Every specialty roaster worth its beans claims "direct trade" these days. The term has been diluted to the point where it can mean anything from a genuine multi-year partnership with a farm family to simply buying through an importer who visits the farm occasionally. We want to be precise about what we do — because imprecise language lets bad actors hide behind good intentions.
What we actually do: We buy most of our coffees through a small network of trusted importers — Red Fox Coffee Merchants, Cafe Imports, and Royal Coffee — who we've worked with for years and whose sourcing practices we've visited and verified. We pay above-market premiums, we commit to purchase volumes before harvest, and we provide transparency to producers about our pricing and the feedback we share with retail customers.
We do have two direct relationships in the traditional sense: with Diego Bermúdez at El Paraíso in Colombia (we've visited three times and contribute to a processing infrastructure fund) and with the Kochere Cooperative in Ethiopia (where we've worked with Cafe Imports to fund shade tree replanting). These relationships are real, warm, and reciprocal. They're also the exception, not the rule.
The honest case for trusted importers: The best importers serve as year-round representatives in origin countries — building relationships in local languages, visiting farms during harvest, providing advance financing to cooperatives, and conducting rigorous cupping that most small roasters couldn't perform at scale. For a roastery our size, working through Red Fox and Cafe Imports means our farmers get more consistent support than we could provide alone.
What actually matters: Prices paid above commodity. Multi-year commitments that give farmers planning certainty. Feedback loops between roasters and producers about cup quality. Transparency to consumers about the full supply chain. These things can happen through importers or directly — what matters is that they happen.
We publish our pricing to importers on our website. We share roast feedback with producers. We tell you when a relationship is indirect. That's the honest version of "direct trade" — and we think it matters more than the label.
