Coffee grounds have chemical elements that are great for gardens and soil but, paradoxically, not so great in the landfill. If you’re tossing those grounds in the trash, try out these three simple methods instead. 

No matter what brew method you’re using for coffee, you’ll have wet coffee grounds to contend with when you’re done. According to experts, we discard six million tons of used grounds worldwide each year (1). 

And while it may be surprising, coffee grounds can cause problems when they go into a landfill.

In most homes—large and small—there’s a way to compost your coffee grounds, either directly into your soil, through your city’s composting system, or with a small at-home system. 

Why grounds shouldn’t go into the landfill

Here’s the thing—even though coffee breaks down, that doesn’t mean it’s safe to go into your trash can. In the landfill, the wet grounds emit methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. And since air doesn’t really flow through the landfill and there are literally tons of grounds, this can cause a real problem.

Yes, coffee grounds emit methane in compost too (compost itself does), but the key difference is that compost gets mixed with air and other organic material, which decreases the methane and increases the carbon dioxide.

In less sciency terms—airflow = good for decomposing organic waste like wet grounds = good for the earth. 

What is composting? The short answer.

To way oversimplify—natural things die, break down, and eventually turn to soil or dust. It happens to leaves and sea shells and bugs and basically all plants and animals. When organic material decomposes and turns into something that looks like soil, it’s called compost and it’s full of nutrients that are great for your soil and garden.

It’s a natural way that the earth renews itself, using dead organisms to fertilize and grow new ones. And it’s a process you can help along at home by using a composting system.

Three simple ways to compost at home

If you don’t currently compost, you may have images of a large barrel filled with rotting food and dirt, sitting around smelling like...poop. And yeah - that’s one way to do it. But that’s not realistic for most people.

Here are three much simpler ways to compost coffee grounds at home—and other food scraps while you’re at it.

Put wet grounds directly in the soil. 

This method is all about small amounts. Remember that airflow = good, allowing the grounds to decompose and mix with your soil, adding nitrogen. So try sprinkling wet grounds on garden soil or in your container plants to enrich the soil.

You may have read that coffee is acidic—and fresh, unused grounds are both acidic and still contain caffeine. Some plants love the extra acid, but others not so much. Used grounds are more neutral and without the caffeine, so it works for a large variety of soils and plants.

This article by The Spruce also explains how to make a fertilizing “tea” with used grounds.  

Ask your city

In many cities worldwide, you can now deliver your food scraps and yard waste right to the curb alongside the recycling and trash bins. In the U.S., citywide composting services have more than doubled in the last decade.

If you live in a city that does not offer curbside composting, ask for it! You may be surprised to learn that your city does offer composting in specific locations if you’re willing to drive your bin a few miles every couple of weeks. 

Use a home composter

If you don’t have a city option or you would prefer to compost yourself, there are plenty of options for composting at home. You can find at-home systems for any budget and any space.

Need an inexpensive composter for a small apartment? You have options. Want a large, outdoor variety that you can also put your lawn cuttings in? You have options. 

Check out these picks from The Spruce and Wirecutter to get you started.

What to do with the compost

If you’re motivated to start composting but don’t have a yard, garden or enough plants to use it on, check with local plant shops, gardeners and farms. They may have a need. 

Or check in with your neighbors to see if you can share the bounty. There’s probably a patch of earth near you that could use the extra love.

From strong cold brew concentrate to smooth, flavored and ready to drink, we’ve compiled all the best tips for the perfect brew for you.

You don’t need a coffee maker or much in the way of special equipment to end up with several servings of a smooth brew that’s less acidic than hot brewed coffee. 

There’s no one “right” way to brew cold brew coffee—no recipe to rule them all. But there are some standard methods you can riff on to find the right brew to suit your personal tastes and preferences.

In the simplest terms, cold brewing coffee means steeping coffee grounds in cold or room temperature water for 12-24 hours. You don’t need a coffee maker or much in the way of special equipment to end up with several servings of a smooth brew that’s less acidic than hot brewed coffee.

Best of all, it’s already ready in the morning. Just stumble to the fridge, pull out your premade brew, pour and enjoy!

Let’s start with the standard stuff.

What kind of coffee beans should I use for cold brew?

The short answer: This one’s easy—use your favorite medium or dark roast. 

More details

You can use your favorite coffee bean for cold brew. It’s the size of the grind that matters more. (You’ll need coarse ground coffee. More on that below.)

Cold brewing brings out different flavor profiles from your bean. So you may find that you want a different roast for cold brew than you do for hot brewed coffee. Since lighter roasts tend to play up the acid qualities, cold brewing will mute that profile. You might love it, but most prefer darker roasts.

With a medium of dark roast, the cold brewing process will bring out the nutty and chocolatey flavors, resulting in a rich and smooth flavor. 

Feel free to  experiment, but we recommend a medium or dark roast coffee

Do I have to use coarsely ground coffee?

The short answer: Yes, you really should.

More details

To get the right grind, you’ll probably need to purchase whole beans and grind them yourself at home. No grinder? Many stores have one available to use on site, or you can purchase you beans at a coffee shop and ask the barista to grind for gold brew. 

Why is course ground best? You want the water to easily penetrate the grounds and fully steep the grounds. The finer the grind, the more likely you’ll get dry clumps. Finer ground coffee may also “over extract” meaning the water has pulled out too much of the bean’s flavors, leading to a bitter brew. 

If pre-ground coffee is all you can get your hands on, you can still make cold brew. Just experiment with small batches until you get a flavor that works for you. 

What is the best ratio of coffee grounds to water?

The short answer: If you want a concentrate, use a 1:4 ratio, or lower. For drinkable straight from the jar, use 1:8.

More details

When we make cold brew, we use 3 ounces by weight (1 cup dry) for a 32 ounce container of cold brew. That’s about 24 ounces of water and a 1:8 ratio. This will leave you with a smooth, drinkable brew. 

If you prefer to make a concentrate, increase the amount of ground coffee you use to make the brew stronger. So, 6 ounces of coffee for that same 24 ounces of water will get you a double strong batch at a 1:4 ratio. 

A concentrate is just that, twice as strong and twice as caffeinated. So, you’ll definitely want to dilute your finished product with water, cream or milk. 

How do I brew the grounds?

