Variety: Catuai
Process: Natural Anaerobic
Fermentation: 24hr
Drying: 22 days raised and covered
Producer: Behind the Leaf project
Elevation: 1100-1650 MASL
Region: Pa-O Villages
Origin: MyanmarNotes: Strawberry Jam, Fig, Cocoa
Started as a clean water project by an American missionary Melanie Edwards, Behind the Leaf not only created clay water filtration systems for the villages, but also is a micro-mill that organizes indigenous farmer groups, providing coffee education, improving qualities and access to markets, creating a sustainable livelihood outside of historical dependence on opium export.
Melanie has been living in Southeast Asia for over a decade. She first moved there with the intention of bringing a sustainable source of clean water to remote areas in Thailand and, soon after, Myanmar. After working with a chemical engineer in Cambodia in the early 2000's, Melanie has learned how to build clay water filtration systems. Her knowledge of these filtration systems, as well as the Christian church, was what originally led her to Myanmar. She felt she could benefit the people in rural communities by providing them clean water. People such as the indigenous group referred to as Pa-O. Here she founded a company with two Myanmar locals and began building and distributing these water filters. The water filters are built with rice husks infused into ceramic, to give it the proper porosity, and are paired with silver nitrate to act as the filter and strip toxins. The water that comes out the other side is noticeably clean and very nice to drink.