Every winter, we release FESTIVE SPIRIT, our seasonal coffee blend, crafted to capture the warmth, kindness and joy of the festive season. Alongside our limited-edition blend, we also release our two exceptional single origin coffees - each as remarkable on their own as they are when brought together in our blend.
This year, we’re proud to be returning to familiar faces with two inspiring cooperatives: Coope Tarrazú in Costa Rica and Kinini in Rwanda. Bringing together coffees from different corners of the world, our seasonal blend celebrates the work these producers do to protect childhood and nurture joy within their communities. From creating safe spaces for children during coffee harvest seasons to building schools and improving access to education, both are deeply committed to protecting children and safeguarding their futures.
Introducing Costa Rica
With coffee growing dating back to the late 18th century, Costa Rica’s impact on the coffee-producing world is far bigger than expected from a country of its size. One of the pioneers in coffee processing innovation, it has produced everything from white, yellow, red and black honeys, natural to anaerobic fermentation methods. Its thriving speciality coffee sector champions traceability and high-altitude cultivation as well as sustainability initiatives. Tarrazú region remains a key production area, alongside larger cooperatives and estates.
Meet Coope Tarrazú coffee cooperative, Costa Rica
Coope Tarrazú is a coffee cooperative rooted in the heart of Costa Rica’s Tarrazú region. Founded in 1960, it has grown into a thriving cooperative representing more than 5,000 coffee producers. Working alongside coffee-growing communities throughout the region, the cooperative has built a reputation not only for its coffee but also for its commitment to the community that makes it possible.
In 2011, Coope Tarrazú established the Community Lots Project to support coffee-producing communities in the region. Funded through premiums paid on its coffee, the project supports many different community-led initiatives. These have included essential projects like repairing local roads and bridges, constructing a much-needed playground for children, providing assistance to schools and contributing to the renovation of a health centre, as well as offering a safe environment for the families of coffee-growing communities.
Houses of Joy, Costa Rica
When the harvest season arrives at Tarrazú, around 19,000 coffee pickers travel to the area, with an impressive 10,000 choosing to work for Coope Tarrazú. Recognising the importance of supporting these migrant workers, the cooperative launched a project in 2019 called Casas de La Algeria which translates to ‘Houses of Joy’. These ‘Houses of Joy’ serve as care centres specifically designed for the children of coffee pickers who migrate alongside their families from nearby regions. During the harvest, while their parents work in the coffee fields, children receive proper care, education and nutritious meals in a safe and creative environment. The initiative helps protect them from potential risks and plays an important role in preventing child labour, actively shaping a brighter future for the community and the coffee industry as a whole.
Since the introduction of Casas de La Alegria in 2019, Community Lots Project premiums have generated over $35,000. This money has helped fund the building of 19 Casa de La Alegria houses, employing 51 staff members and caring for more than 1000 children between 0-12 years old. The initiative also creates employment opportunities for women in the community, supporting families in multiple ways.
San Francisco, Costa Rica
Nestled in the heart of Tarrazú, in a region known as ‘Los Santos’ for its many villages named after saints, the San Francisco community is home to around 70 coffee producers growing Caturra and Catuai coffee varieties, with avocados providing an additional source of income.
For this year’s single origin release, we are featuring their natural coffee where cherries are delivered by the producers to a local collection centre where they are first quality inspected and then transported to the main processing centre in San Marcos. Then the cherries are cleaned and dried on raised beds under the sun, normally around 15-30 days with a temperature of between 21 and 28 degrees. Cherries are raked regularly to ensure even drying, and covered with mesh if the temperatures look to be rising too high.
Introducing Rwanda
Rwanda is best known for its high-altitude Arabica coffee, grown between 1,200 and 2,000 meters. Coffee here is produced almost entirely by smallholders. Over 400,000 farmers cultivate plots averaging 600 coffee trees each. Cooperatives play a vital role, connecting farmers to washing stations, processing facilities and certification schemes. While Rwanda has made significant progress in improving its coffee processing capacity in recent years, coffee farming productivity remains low, held back by price incentives and limited access to inputs.
Kinini, Rwanda
In Rwanda’s Northern Province, Kinini coffee cooperative is part of a wider effort to regenerate coffee farming and create lasting opportunities for local communities. The story began in 2008, when the two founders, Jacqueline Turner and Malcom Clear, founded the charity A New Beginning. Their initial work focussed on improving access to essential services, including education and healthcare within the communities, by establishing an infant and primary school and a local health post. In 2012, they set up R&B Import Export Ltd to generate a sustainable source of income for the charity. Coffee offered a way to support local communities, which led to the creation of the award-winning Kinini coffee cooperative.
More than a decade later, Kinini works with more than 600 smallholder farmers across the Rusiga and Mbogo regions. Coffee here is grown across approximately 252 hectares and brought to the Kinini Washing Station for processing. The cooperative has continued to invest in the coffee farming and local community initiatives, improve infrastructure and create opportunities for new generations, with coffee being the vehicle for this change.
Kinini coffee, Rwanda
Aside from community initiatives, Kinini focuses heavily on coffee quality and sustainable farming, introducing new processing methods and developing a worm-composting project that turns coffee waste into organic fertiliser supporting soil health and helping manage crop diseases. Farmers also distribute goats across the fields providing another source of organic manure. Altogether, these initiatives help farmers reduce reliance on conventional fertilisers, lower production costs and encourage a circular approach to farming.
The region’s growing conditions are well-suited to coffee production, and its lots have earned Cup of Excellence recognition over the years. The washing station has also gained increasing attention from roasters and baristas internationally.
For this year’s single origin, we’re featuring their anaerobic coffee, where cherries are picked deep red, and delivered to a centralised point near the many smallholder farms. From there, regular trucks take the coffee immediately to the washing station for processing. Cherries are cleaned and quickly sorted before undergoing an anaerobic fermentation in individual bags. Once finished, cherries are spread to dry on raised beds, with each bed coming with its own marker to ensure microlot traceability.
Supporting children, women and orphans
Supporting women is central to Kinini’s approach. Around 85% of its cooperative members are female, and the project now works with six women-led cooperatives alongside three mixed cooperatives. Providing a safe, supportive working environment is an important part of this commitment.
10% of the funds Kinini receive for the sale of their coffee go to supporting a health centre and school. Income generated through coffee has supported infrastructure such as roads, schools and cherry collection points, helping strengthen the wider coffee-growing network.
Education remains a particularly important part of the work. In 2022, more than 300 children aged between four and eleven attended the school in Kinini. The charity has also supported five high-performing pupils with sponsorship to continue their education at senior school and university level.
Rediscovering joy with FESTIVE SPIRIT
The familiar traditions, comforting rituals, and effortless magic of the season always find a way to transport us back to the pure joy of a childhood Christmas. Crafted in partnership with producers we are deeply proud to work with, our FESTIVE SPIRIT blend brings these timeless values and flavours together into something entirely new. We invite you to celebrate our shared mission to protect the magic every child deserves to experience. Because the true wonder of Christmas lies not just in remembering our own past, but in preserving that same joy for generations to come.
