I spent one year volunteering as a teacher in the Nicaraguan mountains. While I was there I discovered two things, the children were incredibly enthusiastic about their classes and would walk for miles to attend school. Also, the coffee produced in the region was excellent. During my year I started a small cottage industry within the community taking the coffee that a group of women were hand roasting, grinding and packing and selling ot restaurants and cafes along the west coast of Nicaragua. This meant the women earned an extra income for themselves and I had my first taste of  seeing what a difference could be made fro the sale of the coffee.

When I came back to England I decided to take it further and start my own business using the children from the community as an inspiration. I wanted them to be able to benefit from something that their families produced, taking the idea of fair trade back to it’s grass roots origins. The idea for The Coffee Fairy started then.

This business was started very much on trust, the farmers understood that if they sold me inferior quality coffee the project would never be a success. Instead they fulfilled their promise and the coffee was of a fantastic quality which then went on to win two gold stars in The Great Taste Awards 2009.  They fulfilled their promise to supply me with excellent coffee and in return I kept mine to raise thousands of pounds to improve the educational facilities in the community. So far so good!

I am motivated by the idea that anyone can make a difference and all it takes is buying a coffee that you really like, not one that you feel you should buy. These beans comes from a group of farmers who are truly proud of their coffee. The conditions certainly help as it is grown high up in a stunning cloud forest in a protected natural environment, they re-use all the coffee cherry husks from the harvest each year as a natural fertiliser for the following harvest, no chemicals or pesticides are used on their precious crops. For the farmers they are particularly delighted to hear what you think about the coffee, I go back twice a year every year to talk to them about new projects and fund raising and of course what you think about their coffee.  For them, hearing that you love their coffee makes all the difference.

Coffee that helps you sleep at night, you really can’t say fairer than that!