Coffee Break

I’m gearing up for a two week long Fair Trade Coffee Break here at Coffee Break. Here’s a little video to help you get into the mood.

What’s a Virtual Fair Trade Coffee Break?

May 9, 2009 is World Fair Trade Day all around the world. The Fair Trade Resource Network is promoting the World’s Largest Fair Trade Coffee Break. They’re trying to rally 55,000 people to join in enjoying a Fair Trade product on or around May 9 to break last year’s record set by Finland.

But not everyone lives within walking or riding distance of a local Fair Trade Coffee Break event. If you can’t get away from work to go drink a cup of Fair Trade coffee or beat the drum at a Fair Trade drum circle, there’s no reason you should be left out! Blog about Fair Trade - drink a cup of Fair Trade Coffee, kick a Fair Trade soccer ball, sip some Fair Trade tea, eat a Fair Trade banana - take a picture and post it, write about it, whatever! Then…

post a link to your Fair Trade Coffee Break blog post at the Virtual Fair Trade Coffee Break link page and join the party!

Fair Trade Coffee Break @ CoffeeBreak.Today

For the next two weeks, I’ll be blogging exclusively about Fair Trade coffee - Fair Trade coffee reviews, posts about the effects of Fair Trade, coffee roasters who sell Fair Trade coffees and more… I’ll also be serving up videos and linking to other folks who are posting about Fair Trade fun. Get ready - the countdown to World Fair Trade Day starts today!

All righty, kids, it’s that time again. Both Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters released their Q2 earnings reports yesterday, and the numbers tell an interesting story - the story of where coffee is being brewed and how. As people deal with the compression of their own earnings, they’re not giving up their coffee. They’re just changing where they drink it and how they brew it.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) doubled its second quarter profits, beating analyst’s projections by 14 cents a share. Their profits are up 60% over the same period last year, and the company has adjusted their projected earnings for the year upwards based on those numbers.

Meanwhile, Starbucks reported a 77% drop in profits in the second quarter, blaming the drop on reduced consumer spending. CEO Schulz said he doesn’t expect that to change much through 2009. Let’s put things in perspective here, though - that 77% drop in profits still represents a profit - it’s just not quite the profit that they’ve traditionally showed.

Now, the two companies aren’t really comparable, other than the fact that they both sell coffee. When you come right down to it, Starbucks is in the restaurant industry and Green Mountain is in the retail industry, so part of the difference is in the fact that fewer people are going OUT for anything these days. Instead, they’re trying to replicate the things they enjoy at home.

And that’s where Green Mountain shines. The Keurig coffee brewer makes it easy for people to enjoy gourmet coffee at home. The Green Mountain coffee line gives them great coffee - including a huge selection of Fair Trade coffees - that they can brew up at home.

So while Starbucks closes stores (okay, really? Those aren’t stores - they’re restaurants), Green Mountain opens a new factory to roast more coffee and… the other big news from Green Mountain yesterday - signs a deal to sell Keurig single serve coffee makers at Wal*Mart. Yep, you heard it right - you’ll be able to buy Keurig coffee machines at Wal*Mart soon. Can you get more populist than that?

Details on the Keurig-Wal*Mart deal - look for great deals on the Keurig Elite B40 at Wal*Mart in time for Mother’s Day. If you just can’t wait, or you want to check it out in advance, you can get a look at it here:

Boscov’s Dept Store $129.99

Back at the beginning of the month, I lost my old friend, the Coffee Break logo mug. Rather than cry over spilt coffee, I decided to host a contest for my fellow bloggers to help me find a great new coffee mug to replace my favorite mug. I know that I’m a day late on the announcement - but it was a really really really tough choice. There were some really great entries - but I finally decided that the very best of the mugs entered into the Coffee Break Great Mug Hunt was this one:

It was entered by Jayewalking over at DelayedToddler.Today.com.

Don’t you just love it? It’s got style, it’s got a sleek shape, it holds just the right amount of coffee AND - it comes in a set of four!

Congratulations! I’ll be buying this mug through Jayeswalking’s link and buying one month of advertising through her blog at DelayedToddler.

So the next question is… should I change my blog header and button to use this new mug when I get it - or should I let my beloved lost mug live on in memory and photos? Drop your vote in the comments section and let me know what you think, and why.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest listed below. Please drop by their blogs and show them some coffee love!

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Found at CoffeeNate - this great video (and a whole bunch of others)

CoffeeNate Episode #5 : Don’t Call it “EX”presso! from Nathan Smith on Vimeo.

Nate’s site is one of a whole bunch of great coffee blogs I’ve discovered since starting the 31 DBBB exercise that I’m tracking here on the 31 Days Coffee Break.  Y’all should definitely check out Nate’s coffee videos on how to brew coffee with different kinds of brewers, and his cupping notes as he tries tastes the coffee so you don’t have to.

