Where does Heine Brothers’ Coffee come from?

Heine Brothers’ Coffee is certified organic, meaning it’s grown without the use of chemicals or unnatural pest control. This creates a healthier environment for plants and the farmers as well as a more natural and delicious taste. We believe that great tasting coffee is grown naturally and in the traditional fashion- under the shade of taller trees on the steep slopes of volcanoes or on mountain foothills. You can explore where the different varieties of Heine Brothers’ coffee come from on the map below.

Central America

Carribbean

South America

Colombia

Peru

Bolivia

Africa

Indonesia

Ethiopia

Sumatra

East Timor

What is Cooperative Coffees?

In 1999, Heine Brothers’ Coffee became a founding member of Cooperative Coffees, Inc., a member-owned importer of fairly traded and organically grown green coffee, with six other micro-roasters in the United States and Canada. Today Cooperative Coffees, Inc. includes 24 specialty coffee roasters located across North America. Over the last decade, Co-op Coffees has imported millions of pounds of coffee – all directly from small scale farmer cooperatives.
Heine Brothers’ and Cooperative Coffees are committed to supporting and partnering with small-scale, Fair Trade coffee farmers and their exporting cooperatives. By importing directly from farmer partners, Cooperative Coffees seeks to foster a more equitable system of coffee trade that directly benefits these farmers, their families and their communities.

Since we co-founded Cooperative Coffees, we have had many opportunities to travel to meet with the farmer groups from whom we buy our coffee. We have been buying coffee from several of these groups for 10 or more years and we’ve gotten the chance to meet their families, share meals with them and learn about their lives. During these visits, we’ve learned first hand that a small company like Heine Brothers’ can make a real and positive difference in the lives of people all over the world by choosing to buy our coffee on a Fair Trade basis.

What is Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is both a social movement and alternative business model that addresses the injustice of conventional trade by ensuring that farmers and crafts people earn a fair wage for their goods. Fair Trade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and an improved standard of living for some of the world’s poorest producers. Heine Brothers’ is committed to our Fair Trade partnerships that focus on reciprocal benefits and mutual respect as we seek to create a sustainable and positive change in developing countries, as well as our own.

Heine Brothers’ Coffee is committed to Fair Trade, rather than the conventional free market, approach. Free trade allows the open, free market to determine who will succeed. The result? With no guidelines, the poor and disenfranchised often get left behind. Free trade is no where near fair for these individuals.

Coffee farmers are typically some of the poorest people on the planet. We expect them to grow the most fragrant and delicious coffee and individually pick each ripe coffee cherry by hand. In the end, they are rarely paid a living wage for these efforts.

We purposely source our coffee from small-scale producers, who rarely have access to capital and basic market information. Often these small farmers cannot directly export their coffee – and are therefore forced to deal with middlemen, also known as coyotes. Cooperative Coffees develops direct relationships with partner-producers based on fairness and an open exchange of information.

Committed to Our Community

Heine Brothers’ is a 100% fair trade & organic coffee roaster. We opened our 1st shop in October 1994 in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville, KY, and now have 17 shops all in Louisville. From the beginning, Heine Brothers’ has been committed to operating responsibly and sustainably – donating to numerous community groups, recycling, being founding members of the world’s 1st fair-trade coffee buying cooperative, buying locally. Through your support we strive to do even more, while offering exceptional drinks, perfectly-roasted coffee and friendly service.

Thanks for stopping in!