The Joys of MPR Blend
by Keith Tomlinson, Head Peace Coffee Roaster

When the opportunity presents itself on the weekend, I wake up to the sun flooding into my room and I roll over to my left, then instead of hitting the usual sleep button on my alarm I turn on my radio and listen to MPR. I lay there anywhere between ten minutes and three hours before making my way bare foot across the night chilled hard wood floors to my kitchen, stopping along the way to transfer MPR to the stereo in my living room. By now my kitchen is illuminated and I make a leisurely breakfast, but not without first making a French press of coffee. 

If you are like me and listen rather frequently to one of the three options we have for public radio here, then you noticed that Peace Coffee was one of the recent membership drive premiums. After it was all finished and the order came through, we were stunned as to the enormity of the project. Following days of roasting and countless hours of bagging each pound of coffee, the order left us on seven pallets, headed out to MPR listeners everywhere.

So, what is the MPR blend? Conveniently for me and my weekend habits, it is a breakfast blend, which basically means that it is a smooth medium roast blend to start your day. It is an old world, new world combination (old world = Sumatra, new world = Guatemala, Mexico, Peru or Bolivia depending on what the best taste combination is at the time). It has a solid base of sweetness and chocolate coupled with molasses, walnut, and slight citrus, each one presenting itself more depending on what you are eating at the time. Personally, I enjoy it most with pancakes and real maple syrup.

Whether you take your coffee with pancakes or a muffin, with the news, the current, or classical music, you can enjoy it know that you are supporting something wonderful: Fair Trade, local business, and now, this year with nearly 4000 lbs of donated Peace Coffee, Minnesota Public Radio.

Cheers!

(Back to Headlines)