|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
It's
that time when giving takes center stage, and at
Peace Coffee, besides giving gifts of Fair Trade
coffee, we're looking for ways this year to reuse
and recycle. In this issue of Fair Grounds,
we offer up some resources for recycled gifts. We
also
share advice from our resident equipment expert,
spotlight a brewery serving a unique winter
concoction, brag about our recent awards and
introduce you to our Made in Minnesota Breakfast
Basket. All this plus a new recipe, Dr. Coffee and trivia
question add up to a most festive holiday issue --
settle in with a steamin' mug of Peace Coffee and
enjoy!
(Back
to Headlines)
|
|
 |
|
Last
month in our newsletter, we featured a story about
Eureka Recycling, an innovative non-profit
recycler operating in St. Paul, Minnesota. The
folks at Eureka are also behind The Free Market, a
materials exchange program meant to divert
reusable and repairable items from the waste
stream. It is a web-based exchange program that
has 75,000 active users nationwide. Since it began
in 1997, the Free Market has facilitated more than
13,000 exchanges of durable goods, diverting
nearly 2,000 tons from the waste stream. Peace
Coffee lists our burlap sacks on the Free Market.
We’ve also listed our office furniture and found
some functional pieces to replace what we we’re
giving away. Check out the site www.twincitiesfreemarket.org.
It is super user friendly and a great way to give
away everything from old VCR’s to freezers and
exercise equipment.
If
you don’t have time to list items on the Free
Market, check out the list
of charities and secondhand stores that will
happily take your household goods immediately.
(Back
to Headlines)
|
|
 |
|
 This
holiday season, enjoy our Made
in Minnesota Breakfast Basket – Start your
morning off with a fresh pot of our darkest roast
coffee. While your coffee is brewing, heat up the
griddle and start cooking delicious pancakes made
from organic grains grown and milled in Welcome,
Minnesota. Cover your pancakes in the sweet maple
goodness of award-winning Wild Country Maple Syrup.
Their syrup operation has almost 12,000 taps, making
it the largest maple syrup producing sugar bush in
the state of Minnesota! Pour your coffee into the
Peace Coffee mugs and enjoy breakfast with your
friend or lover. This complete breakfast comes in a
Fair Trade Kaisa Grass basket woven by members of an
artisan’s cooperative in Bangladesh.
(Back
to Headlines)
|
|
|
|
|
by
Rachel Hiltsley, Resident Equipment Expert
 I
remember still when my father first got a French
press; this was back around ’95. There weren’t
many coffee connoisseurs in the day but my dad was
on the forefront of discovery. This is the guy who
had a burr grinder while everyone else in America
was still drinking coffee from a can. I loved that
French Press though, so euro looking with it’s
rounded chrome lid and simple chrome housing for
the pyrex glass beaker, it looked so task
oriented. I was duly impressed. My father even had
a hot (I mean 212 degree hot) water tap installed
in his kitchen sink so as to make the process
easier. Now I know not everyone is like my father,
but one needs neither the obsessive love for
coffee, nor a hot water tap to enjoy the beautiful
simplicity and the pure coffee flavors that a
French press has to offer.
Here
in the lab we cup coffee regularly, meaning that
we grind coffee dump hot water on it
(ceremoniously of course) and allow it to steep.
This is how we do quality control, it allows for
all of the coffee flavors to really show through.
The French press is the brewing equipment that
comes closest to this process. It’s also the
cheapest piece of equipment that is capable of
brewing coffee at the temperature recommended
(around 195 degrees). Most home auto drip pots
brew at well under this temperature, leaving your
coffee under extracted, and your palate with a
slightly bitter taste.
With
a French press you simply heat water up in your
teakettle and pour it over the fresh grounds in
the pot. Let it sit around 4-5 minutes and press
the plunger down. Voila! Rich, thick coffee, you
bite into this coffee don’t just sip, it’s got
a mouth feel like a good Bordeaux, oh man I could
easily turn into a weirdo who goes on about it but
needless to say it’s my favorite piece of coffee
brewing equipment. And I have a lot.
Which
of course brings me to my point. Look! We now sell
Bodum French presses on our website.
They’re super cute ranging from the tiny 1
cupper to the rather large 5 cupper. Now, the
numbers on the box say 3, 8 and 12 but don’t
listen to them- in Europe they like dainty little
cups of coffee. That just doesn’t cut it for us
so I’ll tell you 1, 3 and 5 are more realistic
numbers. They make great gifts for college
students, coffee lovers, and people who just like
attractive but functional things. The presses are
made in Portugal.
