Welcome to the November 2009 edition of Fair Grounds.  Once again, we're glad you're here.  Why?  Because if you weren't, how would we be able to tell you about our "all blended coffees are 10% off sale" that's available for the next two weeks?  And where else would you find another easy and delicious coffee recipe that's ready to go right out of the inbox?  How would you hear about some of the latest Cooperative Coffees news from Sumatra?  Or the grand opening of our first Atlanta coffee house that is now only a few days away?  All noteworthy stuff.  And as if that wasn't enough, there's also the recap of a fun group of recent visitors, a 'bursting at the seams' Community Caravan, some cool Fair Trade News, and a quote from one of the trailblazers for equality.  And, oh yeah, did you hear?  Sweetwater Organic Coffee Co. in Gainesville, FL, (a Cafe Campesino company) just unveiled its new website. 

Click here to check it out.

But first, grab a cup of coffee (fair trade, organic, shade grown) and read on.  So glad you've joined us.  Cheers and Thanksgiving for your support.

10% off any of our blends

Since the intro didn't have quite enough questions (yeah, right), we thought we'd throw another one at you.  What's better than brewing some fresh roasted beans from one of the coffee growing countries of the world?  Answer: Brewing some fresh roasted beans from 2, 3, or 4 of those countries, blended together in combinations that complement, and available for purchase this month at 10% off.  Use the code nov10off at the online checkout by November 20th for 10% off any (or many) of our delicious blends.  For a full listing of the choices, click here.  And if you'd like to check out the newest one on the menu, the Sweet Auburn Blend (house blend for our newly opened coffee house in Atlanta), click here.  Sweet Auburn Blend combines Mexico Chiapas, Sumatra, and East Timor for a delightful Full City Roast coffee.  (And be sure to read about the grand opening of Cafe Campesino in Atlanta in Customer Spotlight.)

(Back to Headlines)

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Alright everyone, the holidays are here!  Joe here with a special seasonal treat everyone in the family can enjoy.  In our effort to bring the coffee house to your home, we create all kinds of delicious recipes that you can prepare in your own kitchen.  This month's rendition is a Pumpkin Spice Latte.  This delectable drink is made with real pumpkin so you get that one-of-a-kind, rich flavor that says “holidays”.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp canned pumpkin
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup milk
½ cup strong coffee, or ¼ cup espresso
1 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Mix the pumpkin and the milk in a medium sauce pan.  Heat on Medium High until steam begins to rise off the surface of the mixture.  (Be careful not to overheat and scald the milk.)
In a blender, combine your vanilla extract, cinnamon, and pumpkin milk mixture.  Blend for about 15 seconds, until the mixture is frothy.
Fill your favorite mug about half way with some strong Café Campesino coffee or espresso.
Top the mug off with the pumpkin spice blend and enjoy a homemade pumpkin spice latte.
If you have a sweet tooth, just add a little more sugar to taste.
Also, this is a great drink for the family on Thanksgiving day.  Just multiply the recipe to match the number of people.

UPDATE: Sumatra, Indonesia

Sumatran coffee is a vital part of our coffee lineup here at Cafe Campesino.  It's a popular single origin choice for many of our customers and has such a delicious impact in several of our blends as well.  In fact, looking at the consumption of raw coffee beans from Sumatra across the entirety of the 23 member green bean buying coop - Cooperative Coffees - we see that as a group, we roast somewhere around 35,000 pounds of this bean each month.  No doubt that its a crucial part of what we do as fair trade coffee roasters.

And while the supply is crucial, the source of the supply is even more so.  As you may know, the guiding philosophy of our cooperative of roasters is that we seek to form long standing, mutually beneficial relationships with the folks who grow the coffee we buy, roast, and sell.  It's about coffee, yes, but it goes deeper than that.  We want to know the folks we depend on to bring us some of the finest quality coffee in the world.  We also want those folks to know that they can depend on us for more than just a contract to buy their crop yields.  There's a business relationship that covers the buying and selling of coffee.  But there's also a personal relationship that seeks to cover the humanity of working together with caring attitudes and a commitment to a sustainable way of life.

