Let's Talk Coffee

Specialty Coffee
is a more contemporary term used interchangeably today with what had been known for years as gourmet coffee--the finest.

Fresh Roast
means beans roasted, properly stored, and used within two weeks after roast.
Even a good roast at some point becomes stale after 2 weeks on the shelf.

Scorched
means beans burned by a poor roaster that bring forth a bitter flavor in the cup
or coffee, once brewed, after 5 minutes on the burner.

Sustainable
refers to a way of doing business, or producing, that places high value on the preservation
of resources--both natural and human.

Organic
 (certified) coffees are grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides and/or fungicides.
A third-party agency verifies these conditions.

Fair Trade

• is a world-wide strategy to financially support the coffee farmer and his family, alleviate poverty, and encourage, in the process, sustainable, lasting development on coffee farms in the third world coffee growing nations.
• the purpose of Fair Trade is to create opportunities for small coffee farmers who have been economically disadvantaged, "marginalized," by the conventional trading system.
• those who typically profit the most from coffee are ruthless speculators, middlemen, brokers, roasters, and retailers who take advantage of the individual coffee farmer by paying a price for the farmer's coffee that can be called a "ripoff" in today's terminology.
• the independent small growers, approximately 1/2 million strong, rarely profit and barely subsist.
• many independent small growers find themselves in such poverty that they are forced to turn to the more lucrative drug trade to survive: making the high mountain, shade grown varieties of coffee even more rare and costly to obtain.
• Fair Trade ensures that the small farmer is guaranteed a minimum “floor” price for coffee produced--enabling the farmer to cover the cost of production.
• Fair Trade connects farmers to cooperatives that are part of the Fair Trade program, thereby eliminating the “coyotes” (middlemen) that offer a mere 40 cents on the dollar.
• The small grower does not have the resources for on-site coffee processing; therefore a cooperative assures survival as it provides fo the small farmer access to credit, processing facilities and a “fair” price for the harvest.

Rare
means many wonderful things: small production, limited availability, high mountain,
shade grown, labor intensive, hand picked, harder to obtain, wonderful flavor.

Estate
coffees are entirely processed, from tree to final bagged green beans, on a single-owned plot of land. Estate coffees reflect the unique characteristics of their particular soil,
microclimate, and “signature” processing methods.

Cooperative
coffees are produced by a group of independent local farmers who bring their best coffee to a shared milling (processing) facility where it is blended together, milled, then sold. The best cooperative coffees are exceptionally well-integrated, reflecting the primacy of good production values. Most organic and all Fair Trade coffees are from cooperatives.

Shade-Grown
 coffee is traditionally cultivated under a canopy of sun-filtering shade trees. The original varieties of coffee brought over to the New World centuries ago are intolerant of direct sunlight. These ancient varieties yield the finesst, superior cup; they, however, require ample space, are only moderate bean producers, and, therefore, are more rare and costly to produce--
but more wonderful in the cup. 

Hybrids
are new sun-tolerant varieties of coffee have been developed that do not need shade cover, allowing for a much greater plant population per acre, at lower altitudes, more cheaply produced, sold, and purchased--but at a lesser quality, aroma, and more bitter, or flavorless, flavor.

At San Francisco Coffee Connection we guarantee our roasts are fresh!

Our coffees have no time to become stale.

We sell them to you while you can experience only the freshest roast.

Our Guarantee.

Dennis S. Sells, President
San Francisco Coffee Connection