Tasty coffee and education at Agro Cafe’s new location
Coffee connoisseurs Blake Hanacek and Emily Sproule at Agro Cafe's new retail location 550 Clark Drive
Blake Hanacek is the founder of Agro Cafe and Emily Sproule is a sales and service manager for the Ethical Bean Coffee Company. Both local companies sell certified organic fair trade coffee, and support many of the same values. My son and I met with Blake and Emily this morning at Agro Cafe’s new retail location at 550 Clark Drive in Vancouver, B.C. for a cupping session.
What’s cupping?
The term “cupping” is new to me; essentially, it’s a taste test in which coffee geeks try different beans and different levels of roasting. I found out about today’s cupping from Blake via Twitter and, if you want to follow him, it’s @agrocafe. Ethical Bean’s Twitter handle is @EthicalBean.
In 2004, Blake co-founded a Kenyan-based NGO called AGRODEV (Agricultural Growers Resource Organization Developing Economic Viability). After meeting with small scale farmers in five coffee-producing countries, he developed his unique Crop2Cup™ direct trading program, and opened the first AGRO Cafe in 2006 in Yaletown. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Global Resource Systems from the Faculty of Agricultural Science at UBC and a Masters of Watershed Management from the Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability at the UBC.
Educating people about fair trade and sustainable agriculture is Blake’s passion – so I was glad when my 9-year-old son asked: “What’s fair trade?”
Blake explained that traditionally coffee farmers keep about seven percent of the money paid by the person who ends up drinking it. The rest of the money goes to the importer, the roaster, and the retailer. But with fair trade, farmers keep about a third of the money paid by the consumer.
“The farmers that grow and produce our coffee beans are incredibly important to us. Our cafes are their livelihood,” reads the Agro website. “Our customers, who stop for a cup of coffee while shopping on Granville Island or Yaletown (or Clark Drive) are ensuring that our farmers around the world can support their families.”
On the way home, my son ranted about how “mean” it is that certain big, famous coffee companies are ripping off farmers in other countries. Thanks to Blake for another great instance of learning from the people in our community…
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