Coffee part 2

Cafe Britt coffee is sold everywhere we have been. I saw it at the hot springs, I saw it in gift shops around Arenal, and it was even sold in the gift shop at Monteverde. I guess it pays to be the big name in the coffee industry, especially since the coffee grown at Del Cafe... Tal is supposedly better tasting. While Del Cafe... Tal is working on having a website for international ordering and advertising, Cafe Britt already has a well developed website that makes it easy t order their coffee and stock on store shelves. Maybe in time Del Cafe... Tal can catch up with Cafe Britt or perhaps create their own niche in the coffee market by being a local high quality Fair Trade coffee plantation. 

There are 5 indicators that the coffee that a consumer purchases is sustainable. 

The first is a certification, but this is a vague category. Their are multiple seals, or no seal at all on the product due to the costs associated with becoming a certified sustainable coffee plantation. There is a bird friendly coffee certification, which is one of the top certifications that the coffee truly was "grown under the most stringent environmental standards of any certification system", especially because to receive this certification they must already be organic too. The Rainforest Alliance is another group that can qualify coffee as being sustainable, but not necessarily organic. This group only has the requirement that 30% of the beans are certified, so if you truly want organic/sustainable you have to look for a different mention that says the coffee is 100% Rainforest Alliance certified or certified organic. The concept of truly sustainable coffee is difficult to find out the truth about.

The second indicator is the country of origin of the coffee. Many countries that grow shade-grown coffee are more sustainable than those that don't because they leave trees and other native biodiversity alone to shade the plants. This is obviously better than a country that cuts down forests in order to grow coffee.

The third indicator is something called Botanical variety, which means which type of coffee (arabica or robusta) coffee you might be purchasing. High quality is arabica, while low quality is robusta, so make sure labels specifically mention 100% arabica coffee. Bourbon and typica are other types of arabica coffee that require shade to grow, which gives more evidence that the coffee was grown in a more sustainable way than catuai and caturra sun grown coffees.

The fourth indicator is to buy coffee from a small roaster and not from a big-time corporation that roasts coffee from multiple plantations at one time. Small roasters know their suppliers better and may have precise information about the origin of the coffee sold to you as a consumer.

The fifth indicator is price. Sustainable coffee is definitely not the cheapest coffee you can find, because in order to be sustainable, plantations are less productive per acre and it costs more in general to produce. Small distinct coffees that are sustainable are both better for the environment and better tasting than large corporation coffee productions.