Meaningful Work by Shawn Askinosie & Lawren Askinosie

Author:Shawn Askinosie & Lawren Askinosie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Published: 2017-11-14T05:00:00+00:00

We are not Fair Trade certified because we’ve found what we think is a better way. Better for us, better for the farmers, that we think produces better-tasting chocolate in the end.

Direct Trade Means Better Products, Better Organizational Cultures, and Better Communities

Intelligentsia Coffee pioneered direct trade coffee. It’s the way they buy coffee. I stumbled upon Intelligentsia in early 2007 and started a dialogue with Geoff Watts, the rock star of the coffee world, cofounder of Intelligentsia, and the man responsible for initiating the company’s direct trade practices many years ago. When my factory was in its infancy and I was still devising our direct trade framework, he obliged me by giving me advice and taking time to answer some of my dumb questions. Full disclosure: Intelligentsia has become one of our largest customers in the last few years. We make a custom single-origin dark chocolate that they use in all their chocolate drinks. We also collaborate on a chocolate bar infused with their single-origin coffee. And they sell our chocolate bars in their coffee shops around the country. I started the relationship with Geoff not because I wanted them to buy our chocolate but because I needed expert assistance with some practical issues related to our cocoa buying practices. Over time our aligned philosophies created synergies that led to them becoming a customer.

This is how we define direct trade. I could devote an entire chapter to waxing poetic about what direct trade means to me. But our definition is pretty simple: direct trade is knowing and having a relationship with our cocoa farmers, who we refer to as our “farmer partners”—because that’s what they are; we consider them partners in our business. For us, “knowing” and “having a relationship with” mean visiting our farmer partners at least once per year; spending time in their homes, meeting their kids, enjoying a meal with their family. In a word: kinship. We work with them on sustainable growing, postharvest techniques, fermentation, export, cocoa bean quality—the list goes on. It is business, after all; good business, in fact. Direct trade is about honoring our farmer partners. It’s about working together in a spirit of mutuality, service, and respect. It’s about keeping promises, showing up, and working together toward the goal of crafting the best chocolate possible.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.