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FIRSTCRACK

A few years ago …
… a cup of coffee was nothing more than a delivery truck for caffeine. It didn’t really matter what it tasted like, But the times have changed. Today every single step of the manufacturing process is important for a perfect cup of coffee and is therefore taken very seriously by us.
For us, this begins with the selection and purchase of our specialty coffees and the handshake with the coffee farmer right on his or her farm. When it comes to purchasing raw coffee, we go above the usual fair trade prices – because we view coffee farmers as partners on an equal footing and we always treat them with respect. For their efforts in planting, harvesting and processing exceptional specialty coffee and the focus on quality and sustainability, we pay prices many times higher than the usual market or fair trade prices. 
We stand at the end of the production chain and its history and our goal is to roast clean, sweet and balanced specialty coffees with a unique character as a counterpart to large industrial roasters.

Click on this link to view our FIRSTCRACK Comparison table

Su Nandar Linn
Shwe Ywar Ngan Coffee Farm, Ywar Ngan, Myanmar

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The coffee farm of Su Nandar Linn is located in Ywar Ngan in the south of the Shan State. A few years ago, her father U Win Aung Kyaw handed over his farm, which has existed since 1975, to his eldest daughter Su Nandar. She belongs to the youngest generation of coffee farmers who are truly breaking new ground. With their passion for experimentation and their quality thinking they have brought their coffee to the highest international levels within only a few years. Sun Nandar’s coffee scored 85.33 SCA points in the Myanmar Coffee Competition

Hundreds of farmers work in the area on small plots, each between one and five acres in size. Here they tend the land that they inherited from their ancestors. Since pesticides and chemical fertilizers are banned in the community, the coffee farmers produce their coffee in an ecological style, although there is still no official organic certificate. The coffee cherries are only picked by hand, sorted several times and processed into honey or great washed coffees. The coffees of the small farmers in the area are also processed in the pulp and washing station on the Shwe Ywar Ngan Coffee Farm. The way Su Nandar works gives her full control and traceability of every single coffee sack.

Thiha Gyawalie
Ruby Hills Farm, Mogok, Myanmar

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One of our big Myanmar specialty coffee favorites comes as an organic, fully washed from Ruby Hills Farm in Mogok. Thiha Gyawalie is one of the youngest coffee farmers in Myanmar and produces a great Catior there, at a height of around 1,500 meters. Despite his young age, he and his coffee have won several awards already. Thiha was one of the first coffee farmers in Myanmar to go purely organic. In 2018 he won the Myanmar Coffee Competition with 87 SCA points. He’s constantly experimenting with new processing methods such as carbonic acid maceration and fermentation, as well as with natural and honey coffees. It’s part of his normal routine to stay up until the morning to experiment and get the most out of his harvest.

The Ruby Hill farm lies pretty isolated in the south of the Shan State in the middle of the largest ruby fields in Myanmar. The area surrounding Mogok is both namesake of the farm and the reason for this area being so closed to foreigners. It can only be visited with a difficult-to-get special permit.

As soon as the cherries of this specialty coffee are picked, they are pulped and fermented for 48 hours in tanks of exactly the same size to ensure consistency within the batches. Once this is done, they are sun-dried for around 3 weeks.

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