GUATEMALAN (MEDIUM ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: A coffee insider's favourite and the little black dress of our lineup. Elegant acidity highlights a nuanced, medium-bodied cup.

Our bag description says it all. This is our classic coffee offering, our darling and the origin that was the inspiration for Ethical Bean in the first place. We pursue perfection with this guy, nurturing, tweaking and loving it into a balanced, focused, people pleasing cup. Offered up at a medium roast.

The Asociacion Chajulense was founded in 1990 by a group of 1800 farmers in San Gaspar Chajul, El Quiche, Guatemala. In their wisdom they transitioned quickly to organic production and continue to live the importance of conservation of the environment for both current and future generations.

The association grew in 1991 with the help of PRODERE (United Nations Program for Development) bringing in more communities and establishing important infrastructure. This strong foundation has allowed them to sell 100% of their coffee on the Fair Trade market.

The benefits of the Fair Trade price have been far reaching for the association, who have made insightful investments, including the following:

• A center for education that was recently recognized and commended by the Minister of Education where young people in the remotest areas complete a basic education.
• A diversified offering of products including cardamom, honey, milk and cheese with plans to export the honey. They've also built an inn to promote local tourism and a cultural center focused on funding the production of traditional women's dresses.
• Offer a micro-credit program for coop members.
• Actively support the use of natural remedies to support the health of the community.

MEXICAN (DARK ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: A satisfyingly sweet bonbon of exceedingly dark roasted goodness. The perfect muse to fresh baking and the ideal antidote to a wet Vancouver winter.

Our Mexican coffee is produced by the Union of Farmers of Ocozaca Mountain. Founded in 2000, certified organic since 2002, they recently joined the Fair Trade family, receiving their certification in 2006.

The coop is located in the natural resource rich state of Veracruz. Small in size, with only 27 members, they are progressive in action and work sensitively to conserve their rich soils for ongoing abundant yields.

Leveraging the expertise of agronomists specializing in coffee, from the Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, they actively pursue coffee quality with selective harvest training, experimental plots and compost production using worms. The results speak for themselves, delivering a fantastically flavoured cup.

Fair Trade premiums have been applied towards improved infrastructure including much needed road repairs and a credit fund for coop members.

Colombian (MEDIUM DARK ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: Far from mild mannered, this distinctively rich cup is the antidote to average. A champion of smooth. The epitome of yummy.

ETHIOPIAN (MEDIUM ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: Never boring, often sensational. A complex cup of ephemeral aromatics laced with fruity, floral innuendo. Expect the unexpected.

Our Ethiopian coffee comes from the Oromia Coffee Farmers Coffee Union (OCFCU), known simply as Oromia. Established in 1999, Oromia is the largest Fair Trade and Organic coffee producer in Ethiopia, with production focused exclusively on the Specialty Coffee market.

Members believe in environmental stewardship and social justice in their communities. Women hold prominent positions throughout the organization. Fair Trade certified in 2002, they have used the Fair Trade premiums to fund various programs including the following:

• Members have built 15 schools and 42 additional classrooms, with 4 new
  schools underway.
• Members receive training in sustainable harvest methods. They have invested in purchasing their own washing stations and have moved to install eco-friendly machinery for the washed coffee prep. Intercropping with citrus and banana is encouraged for personal consumption and 200 beehives have been distributed.
• Ongoing training in organic farming techniques for the effective use of compost and shade trees.
• The coop is the biggest shareholder of the Cooperative Bank of Oromia and facilitates easy access to loans for coop members.
• Constructed 4 local health clinics and 56 clean water supply stations.
• Local bridge construction.

"Fair Trade has definitely helped our community-it has helped us improve our school and water supplies. It has also made a big difference in the price we get for our coffee with the guaranteed payment. We simply want you to buy our coffee at a fair price so we can be independent."
— Workineh Heldaja, OCFCU member

SUMATRA (MEDIUM DARK ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: Breathe in the exotic. A heavy cup with Burgundian fullness, alive with fruit, smoke and earth notes. Blossoms at this roast.

Sumatra coffee is a West Coast roasters favourite for it's ability to take a dark roast and deliver the kind of handsome, bearishly full bodied cup necessary to carry us through the grey, cold, rain soaked winter.

This coffee's inimitable cup quality owes to its production from exclusively small holding farmers and "semi-washed" processing. An unconventional pulping and drying procedure that adds underlying flavour taints shunned in coffee from other origins but virtuous in this country's coffee. A sweet, low acid and balanced cup laced with the barest hint of musty, earthy tones, contrasted with glimmers of fruit and chocolate. The Ethical Bean Sumatra flirts with all of the above and is the perfect choice for those partial to the whiskies of Islay or anyone longing to leave Ontario for the hedonistic, milk and honey dappled lifestyle of the West Coast.

Our Sumatra is from Gayo Mountain, sourced from Takengon in Northern Sumatra. Organic certified by SKAL, it is produced in a one of a kind facility; excellence oriented and with the unique ability to offer a range of custom prepared coffees. Their vision is to establish a reputation for a consistent, unparalleled cup.

Leveraging the business acumen from the Holland Coffee Group there is an ongoing commitment to the “best coffee being the best business” – in order to secure a solid future for the product and the people that grow it.

