We at Maddabout Coffee are very aware that every product we purchase or sell has impacted lives beyond our own. We believe that understanding those impacts, and finding solutions begins with asking the right questions. We strive, for example, to understand how the green beans we purchase were processed. 
Was the coffee grower able to grow these beans without pesticides? Were they able to decaffeinate the beans without using chemicals? Are our growers able to use sustainable practices? We ask these questions to ensure that the answer is yes, and to ensure that our buying practices support growing practices that minimize the impact of the coffee industry on the environment.
We also ask these questions to try to understand some of the challenges our growers face, from poverty to watershed issues. Understanding the social impacts of our business will give us the information we need to help our growers overcome, and to flourish in a way that benefits them, the community and the planet which provides us this amazing bean. By ensuring that our love of coffee has positive environmental, social and economic impacts, we begin taking Responsibility for our actions.
We invite you to come on this adventure with us. Please visit the Social and Environmental Impacts section of each coffee we offer to learn about the surprising challenges and triumphs associated with your favorite coffees. And please ask us questions, so you, too, can help shape our answer.
Identifying quality coffee begins with cupping, or tasting, that coffee. Choosing coffee is not unlike picking a fine wine. Unlike wine, coffee is generally poorly labeled, with no information about the region, farm, harvesting practice, or the age of the green bean when roasted. It becomes difficult for the consumer to decide between two coffees that are, for example, both labeled as Sumatra but roasted by different coffee companies. What makes it even more difficult are the many individuals whose actions impact the taste of your coffee: the grower, the processor, the exporter, the importer,the roaster, and finally, the consumer who brews the beverage. 
The result is that coffee from the same farm, harvested at the same time, may taste significantly different depending on the roast, the grind, and the brewing method. Our job as roaster is to give the consumer more information and make sure we coax the nuanced and complex flavors from the bean so that you, the consumer, can taste the quality.
While you enjoy our coffee, you should try to determine whether you enjoy the flavor, the aroma, the acidity and the body of the coffee. Flavor and aroma are inextricably linked – our senses of taste and smell are inseparable. Our coffee will taste rich, complex, and balanced, and the aroma should lend the nuances of bright, sweet, earthy, fruity, nutty or spicy. Acidity is a desirable trait of our coffee – the term does not refer to sourness, or a negative flavor; rather it refers to the sensation of dryness, sharpness and brightness under your tongue and on the back of your palate. Last, but not least, body is the richness and thickness of the coffee in the mouth.
Latin-American coffee should taste bright and clean. These coffees are generally grown in high altitudes: in the mountains of Central and South America, as well as Caribbean highlands and the high plateaus of Brazil. However, this regional label includes a wide range of variation in cup and character. The highest grown coffees tend to be full-bodied and boldly and intensely acidic. Caribbean coffees, on the other hand, are at their best when big-bodied and roundly balanced with rich, low-key acidity. Nicaraguas should be meaty and full-bodied. 
Lower altitude coffees should be soft and round in profile. And while altitude plays its part, that clean, crisp, classic taste of Latin-American is also partly derived from wet-processing. Brazilian coffees are processed in various ways, which impacts the flavor of your cup - dry-processing produces low-toned, spicy complexity and richness; semi-dry or pulped natural processing promotes a softly complex, delicately fruity cup; and classic wet-processing produces a cleanly understated, pleasingly low-acid cup.
Africa is another source of wonderfully distinctive coffees. These striking coffees have a range of floral and fruit notes, from the floral and citrus of Ethiopia wet-processed coffees to the intensely acidy and berry-toned Kenyas to the soft and voluptuously fruity Zambias. Two of the world’s oldest and most traditional sources are included in this family of coffees –the coffees of Yemen and Harrar. These coffees tend to be processed traditionally - picked and dried on rooftops. Both varietals display a wild, complex, slightly fermented fruitiness that leaves no doubt in the coffee lover’s mind as to how the world was seduced by the flavor of coffee in the 17th century.
The best-known Pacific origin coffees are grown in the Malay Archipelago, which islands comprise Indonesia, Timor and Papua New Guinea. These coffees include the both the complex fruity, earthy and musty flavors of the traditionally processed coffees of Sumatra, Sulawesi and Timor, and the bright and floral, wet-processed coffees of Sumatra, Java, and Papua New Guinea.
Indian coffees tend to be sweet, floral and low-acidity. The finest robusta coffees are also grown in India, including the wet-processed Parchment and Kaapi Royale robustas, and the unique Monsooned Malabar, a dry-processed coffee exposed to moisture-laden monsoon winds for several weeks, thereby muting acidity, deepening body, and adding a malty mustiness.
