Culture is defined as the knowledge and values shared by a society. Culture also springs up around things that bring people together – coffee, for example.

It’s more than a love for the flavorful drink with a boost of caffeine. It’s an appreciation of a local farmer who perfectly nurtures the coffee bean. It’s a pleasure in roasting the beans until they’ve reached their maximum flavor potential. It’s an admiration of the hundreds of flavors of coffees from all around the world. As with most cultures, it is better understood when experienced.

“I love the humanitarian aspect,” said Dave Delchamps, an economics major and 1000 Faces Coffee employee.

Fair Trade Law is a trendy issue these days, but there is an even better way to protect local farmers. Buying coffee by single estate means coffee produced by a single farm, single mill or single group of farms, and marketed without mixture with other coffees, Kenneth Davids from Coffee Review said.

For instance, 1000 Faces Coffee buys from a farmer named Arturro. His farm, Finca el Injerto, is in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. His coffee won the Coffee Cup of Excellence in 2009. Or there is Manuel from Lourdes de Naranjo, Costa Rica, whom Delchamps has had the pleasure of meeting.

“He’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met,” Delchamps said. Through buying Manuel’s coffee directly, 1000 Faces supports him at a greater rate than through Fair Trade.

Many coffee companies are faceless, but not those of Single Estate farmers. The coffee sells for approximately $2 per pound higher than Fair Trade coffees, but the higher price is worth the quality.

Coffee has twice the flavor-producing chemical compounds of red wine, and this is more noticeable when not harvested through mass production. Many local coffee roasters are beginning to buy from Single Estate farmers.

Erin McCarthy, coffee connoisseur, loves the challenge of taking the flavorful beans and creating a masterpiece in a cup. She sees it as a way to bond with others who share her love.

She considers the farmers her friends and her taste-testers her family. Every Friday at Red Eye’s Coffee Culture she sets out several cups of dry grounds of different types of coffee.

Her participants smell the grounds dry and then wet, and then taste the coffee once brewed. They discuss the fragrance, brightness and body of the aroma and flavor. This process is called cupping.

McCarthy can create a cup of coffee that has no need for cream or sugar.

In fact, she says it is better without.

McCarthy shares what many others who are a part of the Coffee Culture feel – and that it’s about the bliss of finding something to be passionate about.

Their bliss is coffee.