Our beans are sourced ethically with a fully transparent supply chain, starting with our growers. The blends we offer feature certifications including organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, estate grown and shade–grown.
Fairtrade:
www.fta.org.au
Rainforest Alliance
www.rainforest-alliance.org
Climate Positive
www.climatepositive.org
Sustainable Rainforest Initiative www.sfiprogram.org
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Our take-away cups are sourced from renewable forest regions and our tea packaging uses recycled paper – including the inner, which is fully biodegradable.
Here’s a list of the benefits:
- Taste. As the coffee beans mature more slowly in the shade, natural sugars increase and enhance the flavor of the coffee. It tastes better!
- Healthier. Next to tobacco, coffee is sprayed with more chemicals than any other product consumed by humans. Shade grown coffee is most often organically grown, free of chemical use.
- Promotes healthy environment. Shade grown coffee requires little or no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. The shade trees filter carbon dioxide which causes global warming, and aid in soil moisture retention which minimizes erosion.
- Provides bird habitat and greater biodiversity. Migrating bird populations have been in rapid decline since the introduction of "sun" coffee and the consequent destruction of rainforest for more coffee plantations. As many as 150 species of birds have been identified on shade coffee farms.
- Helps sustain rainforests. Coffee plantations which are chemically dependent suffer from soil depletion and increased erosion. Rainforest is stripped to provide fresh growing ground. Shade coffee farms are, for the most part, organic and sustainable.
- Reverses the trend to chemicals. Shade coffee farms traditionally use little or no chemical fertilizer.
Red Star is passionate about operating to the highest possible ethical and environmental standards.
We’re a carbon neutral company, offsetting all of our carbon emissions with not–for–profit group Climate Positive. We also source fair trade, organic and shade grown beans, which minimises our environmental footprint.
Our beans are sourced ethically with a fully transparent supply chain, starting with our growers. The blends we offer feature certifications including organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, estate grown and shade–grown. You may have heard these terms before, but you may not know why they’re so important to us – and to our industry. Here’s a quick snapshot…
Rainforest Alliance Certified
Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee is grown on farms where forests are protected, rivers, soils and wildlife conserved; workers are treated with respect, paid decent wages, properly equipped and given access to education and medical care.
Swiss water method
Our Organic Fair Trade Decaf is processed to remove majority of the caffeine content through a Swiss Water method. This is extremely important and highlights the high quality Decaf that Red Star Coffee are offering and it is certified organic and Fairtrade to boot. Here are some key points about our Decaf blend;
- SWISS WATER® Process decaffeinates coffee using a pure water, 100% chemical free method. The caffeine is gently removed from the bean while preserving the coffee's distinct origin characteristics and flavor.
- We have chosen the SWISS WATER® Process for our decaffeinated coffee since it’s a pure water, 100% chemical free method used by premium roasters and retailers and demanded by discerning decaf drinkers.
- SWISS WATER® Process is the 100% chemical free, pure water method that ensures the best of the bean remains, while only the caffeine is removed.
Shade grown
Conventional, ‘modern’ coffee plantations are replacing wildlife habitat at an alarming rate, causing environmental degradation and reducing native animal populations – particularly bird life.
Traditionally, all coffee was shade grown, as most varieties of coffee are naturally intolerant of direct sunlight, and prefer a canopy of sun-filtering shade trees. The trees not only protect the coffee from the sun, they also mulch the soil with their fallen leaves which helps retain moisture. The shade trees enhance the soil, and also provide habitat for birds. The birds in turn provide natural insect control with their constant foraging. This sustainable method of farming uses little or no chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.
In the 70s, new hybrid varieties of coffee were developed to help increase production. These new varieties produced significantly more coffee beans, were smaller and easier to harvest, and produced best in direct sunlight. Many growers cut down their shade trees and switched to the new varieties. Of the six million acres of coffee crop, an estimated 60% have been stripped of shade trees since. Only the small, low-tech farms, often too poor to afford chemicals, preserved their shade trees.
Ironically, the new varieties of "sun" coffee came with an additional cost: the hybrids needed high doses of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Soil erosion, water runoff and soil depletion caused producers to clear vast tracts of rainforest for new soil to plant, and it became apparent that this new method of growing coffee was unsustainable.
We support shade grown coffee farmers to keep the traditional method alive – giving us the best coffee while preserving the environment and ensuring a sustainable business for the local farmer – a great win:win:win!
Estate coffee
Estate coffee means the coffee is grown and sourced direct from a single farm, rather than a region. In the same way wineries use grapes grown from an individual vineyard, estates produce unique coffees, with their own flavor and aroma profile.
Carbon offset
Carbon offsetting involves investing in a project or activity that reduces greenhouse gas emissions to compensate for your own activities. Red Star is a ‘carbon neutral’ business.
For Red Star Coffee, it helps us operate as a sustainable and environmentally friendly company. In fact, our carbon offset partner Climate Positive goes beyond being ‘carbon neutral’, investing on our behalf in renewable energy to offset our emissions, and then re–planting old growth forests to make us ‘climate positive’.
Hopefully, if you have taken the time to read the information here, you will agree these things are important. And while we’re passionate about ethical and environmentally responsible sourcing, we’re also passionate about giving our customers the very best coffee.
This doesn’t mean compromising. We’re convinced we can give you the best coffee the world has to offer, while still acting in a socially responsible manner.
Local roasting
Did you know that many international coffee brands offer beans that have been roasted in huge volumes overseas – sometimes up to 12–18 months ago? This is an important point of difference for specialty/micro coffee roasters.
Coffee customers are increasingly hunting out higher quality, boutique blends, rather than mass–produced products. Local roasting makes a big difference to the flavour and quality of our coffee. We also custom–develop blends using our own resources rather than importing finished bulk coffee, meaning you get the best, fresh–roasted beans.
The best beans are roasted, de–gassed and delivered to you fresh – ideally about a week after being roasted. You should notice a beautiful aroma when you open the vacuum–sealed bag. Oh – and you should look for a Red Star logo – because if it has all of the above qualities – chances are it’s our coffee!
