Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. announced that another one of its best-selling coffees, Green Mountain Coffee® Nantucket Blend®, is now 100-percent Fair Trade Certified™. This conversion will represent approximately five million pounds of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee for fiscal year 2013 and will deliver an estimated $1 million in fair trade social premiums to coffee farmers annually.
Purchasing Green Mountain Coffee®Fair Trade Certified™ varieties helps farmers receive a fair price for their beans, resulting in quality coffee and a higher quality of life in coffee-farming communities. Beans for Nantucket Blend® are sourced from carefully-selected Fair Trade Certified™ coffee farms in Central America, South America, Africa, and Indonesia. The Nantucket Blend® conversion is the latest step in the Green Mountain Coffee® brand’s continued support of fair trade.
In 2000, GMCR became one of the first roasters in the U.S. to offer Fair Trade Certified™ coffees, and in 2012, the company was named the world's largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee by Fair Trade USA for the second year in a row.
“Converting our Nantucket Blend now allows us to bring more Green Mountain Coffee fair trade varieties to a larger consumer base than ever before,” said Lindsey Bolger, senior director of coffee for the specialty coffee business unit of GMCR, in a prepared statement. “We’re proud to be able to maintain the taste and quality of one of our most popular coffees while significantly changing the impact its existence will have around the world.”
The conversion of all Nantucket Blend® coffee sold in bags, K-Cup® and Vue® packs to Fair Trade Certified™ was completed in January 2013. The brand’s Brew Over Ice Nantucket Blend® Iced Coffee will be converted by May 2013, making it the first Fair Trade Certified™ Brew Over Ice beverage offered for the Keurig® K-Cup® and Vue® brewing systems.
Green Mountain Coffee® Nantucket Blend® is a complex blend that weaves three exotic and delicious coffee-attributes together – winey, berry tones from East Africa, deep, full-bodied flavor from Indonesia, and zesty and bright flavors from the Americas. With the fair trade conversion, prices will remain the same for consumers, as will the available varieties and formats.
