Sunday, February 3, 2013

Hartmann Dubbel

This week the DoubleShot is set to release the second in a two-coffee series from Finca Hartmann in Panama.  Both coffees are from micro-lots, exclusive to the DoubleShot.  The first release was the Hartmann Honey, and the second, set to hit the shelves on Tuesday, February 5, is the Hartmann Natural. 

The Coffee Illuminati will be having an event at the DoubleShot on Saturday, February 16 to taste these two coffees side-by-side.  The event will start at 10a in the side room near where the kitchen is located.

I'll have just returned from a 6-day trip to Panama, including a couple of days at the two Hartmann farms: Palo Verde and Ojo de Agua.  At the Hartmann Dubbel event, I'll spend a few minutes sharing my experiences there, and I'll tell you all about the two coffees we are about to taste, and then we'll commence sipping these coffees.

As always, we have two goals in putting on these events.  One is to educate coffee drinkers more about different aspects of coffee, so that consumers like yourselves will understand what and how much goes into producing quality coffee and the hands that must toil in order to get the coffee from the nursery all the way to the sweet nectar we enjoy every day.  The second goal of the Coffee Illuminati is to align ourselves with the farmers in a way where we can try to give back to those who produce our coffees.  We can't affect the whole world.  And we're a very small company, so we can't even affect a large swath of coffee producers.  But we want to do what we can, and your donations help us do that.  Each time we have an event, all the money we raise goes toward a charitable cause that helps children and families in coffee-growing areas where we buy coffee.  So at each event, we request a $10 donation to the Coffee Illuminati to help us make these projects happen.

This trip to Panama, we'll be taking as many soccer balls as we can fit in our luggage, and at the farms we will inflate them and give them to the kids whose parents pick your coffee.  I'll get some pictures for you.  The other mission I have while at Ninety Plus Gesha Estates is to see about using our funds to build a swingset for the Ngöbe-Buglé children, whose families live on the farm and pick all of the Ninety Plus Gesha coffees.



Monday, January 14, 2013

Your donation for food

At the last event we held here at the DoubleShot, before things got busy during the holidays, we raised money for a scholarship fund that we've given to in the past.  But the money raised at the event wasn't enough to help a student pay for housing and tuition for a semester, as is our usual donation, so we decided to help a different cause.
Hogares Juveniles Campesinos is a house in Concordia, Colombia that hosts students from the rural areas of Concordia that go to school in town but have no relatives or a place to stay during the weekdays.  The house gets support from the Colombian government, but the money comes too little and too late, so they struggle to survive.  This service is so important because it serves the children of low-wage coffee pickers, allowing them to go to school and get an education.  So we gave your donations of $200 to Hogares Juveniles Campesinos (Farmers' Kids' Home) to help them buy groceries.  I thank you and they send their thanks to you.  Below are some pictures from the home.