Where your coffee comes from is as important as how it tastes
It’s early on a Saturday morning. The water is beginning to boil and I carefully spoon a scoop of freshly ground coffee into my French press. The aroma of the ground beans has pleasing notes of citrus, vanilla, and sweet cream.
I pour the now boiling water over the grounds and slowly press down, creating what I feel is the proper beverage for a coffee snob such as myself to greet the day.
Yes, I am a coffee snob. And I’m proud of being so.
The beans for my morning elixir of life come from the Kibingo Central Washing Station in the Kayanza commune in northern Burundi, which I have been assured is one of the most reputable growing regions of the small African nation. It makes for a superior cup of coffee, at least in my opinion.
But there’s more to coffee than just some quality beans and a nice French press. For coffee consumers have become increasingly aware—and vocal about—where their coffee comes from. You hear phrases such as “sustainability” and “ethical sourcing” bandied about far more often today than ever before.
And there are some very good reasons why all coffee drinkers, be they snobs such as myself or just someone who enjoys their morning stop at their favorite coffee shop, should think about where their coffee comes from. In a small way, your morning cup of joe could help make the world a better place.
“Sustainability feels like an ambiguous buzzword,” notes Georgia Morley, the coffee-obsessed creator of the In It 4 The Long Run website. “Like ‘eco’, ‘green’, ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘fair trade’ and more. They sound like nice-to-haves, but when the entire process feels so far away it’s hard to know how or why to care.”
So what exactly is sustainability? Generally speaking, sustainable coffee is grown, processed and sold in a way that supports the environment as well as supporting the livelihoods of the people who produce it.
“So often the people who work to produce valuable crops cannot afford the very thing that they grow,” Morley explains. “Sustainable practices are important because it ensures workers are fairly compensated.”
Likewise, Hazel Boydell of the Perfect Daily Grind website notes the word “sustainability” has been thrown around a lot and the understanding of what it is has changed somewhat over the years. But when we talk about sustainability in coffee we are really considering what is known as the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit.
“Sustainable development meets the needs of today without compromising future generations,” she says. “Simply put, it is being responsible with the way we use resources to ensure our children and grandchildren have what they need to live comfortably.
So in my ongoing efforts to further educate myself about the ethics of coffee, I reached out to several of our local coffee shops and their owners. Their insights were as eye-opening to me as my first cup of coffee.
“I have always looked at sustainability in coffee as covering three different areas, the triple bottom line, with all three being equally important,” explains Ian Goodman of Goodman Coffee Roasters. “In regards to people, we have helped fund a scholarship that helps pay for the schooling of young Guatemalan girls in the community around the farm we work with. We have also helped support woman-owned farms in several countries around the world.”
As for profit, Goodman notes the world coffee market is in crisis, with coffee trading at some of the lowest prices in over a decade. This has driven a lot of farmers to get out of growing coffee because they can no longer support their families.
“We work directly with several farms which cuts out some middlemen allowing the farms to earn more money per pound,” Goodman says. “We have seen this work very well with those farms allowing them to put more money back into the farm and build their own washing station or covered raised drying beds. Finding ways to help the farms become more profitable not only helps the families that grow our coffee but can also help the communities around the farm by helping to provide stable jobs.”
And when it comes to the planet and the environment, there are a number of different certifications that coffees can have: Rain Forest Alliance, Smithsonian Bird Friendly, Organic, Fair Trade, and so forth. A lot of locally sold coffees have some or all of those certifications.
“We look for farms that have shade grown coffee since it is not only better for the coffee but keeps some of the native forest intact,” Goodman notes. “A lot of the farms we work with also keep sections of the farm as untouched rain forest. Coffee is almost exclusively grown in poorer third world countries and, as a company, it is extremely important to us that the coffee we are buying are helping in a small way better the lives of the people growing and harvesting it.”
Michael Price of Mad Priest Coffee Roasters echoes a lot of the same sentiments and values. We caught up with Price as he was driving to Huehuetenango in Guatemala to visit a local coffee farm.
“We are a triple bottom line business, as well,” Price explains. “We focus on the environmental and social aspect on how the business can impact the local and greater international community. From a sustainable perspective, we are 100 percent compostable—everything that goes out of our cafe can be thrown in the compost, which we partner with Compost House.”
One of the main reasons he is in Guatemala is to work closely with his importers, in the case Caravela. “The importers we work with are important to the entire process. We work closely with them to ensure that what we are buying is something that is impacting the producers as well as the greater coffee community, particularly with the beans that we carry each season.”
Price believes a mutual two-way relationship with an importer such as Caravela, where they work on the ground with the producers and are completely transparent on where the beans are coming from and ensuring that the farmers get paid properly, is very important.
And that educational process is something he wants to help spread here in Chattanooga. “One of our goals is to have an educational system to ensure that all the customers we deal with understand how coffee is priced the way it is, what the quality of the beans really means, and how that trickles down all the way to the producers and pickers,” Price says. “We want to help customers to start asking the right questions.”
Which brings us to the future of coffee in Chattanooga. Just a few years ago, “sustainability” was a word that was only known to a few forward thinkers. Nowadays, savvy consumers are not only understanding the importance of creating a fair global marketplace for coffee, but also enjoying the very tangible benefits of having local access to some very high-quality coffee beans from around the world.
Goodman, who has been in the local coffee business for over two decades, has seen a number of coffee shops come and go. He feels that the companies that promote ethical practices and go the extra mile for their suppliers and their customers will be the ones to thrive and grow.
Price, who started Mad Priest just a few years ago, is on the same page. He sees the companies that are really invested in the industry, and believes those are the brands that are going to grow because of a combination of talent and understanding of specialty coffee.
“Coffee, like many other beverages such as beer and liquor or even just good food, all are the same in that they are part of four walls that create a third space for people,” Price says. “Coffee is an important aspect of community. It just happens to be the beverage of choice for people to gather around and make big decisions, or meet an old friend, or whatever it might be. I think having a local coffee culture that has a space that is inviting to all people as well as inviting to inclusivity is crucial to the growth of any city.”
As I take my last sip of coffee, I think about how my daily routine is far larger in ways than I had ever imagined. And how a few simple choices on my part can—and do—make a difference for people all over the world. Sometimes the smallest choices can have the biggest impacts.
It’s a nice feeling.
I think I’ll have another cup.