Let’s be clear right off the bat – this coffee tastes smooth and delicious. We taste tested Tiny Footprint’s Medium Roast and it went down smooth – not for the Starbucks-loving bitter tasting coffee lovers – this java packs easy-going, rich flavor – with no heavy aftertaste. This is not your “let’s stay up all night and do our taxes and laundry” coffee, just a perky roast with a nicely rounded, civilized flavor and fresh aroma.

Now about Tiny Footprint’s green street cred…What’s in a name? Based in Minneapolis, Tiny Footprint Coffee is making a big impact as the world’s first carbon-negative coffee roaster. This company is deeply committed to sustainability. They not only produce 100% organic and shade-grown coffee, but also add another important layer to the equation by offsetting their carbon generating footprint to such a degree it’s actually in the negative – which is of course a very good (sustainable) thing. Kind of like generating so much power from your wind turbine that you receive extra credit or are able to resell that energy back to an electric power company.

How do they figure? Tiny Footprint Coffee calculates that 4 lbs of carbon dioxide are emitted during the manufacturing cycle of one pound of coffee, which includes: harvest, shipping, roasting and delivering. To compensate for that emission, for every pound sold, they plant enough trees in the Mindo Cloudforest of Ecuador to sequester 54 lbs of CO2. That nets 50 negative pounds, positive indeed. If you were to buy just one pound of Tiny Footprint Coffee per week, you’d reduce your carbon footprint by 2600 lbs per year (6.5% of the average American’s footprint).

What’s the overall impact? Aside from doing good by sucking all that toxic gas out of the air and reforesting barren land, they’re also providing jobs to indigenous farmers, improving the local economy and infrastructure as well as providing sanctuary to thousands of species of indigenous animals and hundreds of species of birds found only in the Ecuadorian Cloudforest.

Sourcing beans grown in Ethiopa, Sumatra and El Salvador, Tiny Footprint Coffee offers light, medium, and dark roast blends, as well as decaf and espresso. Upon request, they also offer a selection of single origin beans for java connoisseurs. They roast their beans in small batches on a vintage “Probat.” Pick up a pound or two @ amazon.com or visit tinyfootprintcoffee.com to find where to buy and more.

full disclosure: tiny footprint was gracious enough to provide us a sample package of their medium roast for flavor testing.