Fair Grounds Newsletter from Cafe Campesino

888.532.4728 (tel)
229.924.2468 (tel)
229.389.4814 (fax)
(more contact info)

Having a Hot Time in the Old Town
Newsletter Special: East Timor Dark Roast
Producer Profile: Cooperative Café Timor
Critical Mass for the Masses: Customer Spotlight
Community Caravan
Quote of the Month
Past Issues of Fair Grounds

We know we aren't alone in saying "ayyy carrumba, is it hot!" In this month's newsletter, we'll remind you how to keep cool with a few of our special traditional iced espresso drinks, because if your part of the country is anything like ours, you need a way to cool that body of yours down! Also in this edition of Fair Grounds, learn more about our producer partner Café Timor, whose beautiful coffee is on special for our newsletter readers (by the way, our East Timor dark just happens to be perfect for making iced coffee drinks), read more about our good friends at cdp digital download/coffee express who are getting bicyclists all over the country hooked on our Critical Mass dark roast blend, and scan Community Caravan for the goings-on during what used to be known as Café Campesino's "down time."

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Get 10% off when you order a 1, 2, or 5 pound bag of our clean, dark East Timor origin! If ordering online, please enter promotional code etimor2007 upon checking out or, if ordering by telephone, please be sure to mention the promo code to the person who takes your order. Please note that the newsletter special applies only to retail customers and cannot be combined with any other discount/promotional codes.

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Cooperativa Café Timor was founded in the wake of the destruction of much of East Timor (also known as Timor-Leste) after it gained independence from Indonesia in 1999. In 2000, a group of farmers, in an attempt to successfully market their coffee internationally, united to form Café Timor. Today, the organization has grown to include 21,553 members 18 basic geographic groups, and 444 small-scale farmer groups.

The Fair Trade price has allowed Café Timor to establish various social and productive programs. Using primarily Fair Trade premiums, they have set up revolutionary healthcare programs, focusing primarily on prenatal care because of the high infant/maternal mortality rate, that include 10 full-service clinics and 25 mobile clinics that make regular calls to remote locations. Free primary healthcare is provided to all Café Timor members and their immediate families. They have also implemented a business skill development program that provides members with training in bookkeeping, management, English language, and computer skills. Purchases of de-pulping machines, fermentation vats, several trucks, power generators, and the construction of a waste-water treatment facility at the co-op's wet processing facility have improved their processing greatly.

Café Timor produces 100% organic Arabica coffees, harvesting the cherries between May and September of each year and exporting from July to March. The coffee is grown at elevations around 1,200 meters (about 3900 feet).

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Café Campesino is fortunate (and grateful) to have an ally in cdp digital download/coffee express and its founder Becky Afonso, a native Floridian who lives in the Tampa Bay area (Go Bucs!). The letters "c-d-p" have no particular meaning individually but were used to develop the company logo which looks like a cyclist on a bicycle.

Originally, cdp toured with five bicycle events, providing digital camera downloads to CDs (for those camera happy riders who filled up their memory cards), scenic postcards of the riding area, and offering the riders a chance to make postcards from their own digital photos during the event. In 2006, cdp expanded as cdp coffee express to offer coffee in the morning. They attended six additional tours that year with coffee supplied by a previous corporate employer.

But Becky wanted to switch the cyclists to Fair Trade coffee, so cdp and Café Campesino started talking business. We struck a deal and cdp and Café Campesino teamed up in 2007 to brew the Critical Mass blend at 11 different bicycle tours all over the United States, including Bike Florida, Bike Virginia, Michigander and Shoreline West in Michigan, Bike Northwoods and SAGBRAW in Wisconsin, and Cycle North Carolina.

"The Fair Trade aspect of this coffee has made people feel even better about starting their day," Becky Afonso states. "Getting a decent cup of coffee at a bicycle tour can be a little tricky, but when you serve a good tasting blend like Critical Mass, then tell people it's a Fair Trade coffee, well, it's nothing but smiles."

Check out their website for more information on this unique company.

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What is supposed to be downtime in the Café Campesino world is turning out to be just the opposite!

On July 16th, after spending a long, hard week training Americus' youth (including Tripp's son Hugh and daughter Maria Sol), in the art of soccer... European-style, Eurotech coaches Petr Prochazka of the Czech Republic and Robert Bartlett of Scotland visited us at the roastery to get a break from the oppressive heat and learn about this thing called Café Campesino. Petr and Robert – it was a pleasure meeting you and on behalf of Americus' soccer fans (and yes, there are many more than one might think), THANK YOU for visiting us down here in the hottest corner of the country's prettiest state!

On July 20th, Tripp spent the morning visiting our friends Young and Surelyn Lee and family and their top-notch staff at Sweet Temptations in Suwanee, talking about coffee, organics, and Fair Trade... talk about Southern hospitality – thanks Sweet Temptations for hosting Tripp and family! That afternoon, Tripp traveled over to Buford to visit Café Campesino customer and friend Pam Chandler and her crew at the inviting Red Sky Café to talk coffee, espresso and more coffee. On Sunday, Tripp and family stopped off at long time Café Campesino supporter and customer the Crimson Moon in Dahlonega, Georgia for an outstanding lunch on the Moon's second floor open porch overlooking the town square. Each of these places is different and all are a must see... check them out, you won't be disappointed... guaranteed!

This past Saturday (August 4th), Bill hopped on a plane to Colombia for a strictly coffee oriented visit (wink, wink, nudge nudge, say no more, saaaay no more). Stay tuned for more on Bill's excellent adventures in Colombia!

On Saturday, August 18th, Tripp and his wife will be in sunny Savannah sittin' at Sentient (the Sentient Bean) sippin' coffee and splicing together a six-minute segment about sustainable trade with our friend and Sentient Bean owner Kristin and SCAD bud Michael. Stay tuned for a YouTube link to this work in progress in the near future. Then on the 25th and 26th, Geoffrey will be back in town to serve up Café Campesino at the BRAG SummerRide 2007, a Southern Hilly Hundred mile route in beautiful Jasper, Georgia. Jasper is Georgia's First Mountain City, located in the Marble Capital of Georgia. SummerRide 2007 is an official part of Jasper's Sesquicentennial Celebration. To learn more about SummerRide 2007, visit www.brag.org.

Also on the 25th, our favorite Cooperative Coffees dynamo and keeper of the flame, Abby Welch, will be married to Josh Trantham (who doubles as Café Campesino's equipment maintenance guy)... Congratulations Abby and Josh!

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"Wisdom begins in wonder."

~ Socrates

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Fair Grounds is produced by:

Café Campesino
725 Spring Street
Americus, GA 31709

Contact Information:

Orders and General Information
Phone - 888.532.4728, 229.924.2468
Fax - 229.389.4814
http://www.cafecampesino.com
www.cafecampesino.com/store/index.php
info@cafecampesino.com

Staff:
Lee Harris
Tripp Pomeroy
Bill Harris
Chelsea Carter
Maty de Barrios
Marco de la Paz
Luz Figueroa
Geoffrey Hennies
Lily Royster

Fair Grounds is designed and delivered by:

Starstruck Design
335 West Gill Road
Gill, MA 01354

Contact Information:
Don Kruger
Lynn Nichols
Phone - 413.863.7752
Fax - 413.863.7752
http://www.starstruckdesign.com

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