Until October 2026 we described our uncertified coffees as organic by practice: grown without synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers, on farms too small to carry a certificate. We have retired the phrase. Malaysia's Food Regulations 1985 reserve the word organic for food certified to the national standard, MS 1529, and Singapore, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States draw the same line. A qualifier does not change that. So we now write what is true without borrowing the word.
What the phrase was trying to say
The word organic has two meanings that have drifted apart. One is a way of farming. The other is a certificate. A grower with a few hectares in the Sarawak highlands can farm without a single synthetic input and still hold no seal, because the audit costs money and years the farm will never recover. Organic by practice was our shorthand for that gap. The farming was real. The word was not ours to use.
What we write now
For a coffee from a certified farm, we write from a certified-organic farm. The certificate is the farm's, not ours: our roastery in Cheras is not a certified handler, so the tin carries no organic seal, and we say so rather than print one. Ethiopia Kayon and Peru Palto are the two.
For a coffee without a certificate, we write grown without synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers. Where that rests on the farm's own account rather than on a certificate, we say that too. Our Sarawak Liberica and the lots from Finca El Diviso in Colombia are described this way. No organic certificate, so no organic claim.
Why the test matters more than either
A certificate proves that a farming process was followed and audited. It says nothing about what the green bean picked up in storage or transit, and nothing about the cup. Where we have a laboratory report, the green beans were screened at an independent laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 for ochratoxin A, aflatoxins and pesticide residues before roasting, and the report is published in full on the coffee's page. Kayon and Palto carry one. The others do not, and their pages say so. What we test for, and why. What the word organic covers, and what it does not.
The short answers
What did organic by practice mean?
Grown by organic methods without the certificate. Many smallholders farm this way and cannot afford the audit. The phrase described real farming, but the word organic is reserved by law for certified food, so we no longer use it for uncertified coffee.
Is an uncertified coffee less clean?
Not necessarily. Certification proves a process was audited, not that one coffee is cleaner than another. Only a laboratory test on the green bean speaks to residues, and only where a report exists.
Is certified organic better?
Certification proves a process, not a flavour. It is a useful signal, not a guarantee of quality or safety.
Why do the Kayon and Palto tins carry no organic seal?
Because the certificates belong to the farms. Our roastery in Cheras is not certified as a handler, and a seal needs an unbroken certified chain from farm to tin. We say so rather than print one.
