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- When they're not making albums and selling out shows, the members of Green Day are just like millions of other people: they love drinking coffee.
- However, they didn't love how much waste the habit produces, so they created Oakland Coffee, an organic, fair trade coffee that comes in BPI-certified compostable packaging.
- The coffee in the whole bean blends ($12.99) and single-serve cups ($10.50) is sourced from small, sustainable farms in Central and South America and tastes great.
- You won't have to compromise taste or your values (or even your musical allegiances) when you buy and drink Oakland Coffee.
As the members of best-selling punk rock band Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool have spent their lives sharing their passion for music.
What casual fans might not know is that these music legends are also passionate about coffee and sustainability. Their love of coffee also came along with with their frustration over the waste associated with drinking it — which led them to found their own company, Oakland Coffee. The company offers organic, fair trade coffee in BPI-certified compostable pods and packaging.
It's the only US-made compostable packaging that has been certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), which means you no longer have to feel guilty about using single-serve cups or throwing away coffee bags: you can dispose of the packaging right in your curbside green bin, alongside other food and green scraps.
The founders also care about where the coffee comes from and how it's grown. Oakland Coffee sources and roasts its USDA-organic, single-origin coffee from small farms and co-ops in Central and South America, where beans are grown using practices that are both environmentally sustainable and conscious of the needs and practices of farming communities.
To further support the communities where their coffee is grown, the founders created a charitable organization, Fueled By Love. Through Fueled By Love, Oakland Coffee visits and works with its coffee producers to improve local problems like lack of accessible medical care, lack of educational resources for children, and under-serviced water infrastructure.
The design of the business thus benefits every stakeholder in the process: the farmers, the environment, and you, the coffee drinker. By buying Oakland Coffee, you can drink your favorite beverage, while supporting the people who produce it and being more eco-friendly.
You can find Oakland Coffee's whole bean blends or single-serve cups on Amazon. The whole beans come in four blends:
- Atomic Garden: A medium-dark roast with a smooth, full flavor; sourced from Honduras and Colombia.
- Cerro De Oro: A medium-dark roast with a balanced, nutty flavor; sourced from the Atitlan region of Guatemala, near the mountain that inspired the roast's name.
- Guapa Chiapas: A medium roast with deep, rounded flavor; sourced from Chiapas, Mexico.
- Straight Edge Decaf Blend: A medium-dark roast with a robust, velvety flavor; sourced from Honduras and Nicaragua.
The single-serve cups, compatible with Keurig and Keurig-style brewers, are available in three blends, Cerro De Oro, Straight Edge Decaf, and Fourth Wave, a medium-dark roast with a rich, smooth flavor, sourced from Peru and Honduras. If you find it difficult to reconcile the convenience of K-cups with their detrimental environmental impact, Oakland Coffee's compostable single-serve cups may be the solution to let you enjoy them with less guilt.
The coffee itself is delicious, rich, and strong, solidifying Oakland Coffee's place as a truly well-rounded coffee brand. It's sustained by the founders' clear love for coffee, a loyal following of the founders themselves, and a mission that sees past the coffee mug to its larger social and environmental implications.