Oh, and they love to use puns when naming their coffees, which earns them extra points from me. Indeed, Larry’s offers farmers pre-financing and treats farmers as partners, not just as suppliers. They look to create long-term partnerships that pay well so as to sustain small-scale growers to produce the best coffee year after year. The small scale of these farms usually means coffee importers can and do take advantage of their lack of bargaining power and access to international markets, with serious price gouging rife in the industry. These farms are typically around 2 to 5 acres, making the coffee beans used by Larry’s pretty darned special. Larry’s Coffee takes the approach of working with very carefully selected small farms, currently sourcing from 16 or so countries worldwide. He also fosters a culture of creativity, roasting beans in small batches to find the perfect time (somewhere between 12 and 20 minutes, apparently) for each harvest, so as to highlight the flavors unique to every seasonal bean crop. Larry Larson, the company’s founder and CEO, is a quirky kind of fellow with a fondness for blueberries (hence the company’s edible landscaping) and a clear commitment to Fair Trade and sustainable agriculture. The company is a certified B Corporation and a founding member of Cooperative Coffees, an organization of independent coffee roasters who import coffee directly from farmers, so as to establish a genuine and fair partnership. They collect and use rainwater for the washrooms, have solar water-heated flooring, company-wide composting, delivery locally using a veggie-oil-fueled school bus, and host Raleigh’s only biodiesel pump.

Larry’s Coffee is based in North Carolina, and even their roastery and offices are eco-friendly. bird-friendly), and they recently launched a line of fully recyclable k-cups that are BPA-free ( View Price on Amazon), though it’s still best to avoid pods where possible. All of their coffee is Organic, Fair Trade, Kosher, and Shade-Grown (i.e. They know their coffee and are clearly committed to sourcing the best beans and using their roasting expertise to create the freshest, highest-quality, great-tasting coffee. They’ve been in the business since 1993, under the name Larry’s Beans, and have been a force for fair trade, sustainable coffee for nearly three decades. Larry’s Coffee is possibly the most sustainable, eco-friendly, and downright delightful coffee company around.

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