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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Shade Grown Coffee vs. Organic Coffee

Many people get confused and feel that shade grown and organic coffee are one and the same, but that is not always the truth. Shade grown coffee is the traditional method of coffee growing that provides coffee cultivation in a shaded environment, which enables the coffee trees to grow at a slower rate to produce a higher quality crop. This does take a time investment, but it will produce a more excellent bean as a result.

Oftentimes, shade grown coffee will not need the use of fertilizers or pesticides because of the birds that live in the trees above. These birds can be a natural insect repellent because they eat the insects off of the coffee trees, and their waste also becomes fertilizer. However, this is not mutually exclusive because shade grown coffee farmers can still use pesticides on their coffee plants. Organic coffee does not have any pesticides used in its cultivation. Many times shade grown coffee will be organic, but that is not always interchangeable.

Regardless, both of these practices do provide methods for a sustainable coffee environment, which protects both the coffee plant and the coffee farmer. These types of coffee products are also something that you can trust because they will most often not use pesticides or harmful chemical fertilizers, which is ideal for you to look for as a coffee drinker. And on top of that, both of these methods produce a better tasting coffee crop. I'll drink to that!

For a wide variety of the best flavored coffee, you can find that on my website today!

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Sandra Marquardt said...

Nice article!
More information about organic shade-grown coffee criteria can be found at:
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/Coffee/.
More information about the organic coffee market and some of the leaders in it can be found at:
http://ota.com/organic_and_you/coffee_collaboration.html.
Hope this is helpful!
Sandra

September 14, 2009 12:57 PM  

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