Where does great coffee come from? It comes from third-generation farmers, co-ops, and mill-workers in Latin America, Indonesia, and East Africa. So that’s where we go to find it, forging relationships that ensure quality of life for our producers, and bringing high-quality coffee to our roastery in San Francisco. Phrases like “social sustainability” or “direct-trade” describe ideal practices that we spend the lion’s share of our time making a reality. These practices mean something different to us in every region and country—it would be an impossible waste of time for us to use one phrase to describe how and why we buy the coffees that we do. We’d rather spend our time and resources working toward something that is tangible: our constantly evolving commitment to our producers, partners, and patrons. Sourcing coffee the way we do is time-consuming, expensive and plain hard work. Nobody said long-distance relationships were easy.