This model of quality, laced with social and environmental responsibility has provided stability and growth in the regions notoriously volatile political environment.

Some marked benefits of their efforts include:
• A healthy and profitable business providing a strong base for a successful future
• A protective buffer for the farmers and mill workers during political unrest
• Ongoing education for children and adults
• Completion of a water treatment plant
• Support for health care facilities and clinics
• The revitalization and support the local Research Station in order to control quality and improve future crops
• Ongoing education of proper farming techniques for the growers
• The ongoing enthusiastic economic and social support in this region and the rebuilding and bolstering of the Aceh economy remain key goals. It is easy to see why our Sumatra is the darling of the Ethical Bean lineup.

During 2007 we opened a health clinic and a kindergarten on our compound and are in the process of opening two additional health clinics and kindergartens during 2008 in various parts of the coffee producing communities.

PERUVIAN (DARK ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: Dark but not too dark. Edgy on the one hand, seductively smooth and full-bodied on the other. You might want to take two.

An origin with the potential to produce coffee equal to the Grand Cru offerings of Guatemala and Kenya. Peruvian coffee often goes unnoticed. Blended and grinding away in anonymity, they are rarely showcased. Having found this spectacular offering, we have bucked tradition, wrapped it up in a dark roast and set it free.

Dark roast done right. A mellow, clean, cocoa laced cup. Gentle but quietly powerful.

Our Peruvian coffee comes from Aprocassi (Asociacion Provincial Cafetaleros Solidarios San Ignacio). Founded in 2000 and Fair Trade certified in 2001 the cooperative was motivated to enable small farmers to earn a higher price for their coffee. Since then Fair Trade premiums have been applied to several social and production programs, all in an effort to produce top quality coffee and improve members' standard of living.

Areas the Fair Trade premium has been applied include:

• Financing a school for training in the areas of administration and finance.
• Supporting technical assistance and training on coffee processing techniques.
• Making credit and pre-harvest financing to farmers.
• Implementing a health education program for members.
• Structural improvements to the members' homes.

"We are thankful to TransFair USA for having allowed us to realize our dream of finding new markets for our coffee. Today, one can see the positive effect of Fair Trade in the efforts of every APROCASSI farmer. Gaining access to American markets will help us to combat the coffee crisis in our country."
— Hilario López

ESPRESSO BLEND (MEDIUM DARK ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: A multi-dimensional, full-bodied velvet slipper for your tongue. A stand-up straight shot. Marries beautifully with milk.

Espresso is more than a definition, a beverage, a neon sign, a ubiquitous offering or the bad joke that is so often served. It is a religion.

It is coffee purified, pared down, reduced and supremely focused in intensity... It starts with a suggestion, softly whispered. Beans are roasted, feathered in flames and smoke. Sifted and combined, coffees from every corner of the earth shake hands in agreement. Their assembly becomes like a welder's flux, fed through and flowing. Ground, heated, pressed and applied. Extracted with restraint to rest unadorned and unashamed in preheated porcelain. Coffee, kahwa, caffe... espresso = coffee².

Ethical Bean Espresso is a complex, complete and consistent blend of beans. Deliberately roasted to maximize sweetness, body and complexity it is the Doug Gilmour of the '96 Toronto Maple Leafs; the perfect two way player tasting great in a lot of milk, a little milk or no milk at all. Smooth and nuanced with lush body and a long, lingering finish. Are you ready?

NICARAGUAN (MEDIUM ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: Coffee you can bring home to meet your mother. Medium body, nutty aroma and a sweet brightness.

DECAF SUMATRA (DARK ROAST)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: A very undecaf decaf. Gobs of body with an intriguing bittersweet chocolate character and a finish that just won't quit. Dynamite as a drip, scintillating as an espresso. SWISS WATER® process.

The Gayo Organic Coffee Farmers Association (also known as PPKGO) was founded through a partnership between the indigenous people of the Gayo region of Sumatra and ForesTrade, a Vermont-based company. This association is the first, and still the only, coffee co-operative from Indonesia that is Fair Trade Certified. The co-op members are small coffee farmers dedicated to producing 100% shade-grown, organic coffee. Despite the political unrest in the region, the partnership has continued to produce, process and export high quality Sumatran coffee. The coffee is SKAL and NASAA certified organic.

Significant premiums from selling to the Fair Trade and organic markets allow this co-op to contribute to a wide variety of programs, including:

• Community nurseries to provide improved and grafted coffee and shade
  tree seedlings.
• Rehabilitation of degraded lands and unproductive coffee trees.
• A weed cutter program to help farmers avoid the use of herbicides.
• A member's credit union to extend small loans to families in the co-operative.
• Upgrades to all processing facilities.
• Community infrastructure projects, such as clean water supply.
• Increased staffing and development of the association.

Co-op farmers live in an environmentally sensitive region, the buffer zone to a National Park, which contains critical watershed areas and sanctuaries for endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger. Fair Trade price incentives and technical support provided by the cooperative have encouraged sustainable agriculture and resource conservation.

ROCKET FUEL (FRENCH ROAST BLEND)
Certified Fair Trade, certified organic, shade grown
Taste Profile: The love child of dark alchemy and complete combustion. A hammering dark roast, blended to display body, balance and a dazzling dark cocoa-laced finish. Stains the psyche.