La Colombe - SoHo

After being served in some of the finest restaurants in New York City, La Colombe's flagship coffee blends quickly caught the attention of the culinary elite. But what most people don't know is that just one cup of La Colombe coffee changes people's lives. It's culinary coffee with consciousness, delicious coffee with a love for humanity.

What began as an appreciation for the European coffee roaster and America's evolving fine cuisine, has continued as an ongoing mission for La Colombe's founders, Todd Carmichael and Jean Philippe Iberti. They are some of the early pioneers of Direct Trade with current links to coffee farmers in Brazil, Mexico, Haiti & Honduras. Future trips include South Sudan, Africa, Bolivia, Peru, Sumatra, Cambodia and Southern China. When working with farmers, they set into place what they call their five principles of ethical trade: fairness; longevity; opportunity, water, and strictly earth conscious coffee.

Reaching beyond traveling to finding the perfect bean, they have journeyed to some of the most remote farms and villages, where they have fought to better the living conditions of coffee farmers and their farmhands by providing them access to clean drinking water and a life of opportunity.

La Colombe is an example of a responsible corporation with new locations popping up in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City.