Must. Have. Coffee.

In elementary school, I loved the smell of coffee. When I’d go to the grocery store with my mom I’d sneak a few coffee beans from the coffee aisle and secretly enjoy their smell all day. I have loved coffee ever since high school, when I discovered Nescafe living in Malaysia (yeah, not the most gourmet coffee. Shut up.) Then I discovered Coffee Bean and Starbucks and Gloria Jeans and I was hooked. Espresso, lattes, and macchiatos, oh my! Mmm. I still absolutely love coffee, but I try to make socially and environmentally conscious decisions about my addiction.

Fair Trade: Coffee growers are mostly in developing countries and can be compensated with reallly unfair, crappy prices for their coffee. Fair trade means they are given much better returns. So no more unfair corruption. Or…at least less.

Shade Grown: I just learned about this one! Did you know that for many coffee plantations, rain forest may be torn down or at least damaged? Shade grown means they harvest coffee beans among the plants that are already there – so no deforestation. :) Everyone wins, even the workers, because wouldn’t you rather work in the forest than in a field under the hot, hot sun??

Organic: Safer for the workers, for the environment and for you.

Locally Roasted: Good for local economy, less CO2 from travel, and tastes better.

Enjoy!