The short answer: Place the grounds in a cotton filter, pour enough water just to wet, let it sit for a minute, then pour the rest of the water slowly over the grounds. Close the filter bag and steep.

More details

If you don’t already have a cold brew kit, of course we recommend it. It’s the easiest and least messy way to make cold brew coffee. Because the filters are made from organic cotton, you’ll also note the difference in the taste. 

After you add your grounds to the filter, pour just enough water over the grounds to wet them completely. Then let it sit for 30 seconds to a minute. This is called letting the coffee “bloom.” It allows the water to fully penetrate the grounds so you won’t have dry pockets of coffee that don’t get steeped. 

You can also put grounds directly in a jar and pour water over it. Then you can filter the brew through a cotton filter at the end of the brewing cycle. And if you have a larger french press, you can use that too. 

Brew perfect cold brew coffee with your CoffeeSock cold brew kit.

How long do I brew the grounds?

The short answer: 10-12 hours for a 32 ounce container. Scale up to 24 hours for a larger batch. 

More details

The longer your brew steeps, the more it will extract. That’s great up until it isn’t. Just like when you use a too-fine grind, over extracted coffee tastes bitter. 

On a warm, sunny day, you can also brew outdoors or in a sunny window. The warmer the temperature, the lower the brew time. Of course, this will also change up your flavor profile, since it’s not technically cold brew if you're brewing in the warm sun. 

Here’s our general recommendations, though you can test your batches for shorter or longer to find your sweet spot. 

Brew your cold brew coffee according to your tastes using this general guide.

When should I add flavorings to the brew? 

The short answer: You can add fresh, whole spices while brewing (think cinnamon stick). For syrups or flavored sugars, add at the end. 

More details

Here’s where things get fun. You can play it straight and drink your coffee cold and without added flavors. Or, you can add your favorite flavors to the brew for a tailored and tasty experience. We love to add a cinnamon stick or two to the jar, then add the coffeesock and grounds. This imparts a subtle cinnamony flavor that really complements the chocolate notes of the coffee. 

We also like flavored sugars, though we add those when the brew is finished. Make sure to add some warm water to the sugar to melt the crystals first, the mix or shake to combine with your brew. 

Experiment with vanilla bean, anise, or your favorite whole spices. Or add spiced sugars or simple syrup at the end. 

How long will cold brewed coffee stay fresh?

The short answer: About a week in the fridge. 

More details

We’ve never had a batch of cold brew go bad! That said, your brew will taste its freshest in the first few days. After a week, you can certainly still drink it, but if the flavor isn’t there anymore, consider using the leftovers in cooking. Cold brew cookies anyone?

Keeping a well-stocked pantry is a little like investing in the stock market (stay with me here). You’re buying now in hopes that you’ll reap dividends later. And like the market, you want to minimize how much you spend so that your rewards are that much more rewarding. And, of course, you hope not to buy something that just sits around and goes bad, the financial equivalent of that mystery can that’s been in your pantry for years (maybe decades).

And we do think of stocking up sustainably in terms of investment. We want a sustainable backstock that makes it easy to pull together healthy food, doesn’t cost a fortune, doesn’t produce extra trash, and ensures we're covered in an unexpected situation (which are more and more expected these days).

If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been thinking and writing a lot about how to stock up sustainably and what product swaps we can make along the way to produce less trash, especially plastic trash.

Trash Talk #3: Stock Options

Broth or stock is one of those pantry staples you always want to have around. It typically makes all the “how to stock your pantry” lists (like this one and this one) because it works versatile wonders in soups and stews and pastas and rice and, well, lots of things.

The thing is, most of the broth we buy comes in aseptic containers—the waxy-feeling cartons that seem like a cross between paper and plastic. As we learned with milk cartons, aseptic containers are not always recyclable or don’t get recycled if they are. 

And even in places where the carton is recyclable, the plastic lid is probably not. In fact, it turns out those plastic lids are consistently among the top pieces of consumer trash found in the ocean.

According to the Ocean Conservancy’s 2020 report (see page 15), four of the top five items found during their annual coastal cleanup are plastic, with plastic bottles at number three and small beverage and carton lids at number four.

Can we do better?

1. Ask your city. Find out if you can recycle aseptic cartons in your city. And ask what they do with the lids. In some cases, you can recycle the lid too, but only if you leave it on the carton or bottle. 

2. Consider canned and jarred options. Next time you’re in the market for stock, see what canned or glass options you have at your local shop. This includes jarred, scoopable bouillon powder.

3. DIY—It’s truly easy and so so cheap. It goes like this: Every time you chop veggies or spices, put the scraps in a jar in your freezer. When the jar is full, dump it in a pot, cover with water, and simmer for a bit. Adjust seasoning and strain. Done!  Yes, you can find more complicated recipes, but that’s the basic the simple and basic way to make your own broth. 

As with our other swaps—it’s not all or nothing. To cut back is not to eliminate. Some days are really busy and hectic and you need the broth but don’t have any made. That’s what you’re back stock is for. Reach in there and don’t feel guilty about it. Just make some more DIY stock when you have the chance. 

Because, now you’ve got stock options. And you're invested. 

The CoffeeSock gals cleaning our adopted beach on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Since the 1960s, we’ve used more and more plastics. And while we may attempt to recycle it, plastics end up in landfills, forests, beaches, and oceans. Despite recycling, we toss more plastics now than ever before.

Modern life seems to demand that we produce trash. After all, if you’re not growing all of your own food, you are probably purchasing it in some form of packaging. And some of that packaging is not reusable or recyclable. 

It’s not you—it’s U.S.

If you want to buy bread, even the highest quality you can find at the local market, the packaging is almost always plastic. Same goes for bags of pasta, dried beans, and even vegetables. And in the world of online pandemic shopping, plastic is nearly impossible to avoid.

So, even if you compost and recycle, you’re probably still filling up a trash can. And a lot of that waste is plastic.  

But you shouldn’t feel guilty if the pace of modern life—and your finances—mean you don’t have the time or money to buy reusable veggie bags, shop from bulk aisles and farmer’s markets, and scrutinize every package of every purchase. 

Most plastics come from manufacturing and industries that make parts for cars, planes, buildings, and machinery. 

We can collectively reuse, recycle, and pay attention to our plastic waste—but we also need the government to step in. From local plastic bag bans to national environmental standards, individual action is important, but collective action is key. 

