From burmancoffee.com
In 1943, Mr. Belarminio Ramirez started a small company dedicated to the cultivation and marketing of coffee, which over the years grew into a family tradition involving three generations already. The Belarminio Ramirez Group was named in his honor. Currently, the company owns 350 hectares of coffee production, located in the mountains of the central range between 800 and 1500 meters above sea.

This family-owned estate is extraordinarily socially conscious. They use fermented coffee cherries to create natural gas, which partially powers their operation. They also donate books and computers to the local schools, and in a more rural area, they built and funded a new school preventing small children from having to walk over 15 km each way to class. They also help Haitians obtain legal residence in the Dominican Republic, in order to receive fair wages. We pay roughly 300% higher wages to this Estate for their exceptional care of the environment, organic certification, care for local Haitian immigrants, and high cupping scores.

This coffee comes from a single estate in the Jarabacoa region of the Dominican Republic. The Ramirez Estate employs over 400 people. 40 percent of the workers are female and many of them are Haitian migrant workers. They are paid roughly 300 percent higher wages than Fair Trade to the Estate and they use a decent portion of their profits to create sustainable gas recycling (to reduce emissions), water filtration (to prevent river contamination), and to donate computers and books to many of the local schools. This estate is an example of how a coffee businesses that becomes successful should operate in their community.

Tasting Notes:
Best from the lighter side of a medium roast to as dark as you want to go. A bit cleaner tasting but slightly less fruity than previous seasons. Lighter roasting presents some nice honey processed features: citric, floral, soft fruit with an almost oak/peat like finish, sweet & complex but does risk some underdeveloped tones if you nail it a little too light. Medium roasts were our favorite, still balanced and complex but will develop the traditional chocolate and smoky tones for which Dominican coffees are known for – to balance out those more exotic fruity and citric tones. Darker roasts are a little more complex than on the washed processed version, but not as smooth and rich.

Roasting Notes:
The preparation on Ramirez Red Honey keeps getting cleaner and better every year. It will roast much more even, and has gone from high chaff, to more medium chaff levels. It will darken up a bit quicker color wise, so make sure to use the cracks as roast level guides.

This is a project coffee from Cafe Kreyol, our buddy Joey has been working with Ramirez Estates on premium chops and awesome processing methods to ensure a premium and unique product. Cafe Kreyol goes into some of the most impoverished and troubled areas that are within prime coffee growing territory, organizes farmers, teaches how to correctly process beans, guarantees purchase of the beans at way above market prices ensuring it goes directly to the farmers and strives to really turn around some of the more troubled areas, putting people to work at well above average wages and ensuring future livelihoods.

Joey, the head of Cafe Kreyol, even strives for his US employees the above statement. He finds the hardest working individuals with great work ethics that for one reason or another have really been put down with employment and troubled times to help them recover and build a resume while also being able to help others.

One can feel really good about supporting any of Cafe Kreyol’s projects and for the most part – really tasty coffees as well.