What is fair trade coffee?

For a deeper look into Fair Trade, as well as it's more impactful kissing cousin, Direct Trade, have a look at our post "Behind the Fair Trade Coffee Movement".

In short, Fair Trade practices are backstopped by a paid certification program, and are generally intended to bolster the price of a roasted coffee at market by playing on our guilt over the state of agricultural economics throughout the world.

That sounds negative, but based on everything we've seen, if you really want your choice of coffee to help farmers directly, look instead for roasters who feature Direct Trade relationships with farmers.