Only the Finest Beans.

History

The Callao coffee tradition started in 1895 when Ebrahim Moledina, the grandfather of the current coffee buyer, immigrated from India to Uganda, East Africa and began trading cherished goods such as cotton, sesame seeds, edible beans and ultimately coffee.

During the mid-1950's Ebrahim's son, Hassan, established an exporting and trading company, with offices in Kenya and throughout East Africa. The company focus then was solely on the wholesale export of coffee and tea from East Africa to the world.

In 1994, Hassan's grandsons moved to the United States and established Kiariz Coffee in Sterling, Virginia as a Specialty Coffee Roaster.

By 2004, the company had outgrown its facility in Sterling and relocated to a state-of-the-art roasting facility in Luray, Virginia.

In 2009, the company merged with Callao Coffee Holdings and was re-branded as Callao Coffee. Family members still actively work in the roastery.

Quality

Callao's expert buyers around the world carefully select each of the green coffees available.

Callao offers 15 Single Origins, in addition to 8 Organic Origins and 5 Decaf Origins.

Callao starts green coffee purchases by first seeking various samples and prices of offerings from their trusted suppliers. Callao conducts the initial cupping, or taste testing, at this stage. They evaluate samples and select the coffees that best fit their quality parameters for blending.

When the coffees reach the plant, they draw samples from about 30-40% of the bags to ensure uniformity of the beans and to ensure that the coffee, which they have received, is the same as the coffee they purchased. They then cup the coffee against the original purchased samples again to ensure conformity. They use a patented slow roasting process to achieve a full range of roasts and distinctive flavors. This process allows for the development of over 750 unique characteristics and flavors. Time-tested control methods create consistency for every roast; from the lighter roast of a house blend to the caramel of an espresso, to the dark pungent French Roast. The Roast master, Paul Galvin, cups each day's roasting production at the plant. On average, they cup about 10-15 different coffees every day.

Roasting to order

Callao custom blends and roasts the coffee as they receive each order, and ship it within a few hours to guarantee freshness.

No inventory is kept on their shelves beyond what they expect to ship in any given week.

Callao also packs their coffee in bags with a one-way valve. This ensures that roasted coffees expel CO2 for 2-3 days after roasting. The one- way valves seal the bags and allow the CO2 to escape the bags without letting in any oxygen that is harmful to the beans.

Stewardship

Callao Coffee supports and partners with the following organizations around the world:

Rainforest Alliance–works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.

Bird Friendly–Every day more and more consumers are demanding shade-grown coffee and are willing to pay a few more cents to enjoy a great tasting cup of coffee with the satisfaction of knowing that they are supporting bird conservation, a healthy environment, and the livelihood of many small-scale farm owners.

Farmer Friendly–Callao Coffee is committed to forming direct relationships and partnerships at origin, not only to directly source the best coffee beans, but to ensure that producers share in their profits and benefit financially by their purchases.