Emerald Frog’s organic coffee is in 2 more Illinois stores, bringing the number to 10 – Marketplace on Oakton in Skokie, and Block’s Country Market in Hampshire. =)
Filed under: Coffee How To | Tags: coffee, Fair Trade, hot chocolate, organic
I Don't Drink Coffee - at least, I didn't used to
I don’t drink coffee.
At least, once upon a time I didn’t. It was all Diet Coke, all the time. The non-coffee drinking masses will understand this. Especially in summer! Why on earth would you pour hot coffee into your body when it is 110 degrees on the outside?
And then: drinking coffee. Yuck. As I grew up, my parents drank that bitter, pre-ground nonsense from grocery stores. By the time I finished putting enough sugar and milk into the concoction to make it edible, or rather drinkable, it was hardly recognizable as coffee anymore.
So I didn’t bother. I went through high school, college, and the early part of my professional career without drinking coffee with any kind of regularity.
The sole exception was at sales meetings. Being trapped in a dimly lit conference room for eight hours and enduring Death By One Thousand PowerPoints required me to kick my caffeine intake up a notch and guzzle that nasty swill as fast as I could. Fortunately, I had been through college and had learned how to a shot. This skill helped me get the coffee down, and it also helped me to get through the presentations while remaining alert and actually learn something.
As time went on, I also learned to drink coffee socially. Using the same method as some people employ to only drink alcohol socially, or only smoke cigarettes when out with friends; I would only drink coffee at weddings, funerals, and at Play Group.
Enter: Starbucks. Even a hard core anti-coffee drinker like myself would be hard pressed to not be at least a little … curious … about those whipped-cream-topped desserts. I mean: coffees. Not desserts. Oh, ok. Desserts! That’s why I walked in there in the first place! Because their coffee looked like dessert!
And lo and behold, when mixed with enough Splenda and whipped cream that it no longer resembles java, it’s pretty darn good.
Plus, where did the bitter taste go? Even straight up, Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and the other upscale coffee joints offer a cup of joe that lacks that face-pinching bitterness I had begun to associate with coffee. It turns out that the bitterness was actually staleness. In the same way that it’s probably a mistake to chop your apples if you don’t plan to eat them until weeks later, the same is true about coffee. That is why pre-ground coffee is vacuum packed. That is why it always tasted to awful to me. Vacuum packed coffee is actually stale coffee. Eureka!
Still, straight-up coffee shop brews, Starbucks especially, can be a little strong for my newly evolving palette. And their whole, grind-at-home beans are still vacuum packed. Whole beans are certainly better — but the vacuum packaging was a real hang-up for me.
It turns out that it goes back to the roasting process. Starbucks roasts their coffee to a point past where many people are comfortable drinking it. It is better than pre-ground, but over-roasting (in my opinion) and then vacuum-sealing is not a good combination.
As a side note, looking at a bag of organic Caribou Coffee … it was only 30% organic. So it was 70% grown with pesticides. No, no, no, this won’t do. Won’t do at all.
Clearly, there was only one thing to do. Start up a company providing 100% organic whole beans in special packaging that does not have to be vacuum sealed. And there you have it. Emerald Frog was born.
Cheers!
Filed under: Coffee How To | Tags: coffee, emerald frog, Fair Trade, organic, SMA, spinal muscular atrophy
Neighbors’ Hope, Generosity Shines at 3rd Annual Garage Sale to Cure SMA
Saturday, September 19 | 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. | Naperville, Illinois
NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS / 3 September 2009 — In a community fueled by active sports like soccer, running and little league, Naperville neighbors will rally once again in support of a local girl and her challenges with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). The 3rd Annual Garage Sale to Cure SMA will be held Saturday, September 19 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1401 Ambleside Circle in Naperville, Illinois.
The little girl is Angie, an energetic and cheerful 5th grade student who has SMA. SMA is a rare genetic disease that inhibits the body’s ability to move well, and also causes weakened muscles. Angie’s power wheelchair helps her keep up with her friends, including Kyra Scadden – her best friend and the vision behind the Sale to Cure SMA. In 2006, Kyra was very concerned about Angie’s condition, and also that other people didn’t understand it. Kyra decided to hold a garage sale and donate the proceeds to SMA research.
Word of this idea spread quickly, and community collaboration grew the event into a stunning success. The Garage Sale to Cure SMA has raised a total of $21,900 – and every penny of it went to find a cure for SMA.
“I will keep raising money for SMA until a cure is found,” said Kyra.
Kyra’s mother Kris Scadden organizes the annual event. She lets her house be taken over by garage sale treasures, and be filled with dozens of local volunteers donating to their time and talents to the cause.
“No matter what the economy is doing, my amazing neighbors come out in force every year for this sale,” said Scadden, mother of three. “They donate valuable and wonderful items for the sale, rally volunteers, organize, and roll up their sleeves to help. We live in a remarkable community that really pulls together again and again for this worthwhile cause.”
Highlights of this year’s sale include:
- Silent auction – Bid on Chicago Blackhawks tickets, a stay at a Wisconsin Inn, a basket of Tupperware, and more.
