Higher Grounds Trading Company

Specialties

Higher Grounds Trading Co. is proud to be Michigan’s first 100% fair trade and organic certified coffee roastery and coffee bar. We stick to high standards not only for ethical and environmental reasons, but also because we’re obsessed with quality: we believe these standards produce the best-​quality coffees around. Our close relationships with farmers around the world help us bring delicious coffee from the field to your cup.

History

Established in 2001.

Higher Grounds Trading Company was started in 2001 after the founders spent a year living and working with the Maya Vinic coffee cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. Since the creation of Higher Grounds (HG), our commitment to our growers has the depth and quality of over ten years of sincere relationship building. HG purchases nearly a container (40,000 pounds) of fair trade and organic coffee each year from our Chiapas growers, in addition to coffee from other farming cooperatives around the world.

Higher Grounds offers fair trade, organic coffee beans from more than a dozen countries across the globe. The direct connection we formed with the farmers in Chiapas serves as a model for our relationships with all our suppliers, and we sponsor regular delegations to visit coffee-​growing communities.

We also helped found a nonprofit called On the Ground, which is focused on sustainable community development in the farming regions where we work. Check out onthe​ground​global​.org to learn more.

Meet the Business Owner

Chris T.

Business Owner

Chris is co-​founder and Director of HG and is on the Board of Directors of Cooperative Coffees, a 100% fair trade, organic coffee importing cooperative of which HG is a member/​owner. He’s also a founder of On the Ground, a non-​profit dedicated to bringing fresh water, education, and health care to those without. When not traveling to far-​flung corners of the globe in search of the finest coffees and creating partnerships with our farming friends or captaining the HG ship, Chris enjoys long distance running between the birch and cedar forests, swimming in the many freshwater lakes, and conspiring with family and friends.