Every Sunday morning, volunteers from our Coffee Hospitality Brew Crew come in early to prepare coffee, tea and everything else to serve to all of us after our service.  We appreciate their generosity of time.  On this Sunday morning they are introducing and serving coffee that is fairly traded and organic—something we haven’t had for several years at UUSS.

Here is why it matters:

Many of the less expensive mass-market coffee brands are produced on large corporate plantations.  Coffee certified as fairly traded, on the other land, supports agriculture that is small-scale and sustainable. It makes it more likely that growers get a fair price and that hands-on workers get a better wage.

The coffee we are brewing now is a roast that’s blended from organic beans grown by farmers in three different countries: Peru, Honduras, and Colombia.

1. Since 1999, a coffee cooperative in Peru has been supporting 2,000 smaller coffee producers with training and financing aimed at improving coffee quality and yields to increase farmer earnings.
2. In Honduras, the first cooperative of small and mid-size coffee producers there was founded in 1997.  Now, 270 producers participate in it.  Some of the current producers of coffee even grew up on their parents’ organic farms.
3. In the southwestern coastal area of Colombia, a producer association is made up of 274 producers, all of whom are women.  They who live in 11 different municipalities in their state (or department, as its called in Colombia). The average age of the members of this cooperative is 40, and each member is the head of her household.

The coffee we are now serving at UUSS is more expensive than mass-market brands, so we appreciate your donations.  We also appreciate those who are sponsoring it with a subsidy to the Coffee Budget. For the next few weeks, we’re blessed by the generosity of the Alliance for All group at UUSS.  (Alliance Programs take place at UUSS on the 2nd Thursday morning of each month, 10:45-noon.)

The small coffee business which provides beans to UUSS is based in the Bay Area.  Farley’s Coffee has one location in Oakland and one in San Francisco.

Of course, if you enjoy coffee, you want to know what it tastes like.  Here’s what the owner of Farley’s has told us:

Specialty Arabica coffee beans are grown at high elevations in shade-rich environments. The longer a coffee tree has to mature affects the natural sweetness of the varietal. “These naturally occurring sugars represent a complex sweetness in our roasted coffee. This blend is allowed to develop a little longer in the cast iron drum of our roaster under a soft heat. This extra level of caramelization adds a butterscotch character to this well-balanced and full-bodied brew.

We have this coffee thanks to the leadership of Tracy Jones and Gary Keill, and our crew has lovely new aprons designed by Max Soucia.   It’s blended and roasted just for us in the Bay Area, not in a big factory across the country or overseas.  Isn’t it interesting to consider how many coffee houses have names that sound religious or spiritual names.  In Sacramento there’s Temple… Insight… and Old Soul.  In San Francisco there’s a coffee shop named Ritual.  And today, here at UUSS, we are introducing a blend created just for us—Chalice Blend.

We think you’ll enjoy it.  If you do, you can purchase a bag of coffee beans from UUSS at the Holiday Arts and Crafts Marketplace here, Saturday, November 16.  We know that some of you are tea drinkers, but we hope you appreciate that some of our members need coffee, especially before some of my sermons.

Thank you!