We recently had a representative from Numi come to Calgary to give us some more training on their great products. I noticed a DVD with a video on flowering tea - so I ripped a copy and put it up for you all to enjoy! 

Check out this link: “Fifth Avenue Club - Belo Auction”It is an on-line auction that one of our coffee customers has organized. Darren from Fifth Avenue Club & Juice & Java coffee bar is totally renovating their fitness club, and they have put a ton of commercial fitness equipment and all kinds of other things on the auction in order to raise money for the small village of Belo Ethiopia. This is the same village that we at Fratello Coffee have been sponsoring for the last 4+ years! In addition to the proceeds of this auction, Darren has committed to donating $3.00 per membership per month to support the development work in Belo! Very cool!So, check it out. Auction ends Oct 17. “Fifth Avenue Club - Belo Auction” (Read the rest of this post)

VARGINHA, Brazil — Rafael de Paiva was skeptical at first. If he wanted a “fair trade” certification for his coffee crop, the Brazilian farmer would have to adhere to a long list of rules on pesticides, farming techniques, recycling and other matters. He even had to show that his children were enrolled in school.“I thought, ‘This is difficult,’” recalled the humble farmer. But the 20 percent premium he recently received for his first fair trade harvest made the effort worthwhile, Mr. Paiva said, adding, it “helped us create a decent living.”More farmers are likely to receive such offers, as importers and retailers rush to meet a growing demand from consumers and activists to adhere to stricter environmental and social standards. Mr. Paiva’s beans will be in the store-brand coffee sold by Sam’s Club, the warehouse chain of

Wal-Mart Stores. Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s and Starbucks already sell some fair trade coffee.“We see a real momentum now with big companies and institutions switching to fair trade,” said Paul Rice, president and chief executive of TransFair USA, the only independent fair trade certifier in the United States.  (Read the rest of this post)

Its auction time again, however this time it isn’t Nicaraguan’s, itsGuatemalan’s. This Thursday we will be joining in on the Cup ofExcellence auction to try our best in getting another lot of theseexciting coffees.We just finished sampling all 19 of the farmers who qualified this year,and all of them were fantastic. The number 1 lot had an impressive fullround body and clean finish. Its wasn’t as spicy as I like Guatemalancoffees to be, but the extremely large beans gave a visual impressionsimilar to the Maragogippe bean popular in the 90’s. They were muchlarger then a screen 18, which is the largest screen, and could havebeen a screen 20-22 (if it existed).So wish me luck on Thursday as I hope to get us one of these 19 lots.

Recently we have been discussing the best way to contribute back to the developing world. As coffee suppliers it seems that there are two primary avenues–both revolving around green bean sourcing. One (fair trade) is socio-economic. The other (certified organic or other designation) is environmental. While I like both designations A LOT, since they speak to direct results in origin countries, they do lack something for me on a deeper more personal level. What is missing is the edge of direct involvement with the people and/or the environment of the place designated to receive aid.It seems that often we must gauge our understanding of the success of a program on how much is put into the program, how many dollars are invested, and not on what comes out–what is happening on the other side with the recipients of the aid–in effect the “customers”.One of the defining features of Fratello Coffee has been its commitment to Belo Ethiopia. This program is essentially the owners of this company directing and monitoring the results of an 8 year development plan in conjunction with CHFI. The Belo program is designed to direct assistance resources derived from the sale of roasted coffee in North America to this one particular community in Ethiopia. The funds are directed in a way that allows basic infrastructure, like sanitation and water supply, to be developed by the residents themselves. Other funding goes to basic education and literacy. While ten percent of all profits go to supporting these efforts, the ultimate success of the program is measured against particular objectives.Going forward we will present news from the efforts in Belo on this blog. Hopefully we will see progress and continuous improvement. We hope to show how aid money manifests as actual benefit to recipients themselves. Stay tuned.

Some of you might find this interesting (maybe not?), but I thought I would send this chart out for you to look at. As you will see, Canadian Food For The Hungry (the organization we have partnered together with in the sponsorship of Belo Ethiopia) has BY FAR the lowest amount of money going to administration. This was one of many reasons we chose to deal with them…as most of the money that the company distributes to them goes to those people who need it versus some huge administrative infrastructure. Check out some of the others out there!!? Crazy.