The Three Legged Stool that is Quality Coffee

By Phil Hamburg

As Chief Sales Guru, Phil works the phone and travels throughout Michigan spreading the good word and beans of Higher Grounds. Prior to his time at HG he was the Mayor (actually Village Manager but Mayor has a better ring) of Suttons Bay, Michigan and was 3rd place in the Hansen's Grocery Store Chili Cookoff in the late 90's.

Just back in the saddle from a lovely 2 weeks in South America, I was at my desk yesterday when Chris Treter suggested that I write a brief missive to the java blogosphere. What comes to my mind is a little sumpin' about coffee, strong and black, satisfying like no other. Funny how life angles us towards heart felt themes. I do love coffee. I love my involvement with Higher Grounds.

How lucky is that?

Back to the task at hand. I have enjoyed my string of days here at home after my time of no coffee in the way south of the Americas. One would think a decent cup of coffee is readily available in Chile. Not so.  Vat da heck!  Bolivia and Peru are just up the coast. Isn't this the continent of Colombian.. the richest kind... I couldn't find that decent cup of joe down Patagonia way either. Nescafe prevails, instant ugh. So I tried to refocus my morning reveries in the direction of chocolate or coca cola. Mighty poor substitutes for that AM java lift I savor so.

What I enjoy most is cradling the warm black beverage in my palms. Olfactory satisfaction guaranteed. Sipping robust earthy pleasure, I stare out over the landscape, or into my self, and feel the day emerge through my sleep, my dreams. I awaken to the new day with caffeine infused gratitude.

I sit and think, or I just sit. This is the coffee meditation I have come to appreciate in my adult years. In fact, I love it like the stars love the sky, like fish love water. 

In my thinking place, this morning transition is part of a three legged stool. 

The beans. The roast.  And the preparation.  We at Higher Grounds take great pride, invest big energy in sourcing our beans. Once acquired, we roast them in small batches, with all the care we can muster. 

Then, ta da, off they go, to the big beyond... our beans, our babies, off to an uncertain fate. What will become of them? How will they be prepared?

This third leg of the coffee stool is outside of our influence. Press, percolate, drip, cowboy style (boil the water, throw in the grounds), espresso maker, the list goes on.  The results range all the way from ancient Ethiopia, to pre industrial Amsterdam brokers and French cafes, and on to the post modern global success of caffeine commerce today. Too watery and weak won't do. Strong enough to cut with a knife or stand without a cup... and we're talking coffee cake. Be it burned, bruised or boonfoggered, the path to good coffee is fraught with preparation issues too numerous to consider. So if your heart sings with that morning jolt, please know that we at HG, as midwives to that scrumptious organic juice we know as coffee, are standing ready to discuss, defend and nurture all three of the legs of the coffee stool.

The vigilance we keep in sourcing and roasting will hopefully be complimented with heart felt and informed love in preparing of this divine beverage. To see our general guidelines for brewing at home visit our Brew Tips page.

Smell, sip, slurp, swallow and smile. Enjoy.

Beans by Bike Winter Summary by the Bike Delivery Babe

Hey there all.  It's Ruth, the bike delivery girl.  I was asked to brag about my awesome job as bike delivery babe, so here it goes.  Two days a week I load up all of our downtown business orders on our hefty bike trailer and head downtown for some fresh air on the job.  This winter was interesting.  Many days the roads were impassable.  Many of us bike riders resorted to walking because of the depth of the snow and my deliveries had to be made by car.  Still I was able to do 88 miles of riding for Higher Grounds between December and now.  I pedaled a total of 3,904 pounds of coffee around town. 

Some would say we're a little crazy.  What I have to say is to bundle up and try it yourself.  It's really not that hard.  More people should be doing this.  Biking is refreshing in the cold winter air and gets you at least a half hour out of your stuffy houses, jobs and cars.  The depth of the snow is the only thing that holds me back.  When it's easier to walk, than to ride the bike or drive your car, you know the snow is DEEP. But everyone look at the savings we made just doing the 88 miles that we could!  We saved $35.26 in gas.  We didn't use 9.28 gallons of gas.  And we decreased our CO2 footprint by 185.6 pounds!  If you have 5 miles to go - bike. 

