Claudia from Sustainable Harvest sent us an update on how the cupping training program we’re helping to support is growing and involving more and more producers in Peru:

Last year [Sustainable Harvest] started the cupping training program supported by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. Through this program, Sustainable Harvest has trained more than 150 Peruvian cuppers from 25 producer organizations. These trainings have been very vigorous and now, in its second year, we are seeing the measurable impact the program has had. We see the results not only in the number of cuppers who we have trained, but also, and more importantly, in the numbers of farmers who have been trained by the cuppers taught in our Center of Excellence — a peer-to-peer exchange among producers.

One of the richest experiences we have had is with the Chirinos cupping team, formed by Eber, Miguel and Isela (all of them trained at the Center of Excellence).  These young producers and cuppers are responsible for the quality control area which, led by Eber, started a program to educate and train each committee in applying the methodology developed by Oscar in the Center of Excellence. They renamed the methodology “learn by doing,” because it is experiential, allowing the producers to use their sensory skills to taste and smell the different aromas and flavors of the fruits and spices of the zone, as well as having them drink coffees of differing qualities.

These exercises have been widely accepted by producers, with an attendance rate of 80%. In the beginning, Eber says, the producers were reluctant to believe in cupping and its importance for producing high quality coffee, but this experience has helped and motivated them not only to be more careful when harvesting and processing, but, something more incredible, it has encouraged them to do research to determine the best material and most optimal time to ferment their coffee. The producers have done different exercises, arriving to the cupping lab with their samples and requesting that these young Chirinos cuppers evaluate the samples and the different processes, and indicate, which is the process that best helps intensify the attributes of the cup. This work has required a lot of dedication, but thanks to these exercises, we’ve seen an improvement in the quality of the coffees that have arrived since the beginning of the harvest, reducing the green taste and peanut flavor founded in last year’s crop.

Another great benefit the Chirinos cooperative has seen with this training program is a decrease in rejections of the lots that producers deliver to the collection warehouse, which has allowed them to collect more coffee from their members, with exciting scores from the beginning of the harvest. The training that these young people have provided to 370 producers has been one of their most successful workshops, with positive and tangible results. Producers now go to their cooperative asking about the cupping evaluation of their coffees, and they are working very hard to get closer to achieving the expected 85 points.

This is just one example of how all the training efforts are extending beyond the classroom and reaching producers directly through word of mouth.

Text and images courtesy of Sustainable Harvest.  Thanks, Claudia!

“Be honest with me, is drinking coffee with sugar and cream the wrong way to drink coffee?”

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The National Coffee Association does an annual drinking trends survey of coffee drinkers. The 2010 version says that 63 percent of surveyed coffee drinkers put some kind of milk or milk substitute in their coffee and 48 percent put some kind of sweetener in their coffee. Only 31 percent didn’t put anything in their coffee.

If you are doing something wrong, (don’t worry – you’re not), you have plenty of company.  We used to have a customer brochure that said “the best cup of coffee is the one you like best.” We don’t have that brochure anymore, but we still believe in the saying. It’s your coffee, you paid for it, you enjoy it the way you see fit.

Me, personally? Organic Valley Half and Half and local, raw, whipped honey, every single day at my house before work.

There’s a reason sugar and cream are popular. Cream (milk, half and half, non-dairy creamers) all add body to your coffee, cool it off (!), and the fat in higher fat creamers coats your tongue and actually suspends some of the flavors in your mouth longer. Milk also cuts some of the bitter in any coffee.  Sugar? Sugar makes most things taste better.

Lastly, I will add some caveats: Lighter roasted single-origin coffees with very delicate, clean tastes tend to have their subtleties lost a bit with cream and or sugar. Darker roasts and dark roast blends take cream and sugar a little better. And when we say better, we mean the coffee stands up to the additives and still has some “say” in the end result. If you want to experiment, Fair Trade Organic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a great coffee to drink straight (no additives). Fair Trade Organic Espresso Blend in a French Press or drip coffee pot goes great with cream and sugar.

Do you have other suggestions, let us know!

As part of our Domestic Outreach, we make grants in our employees communities. In June, the employees at our Knoxville, TN facility approved a grant for $25,000 over three years to the Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee.

The grant will support the Food for Kids program in three schools. The program provides backpacks with nutritious, non-perishable food for school children to eat after-school or on weekends. The food is delivered to the schools on a regular basis. Inadequate nutrition contributes to behavioral problems, overall health and future likelihood of poverty. This program helps provide nutrition so kids can perform at school and prevent future health problems.

You can find Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee on Facebook to receive updates on their programs and services.

No mere prop, this oversized coffee cauldron has a fun and interactive component.  You can actually step inside our enormous coffee cup, lovingly dubbed the “Revelation Booth”, and share your message with the world via a text message, a digital photograph, or a short video.  Your revelation can be big or small as you want, and you could win fabulous prizes for sharing it.  Everyone that sees or reads your revelation has the opportunity to vote on it, and top vote getters are being rewarded for their cleverness and originality.

The Revelation Booth is currently on the road, giving out coffee at fairs, festivals, and on the street.  We hope you’ll have a chance to enjoy it at an event near you (while you’re enjoying that free hot or Brew Over Ice Green Mountain Coffee sample).  But if your schedule doesn’t coincide with ours, no worries – you can also enter your revelations online from the comfort of your own computer (just pretend you’re in a giant coffee cup while doing so, okay?).  For tour updates or to leave your own revelations – or just to see what others are saying and vote for your favorites – log on to www.MyCoffeeRevelation.com.  Hope to see you at an event (or online) sometime soon…

We’re about to find out, thanks to Mike from New Hampshire, Green Mountain Coffee fan and avian enthusiast, who sent our Customer Care team a most surprising and heartwarming story of his rescue of baby birds fallen from their nest:

[I] have an Eastern Phoebe build a nest under my deck. Something last night turned it over and dumped the baby birds onto the ground.  In order to try to help, I put the babies back in the nest and put the nest in one of your K-cup boxes and now they have a new home.  I have been monitoring them with a remote camera and have video of Mama and babies using your box as a nest.

And here’s that very video:

Everyone together now, “Awwwwww!” Our heartfelt thanks to Mike for sharing this with us and for being so creative in his search to help out animals in need.  Keep up the caffeinated cause!

UPDATE: According to Mike, the birds have all successfully flown the “box” – yes!