Coffee has become part of our everyday routine, a little luxury to kickstart the morning, an afternoon pick-me-up, and a moment of beautiful social buzz when we meet our friends. Whether you love it whipped up with frothy milk, dark and dreamy, or mild and mesmerizing, coffee is best when curated from love. As always, it's important to consider an ethical selection when it comes to choosing your beans; farmers, pickers and blenders across the far-flung world deserve to be recognized and fairly rewarded for their commitment to coffee. From home shores to abroad, these are the indie coffee companies we are loving…
Lost Sheep Coffee
What started as a small pushcart in the rain turned into one of the most celebrated indie brands complete with multiple locations. Lost Sheep Coffee believes in a fully traceable coffee model (which we love). That means that all the farmers get paid fair wages and direct trading is the number one priority. But even ethics aside, this is great coffee – Lost Sheep roast light to showcase the natural flavour of their picks. Think bright and bustling blends from Kenya and Sulawesi. They have also taken the modern market one step further and curated fully compostable Nespresso capsules. Fair play Lost Sheep.
Dear Green
Glasgow may not strike you as the best place to buy exotic coffee but the Scottish boutique brand seems to have nailed sustainable bean solutions on the head. With a complete commitment to ethically sourced organic coffee, Dear Green is doing glorious things. We also love the fact that Dear Green takes on a seasonal approach to their perfect blends, meaning that you always taste the true art of the growing season. Think chocolatey and clementine Rwandan blends, honeyed Kenyan specialities, and hoppy Ethiopian faves.
Café Mam
We love the simple heart and passion behind Café Mam. While other indie brands may go big on the branding, Café Mam believes that great coffee simply needs love and nurture to thrive. Their emphasis is on single-origin coffee grown by native Mayan farmers in the highlands of the Chiapas. Of course words like sustainable, organic, and fair-trade come into play, and as Café Mam is a family-owned brand they tend to focus on consistently beautiful small-batch offerings.
Pact
Pact believes in positive force when it comes to coffee and certainly put their money where their mouth is, paying farmers over the fair-trade wage to ensure high-quality ethics every step of the way. Pact is based in the UK but trades directly with farmers across the world – cutting out the middleman and the chance for farmers to miss out on profits. They have an amazing line up of beautiful blends; Colombian Miraflores Espresso, milk chocolate style Brazilian Chapada, and Huehuetenango women’s smallholder beans from Guatemala.
Kickapoo
Along with a kickass name, Kickapoo Coffee is farm-focused, solar-powered, and all about building close-knit relationships with coffee bean growers. They don’t deal in middlemen and also make sure that they visit the farms they work with on a regular basis, ensuring everyone is working in wonderful conditions and allowing them to forge a deeper understanding of the beans they bring to blend. The brand also ensures that 5% of their profits go towards strengthening the rural communities that sustain them and work on the ground with these communities as far as the Congo and the Chiapas. From floral Ethiopian to mellow Honduran notes, Kickapoo is truly kicking it out of the park.
Any coffee brands you are loving? Share your indie findings with us in the comments.
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