Simon LeVelt Coffee

In 1817 Simon Levelt opened a little shop in Amsterdam selling the best teas and coffees from around the world. Two centuries, and six generations of Levelts later, that shop has grown into a renowned coffee roasting house and tea merchant, still run by members of the same family.

The handing down of the business from father to sons and daughters has created a well established tradition at Simon Levelt, whereby everything is done in-house, from buying, blending and tasting to production and packaging. This helps to enable close monitoring of the teas and coffees, and a quality end product.

It also means that they have developed important ties with the tea and coffee producers they work with. Strong believers in sustainable enterprise, the company has always aimed to obtain a good quality product while helping to create a better environment and improve social conditions at the plantations. Farmers, with whom close links have been built up over the years, can count on fair prices for their crops, a rare feature of the often exploitative and volatile trade in raw commodities. The company also provides knowledge, experience and financial support designed to enable the producers to improve product quality, convert to organic farming, and carry out social projects. They have helped to establish a health clinic, primary school, and facilities for drying coffee. In Darjeeling, India, one of the producer groups supplying tea for the company has its own ‘Ambootia Simon Lévelt Primary School’, founded in 2002.

For Simon Levelt, organic farming is integral to sustainable enterprise. Conventional farming methods not only damage soil quality, they also undermine workers’ health, and Levelt have been selling organic tea and coffee for over 25 years, long before it became fashionable to do so!

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