Coffee lovers don’t just drink coffee – they eat, sleep, and breathe it. And whether that coffee fiend is you or someone you love, we’ve got the eco-conscious coffee gifts and gadgets for you. And what better time to celebrate than National Coffee Day on September 29th.

Drinkable

Whether it’s eco-conscious beans or odds and ends to jazz up your cup, these drinkable coffee gifts are the perfect way to spice up your morning joe.

1. All-Natural Pumpkin Spice Spray

Simply Beyond Spray-On Spices are the perfect way to add pumpkin spiced flavor to your home-brewed coffee. This organic spray is sold in an eco-friendly aerosol-free container that relies on compression bag technology to add spices to your cup easily.

2. All-Natural Creamer

Creamers are generally filled with all sorts of nasty artificial ingredients, but Coffee Booster is different. These organic creamers are made with a combination of organic grass-fed clarified butter, virgin-pressed coconut oil, and raw cacao powder for vegan bulletproof coffee with a slight chocolate flavor. To use, just add it to your coffee and blend with a hand-held milk frother or blender to emulsify the fats.

3. Vegan Cold Brew To Go

If you don’t have time to mix up your own cold brew drink, Coffee So Good is an awesome option. Organic, non-GMO coffee is combined with raw cashew milk, agave nectar, and a touch of sea salt, as well as other flavors like vanilla, lavender, or raw cacao. The zero-waste company uses 100 percent recycled and recyclable materials in bottles and packaging, and its manufacturing facility is powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

“I never felt like it was a choice – being eco-friendly is just the right thing to do,” says So Good So You founder Rita Katona. “Whether that’s printing only on recycled paper and minimizing printing, to choosing reusable, recyclable and compostable materials for packaging and shipping, we work diligently and daily to minimize our impact on the environment with a goal to be a carbon footprint positive company in the next 3 years.”

4. A Coffee Alternative

If you’re taking a coffee break for whatever reason (or you’ve got someone at home who just can’t stomach it), Cascara might be a good option for you. This sustainable coffee alternative gives you a caffeine boost thanks to all-natural cascara, the fruit in which the coffee bean grows that has been discarded for years.

“We think otherwise,” says Nomad Trading Company, producer of Cascara. “It’s delicious. It’s chock full of antioxidants. It’s an opportunity for farmers in the developing world to earn a new source of income.”

Nomad sources its cascara from small farmers around the globe and bottles it in three delicious flavors: original, lightly sweet, and hibiscus.

5. Erase Your Coffee Footprint

Coffee production can have a hefty carbon footprint, but Tiny Footprint’s carbon negative coffee is joe you can get jazzed about.

The world’s first carbon negative coffee was created through a unique collaboration between Roastery 7 and nonprofit Mindo Cloudforest Foundation.

Since it takes 4 pounds of carbon dioxide to produce and distribute one pound of the company’s coffee, for every pound that’s sold, a portion of the proceeds is donated to fund reforestation in Ecuador’s Mindo cloud forest, contributing to the removal of carbon from the atmosphere.

The coffees are delicious as well: small-batch roasts of organic certified beans are packed in biodegradable coffee bags and sold both in the company’s Minnesota shop and online.

Containers and Brewing

It seems like there are endless coffee brewing options, but these are our favorite eco-friendly coffee gifts for making and taking your coffee.

6. Pour-Over On the Go

Brumi is the perfect product for on-the-go coffee enjoyment. This 12-ounce, double-insulated glass travel bottle’s reusable filter can be used to make hot pour-over coffee in minutes, or it can be left in the fridge overnight for cold-brew that’s ready to take with you first thing in the morning.

7. Reusable K-Cups

K-Cups are perfect for making just one cup of fresh coffee, but the waste they cause can be prohibitive. Several companies have risen to the challenge, like Simple Cups, which are made of BPA-free ABS plastic that is both recyclable and biodegradable and can be filled with your favorite brand of coffee grounds.

For even less waste, ekobrew’s reusable stainless steel filters can be filled with coffee and used on a Keurig to brew a fresh cup of whichever coffee you like.

Intelligent Blends, meanwhile, produces Nespresso- and Keurig-compatible single-serve coffee pods made with a blend of recyclable polypropylene and other eco-friendly materials. Recycling is a snap: the filter is biodegradable, so it can easily be composted, and both the aluminum lid and plastic capsule can be recycled.

