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With our ongoing expansion plus a full event schedule, it's crazy busy here at Peace Coffee. But our work sustains us and we love it (especially when we can still squeeze in some quality biking time!) In this issue, we're all about biking, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and the connections between them. In Miles, Pounds and Speed Part Deux, intrepid bike courier Andy Lambert compares the CO2 offset by bicycles and trees. As October is both national Fair Trade Month and Coop Month, we're out and about spreading our Fair Trade message (and serving up our favorite brew). We also report on our exhilarating Peace Crew outing to the National Sports Center Velodrome, share some rave reviews, showcase our new Diedrich roaster, and start a new photo contest. Grab yourself a mug of Peace Coffee, read on and enjoy...
by Andy Lambert, Peace Coffee Bike Courier
 It has now been over a year since I started as one of Peace Coffee's full-time bike couriers and I have to say, I've gained some weight. Seventeen pounds of muscle, that is. I was at my brother-in-law's house the other day and noticed a digital scale in his bathroom, so I weighed myself. I was shocked at what I saw, 192 lbs.! I remember weighing myself within the past year and I distinctly remember weighing 175 lbs. because it was the leanest I had been since high school. I've been using the same notch in my belt for years so I know that the extra pounds I've gained aren't settling around my waist. The gain in muscle mass is undoubtedly attributed to the fact that from September 17th, 2007, to September 17th, 2008, I have towed 57,217 pounds of roasted coffee over 3,994.63 miles around Minneapolis and St. Paul.
As you can tell from the title of this article, this is part two of a piece that I started back in April of this year. In that article, I estimated, after 25 weeks of data collection, that I would bike approximately 4,408 miles by September 17th, 2008 (exactly one year after I started collecting data). As you can see from the actual data, I missed that estimation by a little over 400 miles. However, based on my average daily mileage calculations for the months of May-August, I would have just barely beaten that estimation had I not missed 27 days of biking. If I had not gone on tour with Pert' Near Sandstone in late April or filled in for Brian in the van when he was out, I estimate that my total mileage as of September 17th, 2008 would be plus 500 miles of the actual total.
Read on...
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 In the United States, October is designated as Fair Trade Month and Coop Month. And never ones to sit by the sidelines, we're joining the celebration! We've spent the first half of the month working with enthusiastic MPRIG groups to promote Fair Trade on their school campuses. At Macalester College, their food service provider, Bon Appetit, cooked up a delicious Fair Trade menu for all their dining halls. It includes tasty items like black bean fair trade cocoa soup & fair trade banana chocolate bread. At the the University of Minnesota, a group of students held a "taste off" between Fair Trade and non-Fair Trade coffee to prove that Fair Trade coffee tastes just as good, if not better, than non-Fair Trade!
 During the second half of the month, Peace Coffee will be served to coop members at a handful of annual meetings of Natural Food Cooperatives. Our director, Lee Wallace, will be the keynote speaker at the Mississippi Market Coop annual meeting on Oct. 29th. Lastly, our head roaster, Keith Tomlinson, will be giving a talk and photo presentation about his recent trip to Peru, during which he visited two coffee producing cooperatives: Cepicafe and Cenfrocafe near Jaen, Peru. He will talk about the positive impact of Fair Trade in Peru and touch on some of the challenges they are still facing there. We are looking forward to seeing as many passionate fair traders (and skeptics as well) as possible for Keith's talk at Common Roots Cafe on Thursday, October 16th, from 5-7 pm at 2558 Lyndale Ave South.
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In early September, the Peace Coffee Crew had an amazing opportunity to ride on the Velodrome track in Blaine, MN. Velodromes, if you never seen one, are steeply-banked oval cycling arenas. The purpose of the track's design is to provide racers a smooth predictable surface on which to maintain the highest speed possible. All velodromes are not the same, some have very gentle banking, and others are very steep. And although all are oval, some are elongated, with sharp turns, while others are almost round with short straight-aways.
The Velodrome at the National Sport Center that we rode on is 250 meters long with 43-degree banking in the corners and 15-degree banking in the straight-aways. Velodrome tracks are constructed from a variety of materials, including concrete, cinders, wood – and in the early days, grass. The NSC Velodrome is one of only three outdoor wooden tracks in the US. It is made of 42 miles of ultra-durable African Afzelia wood.
