About our sourcing

At 8th & Roast, our sourcing ethos is pretty simple:

Find amazing coffees, pay well for them, and be a great partner.

For a small, locally-owned coffee company, sourcing coffees directly from producers can be difficult — if not out of the question entirely. It’s more expensive, and is always logistically challenging. Because of this, most roasters our size source their coffee exclusively through large importers.

While this model makes great coffees from around the world accessible to everyone, the chance to build a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship with a producer can be lost.

Relationship Coffee.

In early 2021, we decided that we wanted to prioritize relationships with producers above everything in our sourcing strategy and began moving in that direction. We started small, with just a couple of our core offerings, but our long-term goal is ambitious: By the end of 2024, we want every one of our featured coffees to be sourced and prices directly negotiated with the farmers that produce them.

In this model, we work with producers to find great coffees and then negotiate a price that they feel is worthy of the hard work and time they’ve invested into their coffee. After a price is agreed on, we rely on an importer like our friends at Co-Trade and Bridging Tables to bring these coffees to the United States, and eventually, to your cup.

More than Fairtrade.

The prices that we pay for our green coffees — regardless of whether they are directly sourced — are significantly higher than Fairtrade minimum set prices.

This is a certification program that many coffee companies market to their customers as a sustainability initiative that benefits farmers, but these prices — which are set at 15% of the commodity price — rarely amount to a living wage. In most cases, these prices alone are not enough to help producers and the people they employ live above the poverty line.

8th & Roast is committed to paying well for the coffees we buy, and buying them year after year, growing alongside the producers we work with.

What’s Next?

After a couple of years of speaking with producers through WhatsApp messages and Zoom videos, we were finally able to travel again for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. In late February 2022, we made our way down to Guatemala to visit our friends at Finca Concepcion Buena Vista in Guatemala to sample fresh coffees from their 2022 harvest. You can read about that trip here, and buy some of their outstanding coffees sourced on that trip here!

Our long-term vision for sourcing involves more travel, meeting new coffee growers in new origins and forging new partnerships. We’re committed to bringing you excellent coffees from around the world right here to Nashville. If you haven’t yet, stop by one of our streetside locations, order a bag of coffee delivered to your house, or contact us about wholesale coffee for your business.