02Feb

A little Competition and a lot of Camaraderie

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This will be our 2nd year entering the US Coffee Championships for Barista and Roasting. These competitions are what help push us to become better coffee professionals, which in turn benefits our customers and wholesale partners back home. Not only do we elevate as professionals in our field, but competing also allows us to take awesome road […]
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07Nov

What is the Cup of Excellence?

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  • coe, cup of excellence, honduras coe, honduras cup of excellence, honduras la fortuna, nicaragua coe, nicaragua cup of excellence, nicaragua el lovo, nicaragua santa teresa
COE stands for “Cup of Excellence” and is a coffee competition held by ACE “Alliance for Coffee Excellence”  in coffee producing countries like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Brasil, Colombia, Burundi, Peru, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.  Basically, it’s a competition where craftsman coffee farmers submit their best coffees of that season to be judged and scored […]
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03Oct

El Fuego: A Dark Roast

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  After 5 years of roasting coffee with a focus on highlighting the inherent flavor properties found within each bean, why would we decide to do a dark roast?  Well, to be honest there are two reasons. Both reasons are pretty simple. The first reason is the simple fact that there is a large percentage […]
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14Jul

Back to the Farm: Colombia La Falda

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  • colombia, colombia la falda, colombian coffee, colombian la falda, la falda coffee, vigilante, vigilante coffee, vigilante colombia
I’ve been traveling to Colombia since 2012 when I had a phone call with the original founder of Starbucks, Gordon Bowker.  During that time, we were primarily roasting and selling Hawaiian coffees as this was our only direct source. As Gordon Bowker put it, “You’re like a wine store with only good Merlot.  You’ve got […]
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02Jun

Our journey to Kenya to find the Best Coffee

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  • best coffee, Coffee, collaborative coffee, dormans, kenya, kenyan coffee, kirunyu, kiumu, kiumu estate, vigilante coffee
When I stepped off the plane in Africa there was an energy in the air.  It was 11pm in Nariobi and about 70 degrees.  As my cab traveled towards my hotel we passed a herd of Zebras just outside the Airport entrance.  I’d been waiting for 6 years to travel to Kenya to purchase our […]
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11May

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint With Composting

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  • Carbon Footprint, Compost, Environment
By: Ashley Bodine We are excited to announce that beginning this week, in conjunction with International National Compost Awareness Week,  we will be reducing our carbon footprint on an even larger scale by composting all of our spent coffee grounds. Each year, more than 1 BILLION pounds of spent coffee grounds end up in landfills. […]
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25Apr

Cold Brew Season Has Arrived

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  • Iced Coffee, Japanese Pour Over, Nitro Cold Brew
By: Austin Redington Spring and summer are on the way, and for coffee shops around the world that means iced coffee season is upon us. But are all iced coffees created equally?   Not even close.  Three of the most common styles of iced coffee are served at our cafe: Cold brew -Japanese iced pour […]
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12Apr

How Climate Change Affects Coffee

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  • Climate Change, Coffee, Farms, Roasting, Social Cause
How Climate Change Affects Coffee A serious disaster is brewing: climate change is threatening coffee crops in every coffee producing region in the world. According to NOAA & NASA, in 2016 the earth’s surface temperatures were the warmest on record- and it’s only getting warmer. These rising temperatures are attributed to a phenomenon known as […]
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18Jan

A Letter From Barack Obama

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  • Entrepreneurship, Obama, Trinidad DC, vigilante coffee
By: Chris Vigilante Dear Mr. President, Seven years ago, I arrived to Washington D.C. with the idea to start my own company; a specialty coffee roasting company that sources its beans directly from small farms all over the world. For anyone that has ever started or attempted to start a business, God bless you.  It’s got […]
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