If you have 1 mile to go - walk.  If you have to go to the grocery store, put $20 into a bike rack or backpack.  I'm not saying to get rid of your car, just leave it parked more.  It takes more time to commute with your own body as transportation, but I am happy to spend a half hour of my day walking or biking - most commutes from out of town by car take that much time.  I've also found that in the summer when the traffic is heavier it's actually faster to be biking.  I started biking two or three years ago and fell over at an intersection on 14th street because I lost my balance!  Right next to a huge line of cars waiting to turn.  My backpack went flying.  I had a rusty huffy with sticky brakes...but I didn't have to drive my car.  And then I couldn't stop.  Biking makes so much sense to me and it's just great!!  Park your car if you're close!  Start now. You live in the North, don't be afraid of the cold!  Breathe in the sweet smells of coming spring and hear the birds starting to sing!

By Ruth Elliott - Bike Delivery Babe

Reflections on a Trip through the Coffee Lands of E

Reflections on a Trip through the Coffee Lands of Ethiopia

 By Jason Hill
Jason Hill is the Head Roaster of Higher Grounds Trading Co. In January, 2011, he visited the coffee growing communities of Southern Ethiopia where we buy our coffee. He arrived just in time to see the end of the Run Across Ethiopia and participate in the Co-op Sol Annual Meetings.

It’s a long way home from the birthplace of coffee.  It’s hard to summarize a trip to the coffee fields of Ethiopia but I think it’s fair to say for a coffee roaster it’s on par with a vintner walking the antique vines of Bordeaux.

I landed in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa with a group of travelers from our coffee importing cooperative, Cooperative Coffees.  The following morning we traveled to the southern coffee growing region of Yirgacheffe to meet up with the team of runners on the last couple days of their journey.  It was an interesting experience to show up at a small roadside hotel in rural Africa and be greeted by a large group of friends and acquaintances from Traverse City area. 

The third day of our trip I tried to shake off the jet leg and prepare to join the runners for the final 10 k into the coffee growing community of Ngele Gorbitu.  Between the lack of sleep, elevation and lack of running preparation the run was a challenge.   I felt pretty pathetic considering the people around me had been running for days on end and for hundreds of miles.  It was inspiring to be running alongside hundreds of smiling faces.  To say the community embraced us with open arms is an understatement.  The last 1 k or so of the run we were greeted with a wall of people cheering us on.  We ended the run in a cheering crowd of more than 3,000 villagers.  The emotion was heavy and wonderful for me and I only ran the last day of the run.  The sense of accomplishment the runners were feeling was palpable after running over 270 miles to get there.  There was an amazing sense of accomplishment for everyone involved.

After the embraces and pictures we took our places amongst the crowd and listened and watch a group of traditional dancers.  The musicians were wearing traditional clothing and dancing in a row formation to the blaring music.  It was incredible to see this group of youth so enthusiastically carrying on the traditions of their culture.  After the dancing came a host of speeches from one village leader after another.   They talked about the power of education and the opportunity and hope it would bring to the children of the village.  It was also a time of thanks and appreciation for the work the runners had done to raise funds for the school in their community.

The runners were given traditional fabric and the men were given crown like hats.  It was a powerful moment for the runners and a true showing of the outpouring of love coming from the village.  After the celebration we were treated to a local feast of traditional foods including raw meat.  The gift of food in an area with so little is always such a humbling gift.

I think the celebration was bitter sweet for the runners.   It gave them a sense of accomplishment and they were able to soak in the appreciation for what they had done; however on the other hand it meant the end of a journey. 

It certainly wasn’t an end but a beginning for the work of On the Ground and Higher Grounds in our mission to make fair trade truly fair.  We learned more about what this means in Ethiopia at our meeting the following days with leaders of the coffee growing unions of Yirgacheffe and Sidama.  The concerns of these leaders were familiar.  Even though they are getting better prices for their coffee than years past, it still isn’t enough.  Their profits have gone up with the spike in global coffee prices but so too had the price of everyday life in Ethiopia.  Many in their communities are still living in abject poverty lacking access to basic essentials such as clean water, health care and education. 

