Coffee Sourcing

For us, sourcing great coffee begins in the cupping room. We ‘cup’ hundreds of coffees every year.  Some with exciting and/or heartfelt stories, or from places with hard to pronounce names, or with the promise that it is the new, trendy coffee style. These all can be great attributes, but it is the cup taste of the coffee that is the basis of our selection.

Once we establish that we like a coffee; we do research. This may include visiting the farms (many but not all), dialogues with farmers, dialogue with suppliers, and reviewing documents and/or photos of the farm or area. From this research, we establish the organic certification, claims about status of shade grown, and how the farm, farmers, or project relates to the people who grow the coffee. 

Certified Organic

 All of the coffees we purchase are certified organic by a USDA/National Organic Program accredited certifying agency. In addition, we are a USDA/National Organic Program roasting facility. (Oregon Tilth is our accredited certifying agency). They inspect annually to ensure organic claims are met.

In order for farms to become certified organic, they must meet rigorous standards for organic production including mulching, topsoil quality, pest management, water quality and use, processing, and transportation. Organic Farmers must be committed to the ideal because it takes a full three years to obtain organic certification. Organic farmers see the benefits of organic not just in the beauty and environmental benefits on the farm, but in the price premiums they obtain on the open market. Organic farmers receive a premium of between 15 and 35 percent over their conventional counterparts**. And we are all too happy to pay these premiums, provided of course that the quality is there.

Organic farming and production requires a social aspect too. International organic principles emphasize that those involved in organic agriculture should conduct human relationships in a manner that ensures fairness at all levels and to all parties - farmers, workers, processors, distributors, traders and consumers. Organic agriculture should provide everyone involved with a good quality of life, and contribute to food sovereignty and reduction of poverty. It aims to produce a sufficient supply of good quality food and other products.

Jim's Organic Coffee™  is a company with an all-organic heritage. Jim Cannell, our founder, owner, and President started the first all-organic coffee company in 1992. And we remain committed to that all-organic ideal, not just for the benefits it provides to farms, but to the cup quality these amazing coffees produce.

Through our travels and shared stories with organic farmers worldwide, we have seen the postitive impact that organic coffe has on the environment. But the benefits dont end there. We have discovered so many more reasons why organic coffee is simply better:

~organic coffees are more resilient to draught in bad years
~organic coffee has significantly more species and biodiversity on the farms
~organic coffee requires more labor and thus puts more people  to work in less developed countries
~organic coffee even increases coffee yields in the long run

**  North American Organic Coffee Survey; 2009

Shade Grown Coffees

Shade provides a great deal to the organic growing process.  It limits the sun’s heat and drying effects to the topsoil and to the coffee cherries.  A biodiverse shade offers varying layers of fauna that ‘fall’ each year to eventually compost into the soil; giving the soil a myriad of nutrients. Last but not least, shade provides habitat to birds in and around the farm.  The birds in turn help to combat pests. Creating a natural insect controled environment without the use of poisonous pesticides.

Shade also benefits the ‘not as cute’ creatures like slugs, worms, other slimy-but-beautiful-if-you-are-into-compost creatures. These little guys help keep the soil healthy by providing oxygen and nutrients. Jim’s Organic Coffee’s are all shade grown, no exeptions. These levels of shade may vary from the diverse polyculture canopy Smithsonian Bird Friendly Certified Mexican Altura El Chorro to our Rainforest Alliance Certified Colombian. And while our Guatemalan Atitlan does not come with a specific shade certification, in Jim’s two trips to this beautiful area, Jim has yet to come back with a tan.          

Call it fair trade, call it ethical sourcing, call it socially responsible free trade; we just call it the way we do business.

We select the finest organic coffees and support the growers who supply our coffee with price premiums to sustain themselfs, their communities, and the fine quality coffee they produce. Our direct relationships, coupled with our organic ideals for support to communities, allows you to feel good about the quaity of the coffee you are drinking, as well as the ethical manner in which it is sourced.

Details of our coffees and the support they provide to their communities and ecosystems can be found by reading through our SINGLE ORIGINS page.  These coffees are then used to make up the bulk of our Blends, Decaffs, and Flavors.

For those who require certification, we offer two Transfair certified coffees; a Breakfast Blend and Dark Roast. 

Above and beyond the good work buying and selling our coffee does, we have  succeeded in making lasting impacts in coffee growing areas:

~In Tzanchaj, Guatemala, we spearheaded a library project to make reading accessable not just to the elementary school, but to the community. These are areas where you simply do not see books in classrooms, and due to our efforts, these children now enjoy reading for school and for fun.

~Mbeya, Tanzania shares East Africa’s problem of HIV/AIDS. Through our travels, we connected with Rev. Robert Mbinda who, seeking to give hope to those whose parents have been lost to HIV, started an orphanage for these children. We (with other supporters) have have brought fresh drinking water to the orphanage and village; providing them health and displacing a half mile walk to fresh water.

These efforts are a small way that we feel we are making lasting difference in these areas.