#ethical coffee

[littlealienproducts]

Yer Old Dad - Coffee by PureRoasters

Ethical coffee, roasted in Scotland by Pure Roasters.

[backyard-brew]

Coffee Beans Online: Digital Coffee Revolution

There is a specific kind of disappointment that every coffee lover knows. You wake up on a Saturday morning, walk to the kitchen with plans for a perfect pour over, only to realize the bag in your cupboard is empty. Or worse, the beans you bought at the grocery store last week are stale, oily, and smell more like the cardboard box they came in than actual coffee. For a long time, we were at the…

Coffee Beans Online: Digital Coffee Revolution

[coffeeworldwide-blog]

Our number one priority is our customers. We’re working hard to be your favorite fair trade coffee company. 

[fairtradeblog-blog]

'Good African Coffee' or a better deal for coffee farmers?

At the beginning of this year Andrew Rugasira launched a book called The Good African Coffee (the same name as his coffee brand) and made many claims about his perceptions of Fairtrade including that it is an outdated model more about charity than trade. There is no disputing that what Andrew has achieved with Good African coffee, in enabling farmers to retain more of the value chain through roasting and packing coffee ready for export in Uganda and selling directly to UK markets, is an amazing story. Andrew’s drive, passion and success is also to be marvelled at. However his perceptions of Fairtrade are at times misinformed. In Andrew’s book and during subsequent interviews, Andrew implies that Fairtrade does not tackle any of the following areas which are the key challenges faced by coffee farmers;  •    The need for farmers to take ownership of improving their futures through trade not aid •    The challenge presented by the lack of infrastructure in most developing countries •    Lack of access to markets and unequal power within the supply chain •    Lack of access to capital in order to invest and build a sustainable future •    The need for farmers to own more of the value chain However I disagree and argue that it is these same challenges that were behind the development of the Fairtrade system and remain a key focus and one that Fairtrade has been delivering against in the UK almost 20 years. Frans van der Hoff, a Dutch priest living with Mexican coffee farmers, was among the founding fathers of Fairtrade who aimed to rewrite the conventional rules of trade by using the normal channels of business but enabling the producers and consumers to set the rules. He explains that Fairtrade: ‘does not disrupt the normal mechanisms of the dominant market. It doesn’t create artificial commercial conditions but rather, new ones based on justice. To pay the producer the real prices for producing a product is not only economically rational but is grounded in the most elementary of ethical principles.’ Ownership Fairtrade is a voluntary system which farmers and producer groups choose to be a part. On making that decision those groups then have various standards against which they can measure themselves in order to begin to develop sustainable businesses. A key part of what Fairtrade means for producers is that they create a Development Plan through which they look at their goals and objectives for the future and what they want to do to get there. For each farmer and co-operative this may look very different, whether it is to diversify into other products to generate additional income, to build a mill that can take ownership of the export of their coffee, the decision of where their future lies is owned by the farmers themselves.

Lack of infrastructure Within the Fairtrade trading model there’s a Fairtrade Minimum Price and Premium. The Minimum Price is established with farmer input and is set in order to cover the cost of production and a sustainable livelihood. The premium, which is $0.20 per lb of coffee sold, is paid by the businesses who want to invest in their supply chain.

That premium is used by Fairtrade co-operatives to take them on the journey that they have set out in their development plan. They choose to invest that premium in the areas that they have defined as key to the development of a sustainable future, this is very often the improvement of the infrastructure around them.

In Costa Rica, the collapse in coffee prices in the late 1990s forced many smallholders to sell up and move to the cities in search of work. Many of these farmers can be seen in the cities sleeping rough or living in ghettos, their children sucked into drugs, gangs, crime and prostitution. This has not been the case for members of the Coocafé co-operative. According to Gerado Camacho, a Coocafé member, ‘The Fairtrade price allows us to survive as coffee farmers. It covers our costs of production, lets us send our kids to school, buy clothes and keep a roof over our heads.’

When the reputation of Ugandan coffee suffered following liberalisation of the coffee industry, the Gumutindo co-operative, supported by Fairtrade and in working with Cafédirect, invested in agricultural training, organic conversion and improved processing methods to raise the quality of its coffee. Buyers are now knocking on the co-operative’s door and farmers are queuing up to join the organisation.