8. One-Touch, No Waste

The JURA A1 is the perfect machine for coffee lovers who just want to make one cup. This one-touch coffee gadget grinds from fresh whole beans and features JURA’s innovative Pulse Extraction Process that optimizes the extraction time for flavorful espresso – no disposable cups needed.

9. Eco To-Go Coffee

If you haven’t already gotten into the habit of bringing a thermos to your favorite coffee spot, maybe Onya will change your mind. These cute retro reusable coffee cups stand in for disposable paper cups with a light, food-safe silicone design. To top it all off, these cups are designed to barista standards, which means they fit into the machines at your favorite coffee shop.

10. Temperature Lock

Hydro Flask knows how important it is for your coffee to stay at the right temperature for as long as possible, so the company has created three different BPA- and phthalate-free vessels depending on how you like to sip. The classic 12-ounce coffee flask is the flagship product, perfect for bringing your coffee to go: it’ll keep iced coffee cold for up to 24 hours and hot coffee hot for up to six. The slim tumbler is ideal for cold brew, and the 10-ounce rocks is perfect for espresso drinks like cappuccinos and lattes. All of the cups are made from 100 percent recyclable materials.

Beauty and Care

You don’t need to keep coffee in the kitchen; it’s just as welcome in the bath. These products take advantage of the caffeine and antioxidants in coffee to revitalize your skin.

11. Wash with Coffee

Coffee is an excellent natural exfoliator, as you’ll quickly see with Beessential Fresh Ground Coffee Soap. This artisanal soap is made with coffee, coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter, and beeswax, for a soap that cleans even the toughest grease and grime all the while being gentle on your hands. It is GMO-free, paraben-free, and alcohol free.

12. Revive Your Skin

Revival Body Care is a line of organic, fair-trade, and vegan beauty products. The company’s Awaken Goddess Serum contains coffee bean oil, which reduces under-eye puffiness and helps give skin a firmer appearance. Combined with rose hip oil, anti-inflammatory sweet orange oil, vitamin C, and pomegranate seed oil to stimulate keratinocytes, which are major cells found in the outer layer of the skin, this serum will soon become a regular part of your daily routine.

13. Scandi Skincare

Scandic Botanica is a skincare brand that takes its inspiration from restorative Scandinavian ingredients. The brand’s coffee and clove sugar body scrub blends organic coffee with a variety of spices and flavors inspired by Scandinavian mulled wine, such as stress-relieving organic clove, moisturizing organic coconut, and organic cacao, to increase blood flow.

14. Family Friendly Skincare

Taneisha Phillips was inspired by her son’s severe eczema and dry skin to create Earth’s Organics, a natural, homemade skincare company. Her coffee-coconut facial scrub contains just three organic ingredients: slow-roasted organic coffee, fair-trade-certified brown sugar, and certified organic coconut oil from the Philippines.

“I wanted to use safe and non toxic products that wouldn’t harm or compromise my children’s skin,” explains Phillips, who notes that her whole family uses the products, and she herself hand crafts every product to order.

15. Revive Your Eyes

Solavedi’s Green Tea Coffee Bean Eye Balm is made with organic green coffee beans, organic white tea, and matcha, as well as pumpkin seed oil and marigold. This balm reduces dark circles and puffiness, not to mention fine lines and wrinkles.

Founder Carollane Crichton is a yoga instructor and Ayurveda practitioner who creates her own herbal triple infused oils that are then used in her products.

“We source only the highest quality herbs and botanicals, locally first, and, when not available from local and regional sources, we carefully source from around the globe,” she says. “We are extremely selective with our suppliers, and only work with those who can document that they follow the National Organic Program (NOP) for all ingredients we procure from them.”

Bonus! Coffee Bags

If you’re looking for a gift for a coffee-obsessed friend, these upcycled hats, handbags, and duffels are the perfect choice. Buffalo Gals Mercantile uses reclaimed fair-trade coffee sacks from MoJoRoast Coffee to create these awesome coffee gifts.

“The hats have become quite popular as travel and beach items because they roll right up to fit into purses, pockets and luggage and can get wet too,” explains owner Katy Kassian.

