Coffee Strong Enough to Fight Poverty

When I first began dreaming about starting my own coffee roasting business, one of the driving forces was the desire to use coffee as a tool to foster and support both local communities and help coffee growers. I decided early on that I would use coffee as a fundraiser for select partners that I felt were making a tangible difference in peoples lives or for the greater environment. Nearly a year passed and I had a few inquiries, but I never felt like I had the right partner to move forward with. I am a patient person and I feel that my patience has been rewarded tenfold as I am proud to announce the launch of Workforce Blend to help support the work of the Henry Street Settlement Workforce Division.

The Henry Street Settlement (HSS) is a non profit organization that has over a 100 year legacy of providing valuable social services and arts programming to New Yorkers in need. It is particularly focused on the needs of the Lower East Side community. Founded in 1893 by social work pioneer Lillian Wald, HSS helps over 100,000 New Yorkers each year. The Workforce Development Center is a branch of HSS dedicated specifically to combat urban poverty by providing valuable vocational and job training enabling unemployed residents to enter or reenter the workforce. Plowshares has pledged to help support these efforts further by contributing $1.00 from the sale of each retail bag or wholesale lb. of Workforce Blend sold.

Workforce Blend is a custom blend or Rainforest Alliance Coffee and seasonally rotating small producer coffees that is beautifully represented both in the press pot or pulled as an espresso. My hope is that this will be an attractive offering to cafes and even office coffee programs that want to enjoy delicious sustainable coffee that helps support local efforts to combat the issues surrounding urban poverty. Buy Plowshares Workforce Blend online today or locally at Bklyn Larder on Flatbush Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. To inquire about wholesale opportunities, please email (akurutz at plowsharescoffee dot com) .

Water Quality

Over the past couple of weeks I have found myself obsessing about water quality as it relates to coffee preparation. Most students of coffee already know that coffee is over 98% water and well as the saying goes.....garbage in garbage out.

All to often I find water filtration is not properly addressed, if addressed at all. NYC which boasts endlessly about the quality of it's drinking water has very soft water, but very salty water as well. This is great for making pizza dough, but not so much for espresso. At the roastery in Rockland County the water is very hard and I have seen TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) levels rising and realized it was time to swap out the filters for my Cirqua system so that I can maintain my target 150ppm TDS level. I also have some new wholesale customers that needed to beef up their water filtration so I have been researching cost effective solutions for them. All said, I have been giving google a workout lately with searches relating to water filtration.

I must admit, as a self professed equipment geek I have relished the opportunity to delve into a new subject matter to research, but as I dug deeper it also began to occur to me that I was taking something very basic and fundamental for granted. That something is the simple privilege to open up the tap and drink from it. I started to think about my travels in the third world and bouts of dysentary I have suffered through. I began to think about how huge of an issue access to clean water is for coffee farmers around the world. Suddenly I was reminded of a good friend who was doing some work with a new charity that was addressing this very issue. I recalled that he was very excited to be a part of a dynamic and transparent organization that raises money to drill wells in Ethiopia, Kenya and throughout the third world in an effort to bring clean drinking water to those who need it. My next google search went to Charity Water and as I clicked on to their website I was immediately impressed. It was obvious that they were on to something special that was making an immediate and tangible impact in many lives around the globe and the best part was that they created a medium and toolset for others to easily participate and make a difference as well. Click through to contribute to Plowshares 90 day build a well campaign: mycharity: water

Please take an opportunity to make a difference today and donate to this campaign and help Plowshares and Charity Water build a well for those who need it most. $50+ donations will get you a free bag of delicious Plowshares Coffee delivered to your door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUhtjOnp2G8

charity: water with Jennifer Connelly

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Great Taste Debate - Press Pot or Chemex

Great Tast Debate
Originally uploaded by AKurutz

On Tuesday September 15th, Plowshares Coffee Roasters participated in the Great Taste Debates Party sponsored by Patron Social Club and Tasting Table at Hill Country Restaurant.

Over 250 people payed $25 per ticket to participate in this epicurean showdown which took on some of today's more pressing culinary questions in a fun filled format at an entertaining venue. Prosciutto di Parma or Jamón Ibérico, Beef or Pork Ribs, Mac n Cheese or Corn Pudding, East Coast vs. West Coast Oysters were just a few of the examples put to the test of the attendees discerning palates who tasted, chewed, sipped and then voted for their favorite.

Plowshares hosted the coffee debate which was entitled: Press Pot or Chemex. Newly transplanted NYC coffee professional Katie Duris formerly of Murky Coffee and Chinatown Coffee Company in Washington D.C. stepped in for the assist as we prepared an endless stream of Press Pots and Chemexes of the wonderfully sweet and heavily fruited Ethiopian Amaro Gayo naturally processed coffee for attendees to sip and ponder.

And the winner you ask? Press Pot by a nearly 3 to 1 margin. Before a firestorm is set off in the coffee blogosphere over the merits and validity of comparing these two brewing methods, or the lack of scientific control, I must freely qualify that I prepared the Chemex while Katie handled Press Pots and this more than any other factor probably dictated the results! It was definitely a fun evening and the coffee was very well recieved by an enthusiastic and curious audience.