Recently, Sumatra suffered tragedy when yet another devastating earthquake rocked this 6th largest island in the world.  More than a thousand people were killed and more than one million more were adversely affected.  Buildings collapsed; water supplies were tainted; churches, schools, offices became instantly uninhabitable.  Hard for most of us Westerners to imagine that amount of tumult.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to this nation and its people.  As of last report, none of our coffee farming partners were directly injured by the quake but there was and is a certain amount of residual grief for their extended families and countrymen.

A team of Cooperative Coffees members, including our Bill Harris, is currently in Sumatra researching and visiting possible new coffee partner cooperatives for our collective group of roasters. You see, our main source of coffee from this region, the PPKGO cooperative, while still able to export coffee, was decertified from the Fair Trade Registry earlier this year amidst some questionable financial behavior by their leadership.  While the PPKGO group works to reorganize and realign itself with the core principles of Fair Trade business practice, it leaves our importing cooperative without a year-round supplier of the coffee we love to roast and supply our customer base with.  Bill, Florent, and Mark hope to remedy that by establishing contact, communication, and new relationship with at least one of the coffee cooperatives they visit.  One of their visits will be to the Tunas Indah Coffee Farmers Cooperative.  In fact, we'll be roasting some Tunas Indah coffee in November to fulfill our orders for Sumatran coffee.  Initial cupping reports tell us that this lot of coffee is fruity, sweet, and well-balanced.  And there is sure to be a trip report forthcoming to tell us about Tunas Indah and the other farmer groups that the Cooperative Coffees team will visit. 

Stay tuned for more on this situation in the December edition of Fair Grounds.

Grand Opening of our Atlanta coffee house

Hey there, Atlanta!  Mark your calendars for Saturday, Nov. 14, because you’re invited to help us celebrate the grand opening of Café Campesino Sweet Auburn, our first Atlanta coffee house.

Store manager, part-owner and all around creative genius Maria Moore Riggs is planning a day full of festivities that includes live music, samples of her homemade baked goods, and tastings of our latest coffee to hit the shelves- the aptly named Sweet Auburn Blend.  

Although the store officially opened Oct. 31, the grand opening celebration is an opportunity to bring together Café Campesino friends from across the state and expose Atlanta coffee enthusiasts to Georgia’s first 100% fair trade coffee company.  “We want to make sure that we’re reaching out to all of the Atlanta folks who have been supporters of Café Campesino for years and spreading the word to new customers,” says Maria.

Tucked into the front entryway of the open-air Sweet Auburn Curb Market, Maria’s store generated a buzz even before it was opened.  As signs went up, windows got cleaned, and a shiny Italian espresso machine settled into its new countertop, the neighboring vendors and market regulars popped in for an early latte or an iced coffee.  And we were so well received during the setup phase.  In fact, the store’s first pound of coffee sold two days before Café Campesino officially opened its Atlanta doors.

Now, with a staff of two committed baristas- Julie, who recently moved back home after working as a barista for two years in Madison, Wis., and Nema, a recent Georgia State University grad who worked as a Café Campesino intern this year- Maria is setting her sights on attracting customers from nearby Grady Hospital, Georgia State University and downtown businesses.  “I hope to collaborate with the local community as much as possible,” she said.

She also plans to host monthly events such as coffee tastings and workshops.  With such caffeinated classics as americanos, cappuccinos, and chai lattes, as well as homemade goodies like scones sweetened with seasonal fruits, wholegrain cookies and mini donuts, monthly events won’t be the only attraction at this new coffee house.  So grab your friends, neighbors and coffee drinking buddies, and make it out for the Nov. 14 grand opening.  We’ll see you there.

P.S.- If you want to check it out before the 14th, Café Campesino Sweet Auburn is located at 209 Edgewood Ave SE and its hours are Monday-Friday, 6:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday, 8 a.m. -5 p.m.  And bring your computer, because it is wired (with wi-fi… as well as caffeine).

