For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on contracts to purchase containers of coffee from our direct relationship farms around the world. The first step in our four step process to creating a cup of Stone Creek Coffee is GROW Responsibly and purchasing coffees directly is on way to accomplish this step. 

GROW Responsibly is a pretty broad statement – especially today when many companies are preaching about their corporate social responsibility, business ethics and green practices. So what does this mean to Stone Creek? To us, GROW Responsibly has two aspects: quality and certification. 

Quality 
First, the coffee must meet certain quality standards that we have developed using our own experience and industry quality scales. With the proper care on the farm and in the processing mills, a high level of quality can be maintained in the final product that we want to seek out and reward with higher prices. 

Certification 
The second requirement is some type of certification verifying that the grower or cooperative meets social, environmental and economic standards as outlined by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization or other certifying bodies. Some of the more popular certifications include Fair Trade, Utz and Rainforest Alliance. In addition to these industry certifications, Stone Creek Coffee has also developed our own certification called Socially Responsible Coffee. You can learn more about it here. 

Essentially, we want to see a farm where the workers are given safe working conditions, access to healthcare and education and being paid a fair wage for their efforts. We want to see agricultural practices that are friendly to the environment and programs in place to conserve natural resources. We want to guarantee a price directly to the farm owner that is sustainable for all parties involved. 

Currently, 70% of our coffee meets these certification guidelines. We are committed to purchasing 100% of our coffee under some form of certification over the next two years. 

One of our values states that “We strive to respect our customers, our coworkers and our communities.” While we have and always will strive to support our local community, we must also support the global community that makes it possible for a single coffee bean to travel from the mountains of El Salvador to your morning cup. To ensure that your cup is the best that it can be, we seek out coffee producers that GROW Responsibly. It is our mission to find these coffees, bring them here to Milwaukee and then educate our customers about what makes those coffees so special…we hope that you enjoy. Sip slowly.