- Raffle – Enter to win prizes at the Garage Sale to Cure SMA.
- SMA Merchandise – Show your support for a cure with a new product line of SMA items.
- Vendor Sale – Shop for the Cure. Go to www.angieshope.org for a link to eBay auctions and vendor sites, including Tupperware, Mary Kay, Lia Sophia, Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Avon, and Emerald Frog Organic Coffee Beans. A portion of the sales made through the site will be donated to SMA.
How you can help:
- Donate items to sell. Drop off items September 14-18 at 1401 Ambleside Circle in Naperville.
- Donate on the web. Go to www.angieshope.org and make a cash donation.
- Shop. Come to the garage sale on September 19 to take advantage of great deals, enter the raffle and silent auction, enjoy a free cup of organic coffee, and say hello to Angie and Kyra. You can also shop online at the Sale to Cure SMA’s eBay site and Vendor Fundraisers via www.angieshope.com.
Filed under: All About Coffee, Fair Trade | Tags: coffee, Fair Trade, organic
If organic products are the next big thing, Fair Trade is the next/next thing. And that is a good thing. Fair Trade really means fair. And right. Fair Trade is a partnership based on mutual respect between producers and buyers. It provides fair wages and humane working conditions for coffee farmers. It polices child labor and also supports transparency in business and accounting practices.
- Fair Trade = environmental protections. Most Fair Trade coffee is also organic, grown using sustainable farming practices. Fair Trade actively promotes methods that improve soil fertility while protecting the ecosystem. Harmful agrochemicals are limited, resulting in coffee that is safer for the farmers to grow … and safer for you to drink.
- Fair Trade provides gender equality in the workplace. Despite the gender equality strides that have taken place in America and many other countries, gender equality and fairness is sadly not the standard in many developing nations. Fair Trade supports equal pay for equal work by coffee-producing men and women.
- FairTrade protects against unfair child labor practices. Children who participate in coffee production are assured security, well being, and educational and recreational requirements in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Protecting children is a crucial piece of the Fair Trade puzzle, and one worth remembering.
- Fair Trade supports communities. Working through cooperative organizations, Fair Trade coffee farmers are able to invest their earnings in improving housing, health care, and schools.
- Fair Trade helps sustain local economies. Fair Trade coffee farmers can build their own businesses, rather than work for commercial go-betweens – where they earn significantly less money. What is more, Fair Trade profits stay in the farmers’ own community.
So: ready to buy Fair Trade? Look for the logo, and remember that you have a choice. For about what you are paying now, choosing Fair Trade Certified coffee supports sustainable development for small farmers in developing nations.
Cheers!
Filed under: Coffee How To | Tags: coffee, Fair Trade, free shipping, organic
FREE SHIPPING w- $25 organic/Fair Trade coffee purchase @ www.emeraldfrog.com – use coupon code FAIRTRADE.
Filed under: Coffee How To
Did you know that most coffee is decaffeinated using methylene chloride? Emerald Frog uses the Swiss, or “CO2″ method.
Decaf, Good or Bad?
Recently a variety of the coffee tree was discovered that naturally contains almost no caffeine. Until and unless that species finds its way into commercial production, we’re left with the current methods for removing unwanted caffeine from coffee. But how do those methods affect the taste of our java?
Blind taste tests suggest that most people can’t really tell the difference between decaf and regular, provided both kinds are processed properly and the cup brewed well. But, for those who can…
Among the methods for removing caffeine from coffee is treatment with hot water, followed by rinsing in methylene chloride.
Maybe you didn’t know your coffee had already seen water before you got to it? In fact, several times. The berries are rinsed after picking to soften the outer fruit for removal, then rinsed again to help eliminate the remaining flesh.
And possibly you were unaware your grounds had taken a dip in the swimming pool before being served. (Ok, swimming pool water is really dilute hydrochloric acid, not methylene chloride. Never let a chemist stand between you and a good line.)
So, the taste difference is less likely to come from the presence or absence of caffeine as from any remaining processing chemicals and whether they removed flavor-producing components.
Chemical removal of the caffeine from green, unroasted beans starts by warming them in hot water or steam. That opens the bean’s pores. Then the beans are rinsed in methylene chloride, which binds to the caffeine and is then flushed away.
Alternatively, the beans can be soaked for several hours in hot water, where the caffeine leaches out into the bath. The beans are removed and methylene chloride introduced to the bath. There it bonds with the caffeine, not the flavored components that have washed out of the bean. The beans are then soaked again where they reabsorb the flavor compounds.
An entirely different process, called the Swiss method, also soaks the beans in hot water for several hours, but no methylene chloride is used. Instead the caffeine is removed by filtering the water through activated charcoal. More or less pure carbon, the molecular structure of activated charcoal has been altered to provide a large surface area for other molecules to stick to.
The first method is less expensive and so is preferred by most manufacturers. And – no surprise – there are ongoing debates about whether it degrades the taste. As usual, quality control makes the largest difference. But, there are even techniques available to the individual for reducing caffeine intake.
Darker, less acidic, roasts already contain less caffeine as a consequence of the roasting process. And blends of decaf and regular are an option for those who simply must cut down.