Wait. Isn’t plastic recyclable?

Surprisingly, not really. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastics made up 18 percent of the trash found in landfills in 2018. And while that’s not the majority of our trash—it is the majority of non recyclable trash.

The EPA’s data shows that less than 10 percent of plastic gets recycled, though we make more and more of it each year. In 1960, the US produced 390,000 tons of plastic and recycled virtually none. By 2018, we produced 91 times that much, recycling only 8.6 percent.

And here’s another important caveat—even when we do recycle, we can’t keep recycling. According to NPR, “Here's the basic problem: All used plastic can be turned into new things, but picking it up, sorting it out and melting it down is expensive. Plastic also degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can't be reused more than once or twice.”

Unfortunately, most of the plastic we think we’re recycling ends up in landfills and waterways. 

What collective action looks like

We’re getting better and better at individual actions that make our planet clear and safer. Communities have sprung up around using less, reusing more, and choosing organic, sustainable, and trash-free alternatives when we can. 

As the pandemic took hold, we also saw bigger, larger, and more vocal movements around collective action and community care. 

For a world with less trash—we need both. So keep taking action in your day to day life to reduce trash. But consider these ideas for collective action too. But this isn’t all on you. It’s on the whole US.

• Call or write the stores you shop. From your local grocery to Amazon, if you want to know their policy on single-use plastics—just ask. And them ask them to consider changes to reduce the amount of waste they contribute.

• Call or write policymakers. At the local level, as for limits on single-use plastics, including plastic bags, cups, and straws. At the state and national level, ask policymakers to find ways to reduce the harms of plastic. NatGeo has a great primer on which states have plastic bans—and which don’t allow such bans.

• Donate to or volunteer with environmental organizations. From neighborhood cleanups to large scale movements like The Sunrise Movement, support the groups who are working for change. 

What to share this information, but make it entertaining? Check out Rollie Williams over at Climate Town.

It’s more than a joke—beans truly are magical. Toss cannellini beans in pesto and add some greens and sausage. Smash pintos and spices into a tortilla with sharp cheese. Mix kidney beans into minestrone, blend black beans and crema into a decadent  soup, or roast garbanzos in olive oil and paprika until crispy. 

Hungry yet? 

Beans are filling, inexpensive, versatile and yummy.  This you already know. If you’re trying to stock up and cut back on trash, what you may also want to know is this—should you switch to dried beans?

The answer is nuanced. It’s “yes.” And also “not always.”

Trash Talk #2: Bean Cans

Last year, we started a series called trash talk. In this series, we look at one common product at a time and see if we can do better, environmentally speaking. Since little steps can add up over time, simple product swaps can become a collective habit.

It’s been a minute since our first trash talk (it was about milk cartons, check it out here). But we’re here with our second installment—the bean can. 

As a reminder, trash talk has rules. We promise you two things:

• Sustainable swaps should be affordable and attainable. So, if we recommend a product swap, it won’t cost too much. In fact, it may cost less in the long run—and it won’t require a large investment at the beginning. 

• Swaps will be simple—no complicated processes or unrealistic DIYs.

Here’s the good news about beans cans—they are typically affordable, storable and recyclable. If you’re like most people, you’ve got a few cans in your cabinet right now, and they make a simple and fast  meal.

If you’re looking for affordable, storable, quick, and recyclable, you’re doing alright with canned beans. 

Can we do better?

Here’s the thing—dried beans are even more affordable and storable, and they typically produce less waste. It’s true that metal cans are easily recyclable. In fact, they are one of the most recycled products in the world.

Of course, cans themselves are not necessarily made from 100% recycled metal. They contain aluminum made from material that must be mined and then processed.  And while 70 percent or more of metal cans get recycled, plenty still finds its way into landfills.

By swapping in some dried beans, you can buy in bulk to avoid excess packaging—just check the label to see if the packaging you do get is recyclable.

There’s a freshness and flavor benefit too. According to Bon Appetit’s “Basically” site, soaked and cooked dried beans “Not only taste worlds better than their canned counterparts, you also get the bonus of a potful of delicious bean broth.”

We know—the soaking and the cooking though. It can take hours. That’s why we recommend you keep a few cans handy for busy (or lazy) nights. But if you typically default to canned beans, consider keeping dried around and soaking a big pot when you have the time.

Bonus? They freeze like magic.

In short, swapping dried for canned gives you fresher, tastier, and less expensive beans with less waste. But if you’re in a pinch, you don’t need to feel guilty about the cans. Just be sure to give the can a rinse before tossing it in the recycle bin.

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.” Dr. Martine Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had more than one dream. Or rather, his dream was more expansive than most of us learned about in school. His speeches famously asked America to live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all, regardless of race. 

Less well known, he also targeted militarism and capitalism. In short, he dreamed of a world that valued people over things—over consumer goods, over property, over profit. He envisioned an economy that cared more than it competed.

Care is at the core

If we had a hard time knowing what that might look like in the past, it’s plain as day in the midst of a pandemic. More people see more clearly how the entire structure of our economic and social lives rely on essential workers—nurses, teachers, farmers, sanitation and restaurant workers. All who work in industries that feed us, clothe us, shelter us, teach us, care for us. The center cannot—does not—hold without care at its core.

What would change about modern life if we organized our economy around care? What would we value? On what would we spend our time and money? 

In a 1967 sermon, given on Christmas eve, King said the words that follow. And they resonate deeply with the CoffeeSock crew. As a small business, we depend on our workers and on the farmers who provide the organic cotton we sew and the coffee our product relies on. We depend on our community and the people who teach our children. We depend on clean air and food and shelter. We want to be depended on as well. So we dedicate ourselves to a clean and sustainable world, and to a whole economy with care at its center. 

From Dr. King:

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.

Slower days, smiling eyes, intentional connections, and mutual aid.

Sometime after the shock wore off—was it May? June?—days began to stretch out. We reorganized our lives to find nooks of space and time for a family with online work and school. We found the right times to shop and the right things to buy in the right amounts. We settled into a new routine without afterschool clubs and Saturday meets, with no parties or summer camps or travel plans.

How many times had we dreamed of being less busy? Would we have agreed to it if we knew we’d have to trade time with friends and extended family? No way. In fact, this year truly highlighted the power of a beloved community.

