In recent years, Canadian and North American coffee drinkers have been demanding better quality beans that have been responsibly sourced. As a result, growers, roasters, and retailers have invested in the cultivation and exportation of organic coffee beans, which have become hugely popular in Canada in particular. With this in mind, if you’re looking to buy organic coffee in Canada, this article introduces you to some important things that you need to consider before making a purchase.
Know what organic coffee in Canada is (and what it isn’t)
Perhaps the most obvious thing to note is that you need to understand what organic coffee actually is – something that we have explained in detail in our recent organic coffee blog post. Simply, they are beans that have been grown without reliance on chemical fertilisers, with growers opting for natural methods of cultivating, growing, and processing beans. As a result, the coffee is better for the environment and better for consumers, too.
Helpfully, much of the organic coffee in Canada is labelled, making it easy to find the right beans. However, other coffee brands might not have an organic label, even though everyone involved in the supply chain has utilised organic principles. Therefore, to help you buy the best coffee beans, take a look at a company’s website to read up on the story of their coffee beans, before checking out. For instance, you can read all about Kingha’s commitment to organic coffee here.
Consider the price
Quality organic coffee is always going to be more expensive than mass-produced coffee that has been grown with the help of chemical fertilisers and other products. While this means that you need to pay more per pound of coffee that you drink, it’s a helpful way of determining the quality of the beans that you add to your kitchen cupboards.
In the coffee industry, the old adage “you get what you pay for” certainly rings true. Organic coffee is more difficult to grow, and natural fertilisers are more expensive for farmers to buy. These factors play into the cost of coffee beans at the end of their journey. So, if you’re presented with super cheap coffee online, it’s unlikely to be organic!
Understand the environmental implications
Aside from taste, the main reason to turn to organic coffee in Canada is that it is much better for the environment than mass-produced coffee that has been grown with chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides. Growers that cultivate organic coffee are much healthier, and they don’t subject their land to short-term agricultural practices that can limit its yield potential over time.
What’s more, when coffee is grown organically, fewer chemicals make their way into the soil and waterways surrounding farms. This is extremely important for local ecosystems in the short and long term. While some people are tempted to buy mass-produced coffee because it is cheaper, understanding the environmental implications of doing so is a helpful way to turn to organic coffee in Canada as a viable alternative.
Ascertain brand ethics
Often in the coffee industry, the terms “organic coffee” and “ethical coffee” are used interchangeably, even though they’re distinct terms with different meanings. Primarily, organic coffee is concerned with the exact way in which coffee beans are grown (without the use of chemicals), but ethical coffee is concerned with a much broader range of factors.
For instance, ethical coffee brands pay a fair price for the coffee that they roast and sell. They also go further to make investments in local infrastructure to improve the lives of the people they work with in coffee-growing communities. This is something that we do at Kingha. We work closely with the community members that we work with in Uganda, and have delivered a range of educational projects over the years to ensure that we are fulfilling our ethical requirements as a business.
To help you find the best ethical coffee in Canada, scratch the surface and look at a company’s ethics and what they do to support coffee-growing communities. This will help you choose coffee beans that are both organic and ethically sourced.
Recap: How to choose the best organic coffee in Canada
With so many coffee brands available in Canada, it can be tough to know where to begin when looking for the best and most responsibly sourced beans. This is particularly the case when you’re shopping for organic coffee in Canada online. To recap, do the following to help you identify quality organic coffee:
- Know what organic coffee is
- Consider the price of the beans (organic coffee is not cheap)
- Understand the environmental implications of buying organic coffee beans over mass-produced coffee
- Ascertain a brand’s ethics to ensure you’re buying from a responsible coffee company
Did you know that you can now buy the finest organic coffee in Canada directly from our online store? We have both naturally processed and washed coffee available at Kingha right now – check out our online store and place your order today to take your morning coffee routine to the next level!
To get your taste buds tingling, check out the following description of our Ugandan organic coffee:
“Grown at 1950 meters up in the Kigezi mountains, in the small village of Mpungu, this exceptional single-origin coffee comes from our partner farmer Vicent Butamanya’s 20-acre coffee farm. Vicent’s coffee farm lies at the end of a long and winding road way up in the mountains. Reaching his farm and getting his coffee cherries down the mountain presents some significant logistical challenges, but ones we are happy to overcome to bring you this exceptional coffee from an exceptional farmer.”