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Autumn is almost upon us and just like the leaves, Peace Coffee is in transition. We're expanding into a larger space with more bells and whistles, including an additional roaster which has yet to arrive in the new space. But this doesn't keep us from biking and running during some of the most beautiful months of the year. Mel is doing the Twin Cities Marathon to raise money for Bolder Options. Derek and other members of the Peace Crew are competing in the Urban Assault Ride, which we highlight in this issue of Peace Spokes. We also look back at the fun we had promoting Fair Trade and serving up our savory brew at the Minnesota State Fair. And we've got three awesome submissions for our new Why We Ride contest plus a Roaster's Corner. Kick back, read on and enjoy!
 Peace Coffee is one of many local & national sponsors for Minneapolis's first ever Urban Assault Ride, a funky bike scavenger hunt that sends two-person teams riding to checkpoints around town to complete crazy obstacle courses. Urban Assault Ride was created to show cyclists that a bike is a safe, healthful and sustainable transportation option – and a great way to get around Minneapolis. It's an entertaining opportunity to discover it can be just as easy to grab a bike lock as car keys when heading out on errands. The strategy seems to work. After completing an Urban Assault event, 92% of riders surveyed indicated they would use their bike for transportation. In May, participants in Portland, Oregon, pledged to ride 25,200 miles through New Belgium Brewing's Team Wonderbike, potentially diverting 25,000 pounds of CO2. And at the Austin event in June, 1,300+ riders discovered cycling is a great way to get around Austin.
 This pedal-powered urban adventure is an event that anyone can do. The distance is around 25 miles and the ride takes two to three hours to complete. Mental muscle is just as important as bike skills as teams choose their own route, and obstacles are a surprise until participants arrive at the checkpoint. Past obstacles have included bike jousting, adult big wheel races, stilt races, and much more. It's followed by a huge after party with food and beer, live music, and plenty of two-wheeled shenanigans. The production is powered with a solar generator, a bio-diesel truck delivers the gear to each city, and almost all event waste is composted or recycled.
In addition, Urban Assault partners exclusively with companies that have sustainable business practices and promote bike advocacy. In addition to New Belgium, Urban Assault partners include Trek Bikes, Keen Footwear, Clif Bar, Sweet Leaf Tea, Swobo, Timbuk 2, Rudy Project and other local sustainability-focused partners like us, Freewheel Bike Shop and Eureka Recycling.
Find out more and register to ride at the Urban Assault Ride website. Check out this video to see an example of the ride in the city of Austin, Texas.
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 Our bikers do a great job pedaling our beans around town. Not only do they reduce our carbon footprint, they serve as beacons for other businesses that want to incorporate bikes into their own businesses. In a recent Star Tribune article, Peace Coffee was cited as the inspiration for a local Minneapolis energy consultant to incorporate a bicycle into his business fleet. If your business would like to learn more about using bikes at work, check out the site bikesatwork.com or email us questions at deliveryteam@peacecoffee.com.
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We've had some time to recover after a whirlwind twelve days at the Minnesota State Fair last month. During the course of the event, the Peace Crew and some dedicated family and friends helped us serve more than 24,000 cups of hot Guatemalan Dark Roast and Yeti Cold Press over ice! (Speaking of Yetis, Yvonne, our Yeti mascot, had a chance to visit the fair for the first time. She was skeptical of the famed and much adored pronto pups, but was pleasantly surprised at how good they tasted! She was also a fan of the topiary garden near the Leinenkugel Stage.)
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Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth and took the time to chat with us and share their appreciation of our coffee. We got lots of great responses to the question we posed on our prize giveaway entry form, "What is your favorite summertime beverage and why?" Here are the top five answers:
1) Iced Coffee (Quick & Good Pick Me Up!)
2) Beer (It's delicious! It's BEER!)
3) Lemonade (Sweet & Zippy!)
4) H2O (It's free! No Calories!)
5) Iced Tea (Refreshing!)
Strangely, iced coffee was voted the favorite more times than we can believe. Was it that people thought it would increase their odds of winning? We have no way of knowing. But we'll take it as a compliment!
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by Keith Tomlinson, Peace Coffee
Head Roaster
Sound and Fury -- that pretty much describes the battle of noises in the warehouse lately. We are mid-expansion and we've got drywall going up, another huge wall coming down, silos being moved, people movers beeping, the weigh-n-fill, the afterburner, the roaster, some music, and hidden somewhere in all of this... the first crack of the bean. Everything is finding its place, or at least a place until in gets moved again to a new place. Yet, coffee is still getting roasted, bagged (sometimes ground first) delivered and shipped. School is back in session, and the days are getting shorter and colder. People are running marathons and taking leisure tours of the cities, all before the winter comes, and everything changes, and the busy season starts again. It is a time of transition.
Cheers, Keith
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| We had three great submissions for our new Why We Ride contest and since this is the first month of the contest, we decided to make them all winners. Congratulations to Sara, Kirsten and Brenda! |
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 Why I Ride: Sara Johnson
The first photo is of my dad at the young age of five. His mom had to strap wood blocks on the pedals so he could reach them! This first moment on a bike would be the beginning of a lifelong passion and sport for him. As you can see in his young face, it was never something he feared. Since that day, it is a daily activity he has come to depend on for his happiness and well-being. My story of learning how to ride is a little different from my dad's. When my dad taught me how to bike, rather than pure joy, I felt pure terror. I remember the apprehension that coursed through my entire body when I felt my dad's hand let the bike seat go, and send me on my way alone.
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 Yet, the second photo is of me, the cyclist's scaredy-cat daughter, shortly after completing my first triathlon this summer. I completed that triathlon, and I ride, for a very simple reason -- it brings me closer to my dad.
And of course there's also the fact that when I ride my bike, I feel the joy and freedom I see in my father's five-year-old face the first time his small feet touched those wooden blocks strapped to those pedals on his mom's cruiser. It would not be inaccurate to say: riding is in my blood.
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Why I Ride: Kirsten Moe, Kensington, MD
P- Peace of Mind
E- Energy expenditure
A- Achievement
C- Cool Comfort on a hot and humid day
E- Environment
C- Challenge
O- Optimism
F- Fitness
F- Fun
E- Enjoyment
E- Escape
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Why I Ride: Brenda Butler, Minneapolis, MN
I'm a huge Peace Coffee fan, you guys ride up and down my Minneapolis street and I buy your coffee (sometimes on my bike) at my Coop. I rode RAGBRAI this summer for the first time and loved it. I rode on a group bus with the Peace Coffee riders and didn't even know it. I saw my Balance Bike Club teammate in your picture! Fun.
Here is my Peace Coffee on RAGBRAI story:
I stopped on my first day at Little Farms to get my morning java, waited in line for a few minutes, when the woman in front of me turned around and said "today is your lucky day! Here is a coffee on me." She bought 2 for $5 and said she did this every morning on RAGBRAI. I said "Thanks! How cool. I'll enjoy it". My second day on the ride I stopped at Little Farms again and waited for my turn and lo and behold the woman in front of me turned and said "Have a coffee on me!" It was the same woman. Two days in a row, Peace Coffee passed from hand to hand in a good will gesture, resulting in a fun conversation and friendship. She was an Iowan, now living in San Antonio and wanting to know about Minneapolis because she was interested in relocating up here! We talked it up and I promised to buy her a Peace Coffee after our first ride in Minneapolis together.
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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. Email your reason(s) and photo(s) to deliveryteam@peacecoffee.com.
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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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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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