New arrivals - decaf green coffee

New Decaf Green Coffee is available now.

We know the greatest roasters in the world need the highest quality green coffee, especially when it comes to decaf. Real coffee lovers want the best taste, regardless of the caffeine content, so Artisan Coffee Imports is excited to offer a new lineup of top-shelf decaffeinated green coffee. Our updated lineup is as follows:

Type	Arrival Date	Warehouse
La Serrania A Decaf – Colombia	March 2015	Conti
La Serrania A Decaf - Colombia	December 2014	Conti
Los Idolos AA Decaf - Colombia	September 2014	Conti
San Sebastian AA Decaf - Colombia	December 2014	Annex
La Serrania A Decaf - Colombia	April 2015	Annex

If there’s a different bean you wish you could sell as decaf too, let Artisan Coffee know and we can arrange decaf processing for you.

Head over to artisancoffeeimports.com/green-coffee to learn more!

Artisan Coffee Group Now Offering Consulting

Artisan Coffee Group is pleased to offer our clients professional consulting for roasters. We can provide impact assessment at origin, monitoring and evaluation of programs and consulting to improve the efficiency of your supply chain through our unique “Lean at Origin” strategic process. These services are aimed at roasters who want to increase the productivity and sustainability of their business. Our consulting service uses a data-driven approach supplemented by Ruth Ann's 20 years of business experience and a passion for quality coffee.

What is "Lean at Origin"? It's a belief that producers are small business-people who make the best decisions they can about how to invest their scarce resources. With training, we help them "see" waste in their processes that is otherwise invisible. Through teamwork we improve leadership capabilities of every family member, friend and hired worker. These fundamentals of quality production have been proven over decades by thousands of small, mom & pop machine shops in the automotive industry. Ruth Ann grew up near the Motor City and for 8 years has helped manufacturers to compete better on the global playing field. With research and experience through Michigan State University, these concepts are now taking hold in coffee supply chains around the world.

Contact us for more information, or visit our website.

Fun Facts About Decaf Coffee

Here is another “Things You Might Not Know” list about decaffeinated coffee:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/decaf-coffee-facts.html

This list gives 8 “facts”. First we give the all important item (#9) which they left off -- then we share are our comments on each:

#9 Decaf Coffee Fact from Artisan Coffee Imports: you don’t need to compromise on taste!

1. Decaf doesn’t mean caffeine-free: very true!
2. The amount of caffeine in decaf varies (a lot): true it varies, whether it varies “a lot” depends on your definition of “a lot”. Some would say the difference between 20mg and 32 mg is pretty insignificant.
3. Not all decaf is equal: Indeed, there are four different methods to decaffeinate coffee: two organic and two ‘conventional.’ Reading this makes me suspect the author works for Swiss Water or has just been inundated by that company’s effective marketing. Water and CO2 are the two organic methods, but “Swiss Water” is not the only water process available. There is also the “Mountain Water Process” available, and “Mountain” and “Swiss” are essentially the same process, just owned by different companies.  The two conventional processes utilize methylene chloride or ethyl acetate as solvents. Both are harmless, especially after roasting at > 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, but I understand and appreciate those who prefer to go organic.
4. 1 in 10 coffee drinkers reach for decaf. Interesting and probably accurate statistic. The NCA does a good job with their annual survey. The real news is the fact that Counter Culture gets about 18% of sales from decaf. Counter Culture is an example of a roasting company, where everything they do is done as “right” as they possibly can. Even the decaf. They, more than many, are selective and take care to create decafs that taste good. (See Fact #9.)

Facts 5, 6, 7 and 8: all are about health benefits of coffee -- liver, diabetes, cholesterol, prostate. Our suggestions, do not drink coffee, decaf or otherwise, to cure these or any health problems. To improve health, exercise and eat right. And drink decaf coffee for the taste and pleasure!

