November 2009

Coffee-related products

Holiday gift guide for sustainable coffee lovers

In case you don’t come across enough holiday gift guides this season, I’m highlighting some of my favorite items, many of which you can find year-round in the Coffee & Conservation store.

The two best coffee books are Uncommon Grounds The History Of Coffee And How It Transformed Our World and God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee. Here is my review of God in a Cup.

Another book I have not yet read is Ivette’s Natures Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty, which includes a chapter discussing coffee. Authors Ivette Perfecto and John Vandermeer are University of Michigan professors who have done so much of the pioneering work on biodiversity and shade coffee. More on this book here.

Three excellent low-tech coffee brewing devices are the Chemex Classic Glass Coffee Maker; the AeroPress Coffee and Espresso Maker, which is excellent for travel; and my favorite press pot, the Planetary Design Table Top Stainless Steel French Press. I reviewed its smaller cousin the travel French Press mug, and the same praise applies to the larger models.

I also like to recommend gold coffee filters to reduce the use of paper filters.

I’m pretty blown away by the remarkable art of Andrew Saur and Angel Sarkela-Saur, who use coffee to produce stunning watercolors. Take a look at their gallery at Coffee Art; prints start at only $10.

Earlier this year I screened the three-part documentary Black Coffee. It was extremely well done and traces the impact of coffee through history. Readers may also be interested in the story of Ethiopian coffee in the well-known powerful film Black Gold.

Finally, if you’d like to spread cheer directly to coffee-growing communities, please consider a donation to the Cafe Femenino Foundation, Grounds for Health, or Kiva micro-loans to coffee farmers. This is really what holiday giving is all about.

Coffee news and miscellany / Retail and specialty roasters

Very special promo on Counter Culture Holiday Blend 2009

My holiday fundraiser for the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center

One of my favorite coffees is Counter Culture’s Finca Nueva Armenia from Guatemala’s Huehuetenango region. We reviewed it in November 2008. Here are some quick facts about this coffee:

  • Although it is not marketed as such by Counter Culture, this is a certified Bird-Friendly farm, meeting the highest shade and biodiversity standards available for coffee. You can verify this status at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (SMBC) web site; just click on “Guatemala.”
  • It’s certified organic (this is also a requirement for Bird-Friendly certification).
  • As a family-owned farm, Finca Nueva Armenia doesn’t qualify for Fair Trade certification, which only covers small farmers that are part of a cooperative. However, this coffee is Counter Culture Direct Trade Certified, in which Counter Culture pays a minimum price that is well above the Fair Trade floor price, plus quality incentives. Price and other aspects of the program are certified by a third party.

Finca Nueva Armenia has remained consistently delicious the last several crop years. So I was thrilled to find out that Counter Culture has decided to use this coffee as their 2009 Holiday Blend. As they have done in the past, Counter Culture’s “blend” is not composed of coffees from different origins, but a single origin roasted using a European technique called Vienna MÁ©lange, in which different roasts are mixed and blended. You can read more about this technique here.

This year, for each bag of Holiday Blend sold, Counter Culture will be donating $1 to a native tree-planting project. Acting on a suggestion by the SMBC, the Recinos, owners of Finca Nueva Armenia, want to incorporate more fruit-bearing and canopy trees in the coffee production areas. These funds will help cover costs of collecting seeds from native trees, raising them in their nursery, and planting and tending them. So far, they have 7500 seedlings.

I want you to support this tree-planting effort; support the Recinos family’s commitment to growing organic, shade-grown, Bird-Friendly coffee; and I want you to try this fine sustainably-grown and sourced coffee.

For every bag of the Finca Nueva Armenia Holiday Blend purchased by a Coffee & Conservation reader from now through December 21, 2009,  I will donate $1 to the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center*.

The Holiday Blend is $11.75 for a 12-ounce bag. That’s $0.65 for a cup of great coffee. Counter Culture is now offering a $3 flat rate shipping for all orders — so even if you only order a single bag, it is still only $0.82 a cup (calculate it here yourself).

Order it here, and put your money — and mine, and Counter Culture’s — where our hearts are: in support of a great future for great coffee and the birds and biodiversity that depend on it.

UPDATE: I rounded up and contributed $50 to SMBC…I wish more people had cooperated, and am up for ideas on how to run a similar promotion next year.

*The Fine Print. Send me a copy of your order via email (coffeehabitat AT gmail.com). I’ll just note how many bags of the Holiday Blend you purchased so I can keep track, then I’ll delete it. It does not contain your credit card information (but feel free to strip out the payment section if you like) and I won’t save any of your personal information. I am a modestly-compensated ecologist, so I’ll have to cap this at $250, but feel free to make me fork over every penny. Does anybody care to join me in this effort with a match in part or whole? Send me an email!  This promotion was entirely my idea, and I am not receiving any compensation for this promotion from Counter Culture.

Coffee-related products / K-Cups/Keurig brewers: alternatives

Refilling K-cups, take 2: The My-Kap reusable lid

One of the most popular posts on this site is the one I did on refilling K-Cups, the single-serve coffee “pods” used in Keurig brewers. I outlined a method for re-using K-Cups by using plastic wrap. It works, but the amount of time it takes to clean out a used K-Cup and then cut and properly apply the plastic wrap really defeats the purpose of the whole Keurig system, which is speed and convenience.

Later, I reviewed the Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter, a product designed for the Keurig brewers that avoids the use of the K-Cups altogether by allowing you to use your own freshly ground coffee in the brewer. (Update: see also this post on the Solofill reusable coffee filter.)

