Spilling the beans – Irish roasteries brewing change

Did you know that coffee is one of the world’s largest global commodities?

Over two billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide each day and – though we were once a predominantly tea-drinking nation – Ireland now contributes its fair share to that number.

According to market research body Euromonitor; fresh premium coffee sales in Ireland are strong, with a 2024 retail value of over €133m.

“There is a growing interest in high-quality coffee which is boosting fresh coffee sales, and this trend reflects a broader shift towards premiumisation,” a Euromonitor representative explains.

“Consumers are willing to invest in better coffee experiences at home; boosting sales of fresh coffee beans, fresh ground coffee and even fresh ground coffee pods.”

But we are not just coffee consumers in Ireland – we are also home to a plethora of speciality coffee bars, cafés and roasteries. These businesses are not just in urban areas; they can be found throughout the country. Even in service stations, the coffee options have evolved to a more premium offering.

But how often do we consider the origins or ethics of our daily “cup of Joe”?

The practice of roasting, grinding and drinking coffee beans is hundreds of years old; first established in Africa before spreading into the Middle East and parts of Asia.

After the discovery of the New World, coffee plantations were introduced to Central and South America to complete what is now known as “the bean belt” – the regions of the world, between the latitudes of 25°N and 25°S, where coffee grows best.

Today, the main coffee growing regions remain Central and South America (in countries like Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil and Peru), Indonesia and Vietnam in Southeast Asia, India and Ethiopia.

Originally, coffee plantations were built on the back of the slave trade and colonisation. Coffee beans are a labour-intensive crop and grow best at high altitudes, where the temperature is cooler. For most coffee farmers, this means long hours spent working at high elevations.

Because it is such a large global commodity, traceability is often an issue with coffee. Modern-day coffee production is largely based on neo-colonialist structures, where end-sellers and middle-men take a larger chunk of profit than the actual growers. An estimated 80% of the approximate 12.5m smallholder coffee farming families currently live below the poverty line.

As awareness around issues associated with coffee increases, demand for ethically-produced beans is also on the rise. Even the largest multi-national coffee companies understand the need to show consumers they are working to make coffee a more sustainable industry.

Despite this, the fact remains that coffee plantations are operated by landowners who employ workers from within their locality. When these landowners say they are treating their workers equitably, there are often questions around the credibility of these claims.

Anam Coffee

This is something husbands Brian O’Briain and Alan Coleman discovered first-hand. The pair own and operate Anam Coffee, a micro-roastery located near the village of Kilfenora in the heart of the Burren, Co Clare.

Roasting in such a remote part of Ireland means rural development is at the core of their business ethos – both here in Ireland and abroad, when considering the farmers they choose to work with.

They have always taken care to source coffee beans as ethically as possible, but recently discovered that unless they visit the farms themselves, they can never be quite sure.

“When we first started roasting, we made a decision to only buy certified organic coffee,” Brian explains. “Then last year, we visited a farm in Central America that we had been buying from. The farm itself was at a high elevation and the journey there saw us passing through what looked like a lot of shanty towns.

“The owner of the farm was well-educated and spoke excellent English. He was educating his son in one of the top schools in Paris, at the Carbone, and it made me think, ‘there’s a little bit of a disconnect here’.

“We were being managed in terms of what we were seeing and could sense that things weren’t right,” Brian continues.

“Ernesto [our driver] spoke with some of the farm workers and told us their wages were the same as other [generic coffee] farms were paying down the road.

"We had been paying a lot more for the coffee beans from this farm. They were being grown organically, but that money wasn’t filtering through to the workers. Alan and I found that really upsetting.”

Back in the Burren, Anam coffees are roasted by hand in small batches. The beans are sold online (with nationwide shipping) and are featured in a variety of cafes, retailers and shops along Ireland’s west coast.

We want to make sure that wherever we buy from, we start a relationship. We want to buy from the same people year in, year out

When Anam Coffee was established in 2013, Brian trained rigorously in the arts of roasting, cupping and tasting. Similar to wine, premium coffees are tested for aromas and flavour notes. With coffee, the flavour notes depend on the region in which the beans are grown.

The visit to this farm in Central America showed Brian and Alan that organic certification alone was not enough to prove they were buying ethically.

