All Team ATTAC coffees are certified for compliance. But our roasting and sourcing partners don't necessarily just focus on certifications, and here's why:
Why Not Focus Solely on Certifications? A Closer Look at Their Impact on Our Purchasing Decisions:
💰 Cost Prohibitive Certifications: Maintaining certifications like USDA or Fair Trade is expensive, often too costly for small, low-income coffee farms. Large conglomerates sometimes exploit organic certifications to gain an unfair advantage over small farms, which contradicts our goal to support sustainable communities and small-scale agriculture.
📉 Supply and Demand Imbalance for Fair Trade Coffee: The demand for Fair Trade-certified coffee often falls short of supply, forcing farmers to sell some of their beans at much lower non-certified prices. Although we don’t exclusively seek Fair Trade certifications, we work with importers who consistently pay 30% to 100% more than Fair Trade standards for our coffee.
🌱 Environmental Considerations: Non-organic coffee farms typically yield more beans per acre, using fewer resources and reducing deforestation rates. Given that coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, more efficient farming practices can significantly reduce the industry’s environmental impact.
😛 Flavor Diversity: By widening our search for the best-tasting coffee, we can work with micro-lots, small farms, and unique producers, offering our customers a diverse range of intense and distinctive flavor profiles influenced by specific terroirs.
Conclusion: The Bigger Picture
The conversation surrounding coffee certifications is broader and more complex than it might initially appear. At Team ATTAC Coffee Co, we take our coffee sourcing very seriously, prioritizing bean quality and ethical practices above all else. Further, by sourcing and roasting in house, we’re committed to providing you and your customers with the finest coffee experience.
 