Mount de Sales Academy

Last week we had the special privilege of hosting more than 50 juniors from Mount de Sales Academy (Macon, GA) who were here to learn about fair trade and tour our roastery.

This well informed, curious group of high schoolers is taking a Social Justice class as a part of the 11th grade curriculum at Mount de Sales, an independent Catholic preparatory school.  The class is meant to foster empathy and compassion, enable students to critically examine society and encourage them to imagine ways to work toward justice and peace.

Tripp, their host and tour guide, offered a background of Café Campesino and an overview of fair trade that covered issues of supply and demand, ethics, international commerce and the importance of organic farming.  He then fielded tough questions like, “How do you know what a fair price for coffee is?”, “How big is a 40,000 pound container?” and “Is Starbucks coffee fair trade?” 

Students then donned hairnets to take their fair trade knowledge into the roastery where they heard 45 pounds of heated coffee beans crack and pop as the beans released natural oils during the roasting process.  They also saw the bagging system where Maty de Barrios, our production manager, will manage up to 1,000 pounds of coffee a day during the busy holiday season.

The students’ enthusiasm during the tour, their thoughtful questions, and their willingness to wear (incredibly cool) hairnets for nearly 10 minutes made their visit a real treat for us.  We look forward to hosting a second group of Mount de Sales juniors in the winter.  Thanks for coming!

Return To Eden - On Friday, October 9th, Tripp headed up to Atlanta, with family in tow, to check out the new Return To Eden MARTA bus wrap featuring the Cafe Campesino logo... keep your eyes peeled for the bus (it's impossible to miss) and check out Return To Eden Organic Market when you get a chance!

October 20th - Tripp spoke at the Americus Rotary Club lunch at Georgia Southwestern University.

October 21st - Dave and Tripp trekked up to Cobb Harry's Market (Whole Foods) to serve up coffee in support of the Georgia Flooded Farmers Relief Fund benefit.  Nice people and a great cause.

October 24th - Bill and Tripp headed up to see our longtime customer, Harvest Moon Natural Market, in the beautiful town of Canton (where the Fall foliage was out in full), to sample Cafe Campesino, talk fair trade coffee and help celebrate the market's 5th anniversary!  Kudos to co-owner Alisha O'Brian and her staff for a really nice event... and an incredibly inviting, well-organized market.  When near Canton, be sure to stop in and check out Harvest Moon - for more info:  visit Harvest Moon's website.

Nov. 5th - Tripp and Geoffrey head down to Gainesville, where Tripp has been invited to participate in a panel - "University of Florida Alumni Social Entrepreneurs" - whose ventures focus on sustainability-related issues.  Although Tripp isn't an alumnus of UF, the good folks there have asked him to represent Sweetwater all the sam

Nov. 7th – our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore Grand Opening - Cafe Campesino will be serving up the usual in support of our next door neighbor's grand "re"-opening.  The store is worth checking out - totally transformed... doors open at 8 am.  When you're done, be sure to walk next door and see us at the coffee house!

That afternoon (Nov. 7th), Tripp, Amanda, and Geoffrey will be hosting about 20 young folks and their chaperones at Sweetwater Organic Coffee Co. as part of the CRS "Just Like You" Fair Trade Teen Leaders retreat.  Tripp will talk with the group about fair trade coffee and Sweetwater's role as a fair trade roaster and member of Cooperative Coffees.

