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i deal Coffee Blends
At i deal coffee our beans are carefully selected and roasted with the desire to return to the traditional, “old style” bakery or roasterie of the past, yet be able to still accommodate the demands of the 21st century consumers who want their Guatemalan Huehuetenango organic, bird friendly, co-operatively farmed coffee roasted to a dark french and poured in an eighteen second double shot espresso.

i deal coffee uses a system where we grade each of our coffee’s for its sustainability factor using four categories we feel contribute to an ideal world. These are; environmentally, socially, politically and economically.

Environmental concerns have been the focus of attention as we watch the natural world crumble in the past century. Most concern has been stimulated by the health concerns of the consumer. This is both nearsighted and egocentric on the part of the consumer who worries about pesticides in their coffee as they smoke a cigarette with their coffee. The impact of environmentally unfriendly coffee cultivation occurs in the country of origin first and in the country of consumption last. In other words, the environmental impact of coffee in Canada is due to the rainforest in Brazil being razed for agriculture, not due to some residue that might poison the consumer.

Organic farming practices have been a result with coffee being an important crop, along with cotton, to convert to such methods due to the widespread cultivation of each crop. As well as being grown organically, we look at what other aspects of the environment this cultivation impacts.

Are other species of native flora and fauna being edged out of existence by invading monoculture? Is the soil being destroyed or poisoned for future generations? Are other natural resources being depleted during the processing, shipping and consumption?

Social culpability has also been expanding in our globalized consciousness to include how our actions and desires (read - consumption patterns) impact the people who produce what we consume.

While social responsibility includes not poisoning the coffee workers (an environmental concern) it also includes not exploiting, nor destroying the culture of the citizens of coffee producing countries.

Political responsibility is one of the more nebulous of categories to define and judge for sustainability. This is due to the fact that the ‘ideal’ configuration of each political system is theoretically an ideal. Therefore, in order to avoid a lengthy political fracas we judge coffee and its political ramifications on the sole basis of whether or not the government of the country of origin is actively trying to kill the people producing the coffee.

Economically sustainable coffee is an aggregate of the three preceding categories. Not necessarily, “can we do this and still make money” but, can we operate under these principals and help transform the coffee industry into one which is equitable for all involved.

We at i deal coffee use these criteria to select our coffees. If they satisfy two of the three requirements; environmental, social or political, we proceed to evaluate it on taste; acidity, body & aroma.

In the i deal circumstances, we buy our coffee from small farmers who grow organic coffee under a mixed canopy forest and sell it through farmer run co-operatives which are equally and fairly represented in that country’s legislature. We buy organic beans almost always-our five non-certified coffees are Ethiopian and Yemeni coffees which are environmentally friendly. We buy from small farms and farmer co-ops whenever possible, some are certified by international agencies which supervise fair trading procedures.