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Ekita, good coffee and ethics!

My discovery of coffee

"Back in 2006, my cup of coffee tasted really bitter! "
I discovered this beverage when I created my very first company distributing organic and fair trade drinks for cafés, hotels and restaurants in 2006.

At that time, I discovered coffee, or rather espresso, in restaurants based on coffee beans. It was then the flagship product of fair trade and also that of my restaurant customers. I tasted all the coffees in Paris (too bitter), then I looked all over Europe for fair trade and organic green coffees from importers.

But By dint of tasting coffees in restaurants, I went considering how much the espresso was not up to my expectations and sometimes paradoxically even more so fair trade coffee, considered by some as a false solution to real problems.

So I created 'Ekita Café'. I didn't really know where I was going or what I was going to do with it... I met roasters, green coffee importers, baristas; So I bought my first professional machines and my first bags of green coffee and then I learned to love coffee, to taste it, to discover the great variety of origins and aromas.
It finally became a passion that I wanted to share! And since everyone drinks coffee and has a strong opinion on the matter; it is always new passionate discussions that are initiated...

Spreading the culture of good coffee

Ekita has therefore allowed me to put a name to my passion for coffee and I am now trying to share it with you. Because there is still a paradox, or even a schizophrenia, in France: we constantly praise the way of doing things and the taste of the coffees (ristretto) of the small bistros of Italy but we categorically refuse to invest in the equipment and in the quality of the coffee and to learn the best practices to make a good espresso in France... hence the resounding success of George Clooney pod machines and the fall in sales in traditional restaurants!

So at Ekita we are going to war against bad coffee by spreading good practices.

First of all, the coffee must be fresh to offer impeccable quality, but once harvested, sorted and dried, the bags of green coffee can sleep for several years in warehouses and then they are found on the market at discounted prices... Not at Ekita! Coffee is considered a fresh product and therefore only works with coffee from the current harvest...

Then, you need to equip yourself with the right coffee machine (the cheapest is often not the most efficient or the most appropriate), the right grinder (instant grinder highly recommended) and learn good practices. Finally, you must clean your machine regularly (every day for professionals, once a week for individuals) otherwise the quality will deteriorate quickly.

Good coffee of course, but not at the expense of the environment and small producers!

Ekita is also a little bird that takes flight...

Indeed, there is no question of making coffee like the manufacturers dragged down by the supermarkets to offer coffee that is always cheaper and often less good. This little bird above Ekita is the symbol of this desire to free himself from the industrial way of making coffee and even more, from these rules of world trade where the small coffee farmer is always a loser in the end, by selling his harvest at a loss (or without making any real profits); hence the notion of sustainable or fair trade coffee. And organic coffee too, to spare people and the planet this wave of pesticides...

And then, the coffee must not only allow the person who sells the finished product to make a profit; The producer also has to earn a living from his work. While the coffee farmer, like a simple French farmer, incurs costs, his labor force braves the vagaries of the weather; he does not know before the harvest how much or at what price he will sell his production. Which of us would agree to work for a whole year, advancing the costs, only to know how much he is going to be paid? And then, after all these international summit meetings promising the end of poverty in the world while we are inexorably prospering in Western countries, it is no longer possible to stand by and do nothing.

Here is a concrete and immediate action that is not subsidized: to pay with dignity for the hard work of farmers all over the world to harvest this coffee that will make us happy every day.

This is why we buy our green coffees through the organic sector at about 30%-40% more than conventional coffees. Our coffees are also more expensive to resell than in supermarkets; But now you know why: behind it is quality and fairness!

 

 Organic and fair trade is very good, but we can still improve!

First of all, we must take care of polluting as little as possible so that our economic activity is part of a sustainable framework: I started delivering to my restaurant customers in 2006 by LPG vehicle, then I printed my invoices on unbleached recycled paper and then I chose to manufacture only coffee pods in biodegradable paper, ...

And then, all these relocations that send shivers down the spine... so we decided that our coffee would be roasted only in France and Belgium (the biggest coffee warehouses are in Antwerp).

France is the country of origin from which the first kilograms of Ekita coffee came out of the roaster's drum! And also Pod ESE pods made of biodegradable paper because it was unthinkable for us to generate waste montages with plastic or aluminium pods.

Belgium, because green coffee arrives from all over the world, especially at the port of Antwerp, and then, we found an artisanal roaster who has an organic and fair trade certification and even more a vast knowledge of the origins of coffee inherited from his father.

Coffee from the organic and fair trade sector, the selection of the best coffee vintages from all over the world, the choice of biodegradable paper pods and a transformation in France and Belgium to make our economy work: you don't think we breathe better now!

 

Solet's all get to your coffee machines! To honor this beautiful product to which we have focused all our attention, from the distant coffee grower to the roaster, to end up under the merciless judgment of YOUR taste buds!

I would like to apologize for the relative length of this presentation (any good communicator would never have published such a long and sincere text) but it seemed fundamental to me to explain our approach to you and to consider you as consumer-actors and not as consumers."