11 Ethical Coffee Brands for Our Morning Needs
Avid coffee drinkers swear by their morning cup, but the 21st century worker is not the first in history to turn to coffee to give them a boost. The popularity of the hearty, warm drink has spread across the globe. Ever since the Ottoman Empire became home to the first coffee house in 1555 1 , coffee for centuries has been an integral part of many cultures, fueling creative minds and change. Coffee is now a massive industry that is evident by the coffee shops on almost every corner of any major city around the world. As the coffee industry has grown, social and environmental issues associated, such as fair trade and overexploitation of natural resources, have arisen. But, innovative minds (definitely fueled by coffee) have taken up the initiative to help make our coffee consumption more sustainable.
So, as avid coffee drinkers, we wanted to recommend ethical coffee brands that we adore. These coffee brands are third-party certified for offering conscious coffee that tastes amazing. Check out ConsiderBeyond-approved ethical coffee brands that will satisfy your morning coffee need.
1. Conscious Coffees
Instagram | @consciouscoffees
Based in | United States
Bean Origin| Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa
Price Range| $15-19
Sustainability Certification| B Corp
Roasting since 1996, Conscious Coffees offer a monthly organic coffee subscription. They believe in being transparent and growing with a good cause, striving to measure their conscious footprint and improve their business practices and reduce waste by roasting every small batch fresh to order. As part of the Cooperative Coffees since 2004, Conscious Coffees has sourced its coffee directly from producing cooperatives and individual farming cooperatives, effectively taking the middleman out of the supply chain and establishing a reliable place for farmers to sell their produce.
2. Laughing Man Coffee
Instagram |@laughingmancoffee
Based in | United States
Bean Origin| Southeast Asia, South America, Central America, Africa
Price Range| $17-20
Sustainability Certification| Fair Trade, USDA Organic
Laughing Man Coffee is a responsible coffee brand first created by Hugh Jackman. They support coffee farming communities by investing in programs for coffee farmers and their families’ health, growth, and success. The Laughing Man Foundation has provided housing, college scholarships, and essentials to these communities during the Covid-19 pandemic 3. If you are located in NYC, you can visit their cafe locations in Tribeca and Brookfield.
3. Cafe Direct
Instagram |@cafedirect
Based in | United Kingdom
Bean Origin| South America, Africa
Price Range| $5-30
Sustainability Certification| B Corp, Fair Trade
Founded in 1991 by Oxfam, Traidcraft, Equal Exchange and Twin Trading as a response to coffee costs becoming lower than production costs, this UK-based coffee brand is on a mission to provide customers with great quality coffee while improving sustainability across the coffee industry. They want to help farmers in the coffee growing business. Cafe Direct invests up to 50% of the profits into coffee grower communities they purchase from.
4. Equal Exchange
Instagram |@cafedirect
Based in | United States
Bean Origin| South America, Central America, India, Africa, Canada, USA, Sri Lanka, Dominican Republic
Price Range| $42-95
Equal Exchange is building long-term relationships between over 40 small farmer organizations and consumers to develop economically and environmentally sound partnerships. They were born with an idea to implement honesty and transparency into a flawed industry supply chain model. Their goal is to build an Alternative Trade Economy that gives power back to citizen-consumers, alternative traders, and small farmer communities. Equal Exchange is constantly creating discussions around fair trade that empower both farmers and consumers. This is shown through their 5:1 top-to-bottom pay ratio. Excess profit is also distributed equally among worker-owners at the end of each year 4.
5. Grumpy Mule
Instagram |@cafedirect
Based in | United Kingdom
Bean Origin| Indonesia, South America, Africa
Price Range| $7-28
Sustainability Certification| Fair Trade
Grumpy Mule, a UK-based coffee brand, offers a collection of Fair Trade coffees sourced sustainably and ethically. The brand was born in 2006 to fight “bad coffee - coffee that’s throwaway, unethically sourced, and tastes like an industrial accident." Grumpy Mule offers specific coffee beans that support global causes like climate change mitigation, child labor elimination, equality and local focus by investing directly in these partners. They purchase carbon credits to plant native trees and support integrate canopy farming, invest in child education, and paying premiums for coffee bought from female farmers 5.
