Cafecampesino’s Weblog

From July 19th until July 26th, Little Farm Fair Trade, a wholesale customer and fair trade outreach partner of Cafe Campesino, served Cafe Campesino BRAG Brew to the Registry’s Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI).

This year marks the third year of this project and also marks new records for quantity of coffee served. Geoffrey, Cafe Campesino’s outreach coordinator worked with Herb Petty of Little Farm and Nate Stevens formerly of Peace Coffee in Minneapolis. They were joined by Celestial and Miles (Nate’s son). This year they served up over 500 gallons of coffee with over 100 gallons being served in one single day.

All the coffee was brewed drip style with regulated temperatures and time over grounds making for some of the best coffee ever served in Iowa. This all was accomplished setting up in empty lots, or in the front yard of friendly farmers.

“Best coffee on RAGBRAI” and “best coffee of the whole trip” were common comments, along with a few “best coffee I’ve ever had” and “the best part of RAGBRAI” by a few happy stoppers. Apart from the near perfect brewing, the roasting recipe of Cafe Campesino’s Roastmaster Lee Harris, and the perfect roasting by Maty and crew meant that the farmers of Guatemala, Sumatra and Nicaragua were able to present their fine beans to many of the participants in this year’s ride. Of course word did not reach all 10,000+ riders as many continued to ride past, however on the best day, over 850 people stopped. Many of these folks took time to find out what this whole Fair Trade was all about.

Thanks to Nate’s incredible speed in serving coffee to the riders, there was seldom a line meaning more customers could stop, and thanks go out again to Organic Valley who once again supplied most of the milk and half & half adding for many just the right ingredients for a perfect cup of coffee. In addition, over 40 lbs of organic raw sugar was consumed by the happy riders, and a few stopped to ask “why organic?” Like Cafe Campesino, education about Fair Trade and Organics are the top priority of Little Farm Fair Trade.

All the folks at Little Farm Fair Trade (littlefarm.org) would like to thank everyone at Cafe Campesino, Organic Valley Coop (organicvalley.coop) and of course all of this years riders (ragbrai.org)for another great year. They look forward to seeing everyone again in 2009.

Pictures are available at LittleFarm.org/ragbrai