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SPECIALTY COFFEE
COMPANY
know.
Truly Great Coffee
Sight: A great coffee is a rich, healthy crema colour. If the coffee is pale or unpleasantly brown, it has been under or over-extracted. The milk should be smooth and silky, with no visible bubbles.
Smell: Your coffee should have a light, floral aroma in addition to the usual smell of espresso. You should not smell any burning, as this would mean your milk has been steamed for too long. Also, a strong acidic smell emanating from your coffee may reflect a poor extraction.
Taste: In broad terms, your coffee should taste balanced. A great coffee walks the line between acidity and bitterness. Aftertaste is also crucial, as a poorly made coffee can have a strong acidic or bitter aftertaste beyond the initial sip.
Feel: Feel, and specifically mouth-feel, is a crucial aspect in enjoying your coffee. Your coffee should be smooth and velvety, with a thickness slightly more than water, but not so thick that it is difficult to drink.
Overall, a great coffee is all about balance, between aspects of acidity, bitterness and the quality of the milk.
Why Ethical
Coffee Matters
care.
Why buy ethically sourced coffee?
If you care about where your food comes from, you should consider buying ethically sourced coffee. Maybe you already buy certified organic produce because you are concerned about the effects of pesticides but it does not end just there.
At Naive we buy our produce directly from the farmer and even see their growing and harvesting methods first hand.
For imported goods like coffee or chocolate, however, that kind of transparency is not usually possible. This means it is harder to be sure that your coffee beans are both sustainably grown and ethically sourced. So at Naive we go to great lengths to ensure our coffee beans are sourced ethically and below you can find out how:
What is ethically sourced coffee?
Naive believes in buying coffee beans that supports farmers and the environment. Fair trade coffee and direct trade coffee are sourced following a strict set of rules that ensure products improve the living conditions of small farmers and are produced with sustainable practices. Fair trade coffee is certified by a non-profit organisation like Fairtrade Foundation. This organisation ensures that buyers contribute to sustainability and community development initiatives. They also make sure that growers have the tools to improve their living standards.
Moreover, sourcing coffee ethically means that roasters can have greater control over the quality and social sustainability of their beans. The coffee industry has a history of using underpaid and even forced labour abroad to cultivate and harvest its products.
Thankfully, there is a growing awareness amongst consumers of the injustices built into our food system and many independent coffee roasters, including Naive, are changing the face of the industry, practising ethical sourcing so that their relationship with the coffee farmers is mutually beneficial and environmentally friendly.
We work with nature, not against it.