Nov. 8th – Cafe Campesino congratulates our friends at Sevananda Natural Foods Market on the celebration of their 36th year.  Our Cafe Campesino Sweet Auburn partner Maria Moore Riggs will be serving up Cafe Campesino at the anniversary celebration this Sunday at the Cator Woolford Gardens' Frazer Center from 3-7p.m.  Educational seminars on CoOperative Education will be lead by guest speaker Mark Goehring of Cooperative Development Services, along with artists and exhibitors market, musical performances by the Sevananda Artist Alliance and an original theatrical production by our 2009 Be The Change Partner, the Academy Theatre.  A vegetarian banquet dinner will feature guest speaker Phil Howard, the Assistant Professor of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies of Michigan State, as he presents "Food for Life".  The Frazer Center in the Cator Woolford Gardens is located at 1815 Ponce de Leon Ave NE in Atlanta. For more information, go to www.sevananda.coop or call 404-681-2831.

On November 12th, Tripp will participate in a Fair Trade panel as part of the "Globalization and Development in Latin America" course offered by the University of Florida's School of Natural Resources and the Environment.

On the evening of the 12th, stop by the coffee house in Americus and enjoy a free screening of "The Motorcycle Diaries".  The film is based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution.  Doors open at 7:30pm.  Movie starts at 8pm. (and we've got popcorn!)

Nov. 18th - Live music - 8pm @ the coffee house in Americus.  Since their debut in early 2005, Information Superhighway has been a fixture on the Chicago music scene. With singer Leslie Beukelman and composer/multi-instrumentalist Rob Clearfield at the helm, the Superhighway easily transcends the confines of genre and tradition. Alongside bassist Patrick Mulcahy and drummer John Smillie, Clearfield and Beukelman draw on such diverse influences as '70's prog rock, jazz, gospel, Icelandic ambient-pop, Americana and the best of today's underground rock, creating a sonic world that is uniquely their own.

On Friday November 20th, Tripp will be speaking with graduate business students from the Poe Center for Business Ethics, Education, & Research at the University of Florida.

Nov. 21st-22nd - A crew of staff and volunteers representing Cafe Campesino will be at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA, along with the thousands of students, people of faith, and human rights activists attending the annual vigil at the School of the Americas.  The School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) is a grassroots movement that stands in solidarity with the people of Latin America to close the SOA/WHINSEC and to change what many believe is the oppressive U.S. foreign policy that the SOA represents. This marks the eleventh year that Café Campesino will have served coffee at the SOAW.  Profits from the event go to SOAW.

Nov. 24th-25th - Our coffee house in Americus will be the site of pickup for folks who order sweet potato-pecan pies baked fresh by our friends from Koinonia Farm.  Yum.

Nov. 26th-27th-28th – Please note that our office, roastery, and coffee house will be closed on these days so that we can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday break with our family and friends.  Hope that you can do the same.  Feel free to leave us a voicemail during this time if you need to place an order or ask a question.  We'll be back to work on Monday, Nov. 30th.

Reverse Trick or Treat

This past weekend, as many as 20,000 groups of children across 47 states and Canada distributed nearly 250,000 Fair Trade chocolates along with informational cards to raise awareness to the plight of inhumane work conditions that still exist in some cocoa producing regions of this world.  Many of the workers forced into brutal hours in the field with little or no pay are children whose labors are very simply for the sake of heartless corporate profit.  Now in its third year, the "reverse trick or treating" campaign aims to get consumers to consider the source of their goods.  (Note: the United States consumes about half of the world's chocolate:  2.8 billion pounds annually)  Fair trade chocolate not only commands higher prices for the farmers but its certification as such demands environmentally friendly practices and humane work conditions.  A sweet move towards fairness!

Cafe Campesino is proud to offer Divine fair trade chocolate (from the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union in Ghana) that has our very own fair trade, organic espresso beans ground and mixed into the "candy bars".  Our friends at Koinonia Farm ('hey Geneva and the bakery crew') work their magic in the candy room to create these outstanding treats. Fair trade and delicious.  If you'd like to try this product, click here to order.

"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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
info@cafecampesino.com

Staff:
Nancy Aparicio
Dave Campbell
Maty de Barrios
Marco de la Paz
Jason Foster
Tiffany Gilbert
Bill Harris
Geoffrey Hennies
Joe Johnston
Tripp Pomeroy
Tyler Willis
Rebecca Young

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