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Starbucks is on a roll this year.

Starbucks started a trend

Who could forget Starbuck’s Unicorn Frappuccino release in April? Or its recent Secret Menu slew of ombre drinks? And on June 13th, the funky drink powerhouse announced its partnership with Lady Gaga. Now, through June 19th, the company will donate 25 cents from each sale of its “Cups of Kindness” collection to Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.

No matter how you feel about Starbucks’ increasingly insane drink menu—I’m a black coffee enthusiast who thinks a latte is too fancy—you’ve got to give it up to the company’s marketing and drink-making team.

So, it was only a matter of time until other coffee shops and restaurants jumped on the eye-catching drink trend.

Local’s Corner, an Australian cafe, is one such coffee house. The coffee shop recently posted a picture of its “signature” carrot latte—a latte housed in a carrot in lieu of a coffee mug, and its orange latte plopped inside an orange peel.

I reached out to the coffee house for comment about its mysterious produce drinks, but have yet to hear back. But even though I don’t really know why these drinks exist, I at least want to take a stab at making sense out of these mind-boggling beverages.

1. It’s about attention—plain and simple

Weird drinks get snaps, clicks, likes, and hearts. So, the stranger the drink, the more clicks, right?

Well, this theory is mostly correct.

A recent American Express Restaurant Trade Survey discovered that Millennials who use social media to post pictures of food are snapping at a super high rate. Seventy-two percent post about their restaurant experience on social media and 25 percent will post photos of their meal or drink.

Restauranteurs are well aware of this trend. The survey discovered that 83 percent of restaurateurs view social media as “having a very or somewhat positive impact on their business” and “a majority use some type of social media promotion for their business.”

2. Maybe it’s about the packaging…

All of us at EcoSalon appreciate a business that is aware of its carbon footprint. So, maybe—just maybe—these drinks are a way to cut back on non-bio resources.

Think about it—restaurants could easily compost carrots and orange peels. These cups could help cut down on water use and trash. Not such a crazy idea after all, huh?

3. Perhaps a barista just wanted to have a little fun

Let’s face it—work is super boring sometimes. We totally wouldn’t blame a barista for getting creative on the job.

Well, this is likely the real reason behind the shop’s crazy lattes.

A recent Daily Mail Australia article reports that the cafe owner just likes to be… different.

“We just like doing different things, we’ve being doing a few of these, one with an apple, one with an avocado, this week was a carrot and next week we will do something different,” Vanja says.

Fair enough. You can’t blame us for daydreaming, though.

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For those of you still heating water up in the microwave, get with the times and invest in a kettle.

Whether you are tea or coffee drinker, or both, there is a necessity to heat up water to make your brew of choice. And it doesn’t matter whether you want to make a cup of tea or coffee or a whole pot, heating water up properly is key. While there are a variety of options, using the microwave to heat up water for your cold brew coffee or your cup of mint tea just is not satisfactory. The microwave method might have proved necessary in college, you are grownup now and grownups heat up their water properly.

In deciding just what kind of kettle you need, the first choice to make is whether to invest in an electric or stovetop model. There is no right or wrong choice here, there are pros and cons for both. An electric kettle can be more energy efficient than a stovetop form, but the electric model does take up valuable kitchen counter and electrical socket space.

After deciding on electric or stovetop, the choices do get more difficult and rely on your household’s particular beverage habits. If you strictly drink Earl Grey tea, you may make one choice, but if you like cold brew coffee and your partner drinks various kinds of herbal teas, you choose differently. We offer up a few suggestions that just might fit you lifestyle.

The Various Types of Kettles

1. Cuisinart Perfectemp Electric Kettle

An electric vessel hat perfect for tea and coffee drinkers alike. You can choose from six heat settings for the just right temperature for tea or coffee. There are six preset temperatures for delicate, green, white, oolong, herbal, black, and French press.

2. Le Creuset Whistling Kettle

If you prefer a stovetop pot, one great choice is a cast iron version. It’s also ideal to have a whistling kettle when boiling water on the stove. This option is also available in a variety of colorways.

3. Bonavita Electric Gooseneck Temperature

A gooseneck kettle is a must have for those who enjoy making coffee via one of the pour over method like Chemex or Bodum. This model is electric also features variable temperature setting, which makes it suitable for tea or coffee.

