How to Green Your Coffee and Tea

Dig Deeper Into TreeHugger

Dig deeper by perusing some of our thousands of posts.

Coffee

• TreeHugger serves up nine Fair Trade blends from Mexico and where to find them.
• For that fresh-ground flavor when camping, living off-grid, or waiting out a world war, try a hand cranked coffee grinder like this one or this one.
• Coffee connoisseur and eco-urbanite Green LA Girl (aka Siel) offers up a six-step program to better, greener coffee drinking.
• This reusable coffee cup comes with its own key and could be the perfect remedy for sticky-fingered coworkers.
• A quick roundup of green coffee tech for the home.
• A reader asks about less wasteful alternatives to single-serve coffee dispensers we see cropping up in so many offices.
• Started by a group of your entrepreneurs, Simple Coffee is trying to expand the boundaries of fair trade.
• There was a day when only the military had the pleasure of biodegradable coffee cups. Now Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has brought compostable coffee cups for to masses.
• Kicking Horse Coffee is a triple kick: shade grown, fair trade, and organic.
• Which is lighter on the planet: paper, styrofoam, ceramic? It takes a rigorous life cycle assessment to tell the whole story, and you might be surprised.
• The Toddy cold brewer takes the slow and steady (and energy-free) path to brewing coffee.
• TreeHugger’s Warren McLaren tackles the conundrum of the potentially toxic reusable coffee mug.
• This Ontario coffee company does some of the greenest beans around, all the way from the solar drying to the carbon neutral roasting.
• Even coffee giant Nescafé has something to offer in the fair trade department.
• John Laumer loves his French press coffee. He chronicles his search for a new brewing devise here.
• TreeHugger had the opportunity to chat with the producer/co-directory of Black Gold, a documentary about the worldwide politics of coffee.
• Can the sun roast coffee? You bet. It just needs a little help from some mirrors.
• Wildlife Organic Coffee from the World Conservation Society is all about Papua New Guinea.
• Here’s a fair trade coffee press and mug for your fair trade roast of choice.
• Vermont Coffee Company stokes its roasting engines with carbon neutral biodiesel.
• CoffeeReview.com rates roasts and blends and makes fair trade coffees easy to find.
• Thanksgiving Coffee from Uganda is the work of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish farming cooperative.
• The GeoCup is a conceptual alternative to the single-serving coffee cup.
• If sipping coffee is wasting valuable moments you might spend talking about global warming and rising sea levels, this mug can cover for you.

Tea and More

• When “designers and connoisseurs meet for tea,” the Teastick infuser is born.
• Today Was Fun offers a range of creative blended teas including Green Green Tea which is both healthy and carbon neutral.
• TreeHuggers get intimate with three world-class teas from The Groovy Mind.
• TreeHugger rounds up a selection of choice leaves for brewing.
• The simplicity of the reusable tea infuser as a product service system.
• Treleela and Tea Forte make tea bags like the world has never seen, but are they infusion art or a packaging nightmare?
• Organic, fair trade, and beyond, from Republic of Tea.
• Teaology offers organic flavors like Jumpstart, Whip It, Stop the Clock, and Urban Defense.
• Kicking Horse Coffee also does some kicking tea.
• Organic Revolution Tea is as pleasing to look at as it is to drink, biodegradable pyramid bags and all.
• Rishi Teas offers ancient varieties of artesian, hand-picked and hand-rolled teas.
• Moby and his sweety operate Teany, a tea lover’s paradise in NY.
• Guayaki organic yerba mate peps you up gaucho-style.
• Dagoba Hot Chocolate is organic and sexy!
• The Eco Kettle by Product Creation is a hot pot that heats just the right amount of water. British, of course.

Dig Deeper Into Other Sources

TreeHugger is one of many sources; here are some other great ones.

Coffee and tea are big subjects and we can't hope to cover every aspect, but here are some resources and leads to help you dig deeper into your search for earth and people-friendly tea and coffee.

• The 2006 documentary film Black Gold delves into the social and political tangle of coffee.
• Bring Your Own is a site dedicated to the non-disposable, from mugs to shopping bags.
• Coffee and Conservation is a site dedicated to “resources on the coffee and habitat connection for the conscientious consumer.”
• Green LA Girl has been an authority as well as an agitator for fair and sustainable coffee. She is the spark behind the Starbucks Challenge and her blog is a trove of information.
• Equal Exchange
• Fair-trade Labeling Organizations International
• Organic Trade Association
• Organic Consumers Association
• Rainforest Alliance
• Smithsonian National Zoological Park and Bird Friendly Coffee
• TransFair

Where to Get This Stuff

Vote with your dollars and help support the green revolution.

Coffee

• Bird Friendly Coffee (and where to find it).
• Birds and Beans
• Blue Smoke Coffee
• Bodum
• Café Ibis
• Cameron’s Coffee
• Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store
• Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
• The Groovy Mind
• Grounds for Change
• Kicking Horse Coffee
• Merchants of Green Coffee
• Newman’s Own Organics
• Simple Coffee
• Solar Roast Coffee
• Sweetwater Organic Coffee Roasters
• Today Was Fun

Tea and More

• Blue Smoke Coffee
• Choice Organic Teas
• The Great Lakes Tea and Spice Co.
• Harney & Sons
• Numi Organic Tea
• Revolution Tea
• The Republic of Tea
• Rishi Teas
• Teaology
• Upton Tea Importers
• Dagoba Hot Chocolate