(Back
to Headlines)
|
|
|
 While
all of us here at Peace Coffee know that our beans
are tops, it’s nice to have a little recognition
of that fact. Peace Coffee has recently received
top honors in two taste competitions. First, we
walked away with Best Single Origin and Best
Espresso awards from a showdown with our peers at
the Cooperative Coffees annual meeting in
Montreal. And more recently, Twin Cities coffee
drinkers voted us Best Coffee at the Calhoun
Square Coffee Festival.
This
September, Mane Alves, of Coffee Lab
International, cupped (roaster speak for tasted)
and rated dozens of different coffees from
Cooperative Coffees members. Both of our entries
scored the highest. The complex and spicy
Ethiopian won Best Single Origin, and our smooth,
robust Espresso Blend won its category. All of us
at Cooperative Coffees buy the same raw coffee
beans, so this award tells us our roasting style
is bringing out the best in our beans.
Back
here at home, Peace Coffee had another
well-attended booth at the popular Calhoun Square
Coffee Festival a few weeks ago. This time, we
went head to head with other local and
not-so-local coffee roasters. Once again the folks
attending the event voted us their favorite
(we’ve walked away with this honor 4 of the 5
years we’ve participated). Thanks to all of our
fans out there! We were brewing the Ethiopian and
our new Colombian Dark Roast and folks couldn’t
get enough —- literally, we couldn’t brew fast
enough as people kept coming back for their second
third and even fourth cup saying "this is by
far the best coffee here, where can I find this
stuff?"
So
for those of you who weren’t sure you’re
drinking the best brew around, it’s official. It
doesn’t get any better. And for the skeptics who
say Fair Trade doesn’t taste as good, we say,
bring it on!
(Back
to Headlines)
|
|
|
| by Doug
McKenzie, Jr.
 My
two favorite beverages have been creatively
merged to produce a wonderfully balanced and unique
flavor that will satisfy the most sophisticated of
palates. The good folks at Town Hall Brewery and
Peace Coffee have joined forces this winter and
are excited to announce the release of
"Black Snow," a porter-style beer that
contains a special blend of premium Columbian and
Ethiopian coffees. Porters are dark beers that are
easy to drink, meaning they aren't too
filling or too strong in terms of "dark
flavor". The special blend of Columbian
Heavy Pedal and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffees
coexist in perfect harmony with the delicate
richness of barley and hops. This beer is rated at
%5 alcohol by volume so it won't knock your socks
off with boozy flavor.
Town
Hall Brewery is located at 1430 Washington Ave. S.
in Minneapolis. Stop by and have a pint of Black
Snow by the fireplace or pick up a 64 oz.
"growler" and enjoy your spoils at home.
(Back
to Headlines)
|
|
|
|
| We're
giving away coffee!
Think
you know a lot about coffee? Then enter our Fair
Grounds Trivia Contest. Click
here for our question of the month. Entering is easy
and it's FUN!
Ed
Kohler of St.Paul, Minnesota, is the
winner of last month's Coffee Knowledge contest.
He knew that TIP stood for To Insure Promptness
(as in prompt service). Congratulations, Ed!
(Back
to Headlines)
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Fair
Grounds is produced by:
Cooperative
Coffees
Contact
Information:
Orders
and General Information
Phone - 612.870.3440 or 1.888.324.7872
Fax - 612-677-3989
E-Mail - info@peacecoffee.com
Web - http://www.peacecoffee.com
Peace
Coffee Crew*:
Anna
Canning
Beth Backen
Rachel Hiltsley
Andy
Lambert
Melanee Meegan
Michelle Ramier
Jamie
Schumacher
TJ Semanchin
Scott Patterson
*We
work together to get the coffee out to our customers.
Although we have specific job titles, we all take turns
switching roles and putting in time where it's needed
most.
Peace
Coffee Bikers*:
Brad
Wilson
*Our bikers pack a mean trailer full of coffee. They are
speedy as speedy gets. Watch out, when they are on the
street, they mean business!
Fair
Grounds is designed by:
Starstruck
Design
335 West Gill Road
Gill, MA 01376
Contact
Information:
Don Kruger
Lynn Nichols
Phone - 413.863.7752
Fax - 413-863-7752
Web -
http://www.starstruckdesign.com
You
are receiving your Fair Grounds e-newsletter
because you told us you wanted to get it, or a good
friend of yours suggested to us that you would like to
get it. If you like it, let us know. If you want to
suggest ways that we can make it better, let us know.
Our e-mail is info@peacecoffee.com
If
you would like to unsubscribe to the Fair Grounds
E-Newsletter because:
- You may have more than one e-mail address on our list.
- Your e-mail address may have changed.
- You're going on a six month visit of Latin American
Coffee Cooperatives (Take us with you).
- or any other reason
simply send an e-mail to: newsletter-off@peacecoffee.com
and put your e-mail address in the subject line.
Remember,
you are always welcome to visit our website at http://www.peacecoffee.com
|
|
|
