Our green buyer Daniel Shewmaker visits Papua New Guinea.

Our collaboration with the Woodland Park Zoo was recently featured in Fresh Cup Magazine:

The story behind Caffe Vita’s…Papua New Guinea coffee starts with a marsupial.

The animal in question, an endangered species called the tree kangaroo, resembles a bear shrunk to the size of a squirrel. It’s not a creature most coffee drinkers have likely heard of, but its habitat in the high-elevation jungles of Papua New Guinea’s Huon Peninsula happens to also be an area where Arabica thrives.

A recent initiative from Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo and Vita’s buying and roasting team aims to stabilize—and increase—the tree-dweller’s numbers by helping indigenous villages in the area earn money through their distinct-tasting coffee rather than selling their land to timber and energy companies. “This gives us an opportunity,” says Danny Samandingke, a farmer and teacher from the area who was at last month’s Coffee Fest Seattle, standing beside Caffe Vita baristas as they brewed samples of the region’s product. “There are so many challenges in the country, but this gives us hope.”

Read the full article here. 

Zoo Special Reserve is now available at all of our cafes and in our online shop.