This summer has had a learning curve on it. Certifications, licensing and lingo.

I know several organic farmers, and I know using the word Organic is very controlled. This also comes true in the coffee world. Just because you buy something organic, you can not even just simply re-package it without loosing the Organic certification. If has to be done in a USDA certified kitchen and the paperwork is overwhelming.

That being said...my packaging can and will state "contains 100% organic beans." That is legal and plays by the rules. I won't be listing it as "Organic bag of coffee." There is a loophole for coffee roasters, they don't require certification for under $5000 per year. However, I plan on doing more then that so I'm playing by the book this year.

Rainforest Alliance is one that I like. They certify the farm and the produce, and let's people who use these products correctly keep using that certification and labeling.

The TransFair Fair-Trade program isn't too bad to deal with. I have to buy from certified importers, record the lot numbers from each bag of coffee and submit the paper trail back to Transfair. It would be really neat if this was real-time and you could go to a website and enter a code from a package and see where and when each transaction took place but I submit all records every 6 months. Obviously, you just caught on a little to my other day job....computers, data, and workflows....

Even though I started out buying FTO coffee, I didn't include the exact wording or sell it as such at the start. I tried to time a low inventory to our certification so that new inventory coming in would be covered. I wasn't going to fudge any numbers on the overlap, and the retro-certification process seemed to much of a hassle for the little we had left. Besides, some of the bags that had numbers on them were probably acting as weedblock in my garden!

Right now, I think we are near 50% FTO on the lineup, with a few more to come. Here's a tidbit.... FTO stands for Fair-trade, Organic. I have not seen a Fair-trade, non-organic coffee. So, if I'm selling Fair Trade coffee, you know it was Organically grown and processed and I also follow the rules of separate and sealed storage. Rest assured, you are getting the best beans I can find even though I'm not paying every agency for the rights to all the marketing terms.

Is it the Spring in the air, or just lots of caffeine? Our newer coffees are becoming fast growing hits, and today the Yirgicheffe is back on the menu and a NEW Fair-trade, Organic Mexican Chiapas is ready. It is amazingly clean, earthy, and tasty. Not only sustainable, but each bag creates a donation to a Biosphere Reserve cloud forest.

Don't forget to become a fan on facebook.

Things are crazy out here in the country. A rainy spell put the harvest behind schedule. So everywhere you look, there is harvesting being done right now. Maybe a little caffeine will help things along.
We are currently working on a web-site re-design. Make this friendly, easy to order from, and much better looking.

We will be at the Santa's Workshop in Jefferson later this month, but don't forget that we deliver and offer a low shipping rate.

I left Jefferson to do a few errands today, but stumbled on a few great surprises.

1. Our coffee is FRESH. I fret about getting you coffee less then 3 days old. A week is my absolute limit for anything. I've heard rumors that bags of coffee in grocery stores can be 2 months old on the day they hit the shelves. I know the open bins of bulk coffee are stale, but on every bag of coffee I picked up, teh 'Best if used by date' averaged 10 MONTHS from now!!! The worst was a full year ahead of today. The lowest date I found was 6 months. Was that because that fishy bag was already old, or that they promote fresher coffee? I don't know.
2. We are still cheap! As far as speciality coffee goes, we were at the bottom of the range. Even compared to a few other roasters, we were matching the bottom side of the scale. However, the grocery chains had us all beat by far. Does GBC, or any other speciality coffee compare to the junk you find in stores? No, so we do not compete with them directly.
2a. However, we are offering an Economic Stimulant package for your caffeinated recovery efforts. That's right, $1 off many of our most popular coffees. This, along with our $5 shipping....what a deal

Bonus Day.

Our local friends know that we have free local delivery in Jefferson. Today the weather involved clear skies, sunshine, and 60+ degrees. Today marks the day of our first bicycle powered delivery run. This should become our norm as the weather gets better.

COFFEE NEWS:
I'm about to add Colombian and Panamanian coffees to the menu.

During this past week, we have done our first marketing push. The reaction has been great.

The people who claim to be "the coffee drinkers" by their friends, which probably means they stop at the expensive chain stores, have been giving rave reviews and falling in love. Almost everyone has said what great coffee it was.

The word is getting out too. I was making a delivery to one office, when a co-worker came running up. "You're the one doing coffee!" A reputation perhaps? The best story was from a neighbor who visited one of our tastings. She told us how, since Christmas, she keeps getting a craving for coffee around 10pm. I wonder if it is because I usually roast between 6-8:30pm, and a slight whiff floats across the street.

COFFEE NEWS
Due to an unexpected change, our Moka-Java is NOW 100% Fair Trade and Organic. For some reason, true Mocha coffee beans are not in our country at the moment, so I scoured the shores of the Red Sea for a close comparison. I created a sample roast of an Ethiopian Sidamo, and tasted it side by side with the last of my Yemen mocha. It was a little brighter and had just a little more presence, but had little difference in flavor. Truthfully, about half of the Moka-Java blends out there use an Ethiopian bean over a true Yemen. And being organic certified, I'm willing to make that jump.