One of the most frequently asked questions we receive about organic coffee is “Does organic coffee contain pesticides?” To which our answer is an emphatic “No”. Although some countries use pesticides on their coffee crops, any residue reaching our cups is considered extremely low and well below health organization safe limits. Furthermore, most pesticides found come from food unrelated to coffee; when roasting beans to high temperatures most pesticide residue is burned off during roasting which further lowers residue levels in coffee beverages.

However, for various reasons we do not advise drinking conventionally-grown coffee (even if not organic). There are better ways to ensure you are avoiding chemicals that could affect your health such as purchasing fair trade or direct trade certified beans from roasters with transparency about where their coffee originates from.

Organic coffee farmers typically adhere to fair trade practices, as the higher prices they can fetch can help offset any additional expenses related to going organic. Not only will you receive higher-quality coffee beans from these farms but you’ll also be supporting their workers as part of your purchase decision.

Buy organic to protect the environment and social benefits. Not only can organic farming protect soil quality for food security, it also supports biodiversity through shade-grown methods that preserve habitats for wild plants and animals as well as local water sources without using harmful pesticides.

As you might guess, there are plenty of great reasons to opt for organic when selecting coffee for daily consumption. For more details, check out this article from CNN Money that lists food that are worth investing in when compared with non-organic options.

Once coffee beans have been removed from the berry and roasted, no harmful residues remain. This is because such high heat exposure allows most chemicals that were applied to them to be broken down, leaving any remaining residue well below any safety levels set by health organizations.

We created this article to disprove the false claim that non-organic coffee contains more pesticides than would be found in all of their food in one year. Additionally, we compared prices between organically and conventionally grown coffee which you can read here and hope this helps clear up any confusion on whether organic is worth spending more for. If this still doesn’t convince you, please try one of our 100% organic options; they’re delicious. And don’t forget, all our coffee is ethically sourced and direct trade certified as well!