Organic farmers do everything they can to avoid any unnecessary additives and adulterants in their growing practices. This even includes reducing overall ingredients and farming without pesticides, so you’re left with a higher-quality, better product.
Here, we’ll explore the world of organic coffee to ensure only good, clean ingredients make it to your cup.
Best Organic Coffees
Cafely has made it a mission to create the tastiest and most authentic Vietnamese coffee options. Our farmers use natural and organic growing practices to ensure the best beans make it to your cup without unnecessary additives.
Here are three of our top choices:
1. BanMe (Strongest Coffee in the World)
BanMe Coffee is the strongest coffee around, made with 100% peaberry robusta beans. Not only do they have twice the caffeine content as arabica beans, but peaberry coffee beans are thought to concentrate the flavors of the coffee plant. These beans are organically farmed in the traditional way for the region, making for delicious, clean, and smooth cups of coffee.
2. HaNoi (100% Robusta)
HaNoi Coffee is another 100% robusta offering, so it also has a high caffeine content. These traditionally bold and malty Vietnamese coffee beans have notes of rich earthiness and bittersweet flavor, each sip transporting you to the center of Ha Noi.
3. SaiGon OG (Traditional Butter-Roast)
SaiGon OG Blend (Robusta x Arabica x Peaberry) is our bestselling blend, showcases the very best of Vietnamese coffee, both arabica and robusta. The robusta beans start things off by creating a rich, dark base, while the arabica beans give the cup floral and citrus notes. Every batch is traditionally butter-roasted to bring a rounded richness that mixes perfectly with the intense darkness of the peaberry.
Understanding “Organic” Produce
Organic produce is anything grown without pesticides, genetic modification, antibiotics, hormones, or artificial additives.
People eat organic food for several reasons. Many people are concerned about the impact of different chemicals and processes used in farming or a desire to consume the healthiest food possible.
How to Tell if Food is Organic
It can be tough to tell if food is organic for a simple reason — an organic stalk of broccoli and one grown with chemicals can look identical. This can make grocery shopping frustrating.
The best way to tell if food is organic is to read the label carefully. Due to strict laws and regulations, all organic food in the US must be clearly labeled as such with the “USDA Organic” seal.
Food companies know that organic products are popular and sell for a higher price. Therefore, clearly labeling their organic food is in their best interest.
How Is Organic Food Regulated?
Organic food is regulated through spot checks from accredited inspection bodies. Organic farms have to be inspected to be granted organic certification, and then checks will take place semi-regularly — the USDA has the final say on these bodies in the US.
The inspection organizations must follow the steps to earn accreditation from the USDA. Then, they visit a farm, evaluate the conditions, and grant the certificate that allows that producer to market their goods with the USDA seal.
Can Chemicals Used in Farming Get Into Your Meals?
Conventionally produced food may have a higher level of pesticides, antibiotics, or hormones compared to organically grown produce [1,2].
However, contamination can still be the case in some organic farming. Some studies have shown that pesticide sprays over crops can be carried by the wind and get onto organically grown crops [3]. Passionate organic farmers do all they can to avoid this, particularly in coffee, which is commonly grown in remote locations where other produce doesn’t grow as well.
What Chemicals Can Make Their Way Into Your Coffee?
When dealing with non-organic coffee, you run the risk of a greater number of man-made contaminants getting into your morning cup.
Here are the most common and concerning chemicals:
Glyphosate
The most concerning chemical that can make its way into coffee beans is glyphosate. This is a man-made chemical you may have heard of — it’s a common herbicide used worldwide to control weeds.
In the US, it’s often sold under the brand name “Roundup.” Because the chemical is used all-encompassingly, some can find its way into coffee, even if it “sneaks” in through the water table.
This is a concern because the World Health Organization (WHO) classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen in 2015. While it hasn’t been used as widely since then, it’s still very common.
Other Contaminants
Many other herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides are used in non-organic coffee agriculture. Here are some examples of common chemicals and what they’re used for:
- Mancozeb — A fungicide that prevents fungal diseases in plants.