Slow days and a renewed love for community—that’s the treasure we’ll take forward with us.

I don’t know when days will accelerate again or whether we’ll slip easily back into packed agendas and calendars filled for months. If we do—may we hold on to the wisdom of occasional slowness. And may we choose the ways we spend our time and the community with whom we spend it, with the intention of people who know that none of it is guaranteed.

Let’s keep the mutual aid networks that we grew this year. And keep amplifying voices that were previously silenced. And even when the masks finally come off, let’s keep sending messages with our eyes and listening closer to hear and understand.

Thank you for being part of our community. Happy New Year!

In a world where human-made stuff outweighs nature and absorbs our attention how can we lighten up?

For thousands of years, we humans have been a busy bunch. We’ve built, designed, invented, cultivated, and created. For these efforts we now have shoes and saucers, houses and highways, skyscrapers and satellites. I type this on a portable computer filled with technology unimaginable one hundred years ago. That’s the blink of an eye in world time.

And we’re still going at it—building, designing, innovating, recreating, and consuming. In fact, according to a 2020 article from BBC News, “For every person in the world, more than their body weight in stuff is now being produced each week.” Helen Briggs, BBC Environment correspondent, tells us that in that same year, “the combined weight of all the plastic, bricks, concrete and other things we've made in the world will outweigh all animals and plants on the planet for the first time.”

Add to this the psychological weight of stuff, from the gadgets that demand our attention to the time and focus required to maintain it all.

That’s really heavy. 

"It is a reason for all of us to ponder our role, how much consumption we do and how can we try to get a better balance between the living world and humanity." — Dr Ron Milo, Weizmann Institute of Sciences

Weighing the costs

Why does it matter if human-made objects outweigh natural ones? What does it cost us?

According to the BBC article, one reason that human-made is outweighing nature, is that there’s simply less nature these days. Much of what we produce requires natural products we get from trees, plants, and animals. And with fewer trees, ecosystems have fewer places to grow and thrive.

There’s also a deeply human heaviness at play. We all likely have precious and well-loved material possessions. And yet we find ourselves drowning in stuff that just doesn’t mean that much. We have been so collectively overwhelmed with stuff that a small 2004 book about tidying up became an international best seller and 2019 Netflix special. 

Not only does stuff diminish the natural world and tax our attention, it also pulls our focus away from each other. We’ve all experienced moments in the midst of other humans who might be talking but are consumed instead by worlds packed into a gadget—the great irony of the promise of a connected world. We’ve all probably also noted the extra time we must spend working in order to maintain all of this.

What would it look like to stop? To need less and use less and spend the time and attention on our communities instead?

Can we really lighten up?

We’ve started with the idea that we might lighten the burden of stuff on the planet, at least. Since 1960, the U.S. has increased the percentage of trash we recycle—from 6.4 percent in 1960 to over 30 percent today. That’s a start for sure, though with more people on the planet each year, we’re still producing more trash.And it doesn’t decrease the production of consumer goods, but opens up the market for more in the form of recyclable goods.

So we’ve started to reuse more—perhaps a larger step in the right direction. As everything from reusable bags and containers to cloth diapers and dinner napkins have reentered our homes, we theoretically buy fewer disposable, nondurable things. And this, too, is an important step to slow the depletion of natural resources.

Our next big challenge then is to reduce. As we move from buying short-lived, recyclable goods, to longer-lived reusable stuff, perhaps we can also rethink buying altogether.

In a world where human-made stuff outweighs nature, neighborhood Buy Nothing lists have sprung up to encourage sharing resources we already have (you can start one if you don’t have one). And much of what we need and want may be waiting like unearthed treasure at a local thrift store or vintage mall. 

Or maybe it’s nothing. Maybe what we really need to buy is nothing. That won’t always be true, but in those moments when we realize it is, when we’ve saved ourselves the time and money and effort sunk into stuff, maybe we can then reinvest that attention into ourselves and our communities.

In a remote town nestled in the Cuchumatanes mountains of Guatemala, Ana Cordoba Ostuna is working a loom, weaving as one of the youngest town residents, her granddaughter, enjoys a lollipop while sitting at Ana’s feet. 

They live in Nebaj, more than 6,200 ft into the mountains, and Ana is the matriarch of a farming family that makes up part of the Maya Ixil coffee cooperative. Until recently, the local farmers made almost all of their income by growing and exporting coffee. Now, Ana’s weaving is part of a growing new livelihood for her family and her town, where the cooperative farmers add sewing and beekeeping to their coffee farming work.

The Maya Ixil cooperative, with support from Food 4 Farmers and local organizers, has become a model for sustainable practices that grow more than food—they grow opportunity.  

Farming is fundamental

When you think about coffee, maybe you think of your local cafe or the smell of freshly ground beans.

For most of us, what we don’t think about is farming. But of course, that’s where your cup begins—in rows of small trees, covered in red berries, harvested by farmers and transported globally. 

Farming is fundamental. From fruits and vegetables to cotton and coffee, it’s strangely easy to forget that we thrive because someone else farms. 

That’s where fair trade cooperatives like Maya Ixil, local community organizers and international organizations like Food 4 Farmers come in. And, that’s where you and I come in too.

Ensuring farmers and food systems thrive

In a sustainable system, farms supply communities with fresh food all year while ensuring that the farm itself can thrive. But sometimes the system breaks down. What causes that? It’s complicated, and we don’t have all the answers, but organizations have identified two culprits that we can work to change:

• Single-crop farms—When farms grow only one or two crops, or have one main crop like coffee, corn or wheat, farmers can find themselves at the mercy of global price fluctuations or crop diseases, like coffee leaf rust. If the main crop fails or the price drops unexpectedly, the farmers lose their primary source of income.  

• Climate change—Flooding, fires, hurricanes and drought have potentially devastating effects on farmers. This needs little explanation, except to say that these dangers have increased each year.

Farming cooperatives, with support from people served by farming (that’s all of us), work to help farms cultivate additional crops and livelihoods. 

The members of the Maya Ixil cooperative have gotten the gear, training and support necessary to add beekeeping, sewing and home gardens to their family farms. According to Food 4 Farmers, “Farmers in the program have increased their monthly income by 23% on average.”

