Over the last year, we have been on a hunt for good Fairtrade beans for our espresso bar. Our coffee supplier brought us an excellent Fairtrade and organic bean in the spring that is great for our non-espresso coffees, which we serve in a cafetierre. It’s full flavoured and certainly makes a nonsense of anyone saying one has to suffer for organic!
The espresso bean has been harder, because there are limited options, and most, it must be said, are quite poor. We are not willing to suffer any drop in taste. Our existing bean has made so many of our customers happy; it would be foolish to give them anything that doesn’t match up.
It’s also tricky – what might taste great in an espresso might not be so good in a cappuccino. It’s hard to find a bean that tastes good across the range of espresso bar offerings.
However, if the likes of us don’t push for fairtrade and organics, the options are unlikely to improve. So, we pushed.
It would seem as if our coffee supplier has come through again. Last week he dropped in a bag of Fairtrade (though sadly not organic) beans that are a mix from small farmers in Brazil, Tanzania, Guatamala, and Columbia. They are very good indeed, and I think we will make the switch. If our customers are as happy as we are, it’s a keeper!
Technorati tags: espresso, fairtrade, cappuccino, coffee, organic, Ireland
Any chance you might reveal the name of this magic bean? We are big espresso drinkers in our house, and I would love us to switch to Fairtrade, but the husband will not accept a drop in quality.
It’s from Maher’s in Cork…
Gorgeous pictures as usual.
Try Ariosa
http://www.ariosacoffee.com/
fair trade, personally sourced by an amazing young coffeeholic from Ashbourne Co. Meath it is superb coffee,
really pleased you found the right fairtrade coffee. the range has grown so much and it’s good to encourage excellent quality.
With regards to getting a “mix” of fairtrade coffees from a supplier – the problem I would have as a roaster is providing consistency to my customers. I would rather find a number of fairtrade or Utz Kapeh coffees and blend them myself – then I know exactly what I have and can create the same blend over and over.