Java Trading Company Launches Premium Brand Alumbre Coffee

Alumbre Coffee. Daily Coffee News photo.

The longtime private-label and wholesale roasting company Java Trading Company, a sister company of Distant Lands Coffee, has for the first time launched its own coffee brand in the premium specialty category, called Alumbre Coffee.

The Renton, Wash.-based company, which owns six coffee estates and two mills in Costa Rica along with the Empresas de Antioquia mill in the town of Jardín in Antioquia, Colombia, launched the consumer-facing brand last month with four flagship offerings from different origins and a French roast blend.

Each of the coffees is currently packaged in 12-ounce bags, designs for which were inspired by the Alumbre river in Costa Rica’s Tarrazú region as well as the rich, mountainous terrain in which each of the coffees was grown.

Hacienda La Minita Facebook photo.

In an announcement of the Alumbre brand, the company said part of its goal is to bolster sustainability efforts throughout the vertically-oriented components of its supply chain. Distant Lands says its Hacienda La Minita in Tarrazú alone includes some 1.7 million coffee trees that are managed by 80 full-time employees earning “industry-leading” wages. The Rainforest Alliance-certified farm also provides free housing, a savings matching program for employees and free on-site preventative medical and dental care, Distant Lands says.

Hacienda La Minita December 2016 Instagram photo.

Alumbre describes its La Minita coffee as the brand’s most prized, which it offers in a medium roast that yields sweet orange citrus notes and hints of caramelized sugar. Other offerings in the Alumbre launch are the Alma Del Café De Jardín that passes through the Colombian mill, a medium-roast Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, a dark-roasted coffee from the Lintong region of Sumatra called Mutu Batak, and the French roast blend of coffees from the Americas.

The bags are currently selling online for $12.50 for the French roast, $22 for the La Minita, and $17 for the Colombia, the Ethiopia and the Sumatra, all with free shipping.