Every cup of coffee is connected to a huge chain of events from the farmer, to the roaster, to the barista. It’s our objective to be as involved as possible in as many areas as we can and make sure we do justice to the hard-working hands that make these coffees possible. 

Sourcing the best-tasting coffee has been a priority of Roasted Brown from the very beginning. We’ve never found it within ourselves to buy coffee we don’t love out of fear of not liking our jobs or not believing in our coffee.

Finding great green bean is a huge undertaking and is a full-time role. We take our values very seriously when it comes to buying coffee and we never ever waiver on them. Taste, quality of farming, the farmer and workers, traceability, and sustainability: these are the keys that define how we decide what to buy.

Taste

We spend hours and hours tasting samples of high grade specialty coffee (a tough life for sure) and when we find what we like, we find out more...

The Farmers, The Co-op, and the Chain

Green bean farming and sourcing is a very complex business. We’re often dealing with developing nations where politics and corruption play a significant role in the coffee industry. We get asked regularly “Is this coffee bought direct?" or “Are the farmers paid well?”

The answer to the first question isn’t always straightforward because there are so many links in the chain, from farming to processing coffee cherries to wet milling and dry milling. These stages can be split into separate services and business in and of themselves. This means our objective here is traceability. We work with some of the best coffee hunters in the world to make sure we’re on track to traceable coffee as quickly as possible.

The answer to the second question is always a big resounding "Yes!" and thankfully there are a few reasons this is possible for us. Our pursuit of great tasting coffee typically leads us in the direction of well-paid farmers - as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

For a huge amount of the coffee we buy, farmers are actually getting paid twice; the first time by the mill or the exporter and then again when the coffee is sold to the roaster or importer. This model allows the farmer to maintain cash flow and quality of life and also get an extra kick-back because a roaster like us has paid really good money for it.