The Weight of Coffee

Coffee is heavy.  On average, a burlap sack of green coffee is about 145 lbs of unstructured, “dead” weight.  If one is not mindful of this weight when attempting to move it, serious injury can and often does occur. This is especially true when men and women, often women, in coffee producing countries carry such weight up and down uneven mountainous terrain in brutal heat and humidity.  However, when one considers the weight and handles it properly, that person(s) has the option to forgo that expensive gym membership as moving and roasting coffee is often a tremendous workout! 

Along with the physical demands that the weight of coffee puts on your body, there is a great responsibility we take on as coffee professionals that carries its own weight that no scale can accurately measure.  The weightiness that comes with handling an agricultural product that is three years in the making, that passes through dozens of hands over thousands of miles, can at times be overwhelming.  When you consider that the average coffee plant produces roughly 2-5 lbs of coffee per harvest cycle, assuming the plant has not been taken over by pests, scorched by the blazing tropical sun, or fails to produce due to lack of rain, every detail matters.  Any misstep in processing, storing, moving or roasting can quickly make all of that time and effort null and void.  Given all that coffee goes through on its journey from the plant to your cup, it is a miracle that we have so much coffee to fuel our daily routines.

At Northshore, we aim to remain mindful of these realities as a way of honoring all of those who make each cup possible. From strategic partnerships with producers and importers, to training our baristas on how to deliver a delicious finished product, this weight is not carried by one but by many.  While we take the time to travel to the source to ensure that your coffee is treated with care from the very beginning, producers and importers bear the bulk of this weight to meet an ever increasing demand for quality coffee across the globe. We seek to highlight their efforts in all that we do, and humbly accept the weight of our role in the supply chain.  We carefully lift, move and store each coffee in a way that maximizes freshness, and ensures our bodies stay intact in the process.  We roast, then taste, then roast again to ensure that we are highlighting the quality and flavor inherited from the terroir of each crop.  With every sip we take, an assessment is made on whether or not we have achieved what we set out to do.  

In many ways, the weight of coffee is unavoidable.  At Northshore, we count it all joy to add Lagniappe so that your cup stays full and your conversations flowing.

Robert Akin
VP of Production & Roasting