  Lack of access to markets

Gerardo, mentioned earlier, from COOCAFE, was recently telling us about his journey with Fairtrade and where it has taken him. Since his co-operative became Fairtrade he has been travelling the world selling their coffee direct to buyers in the west. One example is a recent trip he made to Japan, where they had been trying to sell their coffee for nearly 15 years, where he signed a deal to a retail group with over 1,000 outlets who wanted to buy their good quality, Costa Rican, Fairtrade coffee. Gerardo manages direct relationships with many of the buyers in the UK, Germany, US and other markets. Not only that, but since choosing to be Fairtrade certified, they have also started roasting and packing their own branded coffee for domestic markets in Costa Rica and plan to expand that to other export markets in the future. This is just one example of how farmers who are Fairtrade certified are taking ownership of their own futures and developing strong business relationships with the people and businesses they meet through Fairtrade. But within the Fairtrade system there are now many similar examples emerging where producers are also getting a larger share of the supply chain and in some cases part ownership of brands like Divine and Cafédirect. Lack of access to capital Access to capital has been and still is a major blockage for coffee farmers. Businesses that are trading Fairtrade goods are encourage to make pre-finance available to the co-operatives they buy from and to invest in long term relationships which offer transparency on both sides and investments by both parties.  Not only that but Fairtrade recently launched the Fairtrade Access Fund which is available for producer groups as an alternative source of lending with low interest rates. It is not always just that capital is not available to farmers but that it might be at extremely high interest rates.  The Fund is a unique, international collaboration between Incofin Investment Management, Grameen Foundation and Fairtrade International and aims to offer a solution to that challenge. This again is not a charitable donation, as it is a loan payment for farmers at a viable interest rate level. The need to retain more of the value chain This is also a long standing problem for producers in developing counties, the statement made by Andrew that farmers ‘produce what they don’t consume and consume what they don’t produce’ is true. Through the development plan with the structure of the Fairtrade standards and training provided on capacity building, business skills and market knowledge, Fairtrade is trying to address this fundamental problem. There are examples of Fairtrade producers who have managed to retain more of the value chain through different measures as a result of being Fairtrade certified, such as Iriani in Kenya who not only grow, process but also now pack their Fairtrade tea for Marks & Spencer. However we still have a long way to go and UK businesses need to support this vision and be open to investing in and buying from producers who can and want to manufacture finished products at origin. Cepicafe in Peru through Fairtrade have been able to invest in their business in ways that have resulted in them retaining more the value chain for their products. Firstly, they used the Fairtrade premium and subsequent ability to get match funding to invest in building their own mill which has meant that they can now export their coffee directly to their buyers, cutting out the middle man. They have also diversified into other products such as honey which they are packing and exporting directly from Peru to UK and other European markets. But I’ll leave the final decision on whether Fairtrade sounds like charity and not trade for anyone reading this blog to decide themselves.

[pinkfoodanddrink-blog]

Coffee Products You Can Buy For Home

Coffee comes from two main species because they are the most commercially viable. These are arabica and robusta. They are grown between the topics of Cancer and Capricorn and this region includes the Pacific, the Americas, Arabia and Africa.

Coffee beans from both species go for processing and they are then turned into the different types of coffee that you can buy today. Sometimes they are blended together to create the desired characteristics in the final product.

There are many different ways to buy coffee for home use now and you need to buy the products that are best suited to your situation.

If you want full control over your coffee, you will want to buy green beans to roast at home. The roasting process is what creates a lot of the flavours in a cup of coffee. This means more time and hassle compared to other ways of getting yourself a coffee but it allows you to make the perfect cup according to your taste and allows you to control every stage of the process.

If you have no requirement to roast your own coffee, you can buy your beans ready roasted. There are lots of different roasts, from light to dark and they all have different flavour characteristics so find out what is likely to be the most suitable flavours for you and try a few out. You will still need to grind the beans before you make your coffee and you should do this as close to when you are going to brew as possible.

Coffee grounds can be bought in vacuum sealed bags to save you having to do it yourself. Loose ground coffee can be used with many coffee makers, and using this type of coffee means that you can still control the exact amount you want to use, to get the precise taste you are after.

These days you can also buy ground coffee in capsules. Capsules keep the grounds fresh for approximately 9 months and they are quick and easy to use, but also more costly than using loose grounds. Some capsules like Tassimo are available from supermarkets whereas other systems such as Nespresso lock you into buying mail order or from a small number of stores. These capsules all require compatible machines.

Instant coffee is often looked down on by coffee buffs but some are really tasty and they are very convenient for situations such as camping where using other types of coffee isn't so easy. Don't overlook instant.

Decaffeinated versions of the above coffee products are available for people that want to cut down their caffeine intake. They have had a large amount of the caffeine removed but they are not actually completely caffeine free.

Coffee essence is another great coffee product. It can be used for giving a coffee flavour to cold milk or for cooking. It is the essence of rich brewed coffee that has been concentrated to give a strong coffee flavour.

In all likelihood you will end up with several different coffee products in your house for different applications. When buying any coffee though, you should also think about where it has come from and what conditions the workers farmed and processed it in. This is why it is a good idea to look out for the Fairtrade symbol so that you know you are getting ethical coffee (and this also applies if you use coffee vending machines in the office!)

[tinehvidsten-blog]

Might as well face it you're addicted to love. And caffeine.

While I’m on about foodstuffs that don’t insist on kicking the earth and its people repeatedly in the balls (see previous post), may I also direct your attention to the lovely people of Ethical Addictions. These dudes do the best coffee, like, EVER. And as the name would suggest, not only do they source some pretty sweet coffee,  they’re pretty good at not fucking over the third world too.

They even do nice decaf, which I didn’t think was possible. Apparently the process has something to do with the Swiss, but not sure what exactly. They’re a secretive bunch the Swiss. Secretive, and good at tennis. Well some of them are. One of them is. Maybe two.

Also they do a proper, non-Swiss, coffee called Machare, which is pretty much the best thing that has ever happened, ever.

Coffee is nice isn’t it?