Field Guide to Morning Coffee
Latin name: Wakeus thehellupus
Family: Hot Beveragidae
Habitat: Urban jungle. Often spotted in a battered travel mug (a.k.a. adult sippy cup).
Origin: Um. Aisle three?
Time to trace your java’s genealogy via CoffeeCSA. The world’s first farm-to-cup co-op is staking new grounds by sourcing your daily joe directly from 140,000 small-scale growers around the globe.
The caffeinated life cycle begins when fair trade-certified family plantations in countries like Nicaragua and Ethiopia plant their crops using CSA funds. Ten months later, farmers ship the best of their harvest to Cali, where the organic beans are roasted in small batches before being packaged and shipped to subscribers.
You can choose a single supplier — who will email you about the crop’s progress — or opt for a farmer-of-the-month membership. There’s no minimum sign-up period, but any multimonth payment effectively provides a micro-loan toward the production of next year’s yield.
Pure genus.
Available online at coffeecsa.org, starts at $20 per month for two pounds of coffee.
Photo: Olaf Hammelburg / Courtesy of CoffeeCSA.org
