Coffee Helps Us to Go Green

Written by Lori Thiessen

Have you ever looked at the used coffee grounds from you coffee maker as you throw them out and lament the waste? I mean, coffee costs quite a bit of money and to just throw out the grounds hurts frugal folks like me. And think about all the used grounds from all the used coffee shops everywhere. Ouch.

Let the hurting stop.

There are two new uses for used coffee grounds, printer ink and biofuel.

CNet’s gadget blog, CRAVE reports that RITI print box uses old coffee grounds or tea leaves and a little water to create ink. The drawback is you likely won’t have a lovely black print experience plus you have to swish the ink cartridge along and pull the paper through the printer at the same time; not very efficient.

However, this might be the start of something amazing!

According to Renewable Energy World.com, coffee has come under the microscope as a possible biofuel. More stable than other biofuel sources like used grease from restaurants and with an equal amount of oil from pre-processed biofuel sources like soybeans, used coffee grounds might be the substance the biofuel industry has been looking for.

Using used coffee grounds as a biofuel has other added benefits like your car exhaust could smell like a fresh cup of coffee plus coffee is quite high in antioxidants so using coffee as a biofuel could be an added health benefit instead of being gassed by carbon monoxide.

Coffee may play an even bigger part of our lives in the future aside from the quick pick-me-up liquid we’ve counted on for years!

Q: In what ways do you recycle your coffee grounds?

Until Next Time,

May your coffee always be freshly brewed!

 

Growing More Than Coffee

Written by Lori Thiessen

The coffee bean we value so highly and pay so much for generally comes from some of the most economically depressed and sometimes politically unstable regions of the world.

Now that consumer compassion is a considerable force in the marketplace, most of the major coffee companies are building in not only environmental sustainability projects into their bottom line but community development projects in these poverty stricken countries, too.

Look at what three of these major coffee companies are doing to support positive, local social change.

Tim Hortons takes a keen interest in their coffee suppliers with a view to improving the coffee farmers and their families lives. By teaching and nurturing the small coffee growers to become better business people, it strengthens the local community and also creates a better product.  Tim Hortons now has improvement projects established in Guatemala, Brazil and Colombia.

Seattle’s Best Coffee also supports Fair Trade certified coffee and claims to invest in social and education projects that help to nurture the communities from which they buy their coffee.

By 2015, Starbucks has declared on its website that 100% of its coffee will be “responsibly grown and ethically traded”.  Through its Shared Planet Program, Starbucks invests in improving the health of coffee growing communities where it buys coffee. Starbucks also participates in foundations that loan money to local farmers at a better rate than they would normally get. These loans help farmers to weather the bad times and make their start-up experience easier and more profitable.

Coffee growing and buying is far more than just the land it grows on.  Without the small scale coffee farmer and his community, we coffee consumers wouldn’t have as much of that black gold to sip.

Q: Do you buy your coffee based on the company’s involvement in ethical sourcing?

Until Next Time,

May your coffee always be freshly brewed!

 

 

A Fresh Cup

Written by Lori Thiessen

There is the old saying that when life hands you lemons you make lemonade. Well, the caffe culture twist on this is: when life grinds your beans,  make coffee! And boy, let me tell you, in the last few months life has ground my beans to super fino espresso powder. But enough about me.

I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who has dropped by this space over the last few months. Your interest in the cafe lifestyle is much appreciated.

This blog will still cover everything to do with the artier side of the coffee shop lifestyle, very fun and frothy but with an underlying intellectual kick. Everything from how to make a great cup of coffee to investigating coffee houses around the world and through the ages will be discussed here.  There will also be reviews of coffee houses included in upcoming posts. Stay tuned!

Caffe Culture is the sister blog to “Coffee Shop Office” which talks about how the coffee shop has become the alternative or even preferred office of people from all walks of life and business.

So look for new posts, new fun facts and a new insight into the cafe lifestyle!

Until next time,

May your coffee always be freshly brewed!