HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR ORGANIC COFFEE?

When choosing your organic coffee, here are the 3 main criteria to consider:

- The type of grind you need
- The type of organic label for your coffee
- The price of your organic coffee

Our complete guide to organic coffee.

• If you are looking for organic coffee beans :

Why do coffee experts recommend organic whole bean coffee? Organic coffee beans have several advantages over the ground coffee or coffee pods available in supermarkets.

• If you are looking for organic ground coffee:
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Organic ground coffee is probably the most common form of organic coffee. As with traditional soluble coffee, its organic cousin must also be adapted to your machine or to the type of preparation you are going to make. It is therefore imperative to choose the right grind.

• - For espresso machines: your grind for manual or automatic espresso machines should look like fine salt to the eye and feel sufficiently granular.

• - For filter coffee makers: here, your ground organic coffee should have the look and feel of powdered sugar. This is called a medium grind.

• - For plunger coffee makers: To avoid your coffee going through the filter of your plunger coffee maker, the ideal is to use a rather coarse grind, comparable to granulated sugar.

• - For Italian coffee maker: your grind must be thick enough not to go through the filter and fine enough to let the water through, like powdered sugar.

What are the recognized labels and certifications?

Since organic coffee is on the rise, certifications are multiplying and confusing consumers. Here are some elements to help you better understand the labels and certifications that govern coffee production.

- Institutional labels:
Without doubt the best known and most recognized in the food industry, the AB label belongs to the French government and its big brother, the Eurofoil label, is issued by Europe.

- Thematic labels:
There are many thematic organic labels, the best known being Rainforest Alliance, Bird Friendly or FairForLife. However, they are much less restrictive than the institutional ones because they generally focus their analysis on a single criterion and therefore do not offer a precise and deep enough evaluation grid.

- The self-certified labels:
Certification and especially the establishment of specifications is a profession in its own right and the independence of the control bodies is essential. With a self-certification, it is as if the student was grading his own copy.

- Organic+ labels:
They are often less known by the general public, yet they are often more restrictive than some certifications. The two best known are Nature et Progrès and Bio Cohérence.

- Organic labels + biodynamic agriculture:
From our experience, producers who claim to be biodynamic without obtaining a label are only very approximately biodynamic and follow only one of the elements of this agriculture, which is so complete.

It is in this perspective of control that the Demeter label was created. Very well known in the world of wine, it is also used to certify biodynamic coffees such as those we offer.

Is a fair trade coffee necessarily organic?

It's a question that comes up a lot and, let's cut the suspense, the answer is no. It is estimated that only 60% of fair trade coffees are certified organic. In order for a coffee to be labeled "fair trade", its producer must be a member of a cooperative that is itself labeled.

Is organic coffee necessarily more expensive?

Yes, organic coffee is more expensive. So why is there a price difference between organic and traditional coffee?

The answer is simple: pay more to better remunerate the producer who, by moving towards "reasoned", will provide a better service to consumers, to his employees and to the planet.

Organic is not free for the producer, its implementation has a cost. These additional costs are easily identifiable:
- the cost of analyses
- the cost of certification
- the cost of transport, certified and traceable

what is the best organic coffee?

There is not ONE best organic coffee but many very good organic coffees. Indeed, it all depends on your tastes and your desires. To help you, you will find at the top of this page a selection of our best certified organic coffees, to be consumed in bean or ground, according to your desires and your equipment.