Welcome to Torque Coffees. 

Our Mission:

Change the coffee conversation between the consumption and production sides of the coffee supply chain. Empower coffee consumers to personally apply torque to the coffee supply chain to affect positive change. Make Proportional Pricing a force with enough torque to change the way coffees are recognized and rewarded.

Our Vision:

To be coffee’s Nemesis and bring the coffee industry into equilibrium. To break the coffee supply chain and remake it into a stronger triangle chain by applying torque to change the system.

Coffee that's easy to love:

We aim to show that amazing coffees sourced with intention and focus, roasted exquisitely and blended culinarily can achieve immense sweetness, clarity and balance. That paying more for quality coffees without requiring producers harness some bizarre acid reflux fermentation, or rare genome splicing, means that they can focus on sweetness and quality and deliver their best work. In short we aim to deliver incredible coffees that delight your senses and that you can drink cup after cup and still crave more. No guesses, no quizzes, no misses and no weird stuff. Sweetness is king.

Coffee that shares the love:

We want to bring the coffee industry into equilibrium. Our goal is to break the coffee supply chain. Break it by torquing the value balance. Give value where value is due. Its simple: we value the producers work based on the value to us. 20% of the retail price of the coffee is due the producer. We put the power in your hands. You are the torque that breaks the chains and forces equilibrium. Your choices create a new triangle chain and rebalance risk and reward. No feel good stories, no comforting words. Just proof backed by data.  

Our Proportional Price formula is ridiculously simple: 
Retail Price X 20% = Producer’s Portion. 

We call it Proportional Pricing© because it automatically adjusts to the price the bag of coffee is sold at. Proportional Pricing changes the value equation of the coffee supply chain. Instead of the commodity market deciding what a coffee farmer's coffee is worth, you the customer decide its value. Proportional Pricing means that a preset percentage of that value is due the coffee producer. You know the exact impact your purchase has on the coffee producer. No complex math, no 50 page reports, no long explanations, sob stories or strings attached. It's just the Producer's Portion.

The Math:

• Producers are paid 20% of the $20 price of each bag of coffee
• It takes 400g (14oz) green to make 340g (12oz) roasted coffee. (roasting coffee loses 15%-18% weight.)
• $4.00 for 400g of green coffee or $4.53/Lb
• We pay $4.75 /lb green farm gate so that we ensure producers are golden. 
• This is what the farmer/cooperative is paid. Import & export costs are on top of that. (aka FOB + EXW costs)

What we do:

• Every week we drop a new coffee blend that’s a joy to drink, cup after cup.
• No weird stuff, no guesses. Just sweet & friendly coffees that are always tasty yet never boring.
• We call these ‘Coffee Compositions’ because we are creating culinary compositions that are greater than the sum of the parts
• Roasted fresh & delivered in recycled, reusable & compostable packaging.
• When you buy a bag of Torque coffee the coffee producer (farm owner or cooperative) was pre-paid 20% of that amount. 
• Subscribe and get each new coffee drop delivered directly to your door

 

Why Is Value Important?

We get asked a lot why we focus on value and proportion instead of just talking about some random dollar amount. The coffee industry loves to talk about how "the coffee supply chain is long and complex and hard to understand". And it is. It is also exploitative, colonial and imperialistic by design. The more complex it appears, the easier it is to hide. We are not convinced that you can "fix" the supply chain. It is unbroken by design. It works exceedingly well for those at the consumption end.

So we believe that the way forward is to reverse engineer the coffee supply chain. We go from value received to price paid. We simply reversed the value chain. It's not rocket science and that's why it works. 

Coffee consumers should not be burdened with a 10 page report that attempts to "provide context" into why the price a coffee roaster paid was so low. And by low what we mean is low compared to the price the consumer paid. Coffee consumers (like all consumers) are self-centered and hedonistic. They know what they paid for the bag of coffee in their online shopping cart. The price is right there, and it's high seeming.

We believe that the cleanest, simplest, least complex method of conveying the producers value to the coffee consumer is to make it  proportional. Everyone understands percentages and ratios. They are the only math most of us use every day.

Perhaps that's why no roaster has lead with proportional pricing before, it's too simple and too clear.  But more importantly than the simplicity and clarity. We are convinced that by reverse engineering the coffee value chain and making the producer's value directly tied to the final retail value, it makes such a fundamental change in the coffee supply chain that it has the potential to quite literally break the coffee supply chain and remake it in equilibrium. 

A Rising Tide:
Our vision is that all craft coffee roasters will embrace Proportional Pricing© so that we can harness our collective super power to bring coffee into equilibrium. Whether it's 20%, 18%, 10% or any other number, the impact is the clarity & transparency it delivers. The exact percentage is not crucial, it is the direct action of valuing a producer's coffee based on a preset value equation that brings the coffee supply chain a little closer to equilibrium.

Torque is not trying to imply that we pay more than anyone else, or that other coffee companies pay too little. It's our belief that reversing the value determination to begin at the retail price and applying a preset percentage is the cleanest, simplest, least imperialistic way to bring equilibrium to coffee.

So ask other roasters you know what percent of their own retail coffee prices they pay their coffee producers. We would love to talk with them and share how we make it work and how it changed our entire approach to coffee buying. This kind of radical approach is not for everyone, but it works for us and it works for the coffee producers. We think it can work for others as well.

Other roasters, importers, exporters or producers can contact us here.