Truly Wild Coffee

SPONSORED BY

The 68-hectare finca in Oaxaca. The finca is a protected bio-reserve where plants thrive beneath a protective canopy. Unlike many other coffee plantations where coffee is grown in full sun, these weaker plants need to be watered, fertilized, and sprayed in order to grow.

Passionate about people as well as the environment, the Frog Friendly Coffee company is a retort to the intense monoculture associated with mainstream coffee production.

“We are every part of our business and the only coffee company that has passed an audit certifying our coffee is truly wild.”

Wild crafting is a natural sustainable method of harvesting plants, which aims to minimally impact the surrounding environment.

“It is important to provide the [Oaxaca] community with an equitable future and help them achieve that in a sustainable way,” says Karla, noting her pickers are highly valued and compensated accordingly.

Harvested in the traditional way, the wild coffee beans are packed in recyclable/ compostable burlap bags and shipped to the company’s craft roastery in Canoe, a small community in the heart of British Columbia’s beautiful Shuswap region. This makes them one of the only specialty coffee brands in Canada that owns its supply chain transparently from source to cup.

The word “frog” in the company name is a nod to a Mexican belief that the amphibian is the god of life.

“They have a tremendous reverence for life and they wanted the frog to be our totem. It’s a gift to live my values out loud and do business respecting this place and its people.”

And there’s more: naturally low in acidity, delicious Frog Friendly coffee is a great option for consumers looking for as close to pH-neutral as possible in a coffee. Frog Friendly organic coffee is rich in trace minerals, antioxidants, magnesium, and zinc.

Tool shed built with local materials on the finca.

Freshly picked coffee cherries.

BY BARBARA BROUWER

Coffee is the elixir that welcomes millions to a new day. But not all coffee is grown and produced the same way.

Frog Friendly organic coffee begins deep in the cloud forest of Oaxaca, Mexico where it was introduced by the Spanish in the 1700s. Over time, the plants have naturalized and become part of the forest.

Some 1,200 metres above sea level, the wild coffee grows in a rich ecosystem that includes as many as 2,000 plant species.

“It’s the Willy Wonka Wonderland of natural foods,” says Karla Ferster, co-owner of a 68-hectare finca (farm). “It is my personal heaven on earth; it’s magical, like walking in natural perfume.”