Twelve years ago, a group of coffee enthusiasts decided to build a supply chain that operates on genuine partnership rather than exploitation.
Together we built an ecosystem rooted in origins that produces excellent coffee and creates sustainable prosperity for everyone involved.
It worked. Across four countries, three continents, seven languages, and thousands of friendships—and growing.
Marty used to joke that coffee was nothing more than a frivolous addiction—a high-maintenance habit he was happy to avoid. Then in 2008, Dr. Milton Coke, an anthropologist and a Q-Grader instructor, gave him a brand new lens: coffee is a traceable connection between the most affluent city consumers and the most resource-scarce agricultural communities in this world.
That perspective changed everything. Coffee wasn't just a commodity—it could be a bridge between worlds that are often kept apart. Marty began to see coffee as a potential leverage for meaningful social change.
By 2015, we'd planted roots in Pu'er and started living where coffee grows. We opened specialty cafes at origin so farmers could taste their own coffee and understand its market value. We brought roasters and baristas to farms to get dirt under their fingernails and solve problems together from the ground up.
At first, just the "hardcore weirdos" believed our vision—students who drove 12 hours for a sensory course, small roasteries who ordered Yunnan beans when most assumed they were worthless. Through debt, doubt, and countless mistakes, we kept learning from farmers, processors, and students, growing from Yunnan's mountains to Guatemala's volcanic slopes to Kenya's highlands.
Today, Torch is living proof that coffee could be a force for systemic change. We know from experience that it is possible to create prosperity while uplifting everyone through human connection.
Twelve years later, we kept our promise: every cup of coffee carries the story of genuine partnership, radical transparency, and wisdom of origins.
We live where it grows, processing alongside farmers, cupping with cooperatives, and experiencing the joys and challenges from soil to cup.
We remove the "otherness" between producing and consuming, farmers and roasters, theory and practice. When people connect across supply chains, real change happens.
We believe in direct relationships that bypass unnecessary middlemen. We encourage knowledge to flow between continents. True win-wins emerge when everyone is in-the-know.
We turned down corrupt deals worth millions. We train competitors despite cost. We've proven ethical business generates sustainable markets and prosperity across the supply chain.
None of this exists without them. Every milestone is built on the shoulders of those who believed before belief was easy.
Who welcomed strangers into their fields, corrected our arrogance with wisdom, and co-created what Torch has become. When our experimental varietals were dying, they saved them—and us—with knowledge passed down through generations.
These are the practitioners who refuse to separate theory from the dirt under their fingernails. Day after day, they are actively living the core of our educational philosophy, in the field, by the roasters, behind the counters.
Students who drove 12 hours when there was no high-speed rail. Roasters who bought Yunnan coffee when the market said it's worthless. They sparked the grassroots movement that transformed Chinese specialty coffee.
Every bag purchased is a bridge built; every purchase is a vote for ethical prosperity. Every consumer is a co-creators of this movement—the individuals who choose traceable origin stories over corporate brands, understanding that specialty coffee is solidarity.
Every student who opens an ethical cafe, every farmer who cups their own harvest, every roaster who visits origin—you're all building bridges where walls once stood.
We started as a few people refusing to accept extractive coffee relationships. Now we're thousands strong across continents, proving that partnership can replace exploitation.
Whether you're a farmer, roaster, student, or coffee dreamer, we're here to explore what's possible together.