4. Williams Sonoma Rapid Boil Kettle

Here’s another stovetop option, but this stainless-steel model is designed to boil water 20% faster than traditional stainless-steel kettles making it a more sustainable stovetop choice.

5. Breville IQ Kettle

This pot is another option for electric temperature selection, but this model is made from German Schott-glass, which ensures the purest flavor for those who don’t like to boil water in metal.

6. Stagg Pour Over Kettle

Here’s a pour over option, but for the stovetop as opposed as an electric model. It also also features a built in brew-range thermometer for making your hot beverage just right.

*Disclaimer: Help support EcoSalon! Our site is dedicated to helping people live a conscious lifestyle. We’ve provided some affiliate links above in case you wish to purchase any of these products.

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If you drink a cup of coffee or two (or more) per day, then you’ve likely thought about whether the habit was doing you any good.

The truth is, there is no clean-cut conclusion. Research points in both directions. Some attest coffee is jam-packed with antioxidants and has been show to prevent cancer, boost sex drive, and improve heart health. Others say it can disrupt sleep, increase LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, and may be toxic. To make matters more complicated, coffee is probably also affecting your beauty. For better or for worse, here’s what you need to know.

Let’s dive into the bad news first. Coffee is a diuretic, which means that it leaches the body of its water content. The more you drink, the more your body–and your skin–is stripped of its moisture and the less supple, glowing, and healthy it appears. Dehydration leads to skin inflammation, collagen loss, and even acne.

Coffee is also highly acidic and can mess with your stress hormone cortisol, which negatively affects the skin’s oil production when imbalanced, causing acne and inducing aging. Pair dwindled sebum production with dehydration and you can see how much of a toll coffee can take on the condition of your skin, making you look a lot older than you are. (If you add milk and sugar to the mix, you only compound the negative effects, too).

Now for the good news: coffee’s negative effects may be counteracted if you are diligent enough. Make it a rule for yourself to drink two glasses of water for each cup of coffee. Meanwhile, don’t make coffee the first thing you consume in the morning. An acidic beverage is not what you want your stomach to wake up to. Instead, consume as much water as you can in the morning, followed by a green juice or smoothie. Thirty to 60 minutes after drinking your raw green juice or smoothie, enjoy your coffee. It is important that you allow some time for your morning green juice or smoothie to pass through your stomach before you add coffee to the mix. Coffee’s acidity may react to previously consumed beverages and food by fermenting, causing gas, bloating, and even more acidity.

Coffee itself can be dehydrating, but if you time it well and drink plenty of water throughout the day, you can absolutely avoid losing your skin’s elasticity, hydration, and glow.

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If you’ve ever sipped on Venezuelan coffee, consider yourself lucky.

During the last several decades, Venzeula’s coffee industry has been in a steep decline. Once prized for its coffee, including varieties from the Maracaibos port and Caracas (named after the capital city) of the country’s eastern mountains, Venezuela now makes less than one percent of the world’s coffee even though it once rivaled Colombia in terms of production.

Venezuela’s coffee industry began to suffer after president Hugo Chávez mandated price controls over coffee in the early 2000s, nationalizing the country’s large roasters. Farmers began selling at a loss to the government. Many found it too unsustainable, turning their focus to other crops or getting out of the farming business altogether. But Trappist monks, best known for producing beer in Belgium, fall under the artisanal producer category, and are protected from the country’s nationalization of coffee. Trappist monasteries require several hours of work each day for the monk residents, and a monastery in Mérida has been leading the charge in the country’s artisan-roasted coffee category. Monks can roast and sell coffee, but at significantly higher prices than the government—selling for about $21 for a half pound, versus the country’s median price of about $1 per pound for the nationalized coffee beans.

The coffee situation is so poor in Venezuela that for the first time in history the country is expected to import more coffee this year than it produces. Blight is devastating what few growers remain. Some of the country’s remaining growers have even resorted to cutting the coffee with corn and other fillers to pad their profits. Current president Nicholas Maduro has banned all exports of Venezuelan coffee, forcing artisan crafters, like the Trappist monks, to compete with the low government prices, or even sell their beans illegally in Colombia.