More found coffee this Sunday morning: Continue Reading »

And as if Consumer Reports wasn’t enough vindication for my Eight O’Clock coffee, the Today Show recently weighed in with the Top Five Coffees to brew at home.

From April 25: Best Coffees to Brew at Home

Notice which one of my favorite coffees is there?Yep, 8 O’Clock does it again - this time as the best flavored coffee. Even Amy Robach, who drinks her coffee black and told Lester Holt that he drinks “coffee milkshakes” admitted that the Eight O’Clock Hazelnut coffee was “pretty nice”.

What else rated in the Today show’s segment? Continue Reading »

Yes, I am VINDICATED!!!

A while back, I ran across a coffee review of Eight O’Clock coffee on one of those coffee-snob blog sites - you know the ones that I mean, right? The ones that give you an inferiority complex for even DARING to suggest that a shot of cream smooths out the bitter edge of coffee, or that you happen to like your coffee with a hint of vanilla or blueberry flavor? Right, that kind.

I didn’t save the review, but I did remember that the reviewer commented that Eight O’Clock coffee was possibly the worst coffee ever, and tasted of nothing so much as mud or dirty socks - something like that. Mind you, it was only one reviewer’s opinion - but quite a few people chimed on in in the comments section to agree that there was absolutely nothing redeeming about Eight O’Clock Coffee. Continue Reading »

Have you started planning a Fair Trade Coffee Break yet? I’ll be serving up two weeks worth of Fair Trade information, videos and fun coffee stuff from May 1 through May 14 in honor of World Fair Trade Day  (May 9, 2009).

Here’s a preview of what I’ll be serving up with your coffee during the Virtual Fair Trade Coffee Break.

Gumutindo Coffee Cooperative which is featured in this video represents 3,034 farmers in six Ugandan coffee coops. The cooperative has been part of the Fair Trade movement since 1998 as part of a larger coop. They received their own FairTrade certification in 2004. The premiums earned for selling their coffee through FTO have allowed the coop to make some enormous changes in the way they grow, harvest and sell their coffee. All of the coffee coops represented by Gumutindo - which means “high quality” in the native dialect - are certified organic, thanks to the Fair Trade premium.

Most of the farms in the Gumutindo Coop are smaller than 5 acres, with about 1-2 acres devoted to growing coffee. That’s not a whole lot bigger than the typical suburban house lot, and about the size of the average vegetable truck garden.

Gumutindo has focused the use of the premium on increasing their ability to do business. Thanks to the Fairtrade premium, the coop now has its own office and warehouse space, which means that the farmers no longer have to pay for outside warehouse space to store their coffee while it awaits shipment. The coop holds training sessions to teach sustainable and organic farming methods, as well as to train farmers in finance and accounting so that they can better manage their farms. Most exciting for the farmers, though, the coop has just opened its own Cupping lab, where farmers can roast their own beans. Most of the farmers had never tasted the coffee made from the beans that they produce!

Learn more about Fairtrade coffee and other products at Transfair USA or The Fairtrade Foundation.

Ran across this fun read from the New York Times this morning. Pablo Andreu writes about how he and his colleagues discovered the wondrous coffee machine on the fourth floor of his office building - and how they almost got charged with petty theft for drinking coffee from that machine.

Having been subjected to office coffee for far too many years, I fully understand the instinct that led Andreu and his office mates to sneak down to the fourth floor and help themselves to the break room coffee. I still remember a job interview I went on several years back. Mind you, I don’t remember the company. I remember that it was light industrial work - assembling packages for delivery, I think. What I do remember is that the break room had a Keurig coffee machine - and the coffee was free to employees. I know this because I was ushered into the break room to wait for my interviewer, so I got to sit there for half an hour and chat with employees while I waited.

When I asked them what the work was like and what the best thing was about working for the company, they told me that the best thing was working for a company that valued them as employees - and pointed to the Keurig coffee brewer as evidence. Because, they said, the company listened when they said they wanted a more comfortable break room and free coffee. And, one added, the company ordered the coffee and tea that they wanted. Each month, all the employees voted on which coffees to order from Keurig/Green Mountain, and the company stocked the break room with  the coffees that they asked for.

How cool is that? It seems like such a small thing - providing coffee for employees - but research actually shows that it’s one of those small things that can make a big difference in productivity and job satisfaction. Food service research suggests that providing free coffee from a good coffee service costs less than a dollar a day per employee, but it pays off in unexpected ways. Unfortunately, many companies facing budget cuts go for the small stuff like free office coffee when they have to cut down on spending.  And chances are that they never connect reduced productivity and increased job dissatisfaction with their decision to make employees buy their own coffee.

Does your office provide coffee or do you have to buy your own? Would it make you feel better about your company if they offered free coffee in the break room - and it was DECENT coffee?