Why You Should Look for Shade-Grown Coffee

All our coffee is shade grown. In fact, it is such a rustic, natural farm with so much original native vegetation, that you almost can't find the coffee plants in this picture:

Coffee plants in between native bananas and old-growth trees.

On our farm, high in the mountains of Nicaragua, all the original old-growth trees are left alone. Previous owners started to clear some of the old-growth trees, despite very strict and strictly enforced regulations about cutting down old trees. When we purchased the land, there were quite a few human-felled trees and some Hurricane-Felix-felled trees. Since we purchased the land, we haven't cleared any old-growth trees. We do clear out some of the low-growing vegetation to make room for coffee plants, but as you can see from the photo above, coffee lives in a rich polyculture of indigenous vegetation.

Here I am in that same place as the photo above, with a young coffee plant in front of me. Notice that you could barely see it before I pointed it out.

The Seattle Audubon Society has a fascinating web page about why farmers should grow and you should buy shade-grown coffee. The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has created a certification that we are pursuing that certifies coffee "shade grown, bird friendly." It turns out that coffee originally grew entirely in the shade. Recently, varieties of coffee were developed that thrived in full sunshine. The point of full-sun coffee was to increase yields. In fact, coffee plants that grow in full sun can produce up to 3 times as much coffee in a year, however, when these plants were introduced, along with them came the need for more fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Additionally, the soil was depleted by the plants, and there was more run-off of chemicals into the local water supplies. If you have seen Food Inc., or any other documentary about how the pursuit of higher-yielding plants and livestock have resulted in a more abundant but inferior food supply, then you know the story.

By sticking to shade-grown coffee, we follow the traditions of the native Nicaraguans, and we also protect the soil and water, not to mention protecting the native bird habitats by keeping intact the diverse vegetation that the birds require.

Young coffee plant. Notice the shade from bananas and other native trees falling across the bush.

Also, if great taste is what you seek in a cup of coffee, any professional coffee taster will tell you that shade-grown coffee is a richer, more nuanced cup of coffee than full-sun-grown coffee.