6. BLK & Bold
Instagram |@blkandbold
Based in | United States
Bean Origin| Peru, Ethiopia
Price Range| $10-53
Sustainability Certification| B Corp, Fair Trade Certified
BLK & Bold is purpose-driven to help the youth turn their daily coffee & tea into giving back to the community. They are focused on strengthening sustainable youth development and workforce development by pledging 5% of the profits to non-profit organizations across America that align with these goals. In partnership with the NBA, with every purchase of coffe from the brand’s The Warm Up line, the NBA will give an extra 5% to their For Our Youth initiatives 6.
7. Rise Up Coffee
Instagram |@riseupcoffee
Based in | United States
Bean Origin| Indonesia, South America, Costa Rica, Ethiopia
Price Range| $13-80
Sustainability Certification| USDA Organic, Fair Trade
Rise Up Coffee is committed to sustainable, artisanal coffee roasting. Stemming from their love for the farmers and their families, the small-batch independent coffee roasters only serves organic coffee. Through Fair Trade business and producing procedures, they invest back to the community and the farm.
8. Allegro Coffee
Instagram |@allegrocoffee
Based in | United States
Bean Origin| South America, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya
Price Range| $10-13
Sustainability Certification| USDA Organic, Fair Trade
Allegro Coffee was founded in 1977 with founding ethics that see the importance of how your coffee is grown. By finding ways to better source coffee directly from farmers focused on sustainability, they emphasize cultivating a more conscious food system that has a positive impact throughout the whole supply chain. The brand creates long-lasting partnerships with its partners and, in turn, creates stable jobs. To ensure their partners’ production aligns with their own sustainability goals, Allegro Coffee regularly visits to check working conditions and production quality. Available at Wholefoods.
9. Halō Coffee
Instagram |@halocoffeeglobal
Based in | United Kindgom
Bean Origin| South America, India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, Africa
Price Range| $8- 68
To battle the environmental impact of disposable coffee capsules, Halō Coffee has created a sustainable capsule alternative that is compostable. Halō Coffee’s “fully home compostable pod” capsules are made from sugar cane waste, which decomposes in around 28 days from the convenience of the consumers’ homes, breaking down into fertilizer. This end-of-life process works to offset not only waste production but as carbon production by requiring no special machinery or transportation to break down. Halō Coffee supports a circular economy through its innovative product. Their sustainable goals are not over at the pod, but each pod is also filled with specialty-grade coffees 7.
10. Kahawa 1893
Instagram | @kahawa1893
Based in | Kenya
Bean Origin | Kenya and Rwanda
Price Range | $17-82
Sustainability Certification | Fair Trade, Ethical Labor
Meaning “coffee” in Swahili, Kahawa 1893 directly sources from its coffee from women farmers in Kenya and Rwanda, recognizing that “women provide 90% of the labor and own 1% of the land” 8. To empower these women, sustainable wages are provided. However, the brand does not stop there and instead offers a direct tipping system to the women farmers, which are 100% matched by the brand. As beans, produced using traditional, sustainable methods 9, are directly from the source, traceability is at the core of this woman-led, black-owned coffee brand.
11. Four Sigmatic
Instagram | @foursigmatic
Brand Born in | United States
Certifications | Fair Trade, USDA Organic
Shipping | United States
Here is an alternative option if you are a coffee lover but want a more healthier option to replace your supplement. Four Sigmatic Happy Gut, combines coffee with probioticsso that you can replace expensive supplements with a nice cup of coffee daily. This product offers an organic medium roast coffee with a gut-freidnly boost from probiotics, prebiotics, turkey tail and chaga mushrooms. Despite mushroom origins, Four Sigmatic products taste nothing like fungi. Instead, think rich coffee or velvety cacao, enhanced with health benefits.
If you are interested in discovering more conscious brands, check out our Brand on Our Radar - ConsiderBeyond Directory, where you can discover sustainable brands from all over the world curated by ConsiderBeyond. Through the ConsiderBeyond App (IOS and Android), you can find local brands in your area or easily look for conscious brands during your travels! We actively aim to empower our Conscious Community members to keep learning more about conscious products and lifestyle tips through the ConsiderBeyond Newsletter where you can receive recommendations directly to your inbox twice a month!