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At Peace Coffee, summer is
often about adventure -- adventures we share with our colleagues and
those we experience solo and return with tales to share with others.
And, as always, we promote Fair Trade along the way. In this issue of Peace Spokes, Keith offers the first of a two-part story about
his recent trip to meet with farmers in Peru (that's him on the left
in the photo above). Melanee reports on her visit to Brooklyn, NY,
coffee entrepreneurs Carol and Darleen at Gorilla Coffee. We've got
news about a few upcoming events -- the 2nd Annual Peace Coffee Grind at the Velodrome and Peace Coffee's participation in the Minnesota
State Fair. We also share a quote and haiku (from the last winner of
our Peace Pride contest) and start a new monthly contest called Why
We Ride. And in the Roaster's Corner, Keith encourages us to
participate in Peace Coffee's Drink Local Challenge. Summer's in full
swing! Grab an iced Peace Coffee, kick back and read on...
by
Keith Tomlinson, Peace Coffee Head Roaster
First
Part of a Two-Part Series
 During the end of May and the beginning of June, I traveled around
northern Peru with a group of seven people (myself included) to meet
with two organizations from which Peace Coffee sources coffee through
Cooperative Coffees. Our first stop was the cooperative Cenfrocafe.
They formed in 1999 when 8 associations representing 220 coffee
producers joined together. This action was a result of a program
initiated in 1995 by then Peruvian President Alberto Fujimoro's
government that successfully reduced overall coca production in Peru
by 60 percent. This left an overall gap in the use of farmland that
the original associations saw as an opportunity. The initial main
objectives of Cenfrocafe were to increase the quality and yields of
coffee and to provide access to credit while increasing the strength
of the organization. In 2003, Cenfrocafe began exporting its first
containers of Fair Trade coffee. They now have more than 2000
members, separated into eight regional networks. There are twenty-six
people on their technical team including four agronomists. They have
a strategic plan up through 2015 that focuses most broadly on
developing organizations and communities in accordance with their
mission of harmony with the environment and quality products.
My
trip to Peru truly begins with the coffee farmer, Lucia Zurita
Zurita, a member of Cenfrocafe. She is part of the Chinchiquilla
community in the San Ignacio region of Peru. On a map, this is the
region that borders the southern most portion of Ecuador. Of her six
children, two of them, Jesus Pina Zurita and his sister, live on the
farm with her. The other children, the youngest of which is seven,
are in school. The Chinchiquilla community is located at 1800 meters
in the Andes. In this part of the Andes, a thirty-mile drive ends up
taking about an hour and a half. Given that the highest point of the
Andes is 7000 meters and the average elevation is 4000 meters, for
the Andes these are the foothills. But in the world of coffee, 1800
meters is a very high elevation for growing, as specialty coffee is
usually grown between 800 and 1500 meters. There tends to be a direct
relationship between elevation and quality of coffee. Extrapolating
this, the Chinchiquilla community has the potential for some of the
best coffee in the world.
Read on...
(Back to Headlines)
by
Melanee Meegan, Peace Coffee Marketing Manager
 On a recent trip to New York City, I had the chance to visit Gorilla
Coffee's roastery.
Darleen and Carol, the incredible duo who own Gorilla Coffee, were
gracious hosts. Gorilla Coffee started five years ago. They began
roasting out of their café location on Fifth Avenue in the
Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. Having been in the café
on a busy day, which is everyday, I couldn't imagine how they could
operate a roaster and provide space for all the folks looking to for
a place to sit and enjoy their delicious cappuccino. They, too,
quickly realized their need for more production space and found a
great spot in an industrial area in Sunset Park, only a twenty-minute
subway ride from the café.
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 I immediately spotted their roastery when I saw their trademark red
Vespas parked out front. (Gorilla Coffee, if you remember from a newsletter story from
last year, rode matching red Vespa scooters all the way from Brooklyn
to Minnesota to attend the Annual
Roasters Guild Retreat.)
I was lucky to get the best tour of NYC at night, on the back of
Darleen's Vespa! The roastery was in the midst of some cool
renovations. They just installed a floor area out of old basketball
court flooring in a soon to be completed espresso training section.
They were also in the midst of building a cupping room with an office
loft on top of it out of old farmhouse wooden boards. The 30-pound
red Diedrich roaster was
humming away while they made me a French press of their Ethiopian
Yirgacheffe. All of Gorilla's coffees are 100% Fair Trade &
Organic. They've been that way since the start and plan on sticking
it to it!
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 As we sipped coffee together on some milk crates on the floor,
they shared with me their admiration for the folks who deliver Peace
Coffee by bike and how much they want to hire a bike deliverer to
cart their beans around town to customers. So if you believe you have
the stamina to battle NYC traffic with a bike and trailer, let the
folks at Gorilla Coffee know who you are! In the meantime, there plan
is do some bike shopping in Minneapolis with the Peace Crew, and have
a bike shipped back to them so that maybe they can start delivering
by bike themselves. The fact that they'd take on the biking
themselves is an example of their overall business strategy: they
want to do all that is humanly possible to build a sustainable and
fun coffee company. They work with lots of love, dedication and
muscle to achieve this. Having hung out, drank the coffee, rode on
the vespas, I would recommend nothing else then Gorilla
Coffee for
your coffee fix if you're living near or passing through Brooklyn.
(Back to Headlines) |
The National
Sports Center Velodrome will host the 2nd
Annual Peace Coffee 2-Day Grind – showcasing team cycling from the Golden Age of Cycling.
"Minnesota has a rich tradition of multi-day team cycling.
Minneapolis was home to the first continuous six-day bicycle race in
the United States in 1896," noted Bob Williams, NSC Velodrome
Director. "We are reviving this thrilling sport with the Peace
Coffee 2-Day Grind."
