Ethical Bean Coffee Company

Ethical Bean Coffee Company Ltd. (Ethical Bean) is one of Canada’s leading suppliers of 100% Fair Trade, organic coffee.

The company roasts, cups, tests and exports a variety of high-quality coffee blends, including: french roast; lush, a medium dark roast; bold, a dark roast; classic, a medium roast; dark roast decaf; mellow, a medium roast; exotic, a medium roast of ethiopian beans; and sweet espresso, a medium dark roast for espresso drinks. A Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system is used to ensure the safety of their products.

Ethical Bean is known for their innovative packaging, which uses technology to enhance transparency. Each bag includes a QR code that can be scanned using the free Ethical Bean app. This gives customers the opportunity to watch interviews with farmers, look up cupping notes and roast profiles, and find a Google Map indicating each bag’s beans down to the exact field from which they grew. Each whole bean bag features the zip seal for freshness, and each ground coffee bag comes equipped with an easily foldable tin-tie.

In 2003, spouses Lloyd Bernhardt and Kim Schachte established Ethical Bean in Vancouver. After adopting a daughter from Guatemala, their journey inspired a desire to better the lives of families working in the coffee industry. By using only 100% Fair Trade and organic coffee, Ethical Bean ensures their coffee producers are safe from coffee market volatility, harmful pesticides and other chemicals. “Just. Better.” is not just a tagline for Ethical Bean —it is the standard they live by.

Ethical Bean uses a 100% carbon neutral facility designed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) commercial interior standards, and roasts their beans using a technology that allows them to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 80%. Beyond their local community outreach, Ethical Bean donates annually to Child Aid and Project Somos, organizations that work to improve life in Guatemala. Ethical Bean is the recipient of the 2014 Fairtrade Canada ‘Licensee of the Year’ award.