Do you like the sound of that?

Then TEIKEI COFFEE is the right choice for you!​

 We are about creating really good coffee from the soil in which the plant is rooting to the cup in your hands.

To do this, we are building a community of coffee drinkers who want to enjoy and enable delicious and sustainable coffee. Organised individually or in communities, our members buy a coffee subscription and thus give the farmers the security of knowing that their harvest will be paid for and consumed. In return, drinkers enjoy a Mexican bean grown with care and roasted to perfection. In this way, proximity is created and truly fair prices are paid. Starting with the farmers, continuing with the consistently ecological transport by sailing ship, to our roasters in Europe. We are a growing community. In the summer of 2020, 30 tonnes of green coffee have been sailed across the Atlantic Ocean for the Teikei Coffee Community.

It is about healthy agriculture and soils, about good and trusting cooperation and about a sustainable economy that sails past the world market with a fresh wind to connect people instead of dividing them. We are still a long way from arriving, but we are working every day to get closer to our goals, step by step.

It starts in the roots. The coffee crops planted, tended and harvested by the farmers of the Teikei Coffee community are rooted in Oaxaca, Mexico. To this day, the history of coffee is also a history of exploitation. We want to change that. The question “What do you need so that you and also your children are interested in carrying on farming?” is therefore at the centre of Teikei Coffee’s orientation and is directed at the producers in the Mexican highlands. The cultivation community in the Sierra Mixteca valley is organised by Marco Antonio, Susana and Gil. These three are agronomists, merchants and coffee producers and are dedicated to organising the community of coffee farmers in the region. “These three revolutionaries and rural fighters, together with other producers, have paved the way for a better coffee growing region in Mexico.” This is how David from the Teikei Mexico team describes the three people. The expressed goal of this community-driven economy and the partnership between Teikei Coffee and this farming community is to achieve food sovereignty for the Sierra Mixteca valley and the people living there; in other words, to create long-term perspectives for the local people through socially and ecologically sustainable management of the land and nature.

Currently, the Teikei Coffee NGO is being formed, which will be a non-profit organisation on the spot in Mexico, providing responsible support to the cultivation community. Esteban, Ana and David are shaping this platform where the values of the community-based economy can be lived and learned. David, as a biologist, brings his insights and knowledge of the soils and the coffee plant here. He provides clarity on the next steps in management through his scientific view of the interrelationships of natural and social systems. Ana, also a biologist, accompanies the farmers and is also responsible for processing, logistics and export. Esteban is an expert in biodynamic agriculture and advises the farmers on permaculture and agroforestry practices. Both groups work closely together. Thus, the coffee plants on the farms grow in diverse ecosystems. The annual harvest from the fincas is carefully picked by the farmers and, depending on the possibility, washed and packed directly on site or stored and processed together in small associations. Four tonnes came from 10 small farmers from the Sierra Mixteca valley in 2020. Until we can connect individual farms directly with consumption communities in Europe, we will distribute coffee beans from the PSO and Triunpho Verde cooperatives in addition to coffee from the farms in the Sierra Mixteca Valley. In the distribution period July 2020 to July 2021 (harvest 2019/2020), three tonnes of organic green coffee will come from the Triunpho Verde cooperative and 22 tonnes of green coffee will come from the PSO cooperative.

Once a year, the coffee harvest of the farms is transported across the Atlantic to Europe on the Avontuur, a sailing ship of the Timbercoast shipping company. The sailing ship is the link between the producers in Mexico and the consumers in Europe. Six seamen (and seawomen) along with 10 shipmates work on the sailing ship, some of the latter are making their first sailing experiences on the Avontuur. They transport the green coffee beans to Hamburg in about 12 weeks, where the coffee sacks are unloaded with pulleys and many volunteers. For this, the European community is invited every year to become an active part of the value chain. Together with the Timbercoast shipping company, we represent Mission Zero. The aim of this mission is to transport consumer goods in an environmentally friendly way over land and water in order to reduce emissions along the entire value chain. By transporting goods by sailing ship, pollution of the oceans by heavy oil and noise is avoided. In addition to transporting goods for partner organisations, the company is financed by enabling adventurous people to sail on board and by investors and shareholders who want to support the project.

For Germany we are roasting in Seevetal near Hamburg in the Docklands Coffee Roastery. For Switzerland, trained members of the Teikei Coffee team roast at the Adrianos roastery in Bern as well as at the Hochstrasser roastery in Lucerne.

What else makes the roasting so special? Teikei coffee is available in two different roasting profiles. As a filter coffee or espresso roast, the coffee is convincing for various types of preparation…more

A harvest share of coffee is calculated in 1 kg sizes and can be variable. In order to use as few resources as possible and to keep packaging waste low, we have developed a deposit system with 10 kg buckets. Here we also work together with zero-waste shops. In our online-shop, the coffee can also be purchased individually in a 250 g or 1 kg packaging. More under YOUR COFFEE.

Coffee-lovers come together in a community and thus make the entire production and transport chain possible. As consumption communities, they order and enjoy together. Or they become member individually and receive shipments to the doorstep. The risks of purchasing and harvesting are not borne by the coffee farmers alone, but are shared by the whole community. Anyone can become part of the Teikei Coffee community: Individuals or existing consumption communities, such as solidarity farms and food cooperatives. To ensure transparency in the value chain, the distribution of coffee beans must be as direct as possible.

For this reason, it is only selectively possible to buy coffee in retail outlets. The aim is for all consumers to pre-finance their coffee and thus become part of this way of doing business. We support each other and share the risks of the coffee economy among many. You enter your own annual demand for coffee in the harvest share form and pay for it directly in full. This ensures early financing of cultivation and transport. Over the course of the coming year, freshly roasted coffee is then delivered directly to one’s home or to a local community of consumers. Through the organisation in consumption communities, a decentralised network of members develops, which on the one hand shortens transport routes and on the other hand creates resilient economic paths through the community.

The focus of Teikei Coffee’s work on the European side is the founding of a cooperative for the distribution of coffee in Germany and the establishment of Teikei Coffee’s own roastery. In Switzerland, the Teikei Coffee association is growing and prospering and gaining more and more members. Teikei Coffee is approaching a healthy size of 50 tonnes of coffee per year to fully finance the coffee value chain in a sustainable way.

The calculation results in a cumulative total price of €35 per kilogram of coffee. Since the labour for a kilogram of coffee distributed through a community of consumption takes a much smaller share than for a kilogram of coffee purchased through the online-shop, there are different prices for the different forms of consumption.

An individual member must purchase at least 1kg per delivery (less in the online shop). All communities must purchase at least 5 kilograms of coffee, then a uniform price of €34 per kilogram applies and postage is waived. For individual subscriptions and trial shop orders, postage is €4.50. In unpacked processing for outward and return shipment, it is €10; it is waived in the case of prefinancing.