The monks need help. “We went to the office of the Ministry of Agriculture in Mérida and told them our situation. They gave us the phone number of a depository that might have some green beans in Trujillo,” one of the monks told Vice. “We went to the factory and it was just a bunch of people bagging up B-grade beans from Nicaragua. We can’t sell that as gourmet coffee.” Venezuela’s Ministry of Agriculture recommended the monks look to the black market for illegal beans.

According to Vice, Trappist monks are now petitioning the Venezuelan government for better access to high quality Venezuelan grown beans in order to help preserve the nation’s artisanal coffee industry.

Find Jill on Twitter and Instagram

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Coffee image via Shutterstock

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Step aside Latte and Americano. Bulletproof coffee is the hot new drink on the java block. Have you tried it yet?

The addition of butter to your cuppa joe? Yep, you read that right. Not only is this crazy seeming combo thought to enhance your caffeine experience but, possibly, your health and IQ too.

For those of us who are loyal to our daily grind, messing with our cuppa is not a welcome notion. We look forward to our daily brew and aren’t excited about switching it up. Most coffee drinkers have a signature drink, even if that is the standard black.

Coffee is big business in this country. While the US isn’t even in the top 10 for coffee consumed per capita, we are number one in the coffee retail market. We aren’t in this only for the jolt or because it tastes so darn good. Coffee is a daily ritual for many and also holds real health benefits. It’s a mood booster, memory enhancer, fat burner, and could possibly ward off dementia, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

Still, too much of this good thing can lead to trouble. If you’ve ever overdone your caffeine buzz you are familiar with those jittery, scatter-brained, heart-thumping sensations. But what if you could add a more grounded feeling to your coffee drinking experience? What if you could lose weight and add to your healthfulness? What if you could even become smarter?

These are the claims of Dave Asprey, creator of Bulletproof Coffee. While on a mountain climbing expedition in Tibet, Asprey was offered a cup of yak butter tea. The frothy, creamy blend left him so rejuvenated that he set out on a new mission. This one at home to discover what butter could do for coffee.

The result is a blend of toxin-free coffee, unsalted grass-fed butter, and coconut oil extract. Asprey says the combo offers satisfying energy for up to 6 hours, replaces your regular breakfast, and helps your body to burn fat all day long. The current high protein/low carb eating craze backs this last notion. He also says that the drink caused him to lose 100 pounds without exercising, boosted his IQ by 20 points, and enables him to sleep fewer hours while feeling more rested.

All great things, to be sure. But still, butter in your coffee? Asprey claims that butter lends the “benefits of healthy milk fat with none of the damaging denatured casein proteins found in cream”. As for the toxin-free coffee? Obviously toxins are damaging to your health, but the Bulletproof Coffee founder says they also steal your energy and make you weak, where clean coffee contains healthy antioxidants. He recommends unsalted butter or ghee (clarified butter available at most health food stores), calling salted coffee a sin. I’d have to agree there.

Our Editor-in-Chief, Laura Klein, is a Bulletproof backer and drinks the blend every day. Here is what Laura had to say on her BPC practice:

How: “I’ve used both the Brain Octane and the coconut oil. And I add the grass fed butter which adds amazing flavor. I buzz it up in my Vitamix with a little honey and get an awesome frothy head (I love froth!).”

When: “I drink just one cup per day but it’s really a half cup of the coffee and half almond milk. Any more, and the caffeine makes me too jittery. I generally don’t skip breakfast, but maybe I might give it a try! I’m a breakfast eater and feel it’s necessary to keep my blood sugar stable (I stick to protein and stay away from a lot of carbs).”

Why: “I love the flavor and I love that it doesn’t give me a quick caffeine high and then a quick crash (which Is one of the reasons I stopped drinking coffee years ago and switched to tea). It gives me a caffeine buzz that is mellower and lasts longer, several hours (instead of several minutes).”

Note:  Laura has since tried skipping breakfast after drinking BPC and confirmed that it actually was enough to keep her energy up and hunger down until lunch.

