Organic and Shade Grown. Tropical rainforests, home to over half of the world’s species of plants and animals, are currently being threatened by man in a variety of ways. Among them is the clearing of trees by coffee farmers in order to maximize bean yields. The more open field there is, they reason, the more beans they can grow, and the more money they will make.

But there is a way to convince farmers not to clear trees or to spray harmful pesticides: pay them a premium price for coffee beans grown in an environmentally-friendly manner. The coffee farmers who grow our beans receive (over and above any premium for Fair Trade) an additional 15 cents per pound for product that is shade grown and organic, and this premium price helps to convince them to adopt farming methods that protect, rather than destroy, precious rainforests.

All of our coffee is shade grown and organic, no exceptions.

By the way, coffee beans grown in the shade are generally of a better quality and make better coffee than beans grown in the sun.