Thirty-one years, one owner, every price public.
Counter Culture started roasting in Durham, North Carolina in 1995 with one idea: that coffee could be better if the people growing it were paid properly and the people serving it were trained properly. The training centers came first, long before it was fashionable, and there are twelve of them now.
In 2009 we published our first transparency report, listing what we paid for every coffee. We have done it every year since. It is the document we are proudest of.
We are still independently owned, still a B Corporation, and still roast in Durham, with a second roastery in Emeryville, California so the west coast gets coffee as fresh as the east.
- 1995
- First roast, Durham NC
- 12
- Training centers
- 2009
- First transparency report
- 100+
- Coffees offered each year
- 16
- Sustainability projects funded yearly
- 48 hours
- Roast to ship
Seed to cup, in public.
Since 2009 we have published what we pay for every coffee, farm by farm. It is the only way a claim about sustainability means anything.
Transparency report
Every price paid, every farm, every year, in a report anyone can download. Twelve years and counting.
Long-term partners
Most of our single-origin lots come from farms and cooperatives we have bought from for over a decade.
Sustainability projects
Sixteen funded projects a year at origin, from wet-mill upgrades to school fees, chosen by the producers.
B Corp, independently owned
No outside investors. Decisions are made by the people who roast and buy the coffee.