Coffee talk: All PCC beans now organic, shade-grown, Fair Trade AND locally roasted!

At PCC, we take pride in the many adjectives shoppers have given our coffee beans over the years: Fragrant, bold, smooth, rich, delicious. But three in particular make us stand up a little straighter: Organic, shade-grown and Fair Trade-certified. And as of today, here's another to add to that wonderful trio: Locally roasted!

Equal Exchange, a fellow co-op, has begun roasting its PCC-bound coffee beans in Oregon, creating local jobs and further minimizing the time it takes for their fresh-roasted beans to reach your home grinders, espresso machines and coffee makers. They join fellow local roasters Tony's Coffee (roasted in Bellingham, Wash.), Kalani Organica (roasted in Seattle), Caffe Ladro (roasted in Seattle) and Fidalgo Bay Coffee (roasted in Burlington, Wash.).

This marks the culmination of an effort that our grocery merchandiser, Stephanie Steiner, launched earlier this decade, to build a coffee selection that could be delicious, easier on the environment and beneficial to coffee growers. The Fair Trade movement helps coffee growers earn a living wage. Shade-grown beans provide habitat for migratory birds. Organically grown coffee results in fewer pesticides entering our environment.

Tastes even better now, doesn't it?

More about: coffee, Fair Trade