“So far, 49 beekeepers have harvested nearly 10,000 pounds of honey in 2020, 25% more than 2019's production. On average, farmers produce about 200 pounds of honey, and own 9 hives.“

How CoffeeSock is partnering with Maya Ixil

CoffeeSock has been deeply invested in using organic and fair trade materials in our work, and the filters themselves started as an effort to reduce trash in the world and combat climate change. (Read our blog on Why Organic Cotton and our spotlight on the organic cotton thread we use.)

The “sock” part of CoffeeSock owes its origin to the Costa Rican “chorreador” - a simple cotton bag attached to a wire. We discovered this marvel of a tool while on vacation in the mountains of Costa Rica, where we visited coffee farms and brought home a new mission to preserve and support the earth’s beautiful landscapes and rid the world of paper coffee filters. 

In 2020, we’ve expanded that commitment, partnering with Food 4 Farmers through 1% for the Planet, to donate at least one percent of our sales to support the continued growth of Maya Ixil’s cooperative model. 

For now, that means continued support of the bee keeping and sewing projects at the cooperative’s farms. Beginning in January 2021, CoffeeSock support will help the project expand to include The Grow Ahead venture, providing the seeds, materials and education needed to grow food crops, replant the local forests and restore native ecosystems.

Maya Ixil is buzzing

According to Food 4 Farmers, after the coffee leaf rust crisis hit the Ixil region, Ana Cordoba Ostuna’s husband and son had to leave the farm to find work at construction sites and as day laborers on other farms. After joining the Maya Ixil cooperative’s beekeeping program, they now have eight bee hives and plan to get more. Ana now says, “With the bees we are happy again, because they have given us the hope of a better life.”

This holiday season we celebrate what sustains us and our beloved communities.

We love The Creature, created by local artist, Veronica Ceci.

What communities do you belong to? A family, a neighborhood, a workplace, a pandemic pod?  A community of practice, of thought, of craft, or of values? An online book club, a shared love of bread baking or knitting or roller skating? 

In an age of global connections, communities need not be bound by zip code, but by mutual interest, benefit, and support. And that last part is crucial. At their heart, communities are accountable to each other.

We sustain through mutual care

If you didn’t think much about accountability in your communities before the pandemic, you probably think about it now. More than ever, we look to the people, places and businesses that place community care at their hearts. 

We see it in the pop-up pantries and people who shop for vulnerable neighbors. We see it in mutual aid donations and businesses that provide everything from fresh bread to masks. We see it in the simple act of staying home when we can, so that those who can’t are safer.  

In short, communities sustain through acts of mutual care. That’s why sustainability is ultimately community-based, even when those communities exist across the Internet.  

Ways to celebrate and support community

This is set to be a holiday like no other, with so many plans on hold or canceled. We’ll already remember 2020 and all of the challenges that came with it. Could we also remember the moments of care, joy and humanity that sprung up in our communities?

The holidays are the perfect time to turn your attention to community celebration. So we’ve got a few ways you can celebrate community care this season.

• Stock a pop-up pantry or make your own.  Have you had little pantries pop up in your neighborhood? Fill them with nonperishables, like canned beans and tuna, pasta, and nondairy (unrefrigerated) milk.  

• Buy from artists and artisans. From a gorgeous ceramic coffee mug to a building-sized commissioned mural (check out ours at the top of the page), a handmade gift from a community artisan is a symbol of personalized love and community support. Across your communities, you’ll likely find makers of jam, jewelry, stationary, kitchenwares...everything really. 

• Support community-based businesses. Shop your local mom and pop shops and online popups. Small, community-based businesses put your dollars back into their communities.

• Send love letters and care packages. Remember the joy of receiving a package from someone you love? Bonus points if it’s unexpected. If you’re missing your friends and family, pretend they’re away at camp and send them a care package. Pack in those little lovelies you picked up from community artists and businesses. And the most important part? Add a note of love and appreciation. Tell them why you’re so glad they are part of your community. 

 What are the ways you celebrate all of your communities? Let us know!

Get ready for a cozy and healthy winter at home by giving your goods a sustainable stock up score. We’ll help you prep.

And just like that, it’s late October. The end of this long, long year is almost here. In a typical year, Halloween kicks off weeks of festivals, parties and gatherings. We decorate, we travel, we shop and we celebrate.

In winter 2020, we prep.  

There may still be pandemic pod parties and small, socially distanced celebrations. But to pull it all off while staying safe and healthy this winter, you’ll need to be prepared. 

If the great toilet paper shortage of March was the warm up, this year’s flu and holiday season is the stock up Olympics. Note: We did not say the hoarding Olympics. Stocking up is more of science. Which means you need a method. 

We’ve got you covered with a simple three-step process.

Step 1: Define your successful stock up

You know you. You know what will make the next few months feel as right as they can. You know how close you are to local stores, how much space you have for supplies, how much money you’re willing to spend on the front end and how often you’re willing to get out of the house for higher-risk excursions like shopping. 

Use that as your basis for defining what a successful stock up looks like. Your successful stock up might look something like this:

• I have one all the basics on hand to prep a meal, cook the meal, clean my home, and practice personal hygiene and self care for one full month.

• I have what I need to engage in at-home activities that bring me joy and comfort.

• My shopping/stocking aligns with my value of sustainability. 

Try it! Answer these questions for yourself. 

• How much back stock do you want? A couple of weeks? A month? All winter?

• What do you want your stock to accomplish? For example, do you want to be able to easily whip up a family meal? Have ingredients available for kids to serve themselves? Feed your pets? Clean your space? (Don’t forget teeth brushing, showering and other self care needs).

• What activities do you want to maintain and what events do you want to prep for? Maybe you enjoy movie nights with the family, crafting or drawing? Maybe a birthday is on the horizon? List the supplies you need for these moments, so they remain joyful when the time comes. 

• What values do you want to maintain and how can your stock up plan align? If you’re working to reduce waste, trash and plastic, then consider your sustainable options throughout the process. 

Step 2: Make your master list

Now that you’ve defined what stocking up means to you, make a list of everything you might need. You can do this systematically by starting with your usual grocery and supply list, and then thinking through a whole day from start to finish. Missing anything you need for the day? Add it!

