My cup of tea.

I must confess, tea is not my cup of tea, coffee is. But I am not here to promote tea(s) over coffee or vise versa. I am here to point out some of the environmental factors that might be affected when drinking coffee.

The first factor, is the where does your coffee from question? There are many places that have really good coffee, including south America, Africa and Arabia. It makes a lot sense to chose a coffee that is grown closer to your country. Yes this does produce a small decrease in international trade but it does reduce transportation costs and the fuel consumed in the transportation process.

Another factor is the roasting process. I love both dark roast and medium roast coffees. However, it is a proven fact that at least in the US most coffee is medium roasted. In any case, a darker roast does consume more energy, so if you can try to purchase a medium roast.

A third area where one can help the environment is terms of what you add to your coffee. This can be one of those "two birds and one stone" situations that I so love to document in my other blog. By adding less sugar, not only are you helping the environment, but also decreasing your chances of diabetes and other diseases related to sugar consumption. Also, if you can take your coffee black, all the better as milk/cream production has a somewhat high global warming potential.

Finally, and this has to do with time, if you have the time, sit at the cafe and drink the coffee in a mug, glass, or a none plastic cup. Every single day, 100s of millions of cups are thrown in the trash after usage and only a small percentage is recycled.