The Direct Trade-v-Fair Trade debate resurfaced here last week. I weighed in on that debate here yesterday. Today I want to explore a related idea: that the leading proponents of these two trading models may have communicated themselves into corners from which they can’t easily extricate themselves even though they desperately need to. Direct Trade […]
The B in “Certified B Corporation” stands for Benefit. But the B Corp certification may be the best one out there for consumers who want a holistic assessment of a company’s Business model. .
Over the past six weeks, this blog has been devoted exclusively to the CRS Colombian Varietal Cuppings–a series of comparative cuppings of Castillo and Caturra samples from our Borderlands project involving leading roasters and importers in the United States, Europe and Australia. Even when I took a week off from reporting on the results of […]
This post is a featured comment submitted in response to my recent post on the farm-facing cupping form. It combines comments by three people: TJ Semanchin and Caleb Nicholes of Kickapoo Coffee in Viroqua, WI and Mark Glenn of Conscious Coffees in Boulder, CO. Both roasters are recent winners of the Roast Magazine Microroaster-of-the-Year award. […]
Stephen Macatonia directs Union Hand Roasted in London, one of the UK’s leading Direct Trade roasters. Last week he published this thoughtful piece in the Guardian — the latest contribution to the ongoing debate between advocates and practitioners of Fair Trade and Direct Trade over whose trade is fairest of them all. For our part, we […]
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.
I suggested yesterday that Fair Trade coffee is on a roll. I think it is important to reflect further on the relationship between Fair Trade and quality, as much of what accounts for coffee quality has nothing at all to do with Fair Trade
Fair Trade roasters have taken the last two Roast Magazine Microroaster of the Year awards, while Fair Trade coffees got high praise in a feature in Coffee Review not too long ago. I have to agree with Kenneth Davids: Fair Trade coffee has indeed been “on a bit of a roll.”
