Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co

Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee in Lynn is a specialty coffee shop run as a social enterprise. It grew out of a partnership between Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company and the Haven Project, which approached the coffee company about creating a social enterprise together. Profits from the shop are reinvested in support for underserved homeless youth on the North Shore, while the coffee itself contributes to the restoration of Rwanda.

Founder Jonathan Golden started the coffee company after visiting Rwanda, which committed to national restoration after the 1994 genocide. He saw coffee as a tangible way to support reconciliation, paying farmers a fair wage and helping with their basic needs. The company’s roastmaster grades its beans using a demanding international certification, and it says its beans consistently score in the top 5 percent, well above the general specialty-coffee threshold that only about 10 percent of beans meet.

What to Know

• Bags of coffee are roasted to order the day after purchase and shipped soon after.
• The company says one bag of beans equals a full day’s wages for a Rwandan farmer.
• The company’s name echoes Rwanda’s well-known nickname, the land of a thousand hills.
• The cafe is listed with the Downtown Lynn Cultural District.