Javalution Junior Member Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Posts: 4 Location: New York Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Sun Jul 20, 2008, 8:28am Subject: Fair Trade Coffee
I am starting a coffee cart. I am only interested in selling fair trade and organic coffee and espresso. Does anyone have any favorites? Breakfast blends? Bolder blends? Or a particular company?
Panera's (non-FT or org) Cafe Blend is the only yummy blend that I've found in my immediate area; and that's seasonal. Better single origin coffees can be found with a ~45 minute drive. If you can capture the classic Central/South American profile of non-acrid nuts and chocolate, for drip coffee you'll be in fairly safe territory, but that's difficult to find with a blend unless different countries are very skillfully blended (or raw frozen) to maintain raw freshness or seasonality.
The Sidamo/Yirgacheffe area of Ethiopia has some great FT/org coffees, also relatively less expensive. Ethiopia is also the birthplace of coffee as we know it.
Great Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Colombian, etc can be found... but they need to be skillfully and *discriminately* selected somewhere along the chain.
Sumatra is usually rustic but has a notable cult following.
Kenyans are my favorite. In all of Kenya there are only a few FT co-ops and no organic coffees off the top of my head. Mamuto Farm isn't FT, but Terroir seems to have paid very far above the common FT price to acquire Mamuto coffee.
Fair Trade certified coffees are only cooperatives! That elimates many very, very worthy *direct trade* farms such as in Colombia and one of my favorite farms in the world, Mamuto in Kenya.
Perhaps you may become interested in selling *direct trade* coffee? I hope. Hehe, too many options? :)
One local source in New York to check out would be Gorilla Coffee in Brooklyn. All of their coffees are Fair Trade and organic. Speaking from immediate experience pulling some shots over the past couple of weeks, their Espresso-A-Go-Go is pretty tasty. Good luck!
E d C u s t a r d pseudo-barista
"...the extreme of banality allows us to catch a glimpse of the sublime." Umberto Eco
Panera's (non-FT or org) Cafe Blend is the only yummy blend that I've found in my immediate area; and that's seasonal. Better single origin coffees can be found with a ~45 minute drive. If you can capture the classic Central/South American profile of non-acrid nuts and chocolate, for drip coffee you'll be in fairly safe territory, but that's difficult to find with a blend unless different countries are very skillfully blended (or raw frozen) to maintain raw freshness or seasonality.
The Sidamo/Yirgacheffe area of Ethiopia has some great FT/org coffees, also relatively less expensive. Ethiopia is also the birthplace of coffee as we know it.
Great Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, Salvadoran, Colombian, etc can be found... but they need to be skillfully and *discriminately* selected somewhere along the chain.
Sumatra is usually rustic but has a notable cult following.
Kenyans are my favorite. In all of Kenya there are only a few FT co-ops and no organic coffees off the top of my head. Mamuto Farm isn't FT, but Terroir seems to have paid very far above the common FT price to acquire Mamuto coffee.
Fair Trade certified coffees are only cooperatives! That elimates many very, very worthy *direct trade* farms such as in Colombia and one of my favorite farms in the world, Mamuto in Kenya.
Perhaps you may become interested in selling *direct trade* coffee? I hope. Hehe, too many options? :)
Peter has much good advice here! There are other ways coffee farmers are getting a better price than just through "Fair Trade" coops. direct trade being a very good one. Some coffees are also organically grown but just don't have the certification due to a number of reasons. farm
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
= No New Posts since last visit 