Now along comes another product that allows you to re-use K-Cups with your own ground coffee: the My-Kap. It’s pretty simple — a plastic cap with slightly beveled edges that fits snugly in the top of a used K-Cup, once you’ve removed the foil, cleaned out the filter, and refilled the cup with ground coffee. It already has a hole in the center for the Keurig brewer’s piercer/water dispenser.

The main thing you need to do differently when using a used K-Cup topped with a My-Kap is hold down the handle of the Keurig brewer while the coffee is being brewed. This allows a snug fit. It will work if you don’t, but you will get leakage within the brewing “basket” (K-Cup holder assembly) which will spray and/or drip from not only the exit hole, but also the seams of the basket, depending on your brewer and its structural integrity. Even holding down the handle, using the My-Kap is slightly drippy. You may have to clean your brewer more often.

That being said, the My-Kap works like charm, as advertised. Some thoughts:

Pros:

  • Putting the My-Kap on the used K-Cup is, without a doubt, much faster and easier than fiddling with plastic wrap.
  • Both when refilling a K-Cup using plastic wrap, and when using the My K-Cup Reusable Filter, I had a hard time getting the proper grind and filling the K-Cup or filter with the right amount of grounds. The brewer forces water through the K-Cups under pressure, and the K-Cups are designed and filled so they won’t create problems (overflow, blowouts, etc.). The My-Kap fits tightly enough to circumvent most of these problems. The instructions say to fill to 3/4 full, but it seemed quite forgiving through variations in grind size and amount of coffee used, taking the guess work out of reusing a K-Cup.
  • You don’t have to remove the K-Cup holder assembly from your Keurig brewer, as you do with the My K-Cup Reusable Filter.
  • The cap is stiff and sturdy, and can be washed (dishwasher safe) and used indefinitely.

Cons:

  • Be careful prying the cap off after you brew a cup of coffee with a My-Kapped K-Cup. An odd little plastic tool is provided. I’m not sure if it was actually made for this application, because it looks a bit like some sort of peg board hanger. No matter which way you use it (I believe it is meant to be used as shown on the right), the My-Kap is snug and unless you are very careful, it will pop off suddenly, and soggy ground coffee will fly everywhere. Do it over a sink or wastebasket.
  • Although I have heard of people doing so, I wouldn’t recommend preparing many refilled K-Cups using My-Kaps ahead of time. There is a hole in the center of the My-Kap itself (nearly as large as the diameter of a pencil), and coffee will spill out of it if it falls over. There are also one or more holes in the bottom of the K-Cup from the brewing process. Ground coffee gets stale fast enough, and all these holes will just speed that process along.
  • The usual caveats of reusing K-Cups apply. The inner paper filter can’t be completely cleaned of coffee grounds and oils, and in addition to trapping flavors will also eventually become clogged. Nor can coffee oils be cleaned from the inner sealed space between the bottom of the filter and the bottom of the K-Cup. Frankly, I also wonder how often the plastic K-Cups should be exposed to high heat.
  • My-Kap is made of polycarbonate plastic, and as such may contain BPA. If you are concerned about possible exposure to this chemical, this product might not be for you.

When I wrote my first post in May 2007, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (which purchased Keurig in 2006) was working on more sustainable or recyclable materials for use in the K-Cups. They are still working on this (here is a June 2008 post from the Green Mountain blog on the topic), as they are facing the challenge of finding materials than can withstand heat and pressure, as well as protect the coffee from light, heat, moisture, and oxygen while being stored. I was recently told by a Green Mountain rep that they have “had some promising results in this area and hope to be selling a tea product in a K-Cup made from renewable materials in the first part of 2010 and portion packs with more substantive improvements in the not too distant future.”  Keurig has an environmental policy on its web site, where it explains the construction of the K-Cup in more detail, and other actions the company is taking to reduce environmental impact.

The My-Kap comes with three caps, a removal tool, and/or a brush to clean out the K-Cup.

Coffee awards and competitions

Roast Magazine Roaster of the Year

Roast Magazine has announced their Roaster of the Year winners. One of the major criteria for the award is showing a commitment to sustainability. As in past years, I’ll give a recap of the winners, focusing on their sustainability initiatives.

In the large (macro) roaster category, Equator Estate Coffees and Teas of San Rafael, California came out on top among 40 competitors. Founded in 1995 by Helen Russell and Brooke McDonnell, Equator has a focus on sustainability, with over half of their coffees being certified Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, or some combination of all three. On their excellent web site, you can read more about their eco-philosophy and social responsibility initiatives. Among them are these accomplishments that helped Equator win this honor:

  • Use of biofuel and hybrid vehicles for all deliveries.
  • Composting all of its coffee chaff and burlap bags.
  • Providing micro-loans to coffee partners around the world.
  • Purchasing its own farm in Panama, where they are in the process of growing
    sustainable coffee alongside a team of Panamanians.

Kickapoo Coffee took the award in the micro-roaster category (roasting less than 100,000 lbs of coffee per year) out of a field of thirty. Located in Viroqua, Wisconsin (in western Wisconsin, southeast of La Crosse), and founded only four years ago, Kickapoo buys about 80% of its coffee through direct relationships with small producers, aided in these efforts through its membership in Cooperative Coffees, a green coffee buying cooperative.

Kickapoo is one of the few roasters that uses distinctive reusable and recyclable cans, made from 80% post-consumer recycled steel. They also use sustainable materials in their larger coffee packaging, and have eliminated most plastic from their operations. Their roastery is located in an historic train depot, and was restored and is operated using sustainable practices — the roaster even has handmade belts supplied by local Amish craftsmen.

Oh, and Kickapoo roasts some kick-ass coffee.