Fair Grounds - Peace Coffee

Travels on the Fair Trade Road
Coop Coffees Meets in Guatemala by Tripp Pomeroy, Cooperative Coffees Marketing Chair
Peace Coffee Bike Team Season Wrap-up by Ton Tran
Peace Coffee Bike Grinder
Catching Up With the Crew
Peace Gear: Spiffy Socks
Test Your Coffee Knowledge!
Quote of the Month
Past Issues of Fair Grounds

Travel's been in the forecast for both present and former Peace Coffee crew. In this issue of Fair Grounds, we offer insights into Cooperative Coffee’s annual meeting with our producer partners in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala, which produced remarkable results. We also debut a "where are they now" column that fills us in on the adventures of several former Peace Coffee staffers, offer some new Peace Gear, and wrap up the Peace Coffee bike team season and the Bike Grinder event. All this plus a tasty new recipe, a new roaster's corner, a quote and a trivia question make for an interesting issue. Read on and enjoy...

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by Tripp Pomeroy, Cooperative Coffees Marketing Chair

From September 2nd through the 9th, the members of Cooperative Coffees (a coop of roasters of which Peace Coffee is a founding member) gathered in Xela, Guatemala, with more than a dozen of our producer partners from Latin America to listen, learn and plan for the future. The forty or so roasters and coffee producers who attended this year’s annual meeting agreed unanimously to strengthen our relationship by addressing specific issues central to our shared vision of Fair Trade. We identified four key areas that require immediate attention, bearing in mind that we are uniformly committed to the development of a truly fair Fair Trade model.

More...

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by Ton Tran

As Peace Coffee team manager and a racer, this has been an amazing year for me. I started my training in January '05 for my first big race -- Erik's Spring Cup at Buck Hill. It was tough staying motivated while training indoors on my stationary bike and trying to catch Lance Armstrong on DVD. Also my first race was months away and as I watched the snow flying outside the window I was actually more excited about getting the Peace Coffee Racing Team together than getting my fitness level to peak performance.

Our team really came together this year with the support we received from our title sponsor, Peace Coffee. I am really humbled at how spectators, other racing teams and just ordinary people on the streets have embraced and cheered our team on at racing events and training rides. The team has grown from 25 to 40 team members and still counting. To start out, we have a very diverse cycling team that encompasses both men and women competing in mountain biking, triathlons, road racing, and cyclocross events. The Peace Coffee team has been very successful in all of these events, especially our road racing team. They started out the year with a win in the team category (CAT 4 & 5) and also an individual first place win at the the Tour of 10,000 Lakes. The success they achieved early in the year carried through to the rest of the season for the Peace Coffee team. As lady luck would have it, our Mountain bike and Triathlon team picked up where the Road team left off. Our Mountain Bike team members had numerous top 3 podium finishes in the Minnesota State Championship Series and triathlon individuals also had quite few podium finishes. Hopefully our luck continues with the Peace Coffee Cyclocross racers who are just starting their season. The team is already excited about the 2006 cycling season, hoping to have the same success as they did in 2005.

As for my own accomplishments, I found out on the day of my first race when I finished in the middle of the pack. This ended up being the carbon copy for the rest of my racing season, with a few finishes in the top ten. Overall, I am happy with my results for the 2005 mountain bike season. Next racing season, I will definitely shoot for finishing in the top five. Besides, I'm hoping to get a trip to the 2006 Tour De France for Christmas this year (Please Santa, I've been a really good boy!).

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The Peace Coffee Bike Team recently held a recreational bike ride in Rochester, MN, cleverly called the Peace Coffee Grinder. Thirty-one riders rode varied distances from 35 to 100 miles. The ride started out on a cold, 34-degree morning (which fortunately ended in the low 60's/upper 50's). Hot coffee and a lot of big uphills kept everyone warm. On the same day as our ride, there was a six-hour indoor spinning fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts. We combined forces with them and asked our riders to contribute as well. In total $8,500 dollars was rasied for the Red Cross.

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We'll use this new column to bring you up to date on the activities of former Peace Coffee employees. This month, we hear from Pam McCallister, offer a photo of Emily Snyder, and share a postcard from Brad.

Paddling to the Arctic Ocean
by Pam McCallister
My partner and I traveled 458 miles by canoe over a 30-day period. We started at Horton Lake and paddled the Horton River North. I like to say we paddled north to the Sea. The River was class II at times, but most of it was class I, so it was easy whitewater. We took a satellite phone and a PLB beacon for safety, and of course our Peace Coffee Birchwood Blend (made drip style!).

We were above the Arctic Circle for the duration of our journey. The sun never set. The temperatures ranged from 80 on a few days to freezing rain and in the 30's on others. We went through a vast array of terrain, from massive monolith cliffs to large rock hills to melting permafrost cliffs where trees were falling into the water below as the ground receded beneath them. We saw the smoking hills where the stone burned upon contact with the air, and ice polygons where the ground forms into a giant honeycomb from the freeze thaw cycle and the permafrost below. The tundra was vast and endless. I got a true understanding of infinity by the sheer masses of rock and stone, from huge boulders to tiny grains of sand.

Paddling to the sea and putting our toes in the Arctic Ocean was a good way to end the trip. The picture you'll find here was taken after a cold paddle, so we are "rugged up."

Making Up for Halloween
The zombie in the photo (as transformed by our makeup artist/office manager Jamie) is Emily Snyder, who is finishing art school at the University of Minnesota. She recently had a photo exhibition at a new gallery in town called Art of This at 3222 Bloomington Ave. S. in Minneapolis. Her photos are up until October 31st. She is also working part time at a café that doesn't serve Peace Coffee, but we forgive her!

A Postcard from the Road
We recently got a postcard from Brad the Bike Delivery Guy, who's winding his way across the country by (what else) bike. Here's what he writes:

"Hey Gang -- I'm writing from Minot, North Dakota -- a city built on bluffs and plain ambition. I'm camped out for a day or two, resting and catching up on postcards. So far, the ride's gone well. The weather's been clear, headwinds have been tolerable, highway shoulders adequate, and I'm holding up just fine.

I caught A Prairie Home Companion the other day on my Walkman and it made me really giddy. I rode into Minot just as the show was ending and barely realized two hours had passed. I miss you all so expect to hear from me soon!" -- Brad

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Biking is at the core of Peace Coffee's mission, so what better way to show pride for the sport and our coffee than our new bright and spiffy Bike Delivery Peace Coffee Socks. These socks are made tough and won't go unseen. The colors and cool design look great with or without shoes.

Our custom Peace Coffee socks are produced by New York-based Verge Sport. The toe and heel has a slightly higher concentration of nylon to improve durability and uses a thicker yarn for the nylon, acrylic and lycra, which also increases the life of the sock. Verge Sports has engineered a mesh upper with a low cut mesh side and mesh vent in the seat of the foot to maximize ventilation. The rear of the sock, where the top of a cycling or running shoe rubs the sock, is double reinforced to prevent wear and tear. Lastly, the acrylic throughout allows for water transport and quick drying. Buy Peace Coffee socks here.

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We're giving away coffee!

Think you know a lot about coffee? This month's intriguing question can be found here. Entering is easy and it's FUN!

Adam Tangen really knows his beans! He determined that the answer to last month's Coffee Knowledge question was A - it takes 2,000 hand-picked Arabica coffee cherries to make one roasted pound of coffee. Congratulations, Adam!

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"In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends."

-- John Churton Collins

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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
Jamie Schumacher
Ryan Seibold
TJ Semanchin
Nate Stevens
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*:
Nick Johnson
Keith Tomlinson

*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

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