In cased you missed it, we were just on CBC Radio!
Listen to the first 10 minutes of the podcast to hear our CEO and co-founder talk about Merchants’ company values, our solar-powered coffee program, and the science of coffee freshness.
–> Link to the CBC podcast page
(Special thanks to our long-time customer and supporter, Andrew Fountain, for providing a home coffee-roasting demonstration to the CBC journalist! 😁👏)
We don’t often think of coffee as a food, and yet it is the roasted seed of a cherry; the first thing many of us consume each morning. It’s also—quite often—the last flavour to finish off a celebratory, multi-course meal.
So why wouldn’t coffee be as important as any other ingredient we cook with?
Continue reading Coffee + Food + Discussion = Community
At first it might appear all negative, but people all over the world are actively working on solutions and there is still time. Kim Robinson of Sierra Magazine analyzes the drastic changes taking place in our “Anthropocene” as well as some of the top-debated solutions for putting a halt to the global temperature rise. Here’s an excerpt that hits us particularly close to home as conservationists:
Continue reading Environment Stories Setting the Tone for 2019“Many of the most promising ideas for carbon dioxide drawdown are local and regional rather than global, and they make use of biological processes already well tested by evolution. Take, for example, preserving or restoring forests and peat bogs. These are good practices in and of themselves for the long-term cycling of elements crucial to life; at the same time, protecting and expanding forests can help sequester atmospheric carbon. The same goes for improving farming and ranching practices to prioritize soil health, conserving coastal wetlands, seeding and sustaining offshore kelp forests, and restoring native grasslands.”
Kim Stanley Robinson, award-winning novelist and author
For over a decade, we’ve been developing and using this simple setup to brew our signature rich and sweet-tasting black cups of “Merchants Method” black coffee. We’ve always referred to our beloved little tool as the “coffee spring” and our process for brewing “steep & filter”—simply because we felt they were the most natural terms to describe what we were up to.
Fast-forward to now and we’re launching our coffee spring at an actual target: World domination of better coffee! To make this happen, we’ve decided to name our brewing tool “ACE Brewer”. We’ve also officially dubbed our tried and tested method for brewing as the Two-Step Steep and Filter® process.
Today marks a special day in our history as we announced the official name of our cafe, along with our partners; the Mesoamerican Development Institute, who announced some exciting plans for the expansion of our flagship coffee program.
May we now welcome you to Merchants’ Restoration Cafe! Our cafe is meant to be the place where consumers can experience the embodiment of Merchants of Green Coffee’s value-set, coffee knowledge, and alternative coffee supply chain.
Continue reading We’ve Named Our Cafe and We’re Expanding the Production of Cafe Solar®
Today is considered “International Coffee Day”, but don’t worry if you weren’t aware because no one seems to know its real origin. The concept has been promoted on different days in different countries—the earliest record being Japan in 1983.
Just three years ago, the International Coffee Organization agreed to the first official recognition of the date in Milan as a way of promoting fair trade coffee and awareness to coffee growers.
We have 2 exciting things to report:
#1 We’re naming our cafe!
(a number of years ago the cafe just sort of happened, so this will be our official recognition)
#2 Our Mesoamerican partners are coming to visit us this month with news from Honduras!
Today we’re thanking USA Today because they published a story about us and one of the 3 Keys to Great Tasting Coffee (freshness of the roast) in their travel section this week!
“You’ve probably been drinking stale coffee all your adult life …”, says Eat Sip Trip writer, Kae Lani … and it’s the truth!
Around here, we’re calling it a Christmas miracle! As of today, the new Cafe Solar harvest is here in our shop, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring this supremely sustainable Honduran coffee to market.
The container endured one of the longest modern voyages of any coffee, and now that climate change coffee is here we need you to please buy, drink and spread the word. (By the way, 44,000lbs is approx. 1.75 million cups, just sayin’ 😉)
Click here to learn more about our sustainable Cafe Solar coffee!
There are three critical keys to making the best tasting coffee, regardless of what coffee camp you belong to. As with fine wine, the quality of the coffee begins with the quality of the fruit …
The first key to great coffee is the Quality of the Green Bean.
The best cup of coffee starts with the best beans, and the best beans are high-elevation; arabica fairly traded and grown organically. Coffee production that includes innovations such as, restorative agriculture, advanced sorting and processing equipment, and better packaging/storage facilities for export, also play a role in increasing a coffee’s overall quality.
