Organic Stout

The Wayanad Social Service Society (WSSS) is a cooperative growers’ collective and non-profit organization based in Wayanad, Kerala, India, founded in 1974 to support marginalized farming communities in the Western Ghats. It organizes and empowers over 8,000 smallholder farmers, focusing on organic and Fair Trade-certified coffee, spices, and pepper cultivation while promoting sustainable agriculture and community development. Located at 900–1,650 meters above sea level, WSSS farmers cultivate shade-grown Robusta and Arabica coffee under natural forest canopies, preserving biodiversity and soil health in this UNESCO Biosphere region. The society provides training on organic farming methods, certification support, technical assistance, and access to markets, ensuring that smallholder farmers receive fair prices for their crops. WSSS is also a pioneer in organic certification in Kerala, having facilitated certifications for over 19,000 farmers through collaboration with accredited certifying bodies like LACON and OneCert. Beyond agriculture, WSSS invests in community welfare through education programs, women's empowerment initiatives, and environmental conservation projects while ensuring transparent governance and fair practices across its member base. Their coffee, often natural-processed Robusta Cherry AA, is sun-dried and carefully graded, resulting in a clean, heavy-bodied cup profile with notes of dark chocolate and nutty sweetness typical of quality Indian Robusta. In essence, WSSS exemplifies a values-driven, farmer-centered cooperative model in India, combining high-quality, sustainable coffee production with impactful social and environmental initiatives that uplift smallholder farming communities in Wayanad.

A group of smallholder farmers from Bener Meriah, Sumatra came together to produce this regional blend. In this region, coffee farms average at just 0.5 – 2 hectares each. Bener Meriah is nestled around the northern shore of Lake Tawar and dominated by the imposing Burni Telong volcano. The process of producing coffee from groups of smallholder coffee farmers in Sumatra is complicated and involves many steps. Every village typically has a collector who receives the fresh-picked cherry from the smallholder coffee farmers for washed processing each day before continuing on to the central mill. For this coffee, PT Indokom Citra Persada managed the composition of the coffee, quality, milling and exporting. PT Indokom Citra Persada is an export group that works throughout Indonesia’s coffee regions, but who has a dedicated mill and operations team in Aceh.