How to Use Organic Coffee Beans - Price per Pound and Quality Review

Organic Coffee from Ecologically Grown Farms

In the mountains of Mexico there is a family farm, Finca Irlanda, that has kept its original forest character for over a thousand years. The coffee it grows has no harsh bitterness — just a smooth, rich aroma. Every tree on the farm is grown with compost and shade trees, following natural ecological cycles and completely free of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, creating a balanced, healthy growing environment. Thanks to its terrain and geology, the farm sits on rich volcanic soil — a perfect environment for coffee. Café Altura not only prizes coffee grown this original way but, sharing the farm's philosophy, has long bought its beans exclusively from Finca Irlanda to guarantee stable, high quality.

Fighting Pests with the Food Chain — No Pesticides

Rather than spraying pesticides, the farm uses the principles of the food chain to keep pests off the beans. To control a pest called the coffee berry borer (Broca), a species of wasp is cultivated to suppress it — a solution that has successfully handled the pest problem for organic coffee, and leaves the harvested beans remarkably whole and beautiful.

Organic Coffee and Natural Therapy

The caffeine and palmitic acid in organic coffee are the key components in the coffee enemas (see Note 1) of the Gerson Therapy, said to promote bile flow and significantly raise levels of GST enzymes (see Note 2) in the liver. Café Altura's Regular Roast preserves more of the beans' caffeine and palmitic acid, and many people in Taiwan use it for this purpose. If organic coffee is over-roasted or poorly roasted, its therapeutic value drops significantly.

Note 1: Dr. Max Gerson is known as the father of natural therapy and the originator of fruit-and-vegetable juice therapy and the coffee enema. For more information, see the Gerson Institute's official website.

Note 2: GST (Glutathione S-Transferase) is a metabolic enzyme whose main role is participating in the body's cellular defense system.

Change the World — Start with Fair Trade Coffee

Farmers certified by Fair Trade can achieve self-sufficiency by receiving fair prices for their coffee. That trade improves living standards for farming families, helps whole communities prosper, and lets farms adopt more certified growing practices. Buying Café Altura's certified Fair Trade coffee improves the lives of these organic farm owners — and it also means the coffee you drink helps protect wildlife, provides habitat for migratory birds, and reduces the effects of global warming. Spread the seed of Fair Trade, and give these farmers and their families better lives.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Organic and Fair Trade lots are usually roasted to show balance rather than extremes — and medium roast is where that balance lives. In roasting, three things decide the final cup: acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. The darker the roast, the more bitter and heavy the coffee; the lighter, the more acidic and delicate. For a balanced cup, medium-roasted beans are the natural starting point, and FrontStreet Coffee keeps several worth trying. The FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate yellow bourbon — for anyone who dislikes both sour and bitter — is gentle and sweet, showing cream, peanut, chocolate, toasted bread, and sugarcane after a medium roast, and works as pour-over, moka pot, or espresso. The FrontStreet Strawberry Candy blend, medium roasted to highlight its two Latin American origins — Costa Rican honey process and Panamanian washed Geisha — offers orange-blossom honey notes and rounded sweetness across cold brew, pour-over, or espresso. The FrontStreet 2013 natural Typica brings classic Yunnan character with soft notes of nuts, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot at remarkable value. And the FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1, grown on Typica in the Blue Mountains, is medium roasted so its acidity, bitterness, sweetness, and body merge into that famously elegant, balanced cup with chocolate, roasted nuts, cream, and caramel — a flavor no other coffee can match.