Our Coffee
Our Philosophy
We found that our coffee is inherently what connects people to the Falling Rock Cafe so we created Great Lakes Coffee Company with the goal of bringing the finest, freshest coffees from around the world to our customers.
Our Roasting
Our green coffee beans are carefully selected from their countries of origin by specialty coffee importers and roasted fresh. Each batch of coffee is roasted by hand using a Diedrich infrared roaster at our facility in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Our Process
We custom blend our coffees to create something completely fresh and original, distinct to the Great Lakes Coffee Company. The custom blends we have developed range from bright and clean to full bodied and dark.
We find that while people may experiment and try different blends, most regular coffee lovers keep coming back to their personal favorites. As vastly delicious as all these coffee flavors are, they all share the same standards that makes Great Lakes Coffee something truly unparalleled, and they are all fresh roasted. We serve it within a week of having been hand prepared by our in-state micro-roaster.
We choose single origin coffee. This simply means that many plantations from one region contribute to a coffee type. When you take only the best beans from a specific region and roast them to perfection the coffee you get is truly remarkable.
We Support Fair Trade
The United States consumes one-fifth of all the world’s coffee, making it the largest consumer in the world. But few Americans realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as “sweatshops in the fields.” Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt.
Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis, assuring consumers that the coffee we drink was purchased under fair conditions. To become Fair Trade certified, an importer must meet stringent international criteria; paying a minimum price per pound, providing much needed credit to farmers, and providing technical assistance such as help transitioning to organic farming. Fair Trade for coffee farmers means community development, health, education, and environmental stewardship.