The Embassy of Nepal in Germany organized the first coffee tasting event in collaboration with the touristic and mediatic campaign Visit Nepal 2020 and the care trade company Bean Voyage. At the beginning, there was a presentation led by Mr. Abhinav Khanai, a young and ambitious entrepreneur and founder of Bean Voyage. This presentation was focused on presenting not only the Nepalese coffee as a product to be sold but also Bean Voyage’s revolutionary philosophy. In a nutshell, Bean Voyage defines itself as a care trade company because it sees trade as an opportunity to care about the people and planet. A care trade company differs from a fair-trade company because it is based on economic development, environmental protection and gender justice. During the second part of the event there were some games, where the participants had to smell the scent of different types of coffees and associate them with objects present in nature. While the second part of the game consisted of drinking seven different qualities of coffee and expressing a preference for a specific one. Many guests that attended the event, asked questions about the Nepalese coffee and suggested collaborations to sell this product in German markets. Besides many members of the Nepalese community, there were also some owners of German NGOs with projects in Nepal and employees representing the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Bean Voyage is a company made up of young professionals who are trying to promote a part of their Nepali culture worldwide. What makes this company unique, is the fact that they care about gender equality and promote care trade in the coffee production. They consider women to be a huge part of worldwide coffee production and they try to demonstrate the power that women have. Due to this company, many smallholder coffee families can now have a better quality of life and a sustainable future. Been Voyage has a variety of collaborations with German ministries, markets and shops at all levels of production. As Mr. Abhinav Khanai mentioned, the social, political and economic relations between Nepal and Germany are helpful and advantageous not only for the company, but in general for the promotion of Nepali coffee here. Nepali coffee tastings take place frequently throughout Europe and the United States, because they believe that tasting and smelling the coffee and learning the history behind it is the best way to promote their product.

• - https://beanvoyage.com/
• - https://www.nepalsanctuarytreks.com/visit-nepal-2020/
• - https://www.bmz.de/en/