Moscow Food Co-op Producer Profile

by Leah Christian and Eugene MacIntyre, from the February 2002 newsletter

Co-op members can feel good about themselves and the coffee they drink on these cold winter days, if they buy Cravens Coffee. The history of coffee includes injustice, exploitation, and other environmental and social issues. Simon Thompson and Becky Templin have proven that very good coffee can be produced without carrying all that historical baggage.

And fortunately for those of us who live on the Palouse, Cravens Coffee has been made available from the very beginning.

"We have been going down to the Palouse right since the beginning in 1993," Simon Says, "and we have been fortunate to have been a constant with (the Co-op)." Simon appreciates the Co-op and the way it does its business. He is glad that other coffee producers have been given the opportunity to sell their product in the store, and even happier that members continue to purchase Cravens Coffee on a regular basis. Cravens organic blends have such a strong presence at the Co-op that Simon and Becky even created a special "Moscow Co-op Blend."

Before opening up shop in Spokane, Simon, a native of Norfolk, England, began his life in coffee at Seattle's Best Coffee. However, when he found out that the business was up for sale, he and his wife decided it was time to go it on their own.

"We did not want to become part of some large food conglomerate," he says. With Becky, he searched the country for a new market but soon found an attractive location in their backyard. He says that the Spokane region was attractive because it provided market access to eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana.

They began with a retail shop and espresso bar and roasted the beans in the middle of the bar. After three years, the two moved out of the shop and concentrated strictly on wholesale production. "We started with a 25pound roaster, moved up to a 50 pound roaster, and now have a 100 pound roaster next to our 50 pound roaster," he says. As their concentration turned to wholesale production, they also focused more and more on purchasing green coffee beans in an ethical and environmentally-friendly manner.

All of the conventional coffee beans, and the majority of the organic beans they purchase, are certified fair trade, shade grown, and bird friendly.

Simon travels the world for his beans and purchases them on a fixed price market that assures the grower a certain percentage of the purchase price. This not only helps the farmers in the Third World nations where the beans are grown, but it also eliminates the middleman price mark-ups.

Columbia, Costa Rica, and Sumatra are the three largest sources for Cravens Coffee beans. Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Tanzania provide additional sources for conventional beans, while Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, and Sumatra are the sources for the organic beans.

"The organic coffees are our fastest growing sector in the business," according to Simon. Presently, Cravens Coffee produces thirty-seven blends of conventional coffee and fifteen blends of organic.

The name of the company comes from Simon's homeland in the Craven region of the Yorkshire district in England. Family is an important identifier for Simon and Becky, so much so that they named some special blends after their children, Benjamin and Adam.

"The blends reflect their personalities. Benjamin's Blend is bright and lively; Adam's Northwest Blend is rugged and bold," according to the Cravens Coffee website. Benjamin's Blend is presently Cravens feature coffee and a portion of the proceeds from its purchase goes to help local children in need.

The Web site, http://cravenscoffee.com/, is a useful site for those who enjoy Cravens Coffee, or those who want to learn more about the company. The Web site also provides a plethora of information about the various blends and beans that are the foundation for these progressive entrepreneurs. So, next time you are looking for some quality java, something that makes the store brands green with envy and the retail brands take a second look at their social and ecological footprint, run down to the Co-op and grab a bag of the special 'Moscow Co-op Blend', or any of the other special blends sold.

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