We are UK's first speciality coffee roasters focused on organics. Currently, every single coffee we work with is certified organic. All of our blends are 100% organic all the time. We strive to become recognised as the roasters of the most delicious organic coffees for the speciality coffee market in the UK and Europe.
So, why do we think that organic coffee is the way to go? Very simple, when it comes to food or drink we consume, coffee is the #1 as far as the amount and number of pesticides used to grow it. Coffee is the third most sprayed agricultural crop in the world behind cotton and tobacco (and we do not eat or drink those other two!). Just think about the impact of consuming one to three cups of coffee every day for your entire life, and how ingesting artificial pesticides, fungicides and herbicides are affecting your body, brain and overall health, you may want to choose organic coffee.
We admire and strive to adhere to organic principles. Organic coffee growers are farming sustainably and acting kinder towards people, animals and the world around us. We love coffee and this is precisely why we believe that coffee deserves to be nurtured as nature meant it to be. Here is our rationale for striving to be as organic as we possibly can.
In the beginning, all coffee was grown as organic coffee should be – under the shade of the higher growing trees, in complete harmony with its ecosystem and, needless to say, without any use of toxic chemicals.
Today, being the most actively traded agricultural commodity, coffee is not farmed the same way as it was even less than fifty years ago. Beginning in 1970s, full sun coffee varietals were developed to increase productivity of coffee farms by allowing denser positioning of the coffee trees in the absence of shade trees. However, getting rid of the shade trees also led to destruction of the traditional ecosystem in which coffee trees originally grew. As a result, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides had to be heavily used to compensate for the lack of nutrients in the soil and the absence of birds that traditionally inhabited the higher growing trees and acted as natural pest doctors for the lower growing coffee plants. The very use of these chemicals harms the soil and adjacent water supplies, it destroys the natural soil microorganisms, the surrounding wildlife, including insects, birds, and other larger species. It addition to the environment, health and well being of the entire coffee growing communities is being compromised, partially trough damaging drinking water supplies and partially through inadequate personal protection used by the coffee farmers. Heavy spraying of coffee plants with toxic chemicals and contamination by these chemicals of water that coffee plants use to grow have a profound effect on the chemical integrity and taste of coffee that we consume.
In the United Stated, where the impact of conventional (non-organic) agricultural practices has been widely studied, Environmental Protection Agency considers 60% of all herbicides (weed killers), 90% of all fungicides (mould killers) and 30% of all insecticides (insect killers) to be potentially carcinogenic.
By going organic, we choose to stay clear of these toxic chemicals. Organic coffee is ecologically pure and has no traces of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides grown into the beans. This is clearly beneficial for your health and that of your family.
In addition to these health benefits, by going organic we support organic farming, which is responsible, sustainable and environment friendly. When buying organic we create incentives for the increasing number of coffee growers to move to organic agriculture, leading over time to better environment at origin and higher living standards within the coffee growing communities.