Fresh, Delicious, Sustainable Coffee is big business. On the global market, it’s the second largest commodity traded worldwide — right after oil. In our business — and we’ll be the first to admit it — coffee is very big, too. We sell over a million cups of coffee a year. That’s why it’s in our best interest to offer the very best cup of coffee we can. To that end, we have entered into an exclusive collaboration with Equal Exchange, the Massachusetts-based Fair Trade coffee roaster, to bring you an exceptional, distinctive, excellent selection — our own Cayuga Coffee. Presenting this coffee is a big event for our business and it’s been a big effort to create it. We are the Number One food service company supplied by Equal Exchange and we put our heads together with them for months to develop the plan, the bean blends and the roasts that will bring you a great cup of Cayuga Coffee. When you choose Cayuga Coffee, you will enjoy blends you can’t find anywhere else, and even an authentically unique, premium “varietal” (or single-origin) brew that comes from a specialized Peruvian cooperative of indigenous, largely organic farmers. And more. Additionally, we have installed all-new, state-of-the-art grinding and brewing equipment. This means that every pot of our coffee is made from freshly ground beans. We are able to be precise about proportions. We can avoid long hold times and guarantee you fresh, delicious coffee. We’ve also undertaken careful training of our staff in making the best coffee drinks available. Going back to that global market, coffee doesn’t grow in Ithaca. Coffee is a tropical crop. It will only grow in the regions around the Equator, generally between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and generally, the people who live in those regions are not the affluent of this Earth. If the trading of coffee takes place at the level of oil trading, it’s important to realize that the growing of coffee, the harvesting, sorting and selecting of coffee is, more often than not, in the hands of a woman sitting on the ground in a Third World country. It’s work done by a man standing on a steep hill in the jungle and by their kids, who pitch in to bring the family crop home to a tiny house with no electricity, no indoor plumbing and a dirt floor, up in the mountains. A bag of coffee beans weighs maybe 120 pounds and the work that a whole family puts in to their coffee crop for an entire year may amount to just nine full bags. Once those bags are filled, the family may be forced to sell to the first guy with a truck — a “coyote” — who can reach their remote location. At his price. For 20 years, Equal Exchange has made it a mission to change things for the coffee farmers. “Fair Trade” is the system they helped establish, building long-term partnerships that benefit both producers and consumers and result in a more economically just, environmentally sound and sustainable world for everyone. Guaranteeing farmers a minimum price and pre-harvest financing, they buy directly from farmers. The oldest and largest for-profit Fair Trade company in the U.S., Equal Exchange is actively involved in strengthening and developing democratically run farmer co-operatives all over the world. At the same time, the growers are encouraged to farm organically, with the support of technical, educational and financial assistance. We have founded Cayuga Coffee with a commitment to offer coffee that is 100 percent Fair Trade and 100 percent delicious. The roasted Arabica beans are as fresh as they can be, packed in nitrogen-flushed bags, and delivered to us in as little as two days after roasting. Furthermore, almost all our varieties are also certified organic. Why Cayuga Coffee? We wanted a local connection to celebrate our home. This is the name of the native people of our region, one deserving great respect. The Fair Trade system pays respect and fair wages to the native people in the coffee-growing countries. We’ve incorporated beautiful images and symbols from those countries into the identifying marks of Cayuga Coffee. We believe that the coffee farmers in Latin America and Africa and South America and Asia deserve a square deal for their work. We are taking steps to contribute to that. We know that we have put in lots of time and conscious effort and a serious investment to make Cayuga Coffee as good as it can be — in practice as much as in flavor. We want Cayuga Coffee to be your coffee but, more important, we believe that once you taste it, you’ll want the same thing. Back to Top