THE COMPOST POST

At a cafe I worked at a while back, we had a beautiful regular named Pat who, in exchange for our used coffee grounds, would bake us banana bread. She would thank us profusely for our generosity which we graciously accepted. Along with the banana bread.

Pat loved her garden and would use the spent coffee grounds in her compost, and also spread it around her banana trees. Come spring, they were so hyped up on caffeine, bananas would bust out everywhere, out of control, so what else was she to do but bake banana bread from the abundance? It was our duty to unburden her of the load.

Our Pat, and many other a gardener can avow that coffee and compost have a symbiotic relationship, and it’s a wonderful thing that some of our retail coffee bags are part of the cycle. It feels really good to give back to the earth that gives us such tasty coffee!

But before you go throwing your empty bags into the neighbours garden and asking for baked goods in return, there are a couple of things to note. The first is we’ve discovered a snag in the system (read more about it here), which has meant the complete roll out of these wonderbags has taken a setback – but the goal of a more sustainable practice is still burning strong in our hearts! Good news is the single origin bags are still compostable, and here’s how it’s done:

1. Consume contents of the coffee bag (unless you’re gifting it. Allow them to consume contents, and inform them of the following steps).

2. Put the empty bag in your bag.

3. On your next visit to Black Market Roaster to buy more coffee, hand over your empty bag for us to send to the big composting centre of dreams.

We look forward to a sustainable utopia, when all of our packaging can be composted even more simply and effectively. Until then, give yourself a high five because you my friend, are a giver. The earth thanks you, your wilting fiddle leaf fig thanks you, Pat thanks you. May she find you and lavish upon you a plentiful harvest of banana bread.