Our Farm To Cup Ethos: What Does It Mean?

After five years of employment, Stone Creek employees are able to take an origin trip to one of our coffee partner farms learning about coffee cultivation, picking, processing and everything else that goes into sourcing our specialty coffee.

At Stone Creek Coffee we talk a lot about “Farm to Cup” coffee, but what does that exactly mean?  

As a specialty coffee company, working from Farm to Cup is far from the easiest way to build a coffee brand and company. The term “Farm to Cup” captures all of the work we do from sourcing coffee directly to the final brewing & sharing process. This work includes everything from making trips to coffee farms each year to hand-select the exact lots of coffee beans we will be roasting and featuring, to the in-depth training we provide all of our cafe team members. We use the term to convey the passion and intentionality we bring to every step of the process. 

Our quest to offer sweet, clean, and juicy coffee is an iterative process. We have to bring our “Never Stop Learning” mantra with us throughout the journey. This is not a business where “success” is easily defined. We simply have to try to do better each day and each year. We have to fold in our learning to propel us to better coffee and a better future.

Going back to the sourcing itself, we directly and responsibly source our coffee beans, paying roughly double the “fair trade” threshold as we recognize the vital step performed by our coffee partners. While “Fair Trade” is a loose and fairly low standard for coffee sourcing, the economic value we create for farming communities through our coffee buying dramatically supersedes what would be accomplished if we simply held to basic fair trade benchmarks.

This work enables the kind of coffee quality we feel comfortable calling “Stone Creek Coffee.” It also fulfills our mission as a Certified B Corporation in helping to ensure the sustainability of our supply chain.

Whenever possible, we prioritize developing long-term relationships with our coffee farms to bring year-over-year stability for both the farmers and us, the roaster. For instance, a three-year contract with a family coffee farmer can help sustain their business and guarantee some economic viability to the small village we just visited. A village filled with the people who work on that coffee farm growing, picking, and fermenting those coffee beans you find in a cup of Stone Creek Coffee.

Thanks for taking the time to travel deeper into the how and why of the intentional way we choose to run our business. We’re coffee geeks and while we don’t take ourselves too seriously, we do take our coffee quite seriously.

MEET A FEW OF OUR PRODUCING PARTNERS

Here are a few of our farm partners with whom we’re proud to have developed long-standing, meaningful relationships.

SAN MIGUEL COFFEES - We’ve worked with the San Miguel family for over 10 years sourcing some of the most consistent coffees in our repertoire. You’ve experienced these lots in Ring of Fire, 3 Volcanoes, and several of our blends.

LA TRAMPA & LA PLATA - The LaRue family in Jinotega, Nicaragua produces delightfully clean, flavorful, and accessible coffees. We’ve been buying large lots, most prominently featured in Voyager from these amazing folks for over 5 years.

HACIENDA SONORA - The Sonora farm in Costa Rica, owned by Diego Guardia and his father, has been a delightful source of microlots for us over the last three years. Diego also runs point for us with Palmichal Mill where we source Green Dragon.