They decided to take their approach further and, in 2024, became the first roastery in Ireland to import beans from Mozambique; purchasing 30kg of the first coffee to be produced in the country – which has been heavily affected by conflict – in nearly 30 years.

“It’s about sourcing coffee that has real impact – organic certification is secondary,” Brian says. “We want to make sure that wherever we buy from, we start a relationship. We want to buy from the same people year in, year out; invest in them and be part of the impact.”

Brian and Alan work with a social enterprise called Raw Material for sourcing coffee beans. Raw Material believes it is possible to grow the coffee industry while ensuring farmers are being adequately compensated and valued for the work they do.

They develop community-led initiatives which help lead to the production of high-quality coffee. For them, if the community comes first, a quality product will soon follow.

In April, 2024, Brian flew to Colombia to participate in a course hosted by Raw Material called Plant to Port: Driving Ethical Transformation Through Inclusive Coffee Education. The course examined everything from growing coffee from seed, to processing, and finally to export. It made a lasting impression on Brian.

“This programme takes young coffee farmers from ‘plant to port’ – it’s conducted in both Spanish and English,” he says.

“We worked with three young Colombian coffee farmers. It’s really about mentoring these amazing young farmers through a new way of growing – one where roasters are very much involved in subsidising their education, in addition to buying from them.”

Drinking without thinking

Brian would encourage Irish coffee drinkers to consider the entire journey of a coffee bean and think about how the cost of that cup of coffee is being divided.

“It’s important to talk about the consequences of coffee,” he says. “If you’re paying €1 or getting a free coffee because of an incentive or promotion, there’s a consequence to that – and I can tell you that consequence is happening further down the supply chain.

“Equally, you could be paying €6 for a speciality coffee and there’s still no guarantee that that coffee is making a positive impact,” he adds. “Many roasters bring in super rare, funky coffees which taste amazing and cost a fortune – but being rare and tasting great doesn’t equate to farmers earning more. That, for me, is where there is a disconnect.”

For Brian, staying small and working with equally small farmers, businesses and organisations makes all the difference. He and Alan have just one employee – Claire Hennigar – who shares Brian and Alan’s passion for ethical coffee. The trio feel as much responsibility to their own locality within the Burren as they do to the coffee growers with whom they work.

Despite the higher price point of their coffee beans, their community has wholly supported them through the years – something for which Brian and Alan are very grateful. Ultimately, this support means they can continue to pay equitable prices to coffee growers.

“I would say to consumers: follow the roasters when looking to make an ethical coffee purchase,” Brian says. “Are these roasters visiting farms? Are the same beans coming back into their rotation year after year? For me, that shows a commitment to a farm or a farmer.”

See anamcoffee.ie

Just under a decade ago, the first “FairChain” coffee company was established by a group of African and European entrepreneurs with the launch of Moyee Coffee.

The FairChain system values the concept of “trade over aid” and aims to ensure that value stays within the supply chain of coffee growing regions. Large coffee corporations tend to purchase huge amounts of green (unroasted) coffee beans, which are then processed in other regions.

Moyee Coffee is grown, processed and packaged in Kenya and Ethiopia. This has created local employment and increased profits for farmers. It has also helped with sustainability development goals within the region.

Moyee Coffee’s Irish operation was founded in 2016 by Shane Reilly and Killian Stokes and has since established a loyal customer base via its Impact Coffee Club subscription service and online shop, alongside a portfolio of corporate clients (including Google, Activision and Compass Catering).

Shane tells Irish Country Living that Irish coffee drinkers are increasingly looking for ethical alternatives to the cup of instant coffee from the kitchen press or office canteen.

“It’s one of the main megatrends we’re seeing, alongside the surge in demand for speciality coffee,” he says.

Shane would also like to see more understanding among coffee drinkers as to why an ethically-produced cup of coffee costs what it does.

“I know anyone paying €4 for a cappuccino already feels like they’ve paid more than their fair share, but [they should know that] the business model for big coffee multinationals relies on deforestation, child labour, water pollution and poverty for farmers,” he explains. “These negative side effects are just built into the price.

“Moyee’s FairChain business model is trying to create a 21st century business model – one that cleans up some of these negative outcomes of coffee,” he adds. “This has to be the future for coffee brands.”

See moyeecoffee.ie

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