One of my main goals here at C&C is not only to provide background information so that consumers can choose coffee that does not harm biodiversity, but to do some of the heavy lifting myself. I’ve been as conscientious as possible in researching roasters that carry sustainable coffees. There is a drawback to mail ordering coffee, and that is shipping costs and, something that personally bothers me a lot, the environmental costs of the fossil fuel use required for the shipping. This is especially onerous with coffee, because unless you buy green beans, you can’t buy much more coffee than you can drink in two weeks or so. It just defeats the purpose to buy freshly roasted coffee and not drink it at peak freshness.
So, I’ve tried to research and try out roasters from far and wide. Below is an interactive map to the roasters I’ve examined so far that meet the criteria described in a previous post; not every coffee from each roaster is sustainable, but all have at least a few offerings that come from biodiversity-friendly sources. If there are multiple qualified roasters in the same city, I’ve only listed the ones I’ve tried, or that have the highest-rated coffee.
Hover over the markers for the name of the roaster, click on the markers for name, location, web site, and notes. If it’s an orange marker, a street address is given, and it’s a location you can visit (retail store or cafe), mail order only places are green. If there are multiple locations, that’s noted, too (the note will say "retail" if the coffees are available at grocers, coops, etc.). You can zoom and pan. You can also visit the map at Zee Maps, and click on "List" in the upper right corner for a color-coded list of names.
Explore and choose a roaster near you! (I know I have quite a few readers in Europe and Australia…I’ll try to add some more roasters in those regions in the future.)
Revised on November 2, 2010
