At Supreme Bean Coffee Roasters, organic coffee gets its own lil storage space :) There it is to the left, behind a curtain-like thing –
Cuz organic shouldn’t have to share a room with the dirty conventional stuff :P
Supreme Bean — HQ’d in North Hollywood — is now about 30% organic — and a good chunk of that’s also fair trade.
And it’s helped convert some local spots; for ex, the yum veggie restaurant Fatty’s in Eagle Rock now sells all fair trade and organic coffee from Supreme Bean :)
So Philip [right, in action; clearer pic here] let me cup a whole buncha different organic stuff. The experience was way intenser than a wine tasting, mainly cuz I was getting more and more alert (I didn’t spit) as opposed to drunker.
I learned a helluva lot about coffee — Philip’s a super patient and informative coffee dude!
Philip sez the coffee biz in LA’s very cutthroat — and too focused on dollar margins instead of quality. Philip’s of the opinion that if more people paid attention to the quality of their coffee, coffee drinkers would actually start getting their money’s worth.
He also feels Supreme Bean would then — reign supreme — in the LA area. After all, this lil coffee roaster’s been scoring high on Coffee Review –
Most of Supreme Bean’s biz is via wholesale accounts, though anyone can buy their coffee online at Whole Latte Love. Sadly, though a lotta the 10 blends on the site are organic, none are fair trade certified :(
Yet, that is. I’ll try asking Philip and Jeff for a fair trade option — Will others do the same?
Buy fair trade from your local roaster — and you’ll likely help shape the direction that neighborhood roaster takes :)
Thanks again to Philip and Jeff — Good caffeinated times :)
