Certified Organic & Product Source Transparency

Many different companies talk about sustainability, but those companies don’t always share with their customers what sustainability specifically means to them. Here at Covabrelli, we want you to be informed of how we work hard to be as sustainable as possible from farm to kitchen. 

Covabrelli coffee is sourced from USDA Certified Organic cooperatives from the four main coffee growing regions:  Africa, Central America, South America & Indonesia. These co-ops are made up of several hundred individual farms that use organic farming methods. Being part of this community brings the farmer & their community economic, social, and environmental stability--helping both the land and people thrive. USDA Certified Organic ensures that the soil has not been treated with harmful chemicals for at least three years before the harvest of the coffee cherry. Certified Organic also ensures that the farmer gets a higher price for their coffee, which increases profits and the quality of living for the farmer.  For more information and specific guidelines regarding USDA Certified Organic, click here.

As a small company, we trust that the importers we work with to source our coffee are doing their due diligence not only supplying us with amazing coffee but ensuring their supply chain is protected/sustainable/equitable. For coffee to be available in the future, we depend on everyone to look beyond their own short-term needs.  Royal Coffee in Oakland, CA, is one of the importers that we work with.  Here’s a link to read/hear what they’re doing to bring prosperity and longevity to both the land and the people that grow coffee. For more information about the co-ops our coffee is sourced from, please read about them on our ordering page. click here.  

Carbon Footprint

Sustainability is not just about how the coffee is grown, how the farmer lives, and how many steps it takes to get the coffee into your home.  Sustainability extends to how the coffee is roasted, what equipment we use, how chaff is disposed of (chaff is the bit of skin on the coffee bean that releases during the roasting process), how the burlap bags that hold the coffee are upcycled, and the packaging that your coffee comes in.  Finally, sustainability also includes what happens to the coffee that does not sell in a timeframe that guarantees optimal freshness to you, the coffee lover.

Sustainability is woven through everything we do as a company. We roast in a shared warehouse space with five other small businesses. This reduces our production costs and maximizes our efficiency since we’re sharing not just space, but also the utilities. Within the warehouse, our roasters use propane fuel.  Propane is not listed as a greenhouse gas by the 1990 Clean Air Act.  Both roasters burn the propane efficiently and all emissions are filtered through our electronic air filtration system.  We are the first roasting facility in the Puget Sound region to be certified by the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency to use electronic air filtration. This system removes 99.4% of smoke and other byproducts of the roasting process from entering the atmosphere and only uses 375 watts per hour to operate.

You can learn more about the different components of the roaster by clicking on different portions of the image or by clicking on any of these links: Green coffee chute, double-wall stainless steel drum, propane burners, cooling bin/cooling tray, cooling fan, data logging equipment, chaff collector, ESP air cleaning.

Chaff and other waste from coffee roasting, such as grounds from coffee cuppings and burlap from the storage bags, are disposed of with the environment in mind.  The chaff is given to local farms to use to amend their soil or as a bedding material for their chicken coops.  Giving the chaff to local farmers ensures that not only the chaff is not wasted, but it also gives back to the land.  The grounds and sometimes beans that need to be disposed of are always composted.  The burlap bags are given to local water mitigation work. This fully compostable material is used to minimize the chance of a landslide, and it will return to the earth without harm.

Covabrelli packaging is almost 100% compostable/recyclable; the packaging is made from food-grade lined craft paper.  The only parts of the packaging that cannot be composted are the metal tin tie from the bags and the shrink-wrap on the canisters.  Unfortunately, both of these pieces cannot be composted or recycled.  This packaging allows for nearly a 100% return to the earth.

Some of you may know that Covabrelli will not let their coffee sit on shelves at grocery stores for longer than 14 days. Therefore, the coffee is pulled from the shelf at this time because when you take any amount of Covabrelli coffee home, we want to ensure that it is at its optimal freshness. So, although the coffee will undoubtedly be tasty still, we replace it with fresher coffee and take the still yummy coffee to the Thurston County food bank or the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Olympia.