About Café Fair

First in the Nation
Seeing a need for an organic coffee in the market, Steep&Brew owner
Mark Ballering developed Café Fair in 1997. We sought out Fair Trade and Organic certifications for our coffees because we recognized the importance of social responsibility on a worldwide scale. In fact, Café Fair was the first Certified Fair Trade coffee roaster in the United States . Because there was no Fair Trade Organization operating in the United States at that time, our initial certification came from the European Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO).  Since then we have also been certified Fair Trade by TransFairUSA. Café Fair uses only Fair Trade, Organic, and Shade Grown beans to make our coffee.

Commitment and Respect
For generations, coffee-growing families were forced to live below subsistence levels because they had no way to get a fair price for their crop. Unfortunately, coffee prices fluctuate. Some years the grower can feed and clothe his family, buy a few books and tools; in other years, the price of coffee is so low that the family is forced to leave their land to find work at insufficient wages. Café Fair is helping to change that. We have reached out to democratically run cooperatives in coffee-growing countries around the world. Through membership in these cooperatives, growers and their families can take control of their financial destinies because they can sell their coffee at a fair price.

By becoming a Fair Trade Coffee Roaster, Café Fair has chosen to pay the growers a “living wage” regardless of how much the coffee price fluctuates in the market. When you choose to drink Café Fair you can feel good, because the beans you buy are supporting hard-working coffee-growers and their families.

But it's more than just a fair financial "deal".  It's about commitment and respect.  And that's why we work with the same Café Fair grower partners year after year. We at Café Fair sincerely believe that both dignity and confidence in a partnership are essential for our grower partners to reach their potential and to awake each day with a sense of optimism. With this new found hope and belief in their self worth they will no longer tolerate violence and brutality in their communities and they will feel empowered to resist oppression. Café Fair attaches no strings to how our grower partners spend the premiums we pay them. It's a matter of respect.

Café Fair is Organic and Shade Grown
We do encourage our grower partners to follow sound bio-diverse cultivation practices.  However, for the health of their families and their communities, as well as the health of all the world, we require our coffee to be grown organically. All Café Fair coffee is certified organic and shade grown.

Precisely Roasted and Vacuum Packed
Café Fair coffees are roasted under the watchful eye of our master roaster who has over twenty-five years of roasting experience. Our master roaster has received numerous awards and applies his roasting expertise and state of the art packaging to all Café Fair beans. Your Café Fair coffee is always precisely roasted to develop the bean's optimum flavor and vacuum packed to insure its freshness. We are proud to be associated with our socially responsible sister company, Steep & Brew Coffee of Madison, Wisconsin.

It's up to you to complete the circle. Our grower partners in Mexico , Nicaragua, and Guatemala are the first link; Café Fair is the second; our retail partners are the third. But without you, the responsible coffee drinker, the circle is incomplete. Become a Café Fair coffee partner, complete the circle, and make it strong through dignity and respect. Above all, make it fair.