“Every single coffee brand on the shelf has a Free Trade sticker and something or other about sustainability. But what does that actually mean?” says Azadkhanian. “I started to look at the main issue, which is, by 2050, the world will likely not be able to grow specialty-grade premium coffees, and that was a really big concern for me and the future of this company and my family. I learned about regenerative agriculture, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! This one’s not a buzzword.’ This can actually save the future of coffee, and we are going to be the first 100% regenerative coffee brand in the United States.” Azadkhanian and his team took a step back to recalibrate. They gutted and rebuilt their facility in Oakland, California, and launched Heirloom Coffee Roasters in November 2021, with a new system to produce really premium, specialty-grade coffee, and a new “culinary roasting style” — a method they invented that keeps the beans at certain roasting stages for different lengths of time than what’s typical of specialty coffee. They took a sample of this coffee — which was 100% regeneratively farmed, 100% certified organic, and 100% certified Fair Trade — and submitted it to San Francisco’s Good Food Awards, where it competed against 1,700 coffees in a blind tasting and won. The success was more than enough validation for going all in on regeneratively farmed organic coffee. In August 2022, the world’s first-ever crop of ROC coffee was shipped from Cooperativa Sacaclí in Nicaragua to the Port of Oakland. Heirloom, along with three other U.S. brands — Groundwork Coffee, Equator Coffees, and Canyon Coffee — bought the first beans off the ship. “It’s been a crazy, three-year journey,” says Azadkhanian. “The speed at which this took off was insane, but it really has to do with the consumer’s desire to do better with their money to support truly fair, truly sustainable, transparent, ecosystem-building farming practices. And a product that just tastes incredible.”
ROC coffee farming is just better for the land, too, something Azadkhanian saw on a recent trip to Central America. “When we were in Honduras, we visited one of my farmer co-op partners, the Pacayal Cooperative. They took us to a nonregenerative farm,” he says. “The soil was tilled, and it was very hard — you could knock on the ground. And then you would go to the regenerative farm, and the ground was really spongy, just full of life and smelled like living soil. “They were so different and you could just tell, by looking at the two, that I want my coffee grown in the soil that’s clearly alive. It was really eye-opening for us to see that firsthand, because not only does it create an incredible product, but it changes communities.” “WHEN I FIRST READ about the regenerative organic movement, it was like ... you know when you’re looking for a new house or an apartment and you walk into ‘the one,’ and you just know that this is it?” says Jeff Chean, co-founder of L.A.-based Groundwork Coffee. “It was articulating exactly what we think is important.” QUESTIONING THE STATUS QUO
THE ROC COFFEE DIFFERENCE
ONE OF THE BEST WAYS to understand regenerative coffee farming is to understand what it’s not . Typically, farmers or co-ops growing specialty coffee will till the land, plant shrubs, then pour synthetic inputs, like nitrates or other types of fertilizer, onto the soil. They’ll get a great crop, but when it rains, all of that fertilizer gets washed into the creeks, rivers, and eventually, the ocean, where it can deplete sea life. Then the cycle starts anew. Every time those chemicals become part of the runoff from rain, a little bit of topsoil disappears. And topsoil is where all the life exists: the good nutrients, bacteria, fungus, and fungal networks. “What I love about the regenerative model is that it says, ‘Okay, we need to find a solution here,’ because you can only take so much [topsoil] away until there’s nothing left,” says Azadkhanian. “That’s basic math, right?” With regenerative farming, soil isn’t tilled. There are no synthetic or external inputs, and one of the most important elements is the use of cover crops, like small grasses, local shrubs, and native trees. Wind can be just as damaging to soil as rain, and the root network of cover crops keeps topsoil in place, creating the sponge-like layer that holds the water, nutrients, bacteria, and fungal networks. To receive Regenerative Organic Certification, coffee farmers must use only locally harvested compost — made from their own cow manure — or fertilizers with zero synthetics (even if they’re approved on the organic list of chemicals).
This regenerative method was a long time coming for folks like Chean, who knew empty buzzwords and the existing certifications weren’t enough. “Over the years, I began to notice that even certified organic farms were doing things that weren’t great,” he says. “For instance, folks at some of these farms were dumping the excess sugar into local waterways, which would encourage the growth of algae and, in turn, choke out the local fish. I realized that you can be both certified organic and still be a gross polluter.” Regenerative coffee is just better for the land, reducing inputs and waste like chemical fertilizers that run downstream into the ocean.
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ISSUE 02
CHANGE IS BREWING
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