An endorsement like Laura’s is hard to dismiss. So, I had to see what’s up with this drink for myself and fixed a cup. In my honest opinion, here are the pros and cons of going Bulletproof:

Pros: Tastes good. Very creamy and the coconut oil adds a slight touch of flavor without being like Whoa, coconut! It also makes each sip seem like you’ve applied a fresh coat of lipgloss. I used ghee and could not taste it at all. A good thing, in my book. And starting the day with a dose of healthy fats did seem to keep me running longer.

Cons: The effort. It takes more than a quick make ‘n pour, but is still fairly simple. Probably my least favorite part of the coffee was that the blending takes away, ever so slightly, the piping hotness that I love so much in my morning cup.

Overall, this coffee drink is palatable and offers a nice awake feel sans jitters. I certainly don’t advocate no exercise or running on 5 hours of sleep per night, as avoiding these two things won’t promote good health. But a tasty cup in the morning, complete with resilient energy…who doesn’t want that?

So what do you say? Are you going to give Bulletproof Coffee a try?

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ColumnYour cup of coffee deserves your respect.

Coffee.

The dark drink is such a part of most of our everyday routine that we often forget to think about it. The act of drinking coffee is automatic, a routine process of grinding beans, putting in one brew method or another and waiting until our favorite of drinks is ready to be poured into our favorite coffee cup and consumed.

But as part of our everyday routine for the last few decades, coffee has become banal, easily letting us forget that our cup of coffee is actually a luxury product and not a staple.

While the idea may sound deadly, you will not die without coffee. Live without fruit, vegetables and water however, and you will. And yet we treat coffee just like we do our staples. It’s such a part of our everyday that we forget to honor it, forget to think about where it comes from. And when that happens, it’s no surprise that we expect it to be cheap and fast.

I watched “A Film About Coffee” this week. Yes, an entire documentary devoted to coffee. Taking a look at the specialty coffee industry, if you’ve ever wondered why you should pay more for your beans, this film tells you exactly why.

“A Film About Coffee” // Theatrical Trailer from Avocados and Coconuts on Vimeo.

“How did something that’s so exotic become such a mainstay of our culture?” asks the trailer.

It’s a good question.

These days more and more of us are becoming conscious about what we eat. But food and coffee are a bit different, in the sense that if you really want to know where your food comes from, how it was grown and how it was processed, you can go track down the farmer.

Even if we don’t live on a farm, most of us have at one point or another gotten our hands dirty in a garden. We’ve pulled a carrot from the earth, picked an apple from the tree.

Coffee is different. For most of us, it comes from the other side of the world. We have no clue what a coffee plant looks like, how it goes from fruit to coffee bean, and even if we wanted to, it would be hard for us to have a direct relationship with the coffee producers. If you want to get to know a farmer, you go to the farmers market. If you want to get to know a coffee producer, you need to buy an expensive plane ticket.

The simple fact that coffee is produced so very far away, yet is readily available on grocery store shelves has made it so that we are entirely removed from the production process. We have little to no connection to it. And that makes it easy to mindlessly consume cheap coffee, or coffee that in a smart marketing move is branded as quality, but is no better than the mediocre grade stuff out there. I’m looking at you coffee pods.

But a bag of coffee beans involves a lot of hard work, and a lot of hands. There are the people that maintain the coffee plants, there are those who pick the coffee cherries, there are those who process the cherries once they have been picked, there are those who spread them out to dry, there are those who bag them up and get them ready to export around the world. Just the simple fact that coffee makes it from exotic locations to our own kitchens is an amazing feat.

Start to think about the number of people involved, and the number of miles traveled, and you start to think a little differently about your cup of coffee. It’s a luxury product above all else, and we should treat it that way.

True locavores will tell you to give coffee up. They have a point – the footprint of coffee is big. But some of us aren’t willing to skip that daily cup of coffee, and if we’re in that category, then doesn’t it make sense to buy the best quality product available? Ultimately it’s not about what’s in your cup, it’s about the people on the other end. It’s about supporting a system that promotes fair wages and sustainable growing practices.

You may call it coffee snobbism, I call it conscious consumption. Something that we all could be doing a little more of, be it food or coffee.

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: 5chw4r7z

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Column Are you buying whole coffee beans, or a bunch of filler?

Let’s have a chat about coffee.

Coffee is one of those products that comes from far far away, but it’s one of the non-local items that I have chosen to not remove from my diet. There are other tropical goods I’d rather get rid of first – bananas I can live without for example – and when it comes to eating locally and in season, you have to pick your battles. In the battle of me versus coffee, coffee wins every single time.

