WEEKLY DEAL: Guatemala

Our direct trade provider and friend Les Stoneham is currently in Guatemala working and living with the coffee farmers of La Armonia Hermosa. This year's crop is coming along swimmingly. All that needs to be accomplished now is have parchment removed, sorted and bagged for export. We can't wait. This coffee has become a huge hit, and rightfully so.

This week's deal involves the agriculture side of coffee. Answer the question correctly and receive a free 2oz bag of Vienna coffee.

What color is coffee after the fruit is removed off the bean and the parchment paper is removed but before it is roasted?

Converge:Exchange

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Vienna Coffee Company donated their La Armonia Hermosa coffee to the Converge Exchange dinner/conference.
The conference was a huge success with more than 100 communities, activists, and practitioners converging in a set of lectures and round table discussions to exchange ideas, current projects, resources, funding, etc. Also, on Wednesday night a wonderful 5 course meal with all local/seasonal food that the chef had a personal relationship with was prepared for about 35 panelists and organizers of the conference, and adding to the relational story Vienna Coffee was able to tell their story of their relationship with the farmers in Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala.

In this changing economic climate Chicago's design world is merging with communities and activists to make sense of the change and how to better our world through collaboration. It was great to hear about all of the amazing sustainable projects, activities, and organizations going on in the area. This event, spurred on by Vienna Coffee Company's coffee, allowed for all of these people to connect in hopes of making a larger impact. We look forward to seeing what comes out of this event in the future.

If you are interested in joining the discussion check out www.convergeexchange.org. They will be adding a discussion board onto their website shortly.

WEEKLY DEAL: Happy Saint Patrick's Day

This week's deal is easy! All you need to do is come into the roastery wearing green in celebration for St. Patrick's day and receive a 2oz bag of this month's flavored special, Irish Creme. Also if you wear green then we won't pinch you either.

Now for some history...
Did you know that the Celtic cross was first created by St. Patrick? According to the History channel, St. Patrick superimposed the sun behind the cross to help the Irish relate more to Christianity because a sun was a powerful religious symbol for the indigenous Irish people. This in turn started the use of Celtic cross. To find out more about St. Patrick and St. Patrick's day click here...

Do you think you know your Irish history? Take this quiz and see...

Coffee can Fuel Cars!

Turns out you can make biofuel from just about any oily plant product. Corn may be the standard, but coffee works at least as well, and it makes your car smell like a Starbucks!

Experts say it takes about 5-7 kg of coffee grounds to get one liter of biofuel, which with a medium-sized production would yield a cost of about $1 per gallon. Plus, it's already used: you can just walk around to your local coffeeshops and convenience stores and stock up the same way you would on vegetable oil.

Creating fuel from the grounds uses the same procedure as other biodiesels, transesterification, which is sort of complicated to explain but fairly inexpensive. The US estimates we consume over 7 tons of coffee each year, which would yield about 340 million gallons of biodiesel.

But mostly, a subtle coffee scent might overcome the significantly less savory odors currently dominating my car. For long story click here.

-By Dan Nosowitz, 6:30 PM on Sat Mar 7 2009

We'd love to hear from you. What do you think of this idea??