When we first launched Tomorrow Seasonal Project, our main goal was to provide new opportunities for coffees that sometime get overlooked. Many farmers are able to sell their best lots for high premiums, but the remaining coffees from their harvest will get sold at commodity pricing.
As the project has evolved, we realized that we also wanted the project to focus on developing producers as well. Beginning the transition into specialty coffee farming is a long, difficult process, and while higher coffee quality can help earn higher premiums, finding a buyer isn't always guaranteed. Both Finca Natamaya and Finca De Dios are farms that Ruby has close sourcing relationships with, and both farm projects took a lot of time, energy, knowledge, and investment to transition from focusing on quantity to focusing on quality.
As we expanded the Tomorrow Seasonal Project to include coffees from more farmers, cooperatives, and farm groups that were developing as specialty coffee operations, we noticed one thing most of these projects had in common: they all had organic certification.
Certifications are often a first step many farmers take in order to increase the value of their coffee being sold. But while certifications are a good way to guarantee a premium over commodity pricing, those prices are still too low for many farmers to operate their farm sustainably. The goal of Tomorrow Seasonal Project is to purchase these coffees at the specialty premium rates reserved for single origin coffees and to promote the quality of these developing farms.
As we began to recognize the hard work these producers were putting into developing the quality of their coffees, we also decided that we should highlight the hard work that went into achieving their organic certification in the first place, and from here on out, Tomorrow Seasonal Project will now be Organic Tomorrow Seasonal Project.
We're excited to feature these coffees as single origin releases, and to help promote these developing farms as they continue on their journey in the specialty coffee world as certified organic farms.