Coffee is one of those products like chocolate: if you’re going to drink it, it’s very important to buy the good stuff, and not just for taste reasons. There are plenty of hidden costs in fast coffee. With an industry made up of mostly multinational corporations buying coffee based on price and not quality, it’s no surprise that the most vulnerable ones in coffee production are the people working to produce it, with lots of stories of worker exploitation from bad housing conditions to child labor.

Which means you want to know what you’re buying and who you’re buying it from. And if you needed yet another reason to buy whole coffee beans from roasters committed to ethical trade, instead of pre-packaged, pre-ground stuff from large corporations, here’s yet another one: the coffee you’re buying might not just be coffee.

New research from the American Chemical Society shows that if you’re buying pre-ground coffee there’s a pretty big chance that the coffee has other stuff in it.

Wood, barley, rye, corn, soybeans? These do not a coffee make, and yet according to the ACS, they’re commonly used as fillers in coffee. While the ingredients aren’t harmful to you the consumer, they’re all about making coffee more profitable for the companies producing them. “With a lower supply of coffee in the market, prices rise, and that favors fraud because of the economic gain,” research leader Suzana Lucy Nixdorf, Ph.D. said in a statement.

Of course if you buy pre-ground coffee, unless you’re kitted out with a set up to test for various chemical compounds in your coffee, you might never know that you’re drinking a rye, soybean, coffee blend. That’s because “after roasting and grinding the raw material, it becomes impossible to see any difference between grains of lower cost incorporated into the coffee, especially because of the dark color and oily texture of coffee,” says Nixdorf.

The ACS doesn’t identify who exactly is using filler in their coffee, so what’s your answer if you want to avoid filler? Buy whole beans.

Certainly, if you’re a coffee lover you know that buying whole beans and grinding them at home is a must if you want the best taste. But even if you’re not a coffee nerd, I think we can all agree that you don’t necessarily want to be drinking a soybean filler, now do you? Buy from roasters that know where their beans come from and are committed to not only making good coffee, but making sure that the people producing the coffee are able to make a fair living.

If you’re committed to real food, coffee should be yet another thing that you pay attention to. Vote with your fork and your coffee cop. And for the love of god, don’t buy coffee pods. 

Related on EcoSalon

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: American Chemical Society

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Coffee beans are having a rough go in Central America, on account of a fungus called “Coffee Rust” that’s fueled by climate change. 

If you drank a cup of coffee this morning, you’re not alone. Globally, we drink 1.6 billion cups of coffee a day. Coffee is the second most sought after commodity in the world, beat out only by oil. To say coffee is a big industry would be an understatement.

But most of us rarely think about where our coffee comes from. Sure, we may choose one roaster over another, but beyond that, few of us have a connection to where our coffee beans originated. But those coffee beans are going through some rough times, which sooner or later, may be reflected in your cup.

Currently there’s a fungus wreaking havoc on coffee crops in Central America. In the 2012-2013 crop year, the fungal parasite Hemileia vastatrix (also known as “coffee rust”) caused nearly $499 million in losses. A problem for the last six years, scientists have estimated that it could destroy up to 40 percent of the region’s crops. But while crops often deal with diseases, there is one thing that has made this one even worse: climate change.

Dramatic changes in weather patterns are fueling the spread of the coffee rust fungus. Coffee is very sensitive to weather, but while normal weather patterns used to be more consistent, fueled by climate change, now they are much more dramatic and chaotic.

“We used to think that seasons were not that important; now we see that they’re incredibly important,” Alvaro Gaitan, head of plant pathology at Colombia’s National Coffee Research Center told National Geographic.

The spores of the coffee rust fungus need a lot of moisture to grow, and while the right conditions for the fungus usually only exist during the rainy season, climate variation is making for heavier rains in the region, and more frequently. Further south, Brazil is dealing with the opposite problem: the drastic changes in climate have led to a drought, and it lost nearly one-fifth of the usual 55 million bags of coffee beans that it produces.

All of this climate related destruction of course had an impact on the price of coffee: Coffee prices rose worldwide from $1.20 per pound to nearly $2.20. Earlier this year, Starbucks decided to stop buying coffee until the market stabilized.

