Coffee is a drink we have all come to love. It is one of the world’s most popular drinks. However, coffee has at times an incredibly turbulent past (to put it lightly).
When I started Ligature, I was only becoming more and more aware of all these issues and inequities in coffee so as I sourced coffee I made it my goal to be intentional and also ask questions to grow my knowledge to better inform my ethics in sourcing.
I want to personally take pride in the coffees sourced, but also in the knowledge that the process this coffee went through to get to you was equitable.So over the years, I have used a rubric when sourcing coffees that help me get insight and decide whether this is someone I want to partner with. The four main things I look into are Traceability, Pricing, Practices, and Information Transparency.
An additional area that is kind of always evolving is looking at the history of the coffee industry as a whole in each place I want to source from and asking myself how does the history of this area inform my coffee purchasing.
An example of that is when I learned all about the history of coffee in Guatemala and the forced labor/taking of land from Indigenous people for coffee plantations. I now prioritize indigenous producers because I know purchasing from and highlighting them won’t undo what has happened to them and their lineage, but can help course correct by allowing them to take what was once a forced task, and use it to provide for themselves and their communities. Helping those communities flourish once again.
It has been exciting to over the years work with both small and large producers and importers. I have been slowly but surely piecing together a wonderful group of contacts and friends all over the world that help source and create amazing, consistent, and high quality coffee. All the while, doing it with a wholistic view of the supply chain with both producers and consumers in mind.
You'll see on every coffee page, some sourcing information. Our desire is to put this information upfront and clear, HOWEVER I also understand these numbers can mean nothing to you or be confusing. Feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to talk about each number and it's value, and as always, if I dont know the answer, I probably know someone who does.
How far back can I trace the coffee to its origin? Is it only as far back as mill? Auction lot? Farmer/Producer? etc
Why? This helps provide me context to the history of the coffee, which further informs the other key things I look for.
What are each persons involved best practices on the farm or when buying?
Examples
Farm Level: Sustainable agronomy/agricultural practices, cherry picker treatment/pay
Exporter/Importer Level: price floors, micro-financing, how/if they use the C price, how do they determine the prices paid?
Does the price I am paying proportionately reflect what the farmer is getting paid?
There are a lot of things tacked on by whoever is sourcing to the final price roasters pay for coffee. And that is usually okay - we are all trying to get bills paid - but is the farmer being allowed adequate profit margins? Just because a coffee is expensive, doesn't always mean a farmer is getting paid fairly.
How much information is everyone in the supply chain willing to provide about this final product we are all taking part in?
Coffee grows in the shade, trust does not.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and being curious. I hope it's enlightening and you feel good purchasing and brewing all the coffees we source & roast.
-Chris