 The
NSC Velodrome has hosted world-class track cycling for nearly 20
years. World and Olympic champions have raced at this acclaimed
venue, setting multiple state, national and world records. In June,
the inaugural MN
Fixed Gear Classic drew the largest, most celebrated field in Minnesota cycling history,
including 3-time World and 41-time Italian National Champion, Roberto
Chiappa.
"Six-Day racing has been popular in Europe for years," said
Williams. "Europeans adopted the sport from the US. We're
bringing it back with the Peace Coffee 2-Day Grind. This is a great
family sporting event."
The
Peace Coffee 2-Day Grind combines strength, agility and teamwork in
an exciting series of races pitting 2-person teams in sprints,
endurance races and the popular Madison - named for its birthplace, Madison Square Garden. During Madison
races, both members of the team circle the track, one member racing
and one member riding slowly – resting at the top of the track.
When the first rider tires, the second rider swoops down and is
thrown into the race by his teammate.
The
Peace Coffee 2-Day Grind begins on Friday, August 29, at 7:00 PM and
continues through Saturday evening, August 30. Admission is free to
all sessions. Come for the cycling and the coffee! For directions out
to the track, visit the Velodrome's map
and directions page.
(Back to Headlines)
 Visit
us at the Minnesota State Fair, August 21 - Sept 1! This year, you
can find Peace Coffee at the Healthy
Local Food Exhibit in the Eco
Experience Building every day during the Great
MN Get-Together.
We'll be in good company, sampling delicious bits alongside Organic
Valley,
the Wedge,
and other local, organic companies. While you're there, you'll also
be able to visit with other Minnesota organizations and businesses
working on sustainable energy, alternative transportation and other
green-minded issues.
(Back to Headlines)
by Keith Tomlinson, Peace Coffee
Head Roaster
 During
the next month in conjunction with the Eat
Local Challenge,
August 15th through September 15th, Peace Coffee is launching a Drink
Local Challenge. During the challenge, Peace Coffee will donate 10%
of sales from the Sow the Seeds Blend to the Sow
the Seeds Fund,
specifically to assist the Local
Longer Program,
bringing a local harvest to our table throughout the fall!
We've
created a new version of the Sow
the Seeds Blend.
This blend includes the most local bean we have available to us from
the Dominican Republic, as well as Peruvian and Guatemalan beans.
It's a cup full of character. From its up-front acidity, long
aftertaste to its creamy body. Catch hints of floral, lemon, and
sweet spice in the aroma and much chocolate in the taste, but most
important notice the sweetness of the Peru as it comes through start
to finish, it is in wonderful form.
It's
true. Coffee Arabica is a tropical plant and will not grow in our
Zone Four conditions. But there are many great reasons to choose a
local roaster. First off, our roast-to-order scheduling keeps us on
our toes but it means you get fresher coffee. Further, all of our
staff lives in the community, supporting our local economy. Finally,
we sponsor many local events every month, making this a vibrant place
to live. For more on this topic, check out this great post on the
Wedge Coop's Eat Local Challenge Blog: Why
Coffee is Local.
Also
don't forget about the local breweries. Surly, Flat
Earth,
and Summit are all
fantastic breweries right here in our backyard. And we can't fail to
mention the atmospheric Town
Hall Brewery that
still has Cara
Java Brown,
a limited-time beer brewed using a special, one-time-only Peace
Coffee Blend developed by roaster extraordinaire Derek.
With
all these local ways to stay caffeinated, hydrated, and inebriated,
the Eat Local and Drink Local Challenges inspire us all to think
about the many ways we can live more locally.
Cheers!
(Back to Headlines)
Our
Peace Coffee Pride winner this month is Janet E. Johnson of
Minneapolis. Here's what she had to say:
"Hi
Peace Coffee! I'm not a coffee drinker, but I know who you are. You
are the winners who support the people, the supporters who lift other
communities, our sisters & brothers in Guatemala, Nicaragua,
Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Sumatra and there are more, they are right
next door. Peace Coffee is often the door for people to understand
Fair Trade. Now I see it in bananas, pottery, clothing and more. Go
out people and let your dollars speak your values. (Don't forget to
support the artists too!). Enjoy summer."
She
also sent us this haiku:
I
don't drink the stuff
But I sell it all the time
Support the
community
Congratulations,
Janet! Because your entry was chosen this month, you win a pound of
your favorite Peace Coffee. This is the last Peace Pride contest.
This month, we start a new contest -- Why We Ride. Check it out!
(Back to Headlines)
Beginning
with this issue of Peace Spokes, we're starting a new monthly contest
called Why We Ride. What makes you ride? Can you express it in words
and/or pictures? To show you what we're looking for, Natalie Ryno,
Peace Coffee Shipping and Receiving Coordinator, shares her photos
and offers this quote about her experience at RAGBRAI:
"Riding RAGBRAI, Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, for the first time
was amazing. How cool is it that they close the entire highway down
for bikers? I can't wait to do it again next year. Everyone should
come join me for it!"
So
now it's your turn. Tell us why you ride. Send us a photo, too!
Everyone who responds will be entered into a drawing to win a Peace
Coffee Bike Team Jersey like the one Natalie is wearing in the
picture! Email us your reason(s) and photo(s) to deliveryteam@peacecoffee.com.
(Back to Headlines)
"Certainly,
travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes
on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."
~
Miriam Beard
(Back to Headlines)
Peace Spokes is a monthly publication from the crew at Peace Coffee.
ph 612-870-3440
ph 888-324-7872
fax 612-677-3989
info@peacecoffee.com
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