Article excerpt from Indianapolis Dine Magazine

Small Farms, Superb Coffees.
On modest estates throughout South America, farmers are growing cherries that hold some of the world's most prized beans. Through an international program called Cup of Excellence, these farmers have the opportunity to make small fortunes selling their beans at often unheard-of prices — in 2005, a Brazilian coffee went for $49.75 per pound. Hubbard and Cravens Coffee Company is one of the discriminating buyers of these coveted beans.... Last fall, Hubbard and Cravens cupped and bought beans from a Cup of Excellence Winner, the farming family of Alvaro Flavio Ortega in Southern Colombia's Nariño region, an area wracked by violence but also blessed with climate and land conditions conducive to growing coffee plants. The Ortegas’ mere 3.7 acre farm includes native trees for shade and natural water source for washing their precious [coffee] cherries.

While the Indianapolis roaster usually buys from 25 to 250 150-pound bags of beans at a time, the company was happy to get three of the 15 bags up for auction from the Ortega estate....Hubbard and Cravens’ Katie Garvey says, these growers get about 20 percent more money than is earned through usual Fair-Trade coffee agreements.

Through at least June of this year, Hubbard and Cravens will be tasting and bidding on other exquisite beans to fill Indianapolis cups with clean, bright, sweet coffees. Get a cup while you can.