Then repeat the process with your week and your month. Don’t skip over movie nights or birthdays. No need to be caught off guard without popcorn or cake supplies. 

Step 3: Give your items a stock up score

This is where the magic happens. You probably don’t have the space to have a three-month supply of everything or the extra budget to buy it all now. So how do you know where to begin? 

Introducing the stock up score. Use this method to identify the items on your list that will most benefit you to stock up on. 

It works like this. You’ll assign points to everything on your master list. Then identify your highest scoring items and stock up. 

• Is this item essential to me or my family? Must have = 2 points Nice to have = 1 point

• How often do I buy it? Weekly = 2 points. Monthly or less = 1 point

• Does it go in the landfill when I’m done with it? (Think nonrecyclable packaging). Bound for landfill = 2 points. Recyclable = 1 point. Renewable, reusable or compostable = 0

• Is there a bulk, reusable or lower waste option. Bulk/reusable version = 2 points Lower waste version = 1 point

• Can I store the alternate option? Yes = 2 points Yes, but I’d have to buy something new to do it = 1 point

Now add up the points! What are your top scoring items? Have any 10s?

Bulk, dried beans are a 10 for our family. So is nut milk and coffee. So we stock up on dried beans from the bulk bin, almonds to make our own milk, and bulk or reusable coffee supplies.

Work your way down the list, from your highest scoring items to your lowest until you’re as stocked as you want to be. 

Stock Up Troubleshooting

As you go through the process, you might find yourself in a pickle. Literally in some cases, since the only way to stock up on fresh cucumbers would be to pickle them. In those cases, revisit your stock up goals. If you’re not interested in growing your own broccoli or milking your own almonds, then don’t! The goal is sustainability, and that includes your time, effort and enjoyment.

Happy stocking! 

Friends—it’s been quite a 2020. 

We rolled into this new decade full of plans, schemes and dreams never guessing that Earth Day 2020 would find us in the middle of a global pandemic. 

And now, well into the fourth month of virus anxiety and the second month of stay at home orders, all those plans and schemes and dreams look wildly different. Every part of our lives look different. And every part of our lives have condensed in space and time. 

Every day, we are parents, small business owners, educators, community members, employers and selves—all at the same time and within the same square feet. 

Yet, just as our world has shrunk to the size of our own literal backyard, it has expanded in ways we might never have guessed. 

At the factory, we rearranged operations to safely continue shipping.

In our homes, without access to the instant gratification of every whim, we’re looking differently at our patterns of consuming and spending.

In our beloved community, we looked to serve those who serve us, and found a deep need to help protect those on the front lines—from baristas to health care workers—by sewing masks.

Read about the Sockers for Service Workers project.

Expanding wider, we see a city pulling together to feed each other and protect the most vulnerable. Across cities, across states there’s fewer cars, less trash, less waste, less noise.  

Across lands, wildlife is taking to the streets and meadows and forests, reveling in the freedom from us. Across skies pollution is clearing. 

On this Earth Day 2020 we are as big on the inside as we are on the outside. We are stunned by perspective. It reminds us of this amazing video from 1977 that illustrates how the small, local spaces we inhabit live inside the global and the universal. (We included the short video below, courtesy of Ray Eames and the Eames Office).

The earth is healing this Earth Day. In our small corner of the planet, we renew our vision to a world with less trash and to a community with stronger, tighter bonds. 

From this era of forced hiatus, may we better preserve our beloved communities and in so doing, create the collective strength we need to preserve the earth for a few more millenia.

All Together Now!

Powers of Ten takes us on an adventure in magnitudes. Starting at a picnic by the lakeside in Chicago, this famous film transports us to the outer edges of t...

Wrappers, packaging, boxes and bags—trash feels inevitable, especially around the holidays.

When everything from carrots to conditioner comes in single-use packages, waste piles up fast, even when you’re eco-conscious.

If you’re like many people we know, you’ve heard about the folks adopting a “zero waste” lifestyle. Yet, far from being inspiring, the advice is often intimidating, unrealistic, expensive and time consuming. It can leave people feeling guilty and overwhelmed. 

We may grow some of your own food, choose reusable products and borrow, swap or thrift instead of buy, when possible. Yet most of us still roll the trash bin to the curb on trash day. Heck—we live in neighborhoods that have a trash day every week.

What’s a family to do? What’s anyone to do? In order to sustain our planet, we must adapt and change. And we can do it, one product at a time.

So, let’s talk trash. Let’s look at one product swap at a time and see if we can do better. If we can get people talking trash together, and sharing product swap successes and failures, maybe thoughtful, simple swaps will become a collective habit. It’s worth a shot.

Trash talk has rules

For this trash talk series, we promise you two things:

• Product swaps won’t cost too much. Actually, the swap should cost less in the long run—but it won’t require a large investment at the beginning. Sustainable should be affordable and attainable.

• Swaps will be simple—no complicated processes or unrealistic DIYs. 

Trash Talk #1: Milk Cartons

While some recycling centers can handle coated milk and juice cartons, they’re actually pretty tricky to recycle. Here in Austin, the city’s handy “what do I do with…” recycling app tells us to place milk cartons in the trash can rather than the recycling bin. 

Can we do better?

Plastic milk containers are at least more recyclable than the cartons in most places, but we’re trying to avoid plastic when we can. As for glass? We did find a few local options for buying or refilling glass milk containers, but they required spending a lot more, driving a lot more or both. 

Can we do even better? 

Consider these two solutions:

1. We can drink less milk. Instead of buying more when we run out, we set a weekly limit, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Need milk for a recipe? See suggestion number two.

2. We can make our own nut milk. I promise that this option doesn’t break the rules of simple and cheap. It’s easier than you think, and nut milk works great in recipes. Check out our recipe, or this super simple version from Bon Appetit.

Let us know your milk carton swaps. Or suggest a product swap to tackle next.

Our 2020 vision? A world with less trash, starting with a household of less trash.

This is it—the summer you get your cold brew game strong.

You could follow someone else’s recipe (like ours—it’s awesome). But what if you could dial in your own custom brew? How, you ask? By taking a page from your middle school science class. There’s no better way to win cold brewing than the scientific method.

Grab your lab coat and clip board and let’s do this—it’s cold brew chemistry!

Remember the scientific method?

• Ask a question. For example: how do I make the most delicious cold brew?

