Sustainability, Community & Altitude

FUEL YOUR ADVENTURE ®

Sustainability 

VMCT has forged relationships across many continents with both coffee and tea producers. The owners have actively engaged in projects to improve the lives of the communities that work hard to produce their amazing coffee and tea. Sustainable farming practices are rooted in the theory of re-creating nature in the field, with minimal intervention; finding balance between production and the health of the earth. From shade grown coffee to working with producers with modern water reclamation facilities, VMCT takes an active role in supporting farmers who consciously care and invest in their lands and communities. 

The latest community project that VMCT has engaged in is in The Tolima Region in Colombia. The project is to empower women and gender equity in Colombia's post-armed conflict zones. VMCT has partnered with the CAFISUR Cooperative, the FCLI (a Canadian government fund), Agro Café and, The Coffee Source.

CAFISUR Project Background

Vail Mountain Coffee and Tea Co has been purchasing coffee from the CAFISUR Tolima Cooperative for the last 4 years and wanted to be more involved in the community that produces such amazing quality coffee. 

Main Needs

• General lack of technical expertise in processing and harvesting coffee
• Lack of physical assets to successfully mill coffee.
• Living Conditions are very poor with deteriorating structures and poor shelter.
• Several women have not been able to formally legalize the ownership of their estates 

Goals

• Improvement of wet mill systems providing de-pulping equipment and new fermentation tanks.
• Create adequate pulp and waste water management systems
• Provide training programs focusing on quality, processing and sustainable harvesting.
• Provide technical assistance to increase productivity
• Increase quality of life along with psychosocial support and gender empowerment

Micro-Estates / VMCT Select

"We believe that the farming communities do the hard work and its our responsibility to pay tribute to their efforts by bringing out the best flavor profiles possible", Co-founders Chantler and Arseneau share. 

Additionally, VMCT actively supports and develops direct relationships with the independent farmer who elects not to be involved with cooperative coffee efforts but chooses to grow either organic or sustainably farmed, single-origin coffees or what is termed, micro-estate coffees. All of VMCT’s micro-estate plantations are farmed organically or sustainably and will continue to be the source for some of the world’s greatest coffees and teas for generations to come.

Organic & Bio-Dynamic

By fostering direct to grower relationships, VMCT continually sources certified organic and bio-dynamic coffees and teas. As certification qualifications vary from country to country, VMCT is diligent in their research and ensures organic and bio-dynamic farming standards are met by their producers.

Solar Powered 

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and are continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of the business strategy in an effort to minimize our impact on the environment. By adding 24 large solar panels to our roof we offset our daily electric usage for lighting and equipment in our roasting facility

Community

We as a company are committed to giving back to the community. The following are some of the local and national organizations and foundations that have received our support:

About Altitude

Situated at 8,000 feet, Vail Mountain Coffee & Tea is one of the highest altitude coffee roasters of its size in the world. VMCT embraces traditional Northern Italian roasting techniques to produce premium, hand roasted small-batch coffees and employs modern Technology for absolute precision and computerized control.

As atmospheric pressure decreases when elevation increases, roasting time and temperature calculations are made in accordance to the pyrolysis of the beans, the point at which the deep bound moisture in the coffee bean expands and vaporizes... 

The roasting adjustments are similar to the adjustments made for baking at elevations above 3,000 feet. And as VMCT can roast at lower temperatures, they eliminate the problems of “scorched” and “baked” flavors other roasters frequently experience at lower elevations.

Given the altitude advantage, roasting over lower temperatures allows the sugars and carbohydrates in the coffee bean to caramelize very slowly; producing deep, rich flavor profiles without bitterness, even in the darkest of roasts.

The dry mountain air further minimizes moisture absorption by the freshly roasted bean as it cools and before it is packaged; allowing VMCT to deliver a fresher, longer lasting coffee to their consumers.