- Endosulfan — An insecticide that targets coffee borer beetles.
- Atrazine — A herbicide that targets broadleaf weeds.
- Chlorpyrifos — A general herbicide used against many different insects.
All of these chemicals are damaging to the environment in some way. Chlorpyrifos is particularly concerning, given that breathing or ingesting the chemical may impact the nervous system. Consuming contaminated produce can lead to headaches, blurred vision, and, in extreme cases, coma and death.
Thankfully, robust legislation has removed dangerous chemicals from food production. However, it often pays to be aware of potential dangers before they impact you.
Is Organic Food Better for You?
It’s difficult to say with any definitive certainty that organic food is better or worse for you than conventionally farmed food. Encouragingly, some evidence suggests that some organic foods have health benefits. For example, a study found that an organic diet may benefit growth, reproduction, and the immune system in animals studied [4].
However, “organic” can be used liberally as a buzzword throughout marketing and advertising to create the illusion of healthiness.
An extreme example is if tobacco plants are grown and processed meeting organic guidelines, then the cigarettes made from it could be sold as organic. While this organic label may make them “healthier” than other cigarettes, they’re still cigarettes and have the negative health impacts that go with them.
The Bottom Line
Overall, there isn’t enough evidence to say that organic food is better for you. This is because it’s very hard to isolate the diet as the only changeable variable in a scientific study.
While you could, in theory, tell a thousand people only to eat organic food, there is always room for error, and other contributing factors in their lifestyles could also impact results.
FAQs: Organic Coffee
Here are some common questions about organic coffee and their answers.
1. What Is Organic Food?
Organic food is produced without pesticides, fungicides, genetic modifications, and other chemical additives typically not found in nature.
2. Is Organic Food Better for You?
Organic food may or may not be better for you than conventionally grown food. There’s not enough evidence to say for certain either way. However, it does guarantee that the coffee you’re drinking isn’t sprayed with tons of pesticides and other chemicals.
3. Is Organic Coffee Better for You?
Again, there’s not enough evidence to say whether organic coffee is better for you than non-organic coffee. However, coffee does have a number of natural health benefits.
4. Does Organic Coffee Taste Different from Regular Coffee?
Organic coffee typically tastes the same as regular coffee since the same plants are grown and the same beans are harvested and processed. There may be a slight difference in flavor, though, as the plants used on an organic farm will typically be stronger, higher-quality crops that won’t need non-organic pesticides to survive.
5. Is Organic Coffee Easier on Your Stomach?
It’s commonly thought that organic coffee has a lower acidity than non-organic coffee, however, this is quite unlikely. In our post about low-acid coffee, we spoke about how the actual pH of any cup of coffee doesn’t necessarily impact the perceived acidity. There is a chance that naturally grown coffee may have fewer potential contaminants, but there’s little to no hard science to support this.
References
- Smith-Spangler, C., Brandeau, M. L., Hunter, G. E., Bavinger, J. C., Pearson, M., Eschbach, P. J., Sundaram, V., Liu, H., Schirmer, P., Stave, C., Olkin, I., & Bravata, D. M. (2012). Are organic foods safer or healthier than conventional alternatives?: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine, 157(5), 348–366.
- Welsh, J. A., Braun, H., Brown, N., Um, C., Ehret, K., Figueroa, J., & Boyd Barr, D. (2019). Production-related contaminants (pesticides, antibiotics and hormones) in organic and conventionally produced milk samples sold in the USA. Public health nutrition, 22(16), 2972–2980.
- Cressey, P., Vannoort, R., & Malcolm, C. (2009). Pesticide residues in conventionally grown and organic New Zealand produce. Food additives & contaminants. Part B, Surveillance, 2(1), 21–26.
- Mie, A., Andersen, H. R., Gunnarsson, S., Kahl, J., Kesse-Guyot, E., Rembiałkowska, E., Quaglio, G., & Grandjean, P. (2017). Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture: a comprehensive review. Environmental health : a global access science source, 16(1), 111.
