Coffee

I was reading more about sustainable coffee growth and I found some information about indications that coffee is grown sustainably. The five that were listed were:

1. Certification
2. Country of Origin
3. Botanical Variety
4. Roaster
5. Price

In regards to certification, the cost of certifying your coffee organic can be great so some organic coffees do not have a seal. In the event that organic coffee does carry a seal, there are several types that may be present. One type of seal is that of bird friendly growth. In this case, it is required to be grown organically so you are getting coffee with sustainability and biodiversity kept as high priorities. To be certified organic by the USDA, it means that most but not all chemicals were eliminated from the growth process and most are grown with at least partial shade. Other types of seals exist such as from the Rainforest Alliance

The country of origin is important because some countries no longer use shade to grow their beans. These countries are more likely to use shade growing: Mexico, Bolivia, Ethiopia and a few others. Countries likely to use sun growing are: Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, and Vietnam.

Botanical variety relates to the two species of coffees sold commercially. These two are Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is high quality where Robusta is generally low quality and mass produced with a lot of chemicals.

It is recommended that you buy coffee from a small, specialty roaster. This is because small roasters tend to have better relationships with the farms that grow their coffee and they know exactly where it came from. They are also more likely to know how it was grown.

The topic of price and sustainable coffee is just as one may guess: cheap coffee is probably not sustainable. It takes more money to grow organic, sustainably coffee; therefore, the cost will tend to be higher.

I think this will help me to make a more educated decision when the day comes that I decide to like coffee. I don't think the day will come but maybe whoever reads this will benefit.