Fair Trade, Organic and Other Concerns

We recently received a question about whether our coffees are Fair Trade. The simple answer is that we do sell many Fair Trade and organic coffees and they are labeled as such on our offerings. This means that the coffee we are buying is certified as organic and / or Fair Trade.

A more complicated question related to that is why we don't place the Transfair logo on our coffee bags. This is easy to answer. Adding that logo to our bags will end up costing our customers more per bag of coffee as we would have to pay a royalty fee for each pound of green coffee we buy and then pass that cost on. This fee would be in addition to the fee that the importer is already paying on that coffee and passing on to us. We don't think that paying twice for the same certification is necessarily justified.

And, it gets even more complicated when you really start to delve into the coffee trading business which is second only to oil in world commodity trading. Now, having a background in the oil industry prior to coffee, it's hard to explain why a gallon of gas, that started as crude oil 6000 ft. under the ocean, can be brought up from those depths, transported around the word, refined into gasoline and again transported across the country and sold at the corner gas station for less than a gallon of milk is truly mystifying. Fortunately, we only drink coffee and don't depend on it to fuel transportation or we'd be in heap of trouble!

So, the short, and slightly complex answer to all of this is that we rely on trustworthy, competent brokers and education to guide our coffee buying principles. For instance, our Aceh Sumatran coffee is purchased directly from the person who travels to Indonesia to inspect and purchase those beans from a small cooperative. Those beans are purchased as a very high premium compared to run of the mill Sumatran coffees that are more widely available and found at every corner mass coffee shop. This type of buying, known as relationship purchasing, also eliminates several layers of brokers who each make a profit from the trading of beans. This means that a higher percentage of the price paid for the coffee is going directly to the growing cooperative ensuring that they have the resources necessary to continue to grow and harvest the same quality coffee in subsequent years. The end result is better coffee in your cup with the knowledge that sustainable and responsible practices are being carried out at every step in the process of getting that coffee to you.