Higher Ground Coffee Roasters is a premium coffee roaster located in Vestavia, Alabama. Offering fair trade, 100% organic coffee varieties, Higher Ground focuses on long-term relationships with farms in order to provide the highest-quality coffee in the most sustainable ways.

I tried three varieties from Higher Ground Coffee Roasters: Ethiopian and two kinds that give back to environmental projects in Alabama.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper Blend gives to a fund dedicated to “improving the habitat, recreation, and public health throughout the largest river watershed fully contained within Alabama…”. The coffee has a nutty taste and is exceptionally smooth, almost chocolatey aftertaste.

Alabama Rivers Alliance River Roast is a dark roast that supports the Alabama Rivers Alliance. The shade-grown coffee is really smooth and has a nutty, smoky flavor. It was hard to decide which was better but I leaned more towards this one.

Beyond these three, Higher Ground Coffee Roasters has several varieties from around the world: Peruvian, Papua New Guinea, Sumatran, Chiapas (Mexico), and Colombian. They also have a couple other river-related blends worth trying.

I highly recommend Higher Ground for their philanthropic goals as well as their dedication to shade-grown, organic, fair-trade coffee that supports the farmers who grow the beans. And the coffee tastes great too!