Tag Archives: Direct Trade

163. How microlots can help everyone

2011-05-10 Comments Off on 163. How microlots can help everyone

Microlots may be the exclusive domain of quality-obsessed roasters who are willing to pay top dollar for the finest coffee a grower or group of growers has to offer.  But that doesn’t mean that microlots don’t generate benefits for those roasters who aren’t.  Microlots may help farmer organizations be better trading partners for everyone in […]

147. More on Counter Culture’s Direct Trade model

2011-04-12 Comments Off on 147. More on Counter Culture’s Direct Trade model

Yesterday I shared some good news:  Counter Culture Coffee is now offering a Direct Trade Certified coffee from 5 de junio, a cooperative we work with in Nicaragua under our CAFE Livelihoods project.  The cooperative has been working hard over the past few years to improve the quality of its coffee, and we are delighted […]

145. Counter Culture announces 5 de junio single-origin offering

2011-04-11 Comments Off on 145. Counter Culture announces 5 de junio single-origin offering

Counter Culture Coffee on Friday announced it is now offering a single-origin, Direct Trade Certified coffee from 5 de junio, a cooperative participating in our CAFE Livelihoods project.  While this may not be Earth-shaking news in the United States, it represents the culmination of years of hard work in a handful of coffee communities in […]

110. Coffee quality: Fair Trade’s competitive advantage

2010-11-25 Comments Off on 110. Coffee quality: Fair Trade’s competitive advantage

Yesterday I suggested that Fair Trade has little to do with quality on the roasting and retail end of the coffee chain. On the sourcing end, however, I believe that there are elements of the Fair Trade model that help certain Fair Trade roasters get a leg up on the competition.

105. The Coffeelands Blog turns 1

2010-11-04 Comments Off on 105. The Coffeelands Blog turns 1

Tomorrow, the CRS Coffeelands Blog turns 1. We won’t be able to publish the standard one-year-old birthday party picture of a wide-eyed baby with a face — and hands and hair and clothes — covered in icing and cake crumbs, but I did want to do something to observe the happy occasion.

90. Fair Trade Certification in the news, unfortunately

2010-09-07 Comments Off on 90. Fair Trade Certification in the news, unfortunately

Last week, the Seattle Times published an article on Direct Trade that did not reflect particularly well on Fair Trade Certification. Then a bad moment for Fair Trade was made worse when Sprudge cherry-picked the worst lines of the article, which had more than its share of unfortunate content.

75. Photo essay – What I did this summer

2010-07-26 Comments Off on 75. Photo essay – What I did this summer

In the tradition of the back-to-school composition on the theme “What I did this summer,” here are some images from a few of the cafés that kept me plied with extraordinary coffees at each of the many stops on my whirlwind holiday.