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Coffee Spotlight: Peace Coffee

peace coffee

Peace Coffee is one of the most popular coffee drinks that caffeine consumers all over the world crave and is a favorite of Coffee Mill. In the modern times, almost every street in the city of Minneapolis has got a cafeteria selling countless varieties of coffees. But the origin of the peace coffee idea can be traced back to 1996 when it was created and formed by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The story of its beginning:

In 1995, representatives from the IATP were meeting with farmers from Mexico, and they were talking about their broader mission, trying to learn how they as a trade policy organization could have an impact on farmers’ lives. The farmers said, “If you want to make a difference in our lives today, buy our coffee at a fair price.” A container of coffee was shipped up, and the folks from IATP got some seed money to buy it. They paid the farmers what they agreed was a fair price, and then they started learning about roasting and selling. By the time they had gone through the container, they realized they had actually made a profit and still paid the farmers what they had asked for. We were formed to be a demonstration project and to show you can run a financially healthy company that has a set of values about how the company treats farmers, the environment and employees. We are a for-profit company; we’re just owned by a nonprofit organization.

Peace Coffee partners with larger coffee-growing co-operatives rather than individual farmers. Groups such as Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, which have over 10,000 members, this allow for economies of scale to exist while maintaining a farmer friendly attitude. Co-operatives are necessary due to the high scale of demand from a large company like Peace Coffee. The disadvantages of not working directly with these farmers include less direct control over farming practices such as harvesting and processing improvements. Although Peace Coffee does consistently travel to the originating countries, visiting their co-ops at least once every two years, they do not have the same influence on cup quality because of the larger number of growers.

Operating a coffee shop allows Peace Coffee to walk in their customers’ shoes, and to acquire the experience and expertise the company needs to train baristas all over town, ensuring that their coffee tastes as good as it possibly can and also to connect more directly to coffee drinkers.

Peace Coffee is about more than just a great cup of coffee; the company wants us to know what fair trade means, why organic certification is important, and why the co-op model matters when it comes to farmers. Having a storefront allows Peace Coffee to evangelize its mission every single day, in the most direct way possible.

The Coffee Mill is excited at the opportunity to bring this great coffee to you and your Minneapolis business! Peace coffee and how it got started is a great conversation starter at the next business meeting! To order Peace Coffee for your office or next business meeting, contact Coffee Mill here to start the process! The Coffee Mill would love to hear from you!