But while we may be forced to pay more for our coffee, that’s nothing compared to what the farmers of Central America are going through. According to a report by the International Coffee Organization, around 374,000 jobs were lost during the 2012-2013 season because of the rust, making for a significant social impact in local communities. In Guatemala alone, producers lost between a third and 60 percent of their total income, spurring the United Nations to provide emergency food aid to affected households.

A coalition that includes USAID and Starbucks was launched to provide assistance to producers, to the tune of $23 million.

What does the future look like for coffee? Complicated. Genetically modified rust-resistant seeds are one option, removing sick plants and replacing them with new ones is another. What the rust crisis is showing us is how fragile the coffee supply system is, and in a world where coffee is of high demand, it’s something we’re going to be forced to think about.

No matter what, your quiet routine of drinking your morning cup of coffee certainly isn’t as simple as it seems.

Related on EcoSalon

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Image: trophygeek

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Sustainable and Fair Trade coffees are many, but do you know what matters most when making your coffee purchases? Learn what to look for when seeking out an environmentally friendly & ethical cup of joe.

Coffee is a beverage that many of us enjoy on a daily basis (considering the U.S. is the world’s top consumer of coffee) without considering its impact on the Earth or the route it takes from the farm to our morning mug. The detrimental effects of many large scale coffee growing operations is evident from the destruction of tropical ecosystems. And the fact that most of the developed world’s coffee is grown by poor farmers in the developing world, presents a moral dilemma. To add to the alarming complications, coffee is part of the commodity market, basically meaning that Wall Street controls the featured blend of the month more than any farmers ability to produce it. So what do you do to find a sustainable or Fair Trade cup of coffee? Know what to look for, and keep asking questions until you find it!

Organic
This is fairly obvious to most of us by now, as organically grown plants are far better for the planet and people. Non-organically grown coffee plants and beans are heavily treated with pesticides, which workers–and eventually coffee drinkers–are exposed to. Always choose organic coffee (and other products)!

Shade grown
Coffee is a food product that most of the Western world consumes on a daily basis, regardless of the fluctuations in season, weather patterns, pollination and environmental conditions affecting coffee crops. The high demand for this commodity has turned it into a money making scheme for many large brands, who don’t mind cutting down large forests to grow this “black gold”.  To avoid this ecosystem destroying cultivation method, choose shade grown coffee that is grown under intact forest canopy. Although there is no specific certification for shade grown coffee, you’ll likely find information by contacting the company or asking at coffee shops.

Fair Trade
Probably the most common certification you’ll find amongst coffee distributors, the Fair Trade symbol indicates that the farmers involved in growing the beans are part of a democratically run coop. This means that they receive fair wages, use no child labor and use a limited amount of pesticides. Although a Fair Trade coffee certification indicates a step toward more eco-friendly cup of coffee, it alone is not enough to call the coffee sustainable, so definitely look for organic certification alongside it.

Bird-friendly
This is a less common certification, but ensures that the coffee has been grown in a method that hasn’t disrupted the natural environment of native birds, and so is shade grown.

How was it brewed?
Brewing your own cup of morning coffee at home is far greener than driving to the coffee shop, grabbing a take out cup and tossing it once you’re done. However, hitting your favorite coffee shop on a break or outing with friends shouldn’t be out of the question, just make sure you’ve got your travel mug on you. While you’re at the counter, don’t be afraid to ask about the origin of the coffee you’ll be drinking so that you can seek out cafés that offer organic, shade grown and Fair Trade coffee. There’s a noticeable difference in coffee that has been ethically and environmentally sourced and brewed, so choose wisely to make a difference!

Brands to try:
Verve Coffee Roasters: Santa Cruz, CA
Blue Bottle Coffee Co.: Oakland, CA
Counter Culture Coffee: Durham, NC
Just Coffee Cooperative: Madison, WI
Jo Coffee: Waconia, MN
Caffe Britt: Miami, FL
Tiny Footprint: Brooklyn Center, MN

Related on EcoSalon

The Hidden Costs of Fast Coffee

11 Ways the World Drinks Coffee

Natural Beauty: What a Coffee Facial Can Do for Your Skin

Images: Kilo 66, rport

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