Triple Impact – How good can coffee be?

Our Triple Impact coffee is a specialty 100% Arabica single origin coffee sourced to an SCA score of 83.

Sourced seasonally from Fairtrade and Organic certified cooperatives from either Honduras or Peru to ensure freshness year round, Triple Impact delivers an espresso that any café would be proud of. In addition to being Fairtrade Organic certified, this product also supports an impact program named Volcafe Way which assists farmers with good agronomic practises and business planning.

With flavour notes of milk chocolate, stone fruit and roasted hazelnut, Triple Impact is ideal for milk based espresso drinks which bring out the caramel and red cherry notes, but also can be enjoyed black as a full bodied, well balanced coffee.

How is Specialty Coffee different?

Speciality grade Arabica is very carefully farmed, processed and quality controlled. Only ripe, red cherries are picked and processing is carried out with care and attention to detail to maintain quality. The care and attention that goes into Speciality Coffee means producers can request a higher price for their coffee leading to better income for the farmers and a greater experience for your customer in-cup.

In this post, we wanted to take you through the journey of Triple Impact from origin through to cup, so we can understand the impact that coffee can have on consumers, and the producers all the way along the supply chain.

The Origin of Triple Impact

At Ringtons we aim to be as honest and as accurate as possible with our supply chain, and we pass this transparency onto our valued customers.

Where many roasters will give you the source country as the ‘origin’, Ringtons will always provide you with details of the source cooperative (group of coffee farms and processers). If possible, we will provide details of the single farm where your coffee grew.

The Triple Impact Coffee comes from Fairtrade and Organic cooperatives from either Honduras or Peru.  These countries harvest coffees at opposite times of the year which ensures this single origin coffee always tastes its best.

Honduras

We currently work with two cooperatives in Honduras, both located in the west of the country – Cafico and Solcafe.

CAFICO

CAFICO are located in Corquin in the Copan region of Honduras, and are a cooperative with 120 members – 35 of whom are coffee producers. Their misson is to improve the quality of life for coffee farming families within the region utilising pioneering organic practises.

CAFICO is dedicated to improving quality by managing traceability and increasing productivity. They operate a state-of-the-art washing and drying station which is carefully calibrated to ensure consistency of lots. Processing their cherry on site, rather than selling the wet parchment to a mill, also ensures the farmers receive more income from their coffee.

Ringtons recently visited CAFICO to understand more about their coffee growing and processing and how they are using organic farming methods to improve yields.

Cooperative: Cafes Finos de Corquin (CAFICO)
Harvest: November to April
Altitude: 1100 – 1900 masl
Varietals: Caturra, Catuai, Bourbon, Lempira, IHCAFE 90, Parainema, Obata
Cooperative size: 120 members
Region: Copan (West Honduras)
Process: Washed

SOLCAFE

The second Honduran cooperative, SOLCAFE, can be found slightly south of CAFICO, in the Ocotepeque region.

This cooperative comprises 117 coffee farmers whose farms are located across the Lempira department. The cooperative was developed with the aim of linking high quality coffee producers to the specialty market, focusing on organic farming methods to protect the environment. All their coffee is dried either in solar driers or on patios, allowing for careful control of the moisture content and development of flavours.

Cooperative: Asociación de Productores Solcafe (SOLCAFE)
Harvest: October to January
Altitude: 1200 – 1700 masl
Varietals: Lempira, IHCAFE 90, Catuai
Cooperative size: 117 members
Region: Ocotepeque (West Honduras)
Process: Washed

Peru

We’re also working with two cooperatives in Peru.

Diamonte Verde

Cooperative: Asociación de Productores Cafetaleros Café Diamante Verde (Diamonte Verde)
Harvest: March to September
Altitude: 1100 – 2000 masl
Varietals: Bourbon, Caturra, Pache, Typica
Cooperative size: 206 members
Region: San Martin
Process: Washed

Sierra Verde

Asociación de Productores Cafetaleros Andinos Sierra Verde (Sierra Verde)
Harvest: March to September
Altitude: 1550 – 2000 masl
Varietals: Catimor, Caturra, Pache, Typica
Cooperative size: 265 members
Average farm size: 1 – 3 hectares
Region: Amazonas and Cajamarca
Process: Washed

Why is it called Triple Impact?

We named this coffee Triple Impact as it has three times the impact of a non certified coffee!

Each of these three programs deliver impact to the farmer and cooperative who grew this coffee, the environment in which the coffee was grown and also works to improve the livelihoods and production of coffee producers in the wider region beyond these cooperatives.

Fairtrade

Ringtons is one of the largest buyers on Fairtrade in our other main category, Tea. Fairtrade is an organisation that ensures that producers are paid fair prices for their produce and sets the standards in production.

Organic

Growers follow organic principles to ensure no pesticides are used in the growing of these coffees and that all activities promote good soil health and biodiversity.

Volcafe Way

This is where the Triple Impact coffee gets pretty unique! An extra fee is paid on every pound of coffee sourced which supports the Volcafe Way impact program in the region. This goes towards funding social and environmental projects in the community.

The Volcafe Way is an impact program which supports farmers in achieving long term, sustainable farm profitability. This is done by using “Model Farms” to demonstrate teachings on three objectives efficient use of resources, greater productivity and an increased quality.

Without understanding the costs of production, it is hard for farmers to understand if they are profitable and how to change that. By equipping farmers with tools to understand their costs (labour, inputs, processing etc) they can then begin to understand the impact of techniques such as pruning and crop rotation.

Ringtons and Volcafe Way both believe that sustainability cannot be achieved without profitability, and the Volcafe Way program helps to create more profitable, sustainable farms.

With these three certifications behind the coffee product, you can rest assured that when you’re buying Triple Impact not only are you buying an outstanding coffee, it’s doing a lot of good throughout the supply chain.

How to brew Triple Impact Coffee

Triple Impact is packaged as a 1kg whole bean, medium-dark roast coffee.

While Triple Impact has been developed to be enjoyed at an espresso or an espresso based beverage like a latte, flat white or cappuccino – it can also be enjoyed as a pour over or cafetiere. Just make sure to adjust your grind size according to the recipes below:

At the moment, Triple Impact is exclusively available to Ringtons for Business customers. An online store is opening in July 2023, which will make Triple Impact available in 1kg bags.

Get in touch if you’d like to find your nearest café that offers Triple Impact!