Fair Trade helps to support 550,000 of the world’s top
coffee-growing farms belonging to the Fair Trade co-op. Keep in mind that the average Third World family farmer supporting a family of five lives on the equivalent of $500 to $600 a year! The premium put on organic-certified coffee alone is about 15 cents more per pound. In a market that pays only 30 to 50 cents a pound, that premium will not go very far toward improving farmers’ lives. Fair Trade currently guarantees to the farmer a minimum of $1.26 per pound, regardless of the market price.

3.    Certified Shade Grown by the Smithsonian In-stitution. Coffee has a symbiotic relationship with canopy trees: Coffee trees do better when grown under a canopy of shade (ideally with 50 to 60 percent shading). While shade-grown coffee is not as productive in terms of the amount of fruit, it ripens more completely, with more nutrients going to each fruit, creating a richer, fuller flavor. There is only one meaningful certification for shade-grown trees, and that is Smithsonian. A Smithsonian certification means that the coffee plantation has been inspected annually for optimal biodiver-sity. It requires that everyone from farmer to roaster be independently audited. Most shade-grown coffee, however, is broker or roaster certified, using loose standards or no standards at all.

Storage and Preparation

Coffee should be stored away from light or in a light barrier bag in a cool dry place (not the refrigerator). It should be frozen only if you are going to store it for longer than a month. Freezing will change the cell structure of the coffee bean (subtly affecting the flavor) and also change the way it grinds. Many coffee grinders have a mechanism to change the grind from coarse to extra fine, allowing you to grind your coffee to the grind recommended for your type of coffee maker. The longer coffee is brewed (steeped), the coarser the grind can be. The more it’s a drip or percolator extracted coffee, the more medium to fine the grind can be, depending on how you like your coffee. Espresso machines require a grind about halfway between fine and medium.