Vigilante Coffee Offers World Flavors At Farmers Market

Vigilante Coffee Company prides itself for providing the best coffee to its customers, according to the founders, who sell their coffee.

“It’s all about quality and customer service,” Christopher Vigilante, one of the founders of the company, said Saturday. 

The company spends more than the fair trade price for the farmers to pick only the ripe coffee cherries. Typically, farmers pick both ripe and unripe coffee cherries because they are paid by weight. 

But, Vigilante works directly with the coffee growers to ensure they select only the best coffee cherries.

He got his start in the coffee business by accident. 

While he was on summer break from studying business at Virginia Tech, Vigilante was working as an intern for an insurance company in Hawaii, where his uncle also runs a farm on Ka’u. He discovered coffee farms by chance and began working with the coffee pickers to learn farm production firsthand. 

“Hawaii happens to be the only state in the U.S. that makes its own coffee,” Vigilante said. 

Last year, Vigilante and his business partner, Antajuan G. Scott, took a trip to Colombia. 

They taught the farming techniques that Vigilante learned in Hawaii to the Colombian farmers, whose primarily family-run farms work on micro-lots averaging about 10 acres or less.

Currently, the Vigilante Coffee Company sells coffee from eight different regions: Guatemala, Sumatra (Indonesia), Sulawesi (Indonesia), Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Ethiopia, and Papua New Guinea. They plan on expanding their line. Next year, Vigilante and Scott will be taking a trip to Peru to work with the local farmers there.

Besides the Kensington Farmers’ Market, you can buy Vigilante Coffee at Suburban Trading Company in Kensington, Dangerously Delicious Pies, P&C Market, Madam Organs, Grandville Moore, and many other places, but you can also place your orders at their website. 

They sell half pound bags of coffee beans from $10 to $15, pour-overs, and French presses. You can also buy a cup of coffee at the farmers’ market.

They posted some photos from their trip to Columbia on their Facebook page. In August, you can watch their documentary about their trip on their Facebook page, too. 

Vigilante said that it is a lighthearted movie that presents Colombia in a favorable light and that it is not a country to fear, as commonly portrayed in the popular media.

What's your favorite flavor of Vigilante coffee?