Food & Drink
Changing the World, One Cup at a Time
Every bean in this line is fully traceable, so you’ll know exactly where your coffee came from, who grew it, and the care that went into every step.
Tracer Coffee is a veteran-owned business bringing generations of Colombian coffee tradition to Charleston. Located downtown inside the Live Oak hotel, this is coffee that needs to be on the radar of every self-respecting coffee connoisseur in town.
Tracer Coffee founder Gina Cordoba sources directly from family farms in Colombia, South America—a country renowned for its top-tier coffee. Colombia has near-perfect growing conditions, and Colombian farmers have a deep-rooted tradition of coffee cultivation, often passed down through generations, honoring both tradition and sustainability.
“Directly sourced” means a shorter path from farm to cup than traditional roasters, and you’ll taste the difference. Another reason for the exceptional quality of Tracer’s coffee is the coffee beans (cherries) are selected and harvested by hand. When coffee cherries are harvested mechanically—we’re talking to you, Big Coffee—both ripe and unripe cherries are processed in the mix, negatively affecting the overall quality. Hand-picking is a much more time-consuming and physically demanding way to harvest, but you’re assured that every coffee cherry selected is ripe and of the highest quality.
“The name Tracer,” Cordoba explains, “was inspired by our military roots and reflects the way we approach everything: with precision, integrity, and purpose. Every bean in this line is fully traceable, so you’ll know exactly where your coffee came from, who grew it, and the care that went into every step.”
That “traceability” is part of Tracer Coffee’s larger mission. Cordoba wants people to know that child labor is a widespread and deeply entrenched issue in the global coffee industry. Many coffee farmers and laborers around the globe don’t make a living wage (sometimes less than two dollars per day), forcing families to rely on their children to work alongside them.
“Every cup of coffee you buy,” Cordoba tells us, “can be a blessing or a punishment to another human being.” Tracer Coffee is dedicated to creating positive change in the coffee world. The coffee they import is from farms dedicated to sustainable farming practices that protect the environment, harvested by people who are paid a living wage, with zero child labor.
Stop by Tracer for the exceptional coffee, and drink it knowing that your morning cup o’ joe is a blessing to the farmers Tracer works with. Who couldn’t use some extra good karma with their caffeine? And if you’re visiting Charleston, great news! They ship their ethically sourced, small-batch coffee worldwide.
Want to discover more local? Follow Fig Magazine on Facebook and Instagram for inspiration.