As to the taste…. Well, as in any issue of taste, individual preferences generally swamp any objective chemical differences. Since caffeine has an inherently bitter taste, many can detect its presence or absence. Whether that makes decaf good or bad is, as they say, a matter of taste.
Copyright 2006 Ellery Coleman, reprinted with permission
Ellery Coleman has been a coffee drinker for many years and enjoys several cups of coffee each morning. He is an Internet Entrepreneur with a special interest in Internet Marketing. http://www.donecoffee.com/
Filed under: All About Coffee | Tags: coffee, coffee filter, emerald frog, Fair Trade, organic, paper coffee filter
Coffee filters. Those innocuous little white papers that are as much of a staple in American kitchens as paper towels. (As a side note, I have sadly witnessed paper towels being utilized as emergency coffee filters.) But emergency paper towel substitutions may well be part of the lore of paper coffee filters. Did you even realize that there was paper towel lore?
Yes, there is actually paper towel lore, proving once again that necessity is the mother of invention since that fateful day on July 8, 1908 when the first paper coffee filter was created by German housewife named Melitta Bentz (1873-1950). Ms. Bentz had had enough of drinking coffee-grounds in her morning java and began to experiment with her children’s blotting paper from their work books. Viola! The first coffee filter prototype was born.
Later that same year, she applied for the patent of her invention, and by December 1908 M. Bentz Company was born. Indeed, the company still exists, employing approximately 4000 people in Germany today.
I Heart Coffee Filters
Little, white, disposable, and making coffee even more delicious for 101 years. But did you know that several studies have linked paper coffee filters to lowered cholesterol?
A 2007 study by the Baylor College of Medicine has shown that cafestol, a substance in boiled coffee drinks, dramatically increases cholesterol levels – particularly among women. However, the lowly coffee filter has been shown to bind the lipid-like compounds to the paper. Essentially, the ‘bad’ cafestol sticks to the filter, leaving your filtered coffee largely cafestol-free.
So if you heart coffee like I do, your heart wants you to use paper filters.
Organic junkies will want to reach for unbleached brown coffee filter paper – without glue or any other type of binding agent.
Enjoy some paper-filtered coffee on this 101st birthday of the filter!
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/business/1648869,6_3_NA02_FROG_S1-090702.article
Filed under: Coffee Business
Starting up a business in a down economy can be a grind – particularly when your business is organic coffee beans. But when local businesses help each other, everyone benefits.
In this time of economic challenges (to put it mildly), it is especially difficult for start-up businesses to get off the ground.
Companies like Emerald Frog, for example, have the benefits of the enviable mix of a solid product in the form of organic coffee beans; a good cause under the umbrella of Fair Trade; and an offering that is a consumer staple – coffee.
On the other hand, everyone is tightening their belts these days – and the area of upscale, gourmet products are no exception. Coupled with people’s natural tendency toward out-of-site / out-of-mind … it can certainly be a grind to maintain solid growth.
Emerald Frog Coffee is based in the Chicago suburbs – Naperville and Elgin, to be exact. And while these are pretty big suburbs, it is still possible to find family-run shops that are willing to give their neighbors a chance. Emerald Frog found this neighborly attitude in the form of Casey’s Foods – a local Centrella grocery chain.
Casey’s Foods is a family business that grew out of a history as a butcher with a desire to provide the best cuts of meat, paired with a fine, upscale grocery store. In fact, I had been hearing from neighbors that they “buy their meat at Casey’s and their coffee from Emerald Frog.”
Like Casey’s, Emerald Frog grew out of a long history in the coffee business, and the desire to build a family company while moving upstream. The fit made sense, and the buyers at Casey’s think so, too.
So starting June 27, 2009, Emerald Frog coffee will be available on Casey’s shelves in Naperville. They opened their doors to their coffee purveyor neighbors.
Whether or not you live in the Chicago area, remember to support your neighborhood shops and stores. You never know when they may be able to return the favor.
Filed under: All About Coffee | Tags: coffee, emerald frog, Fair Trade, organic, shade grown
Shade-grown coffee: should we be paying attention?
In a word: YES. We should.
Shade-grown coffee follows the age-old principle of “live and let live.” The shade-grown coffee beans are cultivated without clear-cutting the natural fruit and hardwood trees, bushes, and other green plants that form shade canopies in the coffee regions of the world. Simply put, shade grown = shade trees. Trees = good.
And then there are the birds. Shade trees on coffee farms are home to an astonishing two-thirds of the bird species found naturally in those areas. Not to mention the multitude of other animals that call naturally-occurring trees home. The soil health is maintained, too, thanks to the plant diversity.
On the other hand, for coffee beans to flourish in the full sun, chemical poisons come into play. Insecticides, fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, and the like are crucial for full-sun growth. Runoff from these chemicals pollutes the water and destroys animal habitats. On point: less than one-tenth of birds live in full-sun coffee farms.
Give me shelter:
Although shade-grown coffee certification is typically a Western-Hemisphere phenomenon, there is hope that market pressure will help it spread to the East.
For shade growth, organic, and Fair Trade coffee, please visit www.emeraldfrog.com.
