro) and Oaxaca, Mexico (Trans Sierra Norte Enduro). Again, trying to live by our unwritten rules. There is amazing coffee from both regions / countries. (We say this as we're soon to be rolling out a new coffee from the next state over, Chiapas that sits between Oaxaca and Guatemala.) We believe in these races and events because they are more ways for us to tie together our twin loves of coffee and mountain biking.
The next time you buy coffee from us, look up the regions and farms where we source our beans from and see where the closest mountain biking is.
Words by Sean Benesh, Loam Coffee Founder and Brand Manager. Photos by Nicolas Switalski