Coffee

We all have our own take in things don’t we? We like to buy goods that reflect our take on the universe. I endorse free trade, but its becoming hard to find good coffee that reflects this so I’m going to share what I know about finding it and hopefully it will get easier.

What is free trade and what does it mean?

Free trade is a voluntary system of co-operation between productive people free from coercion and dishonesty. When two men get together to trade then each gives up a lesser value for a greater one and both benefit. When a resource is traded at a fixed price, or a tariff is collected by Government then this is not free and both sides loose.

Free trade, when it happens, is the only system of co-operation that consistently results in a win-win outcome, never expecting or demanding one side to make a sacrifice for the sake of another. In this way, free trade has created more wealth for more people than any other form of co-operation. Economies that allow more free trade consistently do better, even if they start poorer.

Does free trade coffee taste better?

It can mean that! The free trade system makes no guarantee about the quality of goods but does allow us to pay a price for products we want. The more people want a product the higher the price, and more suppliers will step in to sell it.

Thanks to the explosion of coffee houses in America and Europe since 1975 we have all experienced a better quality of coffee and now we all want it. Coffee growers have noticed this and are growing more and better coffee than they used to.

The explosion in coffee retailing also means it is sold differently – less like sugar and more like wine – with species, roast, country of origin, and taste all attracting different customers and different prices.

Now we can all find a coffee that suits our taste
- and our wallet!

Gourmet free-trade coffee products

Don’t you mean “Fair trade”?

Fair trade requires that the customer, distributor and farmer all make sacrifices to achieve the aims set out by the fair trade movement, leading to several specific issues. Fair trade is not a pure win-win scenario and all parties can and do loose out.

The concept of price fixing at the core of the Fairtrade brand is a concept central to broadly left-wing notions of economic planning and control. The activists behind it see your purchase as an endorsement of their philosophy and are prepared to make that point to Government. This puts buying Fair trade produce in a similar moral realm with voting in elections for parties such as the Greens or Labour in the UK or the Democrats in the US. Just as you are entitled to disagree politically, it is right that you should be allowed to purchase goods that reflect your values.

None of the products on this site are Fair trade.

Does fair trade also mean tastier coffee?

The standards required to achieve fair trade certification do not include quality criteria.

In fact, coffee beans from growers within a co-operative are mixed together and this masks any improvements made by individual farmers. This prevents farmers from increasing their revenues by growing better coffee, so discourages doing so.

The best beans that are grown are kept back and sold on the free market at higher prices. This means that the finest beans are sold freely to gourmet roasters, but conscientious coffee drinkers get only mediocre ingredients.