• Do background research. We’ve got you covered here. Actual scientists have asked the big cold brew questions and compared hot versus cold brewing.

• Come up with a hypothesis. Our hypothesis? Medium roast, course ground coffee steeped for 12 hours with a cinnamon stick is objectively best.

• Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment. More on this in a minute.

• Analyze the data and draw a conclusion. And by analyze data we mean—drink lots of cold brew, take notes and rank the brews.

• Share your results. On Facebook and Instagram, obviously.

Set up your experiment

You’ll start with the variables you want to test. We suggest playing around with:

• Grind size

• Amount of brew time

• Roast of coffee

• Flavor infusions

When you’re ready to test, science says you can’t test more than one factor at a time. You’ve got to isolate those variables, people. If you test different grinds and roasts at the same time, it will be harder to figure what worked.

To keep your experiments and ratings straight, make a handy chart. That way, when you tell your friends you have created the scientifically proven best cold brew coffee, you’ll have the data to back it up! Feel free to use our simple testing chart.

Gather your supplies

You won’t need Bunsen burners, but we recommend drinking out of beakers or test tubes. That’s just good scientific fun.

You will need a cold brewing method. We’ve got kits and extra filters, here.

Get to testing

Choose one of the four variables to test. If you want to experiment with flavors first (and who can blame you), keep the other factors the same for each experiment. Once you’ve decided on the scientifically proven best flavor, see what changes in grind size will do.

You’re probably going to want to get a crew together for this. The more people who try your brew and fill out your rating sheet, the more iron-clad your claim to scientific superiority. So, enlist a few coworkers or friends and get to brewing.

Don’t forget to add “cold brew chemist” to your resume. NASA, here you come.

Welcome spring and those longer days and sunny afternoons. Welcome rains and pollen too. And as the flowers and trees rev up their blooming, welcome bees.

Bees have much work to do in the spring, tasked with pollinating flowers, trees, fruits and vegetables. The hours they put in pay dividends to everyone, ensuring habitats for creatures who rely on plant homes and keeping a full one-third of the food we eat pollinated.

According to Greenpeace, “70 out of the top 100 human food crops — which supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition — are pollinated by bees.”

And don’t even get us started singing the praises of honey. (Or do. We can go on and on, starting with these recipes for infused honey.)

Of course, honey bees are not the only bee pollinators in question. According to the Xerces Society’s pollinator conservation program, the most endangered bees are the rusty patched bumble bee and other lesser-known wild bee species.

The bottom line? What’s good for the bees is good for the planet and all of its creatures, including you and me. And we have the means to help a bee out!

Your Morning Mug Can Help a Bee Out

According to the journal Nature, While the coffee plant is known to be self-pollinating, bees can augment the process. According to research, “honeybees can boost [coffee] crop yields by over 50%. These findings, together with world coffee-harvest statistics and results from field studies of organically shade-grown coffee, indicate that coffee plants would benefit from being grown in habitats that are suitable for sustaining valuable pollinators.”

You may have heard that the population of pollinators, including honey bees, has declined in the past decade. While sources give different estimates for the extent of the problem, they all tell a similar story about bee decline, especially in the United States, due to climate change, pesticides, and habitat loss. So, if coffee farms use pesticides or other practices that repel bees, then the farm actually contributes to bee decline even though the farm would benefit from the bees—just like the rest of the planet.

But what does this have to do with your morning coffee or tea? Plenty, actually. Because the beverage you drink and the way you make it can contribute to the solution. Specifically:

• Choose organic coffee and cotton. You can help reduce pesticides by using organic coffee, tea, and filters. When you buy organic, you not only encourage coffee growers to go organic—you also ensure that any of your used grounds that end up in landfills or compost is itself organic, a double help for the bees.

• Choose reusable filters and gear. You can help prevent habitat destruction by choosing reusable, sustainable brewing supplies. Unrecycled paper means tree loss, which means homeless bees.

What’s Good for the Trees is Good for the Bees

Sure, bees are into flowers. But they love trees too. They pollinate flowering trees and build their hives in tree branches. It’s a win-win. So, the less paper we consume, the better for trees and bees (and fruits, nuts, vegetables, and you).

So, as bee season begins in your area, you’ve got a thousand more reasons to save the trees 🌳 + feed the bees. 🐝

One pack of CoffeeSock reusable filters replaces more than 365 paper filters.

Photo courtesy of Fiberactive Organics

Held Together By a Thread

Take a quick look around you and spot all the things that are made out of fabric. Maybe you’re sitting on a sofa or grabbing something from your bag. Maybe there’s a blanket or towel nearby. Let’s assume you’re wearing clothes. Choose one item and look closer. You probably don’t think about it much, but the whole thing is likely held together by thread.

Held together by a thread—it seems so vulnerable and impermanent. Quality thread is actually quite tough. That’s why a stitched-together sofa can last through decades of movie nights and naps. Of course, it will break down eventually. So, like all materials that will eventually be disposed, even thread can be organic, sustainable and compostable.

If you read our recent blog about organic cotton, you’ll know why we are committed to making CoffeeSock products organic down to the thread. Organic thread helps us keep our promise to bring you sustainable products that reduce toxins and trash.

Meet Julie Moore & Fiberactive Organics

We’re very proud to spotlight our thread vendor, Fiberactive Organics! Headquartered in North Carolina, Fiberactive Organics sources organic cotton thread from around the world.  

Founder and CEO, Julie Moore, came to the business with a dedication to sustainable practices that support a clean environment and human dignity. She trained as a graphic artist and supported herself through school by managing the family business—her dad’s dental office. Though dental management and graphic arts might not seem a likely start, Julie’s training as an artist found expression in fabric portraits and graphic quilts, and her designs have been featured in international quilting publications. 

Julie on the Bhuria’s farm near Indore, India

Fabric arts, sustainability and good business sense—these threads wove through her life and led quite naturally to Fiberactive Organics.

Sustainability & Sewpure Thread

Dedicated to sustainable practices that preserve the soil, tread lightly on the environment and support the dignity of human labor, Fiberactive only uses materials certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). And Julie doesn’t source her cotton by hearsay. Knowing that the soil conditions and cotton varieties grown in India work well in organic thread, she travelled there herself to check it out. On her website, she tells the story of the Sewpure cotton thread—that’s the variety CoffeeSock uses—as it moves from cotton crop through milling and spinning.

