It all starts at the source
Selecting outstanding coffees to bring you a great cup that you can trust.
Black Oak collaborates with a network of trusted coffee farmers and importing partners to ensure that each roast we craft is not only delicious, but a force for good. Paying well above fair-trade benchmarks, we evaluate every potential source for quality, transparency, and sustainability: selecting exceptional coffees to bring you a great cup that you can trust.
Whether you’re drinking Black Oak Coffee from Las Lajas (one of the first organic micro-mills in Costa Rica) or from the Pacayal (a collective of 134 Honduran farmers), our single origin coffees are a testament to the creativity and care of the people who grow, roast, and ultimately brew them.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Located in the Central Valley region, today Las Lajas is at the forefront of micro-mill processing trend in Costa Rica. Prior to building Las Lajas, Oscar and Francisca relied on large multinationals to purchase and process their coffee cherries. But the price for harvested cherry was not covering the Chacón’s rising costs of organic farm management and labor to harvest the cherry. Over the last ten years, the Chacón family has focused on balancing environmental impact with expressive cup profiles. The family farms have remained certified organic while processing cherry is always in a state of reinvention.
The Pacayal, a diverse collective of 134 Honduran farmers, that came together to support a more direct trade model that is driven by their coffee being delicious enough to command a premium. This particular lot comes from Mirna Vasquez’ two hectare farm - Finca Johelita, which has now sold premium coffee more directly to the US, Japan, and Ireland. The premiums from the coffee allow Mirina to put her daughter, the farm’s namesake, through school.