We take online shopping for granted. The ability to go onto Amazon and have your order the next day. This gives people a misguided sense of simplicity. Do you actually know how many laws, regulations, protocols, procedures, etc go into that order? 

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We were naive. How hard can it be to order 68 kilos of coffee from a remote area of Peru and ship it to Hong Kong? I mean, people do it every single day! 

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Well it helps if the producer or manufacturer or company that you are ordering from has done this all before. It helps if they have a bank account or the infrastructure set up to help bring the coffee to the port to be shipped. 

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Marancocha is a region synonymous with poverty. However, it is also synonymous with hard work, dedication, kindness, and ingenuity. 

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Our first shipment was stuck in customs so long that the beans were no longer viable. Losing an entire shipment like that can bankrupt a cooperative of farmers. We needed to do better. 

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The second shipment made it, but not without Otterbox getting involved. They used their expertise, connections, and knowledge to import these beans. Unfortunately, the shipment came after the end of the school year. 

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We were able to store the beans in a cool storage facility for the 6 weeks of summer holiday and then ran into a million other obstacles getting them roasted. More on that in our next post. 

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