Owned by Nestlé, the world’s largest direct buyer of coffee, Nescafe produces such products as Taster’s Choice, a “100% pure instant coffee” that features 100% bold Arabica beans from Colombia. Nestlé buys 750,000 tons of coffee beans a year.

“We start with a superior blend of coffee beans to create an intensely rich roast for a gourmet taste,” the company says. Sold in supermarkets around the world, Taster’s Choice uses “the finest Arabica beans from the lush, mountainous regions of Colombia” and contains a “fine blend of Robusta and Arabica beans picked at the peak of freshness.”

After being pressured by various fair trade organizations, Nestlé launched Partners’ Blend, a new coffee that is fair trade certified. The coffee in the blend is grown in cooperatives in El Salvador and Ethiopia, but does not include the Nescafe brand. Workers’ advocates claim the blend is merely a marketing ploy for the company, masking poor labor conditions abroad and the fact that multinational corporations such as Nestlé helped to create the coffee crisis in the first place.

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