Fair Trade Coffee Business Helps The Community

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Green Mountain Coffee Helps The Community And Takes Part In Fair Trade Business

Green Mountain Coffee, producer of specialty coffee and manufacturer of coffee makers, is trying to set an example in the field by taking part in environmental and community improvement programs and exemplary business practices. Green Mountain takes part in the National River Cleanup event by encouraging workers to volunteer their time and efforts during paid work days. The program has been very successful in helping to keep rivers and streams clean for everyone to enjoy them. Employees are encouraged to do many other types of volunteer work on company time as part of a Community Action For Employees program. Green Mountain also works to directly counteract it’s own carbon footprint through evironmentalism. Green Mountain is also involved in a fair trade coffee program that guarantees the growers who supply their coffee are fairly compensated for their labor and well supplied with the tools they need to produce an excellent product.

They strive to illustrate ways that companies can maintain profits while still advancing social and environmental concerns. By openly contributing to good business behavior Green Mountain hopes to set a prime example and stimulate other companies in the coffee business to take similar action.

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July 14, 2009 | Filed Under Caffeinated, Coffee Business, Coffee Culture | Leave a Comment 

How To Maintain Coffee Consistancy & Roast Quality

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Maintaining Coffee Consistancy And Roast Quality

A customer recently emailed us that they liked our Big City Coffee blend and wanted to know about our consistancy and quality control.

That’s a great question for any small artisan coffee roaster commited to delivering every order to high standards. The great artisan roasters are fanatics about repeatable processes to achieve predictable results. It’s the variables that will drive the Roastmaster nuts; and the biggest variable is – (drum roll (it’s a pun!), please…) – The Bean.

The following is from my reply; it’s also posted here so you can add your comments, too.

We’re roasting all of the Big City Coffee brands 2-3 times a week and deliver it fresh :)
And quality is excellent and consistent…the beans are hand-selected and every roast is done on a small batch roaster and monitored by one our expert roastmasters.

We do a tasting several times a week, too, just for fun :)

An issue with small estate coffees is getting enough high-quality beans that are consistent from season to season. It’s more of a problem with ’single origin’ bean, like PanAltura, or all from one farm…even though the cup quality may be high from season to season, the taste may vary a little – like wine vintages – because of weather, soil, and other seasonal growing conditions.

With the blends, like Big City, or HiFi, it’s easier to find substitute high quality beans that still maintain the same great taste.

Megabucks and other large-scale roasters keep the taste the same by:

1) warehousing tons of product for 3-4 years (green beans do not improve with age)

2) using up to 30%+ lower-quality ‘filler’ bean

3) and over-roasting to add caramelized sugars to cover the underlying taste

But, if that’s what you like, and it fits your budget, you should probably stick with it…

More Coffee Facts

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June 8, 2009 | Filed Under Coffee Beans, Coffee Business, Coffee Roasting | Leave a Comment 

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