Outside the city of Indore, she met farmers and local leaders in organic farming, Raphael and Tashila Bhuria. According to Julie, this husband and wife team “are not only extremely well educated in organic farming, they are leaders in organic research, they have developed methods of composting and creating amendments from their compost that other farmers can apply to their crops for better yields and deterring pests.”

Raphael and Tashila Bhuria on their farm.

Follow the “Story of Sewpure” from the Bhuria’s farm through the organic production cycle on Fiberactive Organic’s website. 

Thank you Julie! From the CoffeeSock team.

Thinking on Dr. King this MLK day – on his legacy of love and action towards justice – it put in mind the giant logs that litter the beaches of the Pacific Northwest. Stable seeming logs, immobile looking, delivered to the shore by powerful waves. 

The beginning of 2019 found us on the Olympic Peninsula in a cabin by the sea. The stretch of Pacific Ocean along the western coast of Washington is stunning, strewn with rocky cliffs, dense evergreens, marsh land and rainforests rich with mossy trees. The ocean litters these beaches with logs – felled by storms, erosion, critters and perhaps logging, then dragged across the water to the shore.

Some of these logs are giants. Sitting on a rocky beach, they seem at home, like they’ve been there forever. We want to stand on them and see further down the coast. But even those behemoths are no match for the powerful sea. Every day the tide comes in to deliver the day’s catch of wood and stone. And every day the tide goes out, taking even the sturdiest with it.

In this way, the water arranges and rearranges the beach daily. And in this way even the giant logs are vulnerable, impermanent. They move at the ocean’s bidding, unless something else anchors them down. 

“Killer logs” the signs read – a warning not to trust those things that seem so permanent and unmoving. 

 These logs whisper to us about our most stable plans, our most sure-footed ideas, and our most long-standing institutions. Those things in this life that we value, they require that we do more than stand on them to better ourselves. We have to add more than just our weight. 

Dr. King asked that we all actively aspire to bring about the beloved community. That we act as accomplices to the work of justice. The wave he pushed and the institutions it ushered in - they are only so permanent as we make them. We must continue to anchor them today, lest the tide roll all his sturdy progress back out to sea.

One of the many wonderful things about owning a small business is the opportunity it provides to clarify and live a mission (day in – day out!). At CoffeeSock, we started our business on a mission to do two things: run a small business that frees us to design a family-focused life we feel good about, and to sell a useful, simple product that reduces trash, keeping it out of landfills and off of the land.

With these missions at our heart, we have been grateful to grow into a thriving small business in a community of makers, doers and travelers. We’ve made new partnerships, welcomed inspiring makers into our shop, and travelled far and wide. 2018 took us on so many fantastic adventures, from our beloved Texas beaches, to the mountains of New Mexico and the deserts of the American Southwest. 

We always knew we had a great product on our hands. But we could not have anticipated all the beauty and challenge and growth that this little shop would bring us through the years. 

As we look ahead to the new year ahead we do so with full hearts and open minds. We are scheming, sure, but we are open too to the unexpected and as yet unrevealed. So – welcome, 2019! Let’s do this.

S Aziz123 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Ok – so you’re not going to eat your CoffeeSock filter, so why should you care that it’s made from organic cotton? Yes, organic cotton keeps pesticide residue out of your coffee – but the organic label means more than clean food and drink. 

Nonorganic, or “conventional” cotton is a big, chemical intensive business. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, cotton ranks third for use of pesticides behind soybeans and corn – weighing in at around 48 million pounds of pesticides on “approximately 12.6 million acres of cotton planted in nine states.” While we may not ingest cotton, pesticide use also depletes soil and ends up in water supplies, threatening humans and wildlife.   

By contrast, organic cotton does not use toxic chemicals. “It doesn’t damage the soil, has less impact on the air, and uses 71% less water and 62% less energy.”  What’s more, CoffeeSock uses organic cotton certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).The GOTS standards go beyond standards for toxicity and environmental impact, requiring GOTS certified companies to meet social standards that include criteria for minimum wage, working conditions and collective bargaining. 

From the soil in which its planted to the humans who harvest the crop, organic cotton provides tangible environmental and human rights benefits. And since CoffeeSock products are made with organic cotton cloth and thread, they are completely and safely compostable when it’s time to replace your sock.  

So no, you aren’t going to eat your CoffeeSock, but the more products made from clean crops the better – for the soil, the water, the air and all the creatures who need them. 

Inspiring the next generation of small business owners

New mittens for the kids. Gifts for our favorite folks. Flour and sugar for treats. The holidays are here, and most of us are shopping – a lot.  And whether it’s for gifts, groceries or gloves, you probably have a choice between shopping the giants and buying from small businesses. 

Actually, more than 30 million U.S. businesses are small, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. So most people can find a small business that provides the good or service they need. And although small business are – well – small, they make a huge impact. 

Between 2000 and 2017, “small businesses created 8.4 million new jobs while large businesses created 4.4 million.” And small business owners are families, women, immigrants and people of color. Data from the Small Business Administration give us these numbers about small businesses:

• 10 million women-owned and 2.5 million more owned equally by men and women

• 8 million minority-owned

• 2.5 million veteran-owned

• 20 percent family owned

• More than 14 percent owned by immigrants

Those are some inspiring numbers! 

And if that’s not enough, small businesses tend to stay local, hire local, and support local civic life. That community connection keeps small businesses accountable to and engaged with the communities in which they operate. According to Ashoka Changemakers, a “global network of social entrepreneurs, innovators, business leaders, policy makers and activists” small and medium-sized businesses tend to be more environmentally friendly, because these businesses “typically have a deep connection to their communities’ and environments’ needs, and therefore often have an incentive to be good stewards of their surrounding environment.” 

CoffeeSock is a small, woman-owned, family-run business with community and environment at our heart.  We employ a rad group of women artists and leaders to produce sustainable products that add value to our community far and wide. And we’re proud to support the Austin economy and contribute to the city’s civic life. That’s what small businesses do all over the globe.

This gift giving season and beyond, when you need to buy, we hope you’ll spend small, where the your purchase multiplies, supporting families, women and minority owned businesses, local communities, and sustainability.

Happy holidays y’all!