Origin of the Month

It’s been a few years since we brought you a coffee from Democratic Republic of Congo. The political climate in this country makes it difficult, sometimes, to get coffee grown there. Civil war, exploitation, corruption, and political instability have plagued DR Congo for a long time. Despite all this, the Arabica coffees grown here keep getting better and better.

This coffee is special because it was grown by a co-op of about 4,500 coffee farmers, all owning an average of .9 acres of land. Comparatively, that’s a tiny plot. Of these 4,500 farmers, 1,700 are women. These farmers grew this coffee in the Beni Territory, high on the slopes of the Rwenzori Mountains at an elevation of about 6,500 feet above sea level. The coffee varietals they grow are Heirloom, Blue Mountain and Rumangabo.

So, from where does the name Gorilla Blend come? The farms are all along the borders of DR Congo’s Virunga National Park. This park is one of the last refuges of mountain gorillas, lowland gorillas, savannah elephants, big cats, and antelopes. For this reason, we are proud to bring this coffee to you.

Believe it or not, about 50 years ago, DR Congo was one of Africa’s largest coffee exporters. Not today, though, because of the civil wars, exploitation, corruption, and political instability mentioned above. DR Congo coffees, however, are not in a death spiral. On the contrary, these high-quality coffees are very well respected in the coffee community. In fact, non-government agencies and companies have been coming together to provide agricultural training in crop diversification, washing stations, mills, and they disseminated 143,000 coffee seedlings to these farmers between 2019 and 2024. Needless to say, the future of DR Congo coffees is bright.