Organic Coffee Beans- Are Your Beans Green?

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A coffee bean, organic or otherwise, grows on a tree.  When the tree blooms, the white blossoms, that only last a day, give way to coffee “cherries.”   These cherries are picked, usually by hand, and then processed into what we know as the coffee bean.  Organic coffee beans are grown using methods and materials that have a low impact on the environment.  Organic coffee is grown in 40 countries worldwide.  The leading producers are Peru, Ethiopia and Mexico. 

One of the fundamental principles of growing organic coffee is the use of shade trees.  Small, family run farms can usually expect to have 70 to 100% shade coverage over the growing plants, which is best.  The leaves falling from the trees form a type of compost and the droppings from the birds living in the trees help to fertilize them.  There are two other types of organic coffee farming, traditional and polycommercial .  With these two types of farming, shade coverage runs anywhere from 30-90%. 

The small, family run farms produce the best coffee beans.  Most of these farms have been around for generations, so the natural trees and foliage have remained the same.   Many coffee growers have had to switch to growing in full sun fields due to economic reasons.  Sun field growing produces more beans at a lower cost, but organic coffee beans are never grown in the sun.  Coffee beans grown in the sun are the heaviest chemically treated food commodity in the world. 

Organic coffee products include decaffeinated, flavored and instant coffees, coffee ice cream and yogurt, coffee sodas, hard candies, and chocolate covered bean.  You can be assured you are getting an organic coffee product when you see the USDA organic seal, or a label saying either “Organic” or “100 percent organic.”  The price for organic coffee products is still higher than standard brands, but you might feel better about spending extra  when you remember that your dollars are helping to support the world’s leading coffee plantations. You are helping women in Peru (who have established a co-op), and are encouraging fair trade practices and prices worldwide.