From Crop to Cup: Why Our Coffee Costs More — and Why It Should

Not All Roasters Are the Same, and That Matters

Most people think of coffee as a morning routine. A jolt. A comfort. A habit.
But for us, it’s a responsibility. A relationship. And a rebellion against the status quo.

Let’s start with the beans.

The kind of coffee you find in most grocery stores, or at big chains like Dunkin’ and Starbucks, isn’t just cheap because they’re saving you money. It’s cheap because it was meant to be. These are commercial-grade beans: older, lower-quality, often stored for years, and roasted until all the flavor, and frankly, the integrity, is burned right out of them. They’re consistent, yes. But consistently bland, consistently stale, and sometimes even riddled with mold and toxins.

We don’t roast coffee like that. We never have.

At Monsoon, we only work with specialty-grade coffee, the top 3% of beans in the world. These aren’t beans sitting in warehouses waiting for a price drop. They’re fresh crops, harvested this season, grown with care, and picked at their peak. They’re alive with flavor, delicate, layered, expressive, and we roast them with just enough heat to let their true character shine.

But here’s the part no one talks about: it’s not just about flavor.

Coffee is one of the most exploited industries in the world. Behind the curtain of mass-market coffee lies a brutal truth, unfair wages, dangerous working conditions, even modern-day slavery in some regions. It’s not just about cheap coffee. It’s about lives treated as disposable in service of profit.

We knew we couldn’t be a part of that. So we chose a different path.

We practice direct trade, not fair trade. And that distinction matters.

Fair trade is a certification, a step in the right direction, but not a perfect one. It sets a minimum price floor and provides some protections, but it still works within a system that prioritizes volume and scale over nuance and connection.

Direct trade is something else entirely.

It means we work directly with smallholder farms and producers. We build relationships. We pay above-market rates, not because we have to, but because we believe in the people behind the beans. We choose partners who uphold labor laws, invest in their communities, and grow coffee in ways that honor both the earth and the hands that harvest it.

Is our coffee more expensive? Yes. And we’re proud of that.

It’s expensive because it’s clean. Because it’s seasonal. Because it's mold-free, toxin-free, and traceable down to the plot of land it was grown on. It’s expensive because everyone in the supply chain was treated with respect, and because we roast it fresh, every single week, in small batches with real attention.

When you drink Monsoon, you’re not just tasting great coffee.
You’re tasting a system built on respect, transparency, and actual human decency.

So go ahead. Ask more of your coffee. Ask where it came from. Who grew it. Who roasted it. Why it costs what it does.

Because coffee shouldn’t come with a hidden cost.
And once you’ve had the real thing, fresh, ethical, alive… there’s no going back.