As we read up on the hot new coffee shop in our neck of the woods, we stumbled across a new term for us.

Manic Coffee gets its coffee beans from Intelligentsia, a Chicago-based roaster practicing something called direct trade. But what is this direct trade? Well, direct trade goes above and beyond free trade - roasters like Intelligentsia buy their beans directly from the farms, skipping the brokers. They also visit the farms three four times a year, all over the world, paying above fair trade prices for quality beans. In this case, it seems to be about quality over quantity.

And since we’re talking about using a $12,000 coffee maker, you might as well use the best beans you can find!