News Archive
Paper Sustainability: We're Doing Better Starting Today!
7-17-12
Starting today, we are significantly reducing the amount of paper we print / recycle each day in our Durham production facility.
For the last two years, we've been printing multiple pieces of paper for each wholesale order to get the right coffee into the right box – all but one of which got recycled every day. With a newly implemented bin system, we are now printing only one page per order! That's a big reduction!!
To put this into context, for production wholesale orders in 2011, we printed close to 63,000 pieces of paper. That's 126 reams of paper! And, while we recycled 41,000 pages of that, we no longer print extra pages that need to be recycled.
I'd like to point out all the hard work that Tom Burns, Ryan Stickles, and Jeff McArthur have done to make this happen. I'm really excited we're not using so much paper now!
-Thomas Nickles
IT Manager
IT Manager
Fresh. Seasonal. Decaf.
7-17-12
Freshness is important in coffee. As soon as coffee is plucked from the tree, it begins to lose the characteristics that make it so special. For years, we've been dedicated to seasonality in coffee, offering coffees at their peak. This is an endless, cyclical journey – embracing new coffees as they are harvested and enjoying them until the next season, the next wave, the next round of flavors.
We envision Decaf Farmhouse Organic like a box of produce straight from the farm: it may differ from month to month, but it's always great and it's always delicious and it's always perfect. We've always approached decaffeinating coffee the same way: decaffeinating coffees in their season, so they are at the peak of freshness and deliciousness, which is especially important for decaf. Maybe that's why we've always had such great decafs.
Rustico Organic, Simply Delicious
7-13-12
Rustico began with our quest to build a rustic, complex, satisfying espresso blend out of coffees from the best, most exciting certified organic farms we knew. The result was extraordinary; deep, delicious, complex, and compelling. Over the years, we realized that an important part of Rustico was the sundried natural Ethiopian component; the layer of deep fruit atop the base of chocolate, nut, and pastry flavors. This note has become the focus of the blend, building the coffees around it, celebrating its mouthwatering fullness of flavor.
We began experimenting with Rustico as a brewed coffee and realized the fullness of flavor translated to drip coffee just as deliciously as espresso – so much so that we think that it's a shame to limit the coffee with its name. And, so Espresso Rustico becomes simply Rustico: a beautiful, full, layered, complex, fruity, organic coffee – still making perfect espresso with exactly the same recipe but more versatile than that.
-Peter
The Seasons Provide
7-6-12
Summertime can be like Christmas for coffee lovers. Harvests for East Africa and Central America – two of the largest coffee producing regions in the world – come in hot and heavy, delivering surprising gem after surprising gem.
Speaking of summertime, Kesher Buna – as the natural sundried process is called in Ethiopia – is a coffee that screams summertime. Blueberry season recently began here in the South, and, by a beautiful coincidence, the naturally blueberry-toned coffees featured in our Kesher Buna coffees have started to arrive, too. Our first Kesher Buna coffee this year is Kilenso Mokonisa, a perfectly prepared natural sundried coffee.
In southern and eastern Ethiopia, drying coffee in its fruit can magically lead to berry flavors in the cup – juicy, sweet, mouth watering berry flavors. This is not a given, however. Sometimes, these coffees can be overripe or funky tasting. Rarely, a coffee like Kilenso Mokonisa comes along – perfectly prepared and clean, screaming ripe fruit and pastry – like a summertime berry tart in a cup. What could be better? The seasons provide.
-Peter
Coffee Farming, Soil, and Organic Agriculture
6-29-12
Coffee education, quality, and sustainability are interdependent. Because we strive to be leaders in sustainable coffee and combine our commitment to buying the highest quality coffee with respect for the natural environment, we feel a responsibility to share what we learn with everyone. So, we're especially excited about a new addition to our Counter Intelligence coffee education lineup: an hour-and-a-half workshop called Coffee Farming, Soil, and Organic Agriculture, which debuted today in Durham.
The workshop introduces the concepts of agriculture as they relate to coffee farming, using organic certified Finca Nueva Armenia in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, as a case study. Participants learn about the agricultural intricacies of coffee production, explore organic alternatives to chemical fertilizers, and take away a seedling to nurture at home. As much about agriculture as it is about coffee, Coffee Farming, Soil, and Organic Agriculture s a great workshop for those in the coffee industry, but you don't have to be a coffee person to attend. Gardeners, foodies, agriculture scholars, organic activists are encouraged to participate. Stay tuned to our Counter Culture Coffee facebook page for future editions of this and other workshops.
Thanks,
Nathan
Nathan
Note: Our deliver carriers will not be operating Wednesday, July 4, in observance of the Independence Day holiday. No packages will be delivered that day, and packages in transit will not be moved toward their final destination. We will als be closed Wednesday. Orders received after midnight tonight through midnight Wednesday will be roasted, packaged, and shipped on Thursday, July 5.
