October Newsletter - 2014

   

The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company Registered Trademark


Coffee News

 

 

You know, we have looked at a variety of differing topics here at The Alpaca Bean Newsletter. Some interesting, some boring, some without meaningful roots and others that were defined through research.   The following account is from the book, Uncommon Grounds - The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World - by Mark Pendergrast.

 

Mending the Heart with Organic

Gary Talboy of Coffee Bean International pioneered the certification and marketing of organic coffee in the mid-1980s, working with Tom Harding of the organic Crop Improvement Association to certify coffee from Mexican and Guatemalan cooperatives.

Organic coffee now has grown to 5 percent of the specialty market. At first, most organic coffee was pretty bad. It came from poverty stricken smallholders whose coffee was organic by default, since they could not afford fertilizer or pesticide. They also took little care with proper pruning or processing. Over the years, however, organic coffee improved dramatically, thanks largely to the efforts of people such as San Diego businesswoman Karen Cebreros.

In 1989, Cebreros was diagnosed with a rare heart disease and was told she would eventually need a transplant. Determined to live life to the fullest, she flew to South America to visit her brother-in-law in the remote Peruvian village of Tamborapa. "There was no running water, no electricity, but the people were so loving and happy and giving," Cebreros recalled. They grew coffee, for which they received 8 cents a pound.

Cebreros helped the Peruvians to improve their coffee and get it certified as organic. Today, with the premiums from organic coffee sales, Tamborapa has electricity, running water, telephones, bridges, roads, a school, and a laboratory to study coffee quality. "But they are still loving happy and giving," Cebreros reported. Miraculously, her heart healed itself.

 

Another small anecdote from the book:

Caffeine is one of the alkaloids: organic (carbon containing) compounds built around rings of nitrogen atoms. Alkaloids are the pharmacologically active chemicals produced by many tropical plants. Because they have no winter to provide relief from predators, tropical plants have evolved sophisticated methods to protect themselves. In other words, caffeine is a natural pesticide. It is quite likely that plants contain caffeine because it affects the nervous system of most would be consumers, discouraging them from eating it. Of course, that is precisely the attraction for the human animal.

(I found these notations interesting since we import green beans from Peru, as well as Bolivia, and hopefully our organic offerings have helped some community such as Tamborapa take a step up in quality of life!)

 

 

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Happy Halloween !!!

On A Personal Note:.

 

Shadow...White Shadow to be more correct in his name...is a special fella' in our herd of 91.  He came into this world on a nice enough day while I was home alone, tending the pacas and just enjoying the quiet.  You see, Jude and her Mom, Ms. Pinkie, had gone to Augusta, GA to visit with, and check on, her Aunt Ms. Dot.

Ms. Dot at the time was having a time of it and they wanted to make sure she was doing well in her living quarters.  They had been gone for a spell, around an hour or so, when I noticed one of our PG girls, was acting like she may be deciding to have her babe.  So being the laid back guy that I am, I started following her around.  I tried to be as supportive of her as I could...you know, talking to her, urging her to take her time...like until Jude got home.  This went on for some time and I began to get impatient, you know how most expectant fathers get when things are not going as smooth as they would want them to go? 

It got so bad that I decided it was time to have Malibu walk for me to see if it hurried up the process.  You might ask why I did this since I really wanted to wait until Judy was there with me helping this creature out of her stressful state...well, I had decided that since it took at least two hours to get to where Judy's Aunt lived, and the fact that Jude and her Mom would want to spend at least two or three hours with Aunt Dot, then another two plus hours back...well, that added up to well past the time Malibu would wait to have her little one, so why not go ahead and get it over with, you see.

Malibu was a good mom to be, she got up and walked whenever I asked, she endured the pain of her labor, she did not even spit.  This went on and on and on, until the time came and I could tell she was going into a labor that could not be reversed.  She worked and worked, and I kept looking for the sign of a nose or feet, but instead I got the afterbirth.  This would have been fine if there had been a birth, but there had not been.  So I grabbed Malibu and went fishing for her now without Oxygen baby swimming around within her...after a while I found it and managed to carefully extract it, fully expecting it to be a still birth.  To my surprise, the babe came out coughing and hacking.  It was a bit blue at first but came around to a normal color within a short while.  It turned out to be a HE and a pretty guy at that...but it did not act 100% as a normal cria would act.

Malibu did not want a whole lot to do with her new one, and that did not set too well with me since I had fought so hard to bring it into this world.  Her behavior I figured out later should have been an indicator to me that something was amiss with this new one.  Something that Malibu possibly knew that told her she did not want to bond with her little one.  You see this new little guy had been severely oxygen deprived, so much so that he could not stand nor did he have a clue that he had to eat.

Making this story a bit shorter...when we quickly (for humans) realized the situation, we kicked into action.  We were able to save this creature, and Malibu eventually helped us out in caring for him.  But we were never able to restore all of the lost mental functions.  The guy has a name that we thought appropriate, White Shadow.  Now some of you may remember a TV show with the same name about a basketball coach and his teams...this was not a name from that show.  White Shadow is white, and White Shadow lives in his own delightful shadow.  He is a bit off beat, he has a very unique personality...and he makes us laugh out loud.  He would you as well.

White Shadow will become the face of our new coffee venue that will be attached to the rear of The Southern Alpaca Connection.  The face of a very content alpaca wearing a baseball cap.  You see, Shadow is a rare alpaca in that he does not mind wearing head gear, matter of fact, he seems to enjoy having baseball caps, elf hats, etc., placed on him.  He always seems to smile for the camera and play along with us.  He is a good ol' Joe so to speak...that is why he will be the image for Alpaca Java Joe at our location in Lavonia, Georgia.  Make the trip to our store when we finally open, come on back to Alpaca Java Joe's Coffee Cave, enjoy the smells and delights of The Alpaca Bean Coffee, the unique coffee products, and maybe even a cup of good tasting coffee at our Coffee Nook.  Bet that will make you smile just as White Shadow brings a smile to our faces almost daily..

 

  

Peace,

 

The Coffeeman 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company On-Line Store has been moved to a new platform.  Hopefully, this new home will offer all the convenience and ease of operation that we all desire.  If you encounter any problems, any problems, please contact us at bestcoffee@thealpacabean.biz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Coffee Lovers and Friends,  
 
Judy and I are really enjoying having the opportunity to provide the best possible coffee for your enjoyment.  We also hope you will be able to visit us soon to experience the pleasure of drinking an outstanding mug of our Alpaca Bean Coffee while watching the little ones pronking all over the place!

George Dick
The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company, LLC 


 

 

The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company, LLC

 
The Alpaca Bean Coffee Co., LLC

466 Stone Lane

Canon, Georgia 30520