Have you ever stopped to think about what your purchases are supporting? With so many titles flying around in todays market place like fair-trade, direct-trade, rainforest-alliance, ethically-sourced just to name a few it is very easy to be tricked into thinking that your money is supporting good and often local practises and as a result becoming comfortable and complacent about what titles like this mean and represent. Even the brand names and blend names can lead you to form an opinion or ideal about what you are consuming. So I wanted to take a moment to point out some questions that are helpful in finding out the reality of what you are or are not supporting. One of the big myths in the Coffee Industry is wether the coffee is roasted locally or not, just because coffee has a local brand name doesn’t mean it is roasted in town, so it is always well worth asking the question “where is this coffee roasted?”

The next big question in my opinion is questioning labels like fair-trade, direct-trade, rainforest-alliance, ethically-sourced.  The question to ask would be “what percentage of this coffee is actually fair-trade?” etc.. is it just one origin used in the blend that is certified or is it all of them?

Both of these questions would be a good start in understanding more about the product being purchased and how it is or isn’t supporting good practises. Once you discover these basics you might want to take a look at what these labels actually represent, in particular fair-trade etc, what does it mean for the country of origin is it a “happily” accepted practise or is it just another “make the western world feel good” label or even worse a money making scheme?

Just a few thoughts worth having :) keep it real