Ruled out
Country as origin
“Product of Ethiopia” is a customs statement, not an origin. If the station cannot be named, the lot is not bought.
The House of Origin Standard
Traceable, or it is not ours.
Five questions we have to answer before a lot is bought. Not a promise about how we feel — a checklist a supplier either passes or does not.
ChecksFive
Applies toEvery lot
Published asOrigin Passport
Place · People · Process · Proof · Taste
The five checks.
Most food brands can answer one or two of these. A lot that cannot answer all five is not sold under this name — it is simply not bought.
In practice
What we actually ask for.
The same five checks, written as the specific evidence each origin has to supply.
Ethiopian coffee
- Place
- Region, woreda and washing stationNamed on the bag, not just “Ethiopia”
- People
- Station, cooperative or producerNamed, with the price paid recorded per lot
- Process
- Harvest window, fermentation hours, drying method and days
- Proof
- Grade, moisture, defect count per 300 g, cupping score
- Taste
- Cupped blind twiceOn offer sample, then again on arrival
Tunisian olive oil
- Place
- Estate, region and grove elevation
- People
- Mill and family namedExtraction at their own mill, not a broker's
- Process
- Pick date, hours from grove to mill, extraction temperature, filtration
- Proof
- Free acidity, peroxide value, K232 / K270, polyphenol count, sensory panel
- Taste
- Tasted blind against the previous harvest before purchase
Analysis is performed by an accredited laboratory and released with the lot rather than on request. Where a figure is not yet in hand, this site says so.
Origin Passport · in development
Proof you can hold.
A standard is only useful if a customer can check it. Every bag and bottle will carry a code that opens the record of that specific lot.
Scan
A printed code on the pack — no application to install. On a phone, open the sample record rather than scanning the preview.
Read the lot
Place, people, harvest, processing, laboratory analysis, tasting notes and brewing or serving guidance — for that lot, not the brand in general.
Keep the record
Each lot page stays online after the harvest sells out, so a good year can be asked for again by name.
The other side of a standard
What this rules out.
A standard that costs nothing is decoration. These are the things it stops us doing.
Ruled out
Blending to a price
Mixing regions to hold a price point is normal in this trade. It also erases the thing we are selling.
Ruled out
Borrowed photographs
No stock image of a farmer stands in for a relationship. Producer photography is published when the producer is ours to photograph.
Ruled out
“Premium” as a description
Where a number exists — altitude, acidity, polyphenols, cupping score — the number is printed instead of the adjective.
Land → People → Product → House → You
The chain the Standard protects.
Five links. Each one is a place where information is normally lost, and each one is a place where we intend to keep it.
The land sets what is possible. The people decide how much of it survives picking, fermentation, drying or pressing. The product records those decisions. The house verifies them. You get the result, and the record that explains it.