The leaves change color, the air grows colder, but at Café Campesino, although the seasons change our goals remain the same -- to bring you the finest coffee while at the same time helping farmers in the coffee lands earn a living wage. We're also just as committed to spreading the Fair Trade message in our local community.

In this month's issue of Fairgrounds, we talk about how coffee beans from different origins get their distinctive taste. We also spotlight some of our recent and upcoming activities, including the BRAG bikefest and the SOA Watch, as well as offer a new Dr. Coffee column, a recipe and a Fair Trade fact. Grab a steaming cup of your favorite Café Campesino brew, relax and read on!

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Some people swear by Nicaraguan coffee. Others only like Sumatran. Still others go out of their way to find African coffees. In these cases, it’s not the roast of the coffee that people are looking for, but where it was grown. And most of the time, they’re searching for more than just a name.

Coffee beans taste different depending upon where they are grown.  Soil, climate, altitude, species variety, harvesting and processing methods all are factors that affect the flavor of the coffee.

Even if you buy the same coffee every time, it may taste different.  Flavor changes with each roast, and taste and quality of the green coffee beans vary with each harvest season and shipment. Each year, the coffee can have a subtly different flavor, or be of a different quality due to changes in some of the above variables. For this reason, we do cupping tests of our coffee before purchasing it, even when we’ve bought from the same region before, to ensure that the coffee meets our established quality standards for each region. More

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The Bike Ride Across Georgia (BRAG) Bikefest, held this past weekend, was once again a very enjoyable venue for serving Fair Trade Coffee. Victoria and Geoffrey traveled to Newnan, Georgia to serve coffee to bike riders getting together for one last BRAG ride before winter. The ride was once again very well organized, and many were glad to be able to get a good cup of coffee before setting out for the day.

Weather was a bit cooler than usual, so we didn’t make any iced mochas this year. We did serve over 350 cups of BRAG Brew. We also sold some of our T-shirts, handcrafted mugs and a few pounds of coffee for those who wanted to home brew. As usual, there were many great discussions about Fair Trade and the importance of supporting our farmers.

Jack and Kathleen, BRAG regulars who have become good friends of ours, arrived in their new pop-up camper and again were a great help and support. They brought their dog, Lance (named after Lance Armstrong), allowing for some dog-sitting during the day while they rode. To Lance, it is now Aunt Victoria and Uncle Geoffrey!

It's always great to catch up with all of our BRAG friends, some of whom go back four years now! BRAG has developed a wonderful feeling of community, and we at Café Campesino are pleased to have become regular members.

While Geoffrey and Victoria were busy with the Newnan folks, our roaster, Lee, went down to Mt. Dora in Florida to serve Café Campesino coffee to yet another large group of cyclists. Trying something new, Lee chose not to camp out at the serving site, which turned out to be the right choice. Not only did it rain Saturday night, but the sprinkler system on the site comes on in the middle of the night!

Both events were a success, and we look forward to going back next year!

Coming up, we will be serving coffee and raising awareness at the SOA Watch (www.soaw.org) November 21-23 in Fort Benning, GA. From the SOA Watch site: "Join thousands from across the Americas from November 21-23, 2003 at the gates of the U.S. military base Fort Benning in Georgia - home of the notorious School of the Americas - renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - to stand in solidarity with the victims of the School of Assassins and to speak out against terror and violence. ...Engage in nonviolent direct action to make your voice heard...and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy."

With the cooler weather setting in and the holidays quickly approaching, we have a busy schedule of coffee roasting and shipping ahead. So you'll also find the Café Campesino team hard at work in Americus to bring you the high quality coffee you crave so you can enjoy these crisp fall mornings in style!

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Think you know a lot about coffee? Then enter our Fair Grounds Trivia Contest. Click here for our question of the month. Entering is easy and it's FUN!

Our judges were so moved by last month's Coffee Knowledge question that they decided to do a little experiment of their own. They put all the correct entries from last month's contest into a coffee filter and ran some hot water through it. The entry that filtered to the top belonged to Heather Stalcup. Congratulations, Heather. You're our winner!

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"It is higher and nobler to be kind."

– Mark Twain

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