 
Many coffee drinkers are becoming more conscientious about where and how their coffees are grown, produced, and sold. Our Cafés carry a selection of Fair Trade coffees, so that customers can be assured that the farmers who produce them receive a living wage. We also carry bird-friendly, shade-grown coffees, which are grown in regions where natural shade is allowed to shelter coffee plants, as well as organic coffees, which are grown under strict guidelines and without the use of potentially harmful pesticides or fertilizers. Calvert Café takes pride in the knowledge that our roasters are committed to upholding these standards, and that each cup of coffee we sell contributes to sustaining a better way of life for working families.
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"Organic" refers to any product raised without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or growth enhancements. Instead of using chemicals to maintain their crops, organic farmers use natural methods of aeration, crop rotation, and fertilization to keep their soil healthy, and rely upon beneficial insects and animals to manage pests. Farmers must adhere to strict USDA standards in order to apply the term “organic” to their products.
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"Shade grown" or "bird friendly" refers to coffee grown under the shelter of trees, as opposed to coffee that is best cultivated under direct sunlight.
While coffee naturally thrives in a shaded environment, beans raised out of direct sunlight take longer to grow than beans exposed to the sun. Thus, many growers remove wide swaths of shade trees to cultivate sun-friendly coffee, which grows more quickly and can be harvested more cheaply. This deforestation comes at great expense to native wildlife, particularly birds.
The advantages of shade-grown coffee are several-fold. Birds inhabiting the shade trees act as a natural insecticide for the coffee plants, allowing the beans to be grown without chemical pesticides. And as shaded coffee beans take longer to ripen than mass-produced, chemically enhanced sun-grown coffee, they are able to preserve more of their natural sugars. The result is an organic, more flavorful crop of beans raised at low cost to the environment. |
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"Fair trade" is the principle that agricultural workers are entitled to a reasonable standard of living, including a fair wage and humane working conditions. Fair trade organizations seek to bolster the economic status of producers in developing nations by raising consumer awareness and lobbying for industry regulations. The Fair trade Certification Mark, owned by Fair trade Labelling Organizations International, is only applied to organizations acting in concordance with the industry’s rigorous certification and inspection standards.
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“Calvert Café is the perfect place for a morning latte or my afternoon meeting. It's relaxed, upscale, and makes a difference in the quality of my workday.”
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