Fair Grounds Newsletter from Cafe Campesino

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

Putting the "Café" in Café Campesino
Newsletter Special: 10% Off Ethiopian Yirgacheffe
Producer Profile: Oromia
Community Caravan
Quote of the Month
Past Issues of Fair Grounds

Café (noun) — a small restaurant where drinks and snacks are sold.

Hmmm... in Spanish, café means coffee. And in our case, when combined with Campesino, as in Café Campesino, it means coffee a la small scale producer... which our customers know means great, roasted-to-order, 100% Fair Trade, organic coffee.

But soon we'll be adding the English language definition of café to what we do. That's right, we're opening a coffee house right here at 725 Spring Street and we're pretty durn excited about it, too!

For years we've had folks (a lot of folks!), from all over, stop by to grab a pound or two of coffee, sample our fresh brews, tour our roastery, and have a chat. Well, saddle up your coffee mugs cuz we're about to "break wall" on our coffee house and we hope that anyone who is within range will come visit once we're up and running, which should be before the end of May. Stay tuned for updates on our progress and photos!

While you're thinking about reasons for traveling down to beautiful Southwest Georgia this summer (Habitat for Humanity International's Global Village, SAM Shortline Train, President Carter's home town of Plains, Koinonia Partners, the Rylander Theater and yes, just a few miles East, the Telephone Museum in Leslie… to name a few), read on to find out about this month's flurry of activity in Community Caravan, learn about our friends at Oromia in Ethiopia from whom we get this month's special Yirgacheffe, and add another great Café Campesino coffee recipe to your collection.

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This month, Maty is insisting that we offer our Fair Grounds readers a discount on our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, produced by our friends at Oromia's Yirgacheffe cooperative in Ethiopia The reason? She thinks our Yirgacheffe Medium Roast is a truly extraordinary coffee and should be experienced by all coffee lovers. And we couldn't agree more.

Maty explains that our Yirgacheffe medium has a "delicious" citrusy aroma (a touch of lemon and orange), rich fruity flavor, and nice, sweet, aftertaste. Drinkers of our Yirgacheffe agree with Maty that it offers an exceptionally clean, well-balanced, great tasting cup of coffee with appreciable body.

Order any size bag (1, 2, and/or 5 pound) of our Yirgacheffe Medium Roast and get 10% off of the regular listed retail price. Be sure to enter promotional code 8etya when prompted at check out or let us know if you call in your order. Please note that the newsletter special applies only to retail customers and cannot be combined with any other discount or promotional code.

To learn more about Oromia, read this month's Producer Profile.

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The oldest independent country in Sub Saharan Africa and the only African country that has never been colonized, Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. All varieties of coffee, whether grown in Asia or Africa, Central or South America, the islands of the Caribbean or Pacific, can trace their heritage to the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau. The mountains to the west of the the country's Great Rift Valley are ideally suited to growing arabica coffee and the area traditionally produces some of the best coffee in the world.

more...

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Bill arrived back in Americus on March 18 after spending two weeks traveling throughout Guatemala and Colombia. Joining Bill on his return home was our lovely friend, favorite cupper, and phenom coffee grader, Madlyn Madrid, who led staff and roastery visitors alike through valuable cuppings down here at the roastery. Thank you, Madlyn!

For folks who aren't familiar with cupping, the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America, of which Café Campesino is a member) describes it as follows:

Cupping is a method of systematically evaluating the aroma and taste of coffee beans. It is often used by growers, buyers and roasters to assess the quality of a particular coffee sample. Proper cupping requires the adherence to an exacting set of brewing standards and a formal step-by-step evaluation process. A trained cupper generally looks at six characteristics:

Fragrance - the smell of beans after grinding
Aroma - the smell of ground-up beans after being steeped in water
Taste - the flavor of the coffee
Nose - the vapors released by the coffee in the mouth
Aftertaste - the vapors and flavors that remain after swallowing
Body - the feel of the coffee in the mouth

Source: http://www.scaa.org/whatis_cupping.asp

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Bill, Tripp, and Tripp's son Hugh just returned from a four-day journey to our friends at Heine Brothers Coffee in Louisville, Kentucky, where they attended the Cooperative Coffees (CC) annual Executive Committee Retreat. Tripp, who serves as CC's treasurer, and Bill, who is the founding president of the coop, were joined by Mike Mays, co-owner of Heine Bros Coffee and CC's vice chair; Jody Treter, co-owner of Higher Grounds Trading Co. and CC's chair; Lee Wallace, director of Peace Coffee and CC's secretary; Monika Firl, CC's manager of producer relations; and Tio Pistilli production manager for Bongo Java, a fellow founding member of Cooperative Coffees. This two-day meeting brought the executive committee together to work on Cooperative Coffees' effectiveness as the only Fair Trade green bean purchasing cooperative of its kind, that we know of at least, in the world!

On their way back to Americus from Louisville, Tripp, Hugh and Bill stopped off at Ruby Falls — a 145-foot underground waterfall located more than 1120 feet beneath Lookout Mountain's surface — in Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to Hugh (Bill and Tripp too!), this natural wonder is a must see. Oh, and by the way, if you're ever in Chattanooga, be sure to stop and eat at Lupi's Pizza Pies… perhaps the best pizza and pizza-eatin' place in the world!

Upcoming events…

On April 12th, Tripp will journey to long-standing customer, supporter and good friend The Sentient Bean to talk Fair Trade and cup our coffees with the staff of Savannah's best coffee house.

While Tripp is at "the Bean," Bill will be at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta from April 11-13 for the 3rd annual Bioneers Southeast Forum, "a 3-day celebration and exploration of innovative and visionary approaches to designing a better future for humanity." On Saturday afternoon, Bill will join our friend Steve Cooke of Sevananda Foods, Heather Gray of the Federation of Southern Coops, and Rashid Nuri of Truly Living Well Urban Gardens as a speaker for the session entitled Social Marketing & Framing the Issues for Success. To learn more about this year's forum and the work of our friends at Bioneers/Inspring Futures, visit their website.

On Tuesday April 15th, Bill will travel up to his alma mater Georgia Tech as a featured speaker for the Amnesty International chapter's annual Human Rights Week series. The event starts at 6:00 PM with a screening of Black Gold, followed by Bill's presentation, which will focus on the benefits of, and challenges presented by, Fair Trade to native peoples.

It's that time of the year again! Café Campesino is getting all geared up for this year's BRAG Spring Tune-up, where we will, as usual, be serving up BRAG Brew to the hard-workin, fun-lovin cyclists who make BRAG a time-honored tradition. Cyclists and their families are invited to join in the 15th annual BRAG Spring Tune-Up ride which starts in Madison, Georgia and runs from April 18th-20th.

From May 1st through the 4th, Rebecca and Tripp – along with Bill and Abby from Coop Coffees - will be traveling to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for this year's annual Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) conference. The SCAA will be hosting their 4th Sustainability Symposium on Friday, May 2nd, which will explore the numerous social and environmental advances and achievements since the last forum (held in San Francisco in 2000) while also setting new challenges for the future. On Friday, Bill will represent Cooperative Coffees as one of five speakers featured in a symposium entitled Selling Sustainability: Spreading the Gospel or Green Washing?

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"Make your life a mission - not an intermission."

~ Arnold Glasgow

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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/category_s/2.htm
info@cafecampesino.com

Staff:
Chelsea Carter
Maty de Barrios
Marco de la Paz
Bill Harris
Lee Harris
Geoffrey Hennies
Karen Macario
Ciera Moreno
Tripp Pomeroy
Lily Royster
Rebecca Young

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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