The best sustainable coffee to sip in 2023
Looking for a planet-friendly pick-me-up? It used to be that if you wanted an ethical cup of coffee you had a choice between Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance. Not any more. Welcome to the new breed of coffee brands that are not just eco-conscious but also hyper-focused on flavour. We’ve reviewed some of the top players in the ethical and sustainable coffee space and this is what we found.
Fancy a cup of coffee first thing in the morning? You’re not alone. Nearly two-thirds of us in the UK wake up and grab a coffee before we face the day.
If you’re keen to make sure your morning coffee ritual benefits not just you but also the world around you, then read on. We deep-dived into five coffee companies that boast about their sustainable and ethical credentials to check out not just how these stacked up - but also, and just as importantly, how they scored on the Green Salon taste test.
Here’s what we found:
Kiss the Hippo ❀
Use code GREENSALON10 for 10% off all Kiss the Hippo coffee (excluding subscriptions).
How does it taste?
We sampled Kiss the Hippo’s Organic Classic Blend and were thoroughly impressed. The bold roast had subtle nutty and chocolate notes without being too sweet. If you prefer your coffee milky, it pairs perfectly with frothed oat milk. For a speciality coffee, we taste tested their Colombia Los Vascos variety and loved the aromas of sweet caramel and honey.
Kiss the Hippo’s cafes are fast becoming a London treasure for the quality of their baristas, but luckily for us you can also buy Nespresso compatible pods and ground coffee on line. At 250g bags ranging between £10 to £14 and 20 pods for £11, Kiss the Hippo is amongst the pricier options we tested but you’re paying for top quality roasts.
Sustainability score:
Kiss the Hippo scored highly on the Green Salon sustainability criteria. The UK’s first carbon negative coffee company, they claim to absorb more CO2 through reforestation in Africa and Latin America than they create. Their roastery uses a smoke-free Loring roaster, one of the most environmentally friendly machines on the market, burning approximately 80% less fuel by recirculating heat. And we’re impressed by the fact they’re the first roasters to fund the Kew Gardens coffee research program - giving 2p for every kilo of coffee they buy.
Their farms are organically certified and we love that Kiss the Hippo builds real relationships with its coffee farmers, visiting them every year and paying at least 50% above the Fair Trade standard price. They’ve also reduced carbon emissions by 80%
Ultimately, Kiss the Hippo is a company that has sustainability at its forefront - it is after all the coffee of choice in the Green Salon office! If you’re looking to make a climate-conscious switch in your morning routine then this company is definitely one to consider.
Roar Gill
Taste Test
We tried a few of Roar Gill’s blends at Green Salon, the top contender being their Bold Blend. It’s one of the smoothest coffee we’ve tried: creamy tasting with no smack of bitterness. The Swiss Water blend decaffeinated option is much softer than its caffeine counterpart but still has the same creaminess that we love.
Roar Gill sells ground coffee, whole beans and pods, which are Nespresso compatible at a reasonable price point with a 10 pack of pods starting at £3.75 and a 250g bag ranging from £5.50-£6.50. They also offer starter packs, allowing first-time Roar Gill buyers to sample their different blends before deciding on a favourite.
Sustainability score:
Roar Gill offers another great sustainable option for coffee-lovers. Their coffee pods are made from biobased cellulose and vegetal oils and, they claim, are the fastest certified home compostable on the market, taking approximately 26 weeks to fully break down.
Although they’re not carbon negative (yet), their roasting process and pod production is carbon neutral. Roar Gill has also teamed up with One Tree Planted and plant trees with every purchase that offsets the emissions equivalent of travelling from London to Venice by car.
Grind
How does it taste?
Grind coffee is the company that most people think of when they think eco-coffee. Of course, we had to sample its popular House Blend, the original blend used at the Grind coffee shops. It comes in three tints: darker, lighter and decaffeinated. As coffee-lovers at Green Salon, we particularly enjoyed the Dark Blend. The taste was deep and dark with notes of chocolate and hazelnut - certainly worth getting out of bed for.
Like the other coffee brands we tried, Grind has a monthly subscription service. If you’re a first-time buyer, you can receive a starter kit of 30 compostable Nespresso pods with a free aluminium pink Grind tin, perfect for your kitchen counter, for £9.95 (subsequent orders £13.50).
Sustainability Score:
Grind may be synonymous with sustainable coffee, but they did not score the highest on our criteria. While their Nespresso-compatible pods are made of biodegradable materials and completely home compostable, there’s not much information on their website about how they are tracking and reducing their carbon emissions. Their coffee is sourced from sustainable farms, in particular from smallholders across the world, but there’s no indication of where and how their beans are produced.
We’d say Grind are making a start in the world of sustainable coffee, but we’d like to see more transparency on their website.
How good is the coffee?
Bird & Wild offer multiple blends to satisfy all taste buds. The Espresso Blend (£6.59 for 200g) is their darkest roast option with notes of cocoa and fruit and their Seasonal Blend (£6.59 for 200g) is a medium roast which is sweeter, with fewer bitter notes, and got a higher approval ratings at Green Salon. We also rated their Swiss Water decaffeinated option (£8.25 for 200g) as a good decaff option.
Sustainability Score:
Bird & Wild is a true purpose-led company. Their mission is to produce quality organically-certified fairtrade coffee whilst protecting migrating birds. We love that their coffee is shade-grown and seasonally produced which is pivotal to maintaining healthy tree canopies for native birds as well as migratory birds. With every bag of coffee bought from Bird & Wild, a donation is made to the RSPB, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Centre and the Fairtrade Foundation.
Although they have no information online on their carbon emissions, Bird & Wild’s focus on bird wellbeing makes it stand out from the other options we’ve tried at Green Salon. If a bird-friendly and organic coffee is what you’re after, then look no further than Bird & Wild.
Grumpy Mule
Taste test
We like the name Grumpy Mule as it describes some of the Green Salon team before they have their coffee in the morning. We taste-tested their Sumatra Gayo Highlands blend and found it rich and full-bodied with a strength 4/5. This blend is definitely one for someone who is looking for an intense coffee flavour. Grumpy Mule sells whole and ground beans, ranging from £5.30 to £6.50 for a 227g bag.
Sustainability Score:
Based in Yorkshire, Grumpy Mule is coffee company that prides itself on being ethically sourced, and sustainable. They’ve invested in a Honduran coffee group with a solar-powered drying facility which regulates the coffee drying conditions and uses significantly less energy. Grumpy Mule also purchases carbon credits, which are used to plant native trees for their cooperative, and offset some of their emissions.
Grumpy Mule is doing some great work in Latin America. 20p of every Guatemala Pocola pack is donated to support communities in Guatemala to ensure all children there have access to quality education. For every bag of Peru Femenino coffee sold, Grumpy Mule pays a premium that supports women in Peru, including offering them leadership positions and being paid directly for the coffee they grow.
We’d love to see all these coffee brands publish more detailed information on their sustainability missions, policies and goals so that consumers can make an informed choice not just on how good the coffee is - but on how much good it is doing.
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We analyse each brand for their commitment to sustainability but we are not a certification body, nor are we auditors, and we have taken the approach that we trust brands to tell the truth about their sustainability policies, practices and plans.
Affiliate disclaimer: ❀ indicates affiliate links with brands to help fund the Directory so that we can research further sustainable brands. This does not affect the price you pay.