Igarapé

In the Summer 2019, the Amazon Rainforest saw an historic surge in wildfires. Those fires destroyed hectares of precious rainforest, and had a negative impact not only on global warming, but also on the local wildlife, water cycles and the population of the Amazon. In the Summer 2020, while the world was focused on the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Amazon Rainforest kept burning - and at an even higher rate than the year before.

We created and launched Igarapé in the Fall 2019 to directly support the Apuí Emergency Fund Program of the Institute of Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon, IDESAM. With more than 2,000 hotspots in July and August 2019 – or 25% of the total fire outbreaks in the Amazon (3,3 times greater than that on the same period in 2018), Apuí was the most affected areas of the 2019 wildfires. The municipality of Apuí is located about 450 km south of Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, and houses a rural population who earn their living from agriculture. Apuí is an agricultural expansion frontier in the Amazon, created in the 1980s. Since then, burning the rainforest has been a common practice to create agricultural lands. Sadly, the identity of Apuí is built on a “fire culture”.

The Apuí Emergency Fund is based on four pillars to understand the fires, raise awareness in the population, support the fire brigades, as well as recover the damages through reforestation and the promotion of agroforestry and silvopastoral activities.

We donate more than $5,300 per container of Igarapé to IDESAM, which covers for the protection and replantation of one hectare of rainforest in the area.

Our 2020 Igarapé coffee has been carefully selected from four different farms from Alta Paranaíba in the Cerrado region.  With only 40 years in the coffee industry, Cerrado is one of the youngest growing regions in Brazil. The selection of the farms was not only based on the cup profile of their coffee, but also on its long-term availability. Igarapé is a medium- to long-term engagement, the coffee has to be available in the next few years. A cup of Igarapé offers a creamy body with transparent milk chocolate, caramel,  and nuts.