Holiday Blend Program
Since 1999, Counter Culture creates a special coffee in celebration of the holiday season. Each year, we focus on particularly spectacular coffees, roasting and blending especially with the holiday in mind. We often use the opportunity to revive a traditional roasting technique or blending style, and to offer a glimpse into a fading coffee tradition. In the spirit of holiday giving, we also donate one dollar per every pound sold of the blend to a special cause close to our heart. For every pound of Holiday Blend we sell, we donate one dollar to a cause of our choice, and the story of the organization becomes part of the story of the coffee. For the first seven years, we chose local groups and international coffee-grower-support groups as a demonstration of our commitment to the health and well-being of our local community and to coffee-growing communities around the world.
In 2006, we decided to revisit our program and change it to reflect our company's growing involvement with our grower partners and their communities. As our relationships at origin matured and deepened, we recognized that Counter Culture was ideally positioned to contribute directly to the development of our producer partners' communities. Instead of contributing to general good works around the world, which of course would be worth our while, we decided to ask our farmer partners directly about their needs, and then work with them directly to steward funds from our Holiday Blend sales to fund projects specifically designed to benefit their communities.
Recipients of Holiday Blend donations have included:
2007: our partners at the 21st de Septiembre Co-op of Oaxaca, Mexico, to support education and training programs for the women of the co-op.
2006: our partners in Humure, Rwanda, where we donated 23 dairy cows to assist with community nutrition and organic fertilizer production.
2005: Coffee Kids, which connects with NGOs across Latin America to improve the quality of life for coffee-growing families
2004: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, which supports regional farmers
2003: Grounds for Health, which screens for cancer in coffee-growing communities