This is one reason Higher Grounds founded the non-profit, On the Ground.  It reaffirmed the lesson we have learned over the years that fair trade is not just about price, because price alone is not enough.  An essential part needed for fair trade to be successful is the ongoing partnership with coffee growing communities.  One aspect of this partnership is working to help with some of the pressing infrastructure needs of the communities.  We heard time and time again how important education is to the children of these coffee farmers.  The parents of these children see education as one way to break the cycle of poverty that has persisted in their communities for so long.  Beyond infrastructure it’s important that we as producer partners work to continue to redefine the fair trade model so that we are looking beyond price alone.  In this regard, I am proud of the bold steps Higher Grounds has taken to make this happen. It’s also important for people to realize that a big part of why fair trade is successful and how it can become even fairer is by choosing fair trade products whenever possible and requesting them when not offered

One bright spot we gleaned from our conversations with union leaders was that the cooperatives are now selling all of their coffee at fair trade prices even to conventional producers.  The reason for this is that the fair trade market has shown the value of the high quality Ethiopian coffees we are buying and the unions can use this to leverage similar prices from conventional growers.  They now know what their high quality coffee is worth and that if someone is not willing to pay the price,  they can find another buyer who is willing. 

The next several days were spent roaming the coffee fields and production facilities and meeting with the different cooperatives within the unions.  This was an incredible experience to meet the people that were growing the coffee that we buy and see how they harvest and process it.  The Ethiopian processing was an interesting change from what many of the coffee veterans within our group had seen in Central and South America.

Ethiopia is unique from other coffee producing countries in that its' farmers consume the coffee it produces.  Coffee is a staple part of the diet and culture.  I was fortunate enough to see several coffee ceremonies that start with roasting the beans over an open fire and then the beans are ground by hand and boiled in handmade ceramic kettles.   The entire ceremony takes over an hour and is adorned with traditional fabrics and lighting of incense.  Because of the importance of coffee within Ethiopia culture, great pride and care is taken in growing, harvesting and preparing it. 

Overall the experience was overwhelming and hard to put into words.  I am thankful for the close relationship Higher Grounds has forged with Ethiopia and look forward to our continued partnership in solidarity with our Ethiopian farmers. 

Healthy to the Last Drop

By Maggie Smith- Customer Care Specialist

Delicious, savory and filled with cancer-fighting antioxidants, our coffee is not only tasty but great for your health!

Studies have shown that coffee contains up to four times the concentration of antioxidants compared to green tea. It has also been shown to lower your risk of colon cancer, gallstones, cirrhosis of the liver, and Parkinson’s disease. Not only does it combat these ailments but increases your ability to concentrate. Coffee helps create better connections between ideas and allows you to form improved concepts. Increased motor activity and precision is common as well. In other words, while enjoying a freshly roasted cup of Higher Grounds coffee you are also fighting cancer and increasing your efficiency.

You don’t have to take our word for it, check out the link below and see for yourself.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-04-28/health/coffee.studies_1_coffee-drinkers-coffee-studies-national-coffee-association?_s=PM:HEALTH

We've got ourselves a new Barista!

We welcome Nikki to the Higher Grounds family! Nikki made her way from Portland where she was a barista at a number of happening coffee joints. With her boyfriend, Brian, they traversed Latin America and the U.S. before deciding to settle down in good ole Northern Michigan. Her favorite color is purple, favorite place is Salasaca, Ecuador where she once lived. She prefers Tom and Jerry over Mickey Mouse. If she could live in any time period and place she would live in Paris around the turn of the century (but clarified that that is her cop-out answer because the question was very difficult). If faced with the decision to go back stage at a Men at Work concert or an Aha concert she could not decide. But Brian from Left Foot Charley's helped her decide that Men at Work would be a more fun backstage party since they are Australian.

She also makes a mean latte and is a latte art wiz, and appears to be quite personable. Come on in to meet her!