Firstly - this move will not mean we will not roast certifed organic coffee, it just means instead of saying ‘certified organic’ we will have to say ‘grown on organic land / farm’. Plus many of our coffees that are not currently certified organic are organic by nature - we have always said that “just because coffee is not certified organic does not mean it has not been grown organically”. 

So why are we doing this? In basic terms - our main objective as a specialty coffee roaster is to hunt out and roast what we believe to be the best possible coffee for our customers to enjoy. This main objective (goal) has nothing to do with coffee that is labelled or certified in any particular way, it is all about quaility and taste value comes first. Which leads us on to say that we have never gone out of our way to buy organic coffee because it is organic. 

Are these plants non organic, organic or grown using natural soil conditioners and does it matter?   However, we know giving up our certification will pose a dilemma for our some of our customers that are trying to do the right thing for themselves, by other people and the planet. All we would say is "do we (you) avoid all coffee that is not labelled as organic and exclude the farmers that have the least access to the technical skills and finances to get certified but grow organically?  If we look at it this way we could say that certification discriminates. Take for example Ethiopia – the majority of coffee is grown by small-holder farmers using natural, organic methods. The coffee they produce is not certified organic, but is grown using natural soil conditioners and without the use of chemicals, the way it has been grown for hundreds of years. Certifying coffee as organic is a time-consuming and often very expensive process that the majority of small-holder famers will never be able to achieve.  The exception are those farmers that are well-organized in coffee farmer cooperatives that in turn belong to a union of coffee farmers’ coops and therefore have the know-how, the contacts, the language, and access to funds to make organic certification a reality. 

A quality note to end on - If we look at each CoE (Cup of Excellence) programme of 2012. The Cup of Excellence programme being the most esteemed award given out for top coffees of the world. These awards come from a strict competition that selects the very best coffee produced in that country for that particular year. These winning coffees are chosen by a select group of national and international cuppers and are cupped at least five different times during the competition process. Only coffees that continuously score high enough are allowed to move forward and through in the competition based on taste. My point - this year there were 233 farms that were awarded a place and only 4 were certified organic farms.

The end.