March 29, 2010
Chris Blain, Executive Chef, Virginia State Capitol

Fair trade, shade grown, bird friendly buzzwords for something you get a buzz from. We know that there are an overwhelming number of choices to make, but Coffee Habitat does a pretty good job of laying out some guidelines for a responsible purchase.    

Last spring I was fortunate enough to visit El Finca de Dos Jefes in Boquete, Panama, where I got to pick and roast coffee on the side of Volcan Baru, and see first hand what some of these terms mean. I met one of the owners in town and he offered to show me around his farm. My trip to the plantation, or Finca, is a whole story in and of itself, but suffice to say I got to see coffee grown right firsthand. The operation was biodiverse, i.e. there were more than just coffee plants, there were lemon and lime trees interspersed with the coffee to provide shade (shade grown), which provided habitat for tons of birds (bird friendly) and the local family that managed the plantation for the owner was paid well above a living wage, as were the pickers employed to harvest it (fair trade). The coffee itself was magical, it tasted of chocolate and the volcano it grew on.   

Back home in Richmond, I’ve been buying coffee from Central Roasters.  This coffee is fantastic and is also grown in Panama on a plantation just down the road from where I visited in Panama. Just recently, though, I stumbled upon another small roaster in my own back yard. Lamplighter Coffee in Richmond, VA has been open less than six months, but is off to a fantastic start. They opened a coffee shop in an old filling station on South Addison St that’s been vacant for years, and have been welcomed into the community warmly. The business is doing so well (due to some extremely well roasted beans) that they had to move the roaster from it’s original location in the kitchen (the old service bay) to another site close by. They offer house roasted beans in a dozen varieties for about $11/lb.

By far the coolest part for me though, is that they sell the beans wholesale for an incredible price, and deliver them to your door in reusable buckets BY BICYCLE! What’s more sustainable (and AWESOME) than that!

In these dark economic times, it’s refreshing to see a small business be able to succeed not by being cutthroat, but by just doing a few simple things really well, and sustainably. Maybe there’s hope after all, maybe this whole sustainability thing is more than just a fad, maybe, just maybe, people are getting on board because it’s just the right thing to do.

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