Radical Clarity

Why Alchemy Is Committed to Radical Clarity

“Transparency” has become an easy word to use and a hard one to define. In coffee, it’s often reduced to a handful of details, a compelling story, or a seal meant to signal good intentions. But clarity is not the same as reassurance—and at Alchemy, reassurance was never the goal.

Radical clarity means removing ambiguity, not replacing it with narrative.

Coffee is a complex product. It passes through many hands, decisions, compromises, and constraints before it reaches a cup. Most of those decisions materially affect price, quality, and outcomes for everyone involved, yet they’re rarely visible. What’s left is interpretation, trust, and assumption. Radical clarity exists to replace assumption with evidence.

At Alchemy, we believe clarity is a form of respect. For producers, it means their work is represented accurately, without simplification or romantic framing. For customers, it means access to the information needed to understand what they are buying and why it costs what it does. For us, it means accountability, which means our decisions are documented, not defended.

This commitment shows up in how we operate. We publish sourcing details, pricing information, and process data because those details matter. We don’t treat them as optional extras or behind-the-scenes material. They are part of the product itself. If something changes; costs, availability, methods...t’s recorded. Not explained away. Not hidden.

Radical clarity is not about claiming purity or perfection. It’s about acknowledging reality. Coffee exists in a real economic system, under real constraints, with real tradeoffs. We don’t believe clarity weakens trust; we believe it strengthens it by making trust unnecessary. You don’t need to believe us—you can see the record.

This approach isn’t always comfortable. Full visibility invites scrutiny, comparison, and disagreement. But that discomfort is productive. It creates better questions, better decisions, and better conversations about what coffee is and what it should cost.

Alchemy exists to make those conversations possible.

Radical clarity is not a trend or a marketing angle. It’s a decision to let the work stand on its own—fully visible, fully accountable, and open to examination.