Tower District favorite Café Corazon is sensitive to the economic needs of small farming communities throughout the world. Located at 1306 N Wishon, Café Corazon annually imports coffee from twenty to thirty different estates and farms. These farms produce organic, fair trade beans without paying a certification fee to a third-party. Leo Rios, owner of Café Corazon explained, “My brokers pay farmers a fair trade price. We want to entice a higher quality with a higher reward.”

Coffee exceeds wheat, corn and natural gas as the second most traded global commodity. The consequences of coffee’s free trade practices can vary dramatically from region to region. Insufficient wages and inhumane living conditions often await less fortunate workforces. Organizations attempt to circumvent these policies by providing organic and fair trade crops with special certification.

By following organic and fair trade protocols, farmers and corporations can receive organic and fair trade certifications from the USDA and Fair Trade USA. Farmers pay an annual fee that ranges between four hundred and two thousand dollars, depending on the scale of an operation.

These surcharges exclude certain qualifying crops from the premium tiers of the coffee trade. For a struggling Ethiopian or Guatemalan farmer, these certifications are unaffordable. And despite meeting or exceeding the standards set out by the USDA and Fair Trade USA, many farmers are excluded by the unaffordability of a surcharge. Café Corazon deals directly with these struggling farmers.

Costly certifications in poorer regions encourage corporate operations to develop and expand unabated. This practice undermines the historical bean quality obtained by local farmers who have spent generations mastering the harvest of a quality crop.

Café Corazon’s challenges discriminatory policies by working with brokers to extend a helping hand to estates and farming communities. Leo’s importers broker with farmers in countries including Panama, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Rwanda and Papua New Guinea. Brokers travel to farmlands to determine which offer masterfully harvested beans.

Following the harvest, farmers also separate “micro-lot” beans, the highest quality beans of a harvest, for premium sale. Micro-lot beans are available for purchase at Café Corazon. The personal relationship that brokers have with estates and community farms gives Café Corazon ample access to premium beans. Brokers then deliver these fresh, green, coffee beans into Café Corazon to be roasted and sold to consumers.

Beans can be purchased whole or can be professionally ground upon request. “We’re about our product, not a bottom line,” Rios explained. “Any individual bean that you see in your bag of coffee was connected to another person’s hand in another country. And I’m doing my best to respect that by roasting their beans to bring out the most flavor.”

This attitude toward the total spectrum of the coffee trade is reflected by the quality of Café Corazon’s brews. Each brew of coffee is crafted independently from the last. The clever dripper, a melding of a French press and a filter cone, is Café Corazon’s favored brewing technique. They also offer a traditional French press method and an air press method. On occasion, more advanced brewing techniques are available upon request. The respect and care put into each cup demands time and patience.

Despite the inherent flaws in the certification process of quality coffee, Café Corazon commits itself to a higher standard. “I want to give Fresno a reason to be proud of itself,” Rios explained. “Everything is about the product.” Café Corazon is working hard to uplift the livelihoods of struggling farmers throughout the world. By doing so, Rios strives to roast the highest quality beans while brewing the finest cup.