To begin our session at the track we were all given bikes to ride based on our height. Track bicycles have no brakes and only one gear. The gear is "fixed" and so doesn't allow the rider to "freewheel" or coast. Riders apply backward pressure to the pedals to slow the bike. Some of the Peace Coffee staff rides fixed gear bikes around town but for some mastering fixed gear was the first challenge of the evening. Before we were allowed to actually ride on this precious Olympic rated track, we received an hour practice session with Bob Williams, who runs and maintains the track. We did a lot of practice laps on flat ground with grass (in case we fell!). Shortly after our tutorial the entire crew was up on the track doing 30+ miles per hour! We did laps and raced one another late into the evening. It was exhilarating and tiring. It definitely tops the list as one of the best Peace Coffee outings in history.
The 2008 Velodrome racing season has just come to an end so we won't be out there again until 09. In the meantime, the folks at the Velodrome are conducting a brief fan survey. They'd really appreciate your feedback. Everyone who completes the survey will have a chance to win one of 5 Peace Coffee t-shirts. They will use your answers in their continuing effort to make track cycling a more exciting and fun event in Minnesota. You can take the survey here:
Also, if you, your bike team or your company are interested in setting up a night of riding at the Velodrome, contact Bob Williams, at bwilliams@nscsports.org or 763.785.5614.
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 Peace Coffee's delicious Ethiopian Yirgacheffe received an 89 point score on Coffee Review. Reviewer Kenneth Davis' blind assessment of the coffee was: "Tangy citrus, berry and mild, perfume-like floral aromas. Lemony bright acidity and full, juicy mouthfeel. Lemon-toned citrus carries from aroma to cup but is balanced by an elegant sweetness and hints of blueberry. Clean yet tart finish."
His second review was of our Guatemalan Light Roast, which was scored just one point below the Yirgacheffe, or a worthy 88 points. He assessed it as: "Complex aroma: butter, raisin, aromatic wood, hints of flowers and dark chocolate. In the cup the dark chocolate notes move forward, with continued suggestions of raisin and flowers. Medium body. Simple, rich finish."
To read the complete reviews of these coffees go to:
Peace Coffee Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Peace Coffee Guatemalan Light Roast
Also, Peace Coffee received a hometown honor in Metro Magazine. We were listed number 15 out of a list of 100 Reasons to Love the Twin Cities in their October issue. You can read the reason why we were chosen here. Isn't it obvious?!
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Stay warm and toasty this fall with Peace Coffee in your mug or our fun wool Peace Coffee socks on your feet. This month, order anything from our website and get a 15% discount off your entire order (before shipping charges are added). Just enter PSOct2008 in the Promo Box at checkout and you're good to go!
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by Keith Tomlinson, Peace Coffee
Head Roaster
The new roaster comes alive! Jim from Diedrich was out here for three days last week getting us up and running on our new CR-70 roaster. Derek and I spent Thursday and Friday playing around with a couple of our coffees. The controls are mind-boggling. We have full control over airflow and flame in ways that we could only dream of before. This allows us to play with more variables while we roast, giving us the ability to bring out even more flavors and nuances in our coffee. We are beyond excited. As we get our coffees up and running, Derek and I will be cupping them together every morning and making decisions about what that day's batches are going to be like. We have already cupped five different Guatemalan Dark roasts and are thrilled with the incredible variance in flavors. Next up... French Roast.
Cheers, Keith
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Here's a new contest opportunity: Last month in Ready Made magazine, we ran an advertisement asking readers to submit photos of things they saw on their daily bike rides. We told folks that our favorite submission(s) would be featured in the following month's ad and the winners would receive both a pound of Peace Coffee and wool bike socks!
Here are the winning photos from the first ad:
David Thomsen
Nixa, Missouri
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Noel Cunningham
Chicago, IL
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Heather Boggs
Bangor, ME
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Rachelle Nones
Queens, NY
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Would you like the chance to be one of the winners included in our next Ready Made ad? Send pictures of what you see on your bike rides to deliveryteam@peacecoffee.com.
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"The future belongs to those who understand that doing more with less is compassionate, prosperous and enduring and thus more intelligent, even competitive."
~ Paul Hawken
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Peace Spokes is a monthly publication from the crew at Peace Coffee.
ph 612-870-3440
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