Coffee
Hattie’s Café & Gifts
supports several fair trade coffee initiatives.
Fair trade goods are traded with entrepreneurs
worldwide to support economic development
and provide impoverished communities a fair
price for their products. Fair trade products
are purchased at a price other than the
volatile free market trade price as this
price often drops below the cost to produce
these items causing farmers and manufactures
to operate at a loss. When you purchase
a fair trade product, you are making a commitment
to provide the farmer or manufacturer with
enough of a profit to feed and clothe his
family or to send his children to school.
Learn more about fair
trade and fair trade products.
Hattie's Café House Blend
In 2007, Hattie Larlham
developed a special blend of coffee to capture
the essence of Hattie’s Café & Gifts.
In keeping with the socially conscious theme
of the café, the new blend of coffee
is both organic and fair trade. This not
only provides customers with a unique new
offering in the coffee market, but means
that the purchase of every bag of coffee
will support Hattie Larlham and coffee growers
from around the world.
The house blend is a full-bodied
coffee, made of fair trade Guatemalan organic
beans and cut with teaberries, the spicy
red fruit of the American wintergreen plant
whose aromatic leaves are used as a substitute
for tea. A quarter of the blend is dark
roasted, which yields an enticing floral
and creamy chocolate aftertaste. The Hattie's
Café house blend combines the boldness
of a European blend with good acidity, creating
a coffee experience that will linger on
the plate and tantalize your taste buds
long after the coffee has cooled.
This unique blend is only
available at Hattie’s Café & Gifts.
Land of a Thousand HIlls
In 1994, a 100-day genocide
crippled the central African country of
Rwanda. The days, months and years that
followed would demonstrate the ramifications
of the loss of nearly 1 million people.
Rwanda was in political, economic and social
distress. In search of economic viability
and in need of cultural healing, the people
of Rwanda would turn to the export of coffee.
Volcanic soil, heavy rainfall
and high altitudes make the climate of the
Rwandan countryside excellent for the cultivation
of coffee. To foster this economic growth,
the Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Company
was founded to export coffee and other uniquely
Rwandan products. During the peak of the
growing season, thirty thousand independent
growers tend to the acres of coffee in the
hills of the Rwandan countryside. There,
the coffee is harvested by hand and carried
down to the villages below where the coffee
is washed and separated by hand into the
two best variety of beans. These beans are
rigorously tested for quality before they
are exported to the United States for sale.
Ugandan Gold Premium
Hattie’s Café & Gifts
now offers Ugandan Gold Premium coffee.
This fair trade coffee is grown near the
banks of the Wambybya River by sixty Ugandan
families that depend on the fair trade sale
of their product to send their children
to school. To ensure the quality of this
coffee each cherry is handpicked at the
peak of ripeness and sun dried rather than
processed wet. The act of sun drying allows
the hull to be removed percussively rather
than mechanically, allowing the coffee to
retain more of its natural flavor and aroma.
To reduce the use of chemical
pesticides and improve the quality of its
product, the plantation uses all natural
pest control and pollination methods. First,
fast growing trees are planted for shade
alongside the coffee. These trees serve
as a natural habitat for the birds that,
in turn, manage the insect population that
is attracted to the coffee plants. To promote
prosperous coffee pollination, each acre
of the plantation has its own beehive. As
a result, each hive also produces a unique,
coffee flavored honey. |