New Instructor Development Program Co-hosted By Artisan in Ann Arbor

Jan. 2, 2014
Happy New Year!
Big News -- the SCAA's Instructor Development Program (IDP) and the all-new Advanced Instructor Development Program (A-IDP) will both be offered in beautiful Ann Arbor, MI on Feb. 8 & 9, 2014. Artisan Coffee Imports is co-hosting the educational program with local roasters, Zingerman's Coffee Co. and Mighty Good Coffee. Artisan is especially proud to be helping to bring this "train the trainers" course to Michigan. "It's a way to raise the bar for training and education at any coffee company," says Ruth Ann Church, Artisan's President. "To be in specialty coffee, you also really have to be about education."

The location will be one of Zingerman's classrooms, close to the roaster, which is near the Ann Arbor airport. (Yes! You can fly your little Sand Piper nearly up to the front door!)

The course will look a little like this... only with Ildi Revi as the instructor!

For all the details and registration, go to the SCAA website with a click here for the regular IDP, and a click here for the Advanced IDP.

The Advanced IDP is designed to help instructors refine the art of giving feedback to students. The SCAA is considering making this course a requirement for those teaching internationally.
Sign up today!

Motown Throwdown Debuts IN the D!

May 2013
It was great to be part of the MoTown Throwdown IV in the big D! (Detroit). Artisan Coffee Imports sponsored tasting of the delicious decaf Colombian Los Idolos roasted by Anthology Coffee, http://www.anthologycoffee.com/, (Detroit City's finest roaster!) And Ruth Ann was one of three judges for the specialty drinks competition. Fantastic drinks were presented by all contestants!

The Organizers

The Winners (1st, 2nd & 3rd place)

Late photo of fine latte art!

Burundi and Haiti Coffees Storm Espresso Royale

Monday, May 13, 2013
Landmark coffee roasting co. and multi-location cafe, Espresso Royale, launched a new "single origin" initiative today in SE Michigan. Owner/founder Marcus Goller is introducing what he calls two single-origin "gems" -- one from Burundi and the other from Haiti. They are "gems" because they both create a direct connection between an Espresso Royale customer and a coffee producer or specific small group of producers half-a-world away. 




Crop to Cup - Burundi Single Origin Training @ Espresso Royale

In a staff training event at the State. St. store in Ann Arbor, MI, Goller invited Crop to Cup representatives to deliver a workshop on the topic "what is single-origin coffee?" and the story behind the Burundi Buhorwa coffee that Espresso Royale will now carry. After all the words and talk, it was time for some tasting. The Burundi coffee was brewed with several different brew methods by staff working in teams.

Crop to Cup has been engaged with Burundi farmers since 2007. Jake Ester, one of C2C's partners, explained his story of how he got started learning about coffee in Uganda, then moved to neighboring Burundi. He describes a pivotal moment where he and his partner were standing in an export warehouse and a colleague pointed to the 2 or 3 pallets that were shipping to a café that is heavily marketed as "helping farmers by buying direct." Jake explains how in that setting, with aisles of coffee stacked floor to ceiling, and a football field length long, it did not seem like 2 or 3 pallets of coffee could possibly make much of difference at all. That's when they decided as a company that they would do "whole crop" purchasing. The Burundi Buhorwa coffee Espresso Royale is now selling is part of that whole crop project.

 

 

Coffee Week: Women in Coffee Highlighted by NPR

April 25, 2013

NPR's Morning Edition has been highlighting coffee week with some excellent reporting! Allison Aubrey reported this morning on the International Women in Coffee Alliance (IWCA), http://www.womenincoffee.org/, an organization I have been supporting with my volunteer hours over the past year. Click here and listen to this great short story.

 I've been supporting IWCA in spirit since 2007, when I first went to their fund-raising breakfast, and finally this year "I got involved."  Contrary to what you might guess, IWCA is much more than a bunch of women sitting around drinking coffee! The NPR story does a good job of describing the organization's purpose - to help women working in coffee around the world to organize and develop leadership skills, thereby finding strength and voice to make changes.

One example of what IWCA has done so far (it's only 10 years old) is a leadership training conference held in Nairobi for about 15 women from 3 or 4 African nations. All the trainers' donated their time and travel costs. Once they were done in Nairobi, they brought 4 or 5 of the women to the U.S., including a visit to Washington D.C. and then they attended an International Trade Commission (part of the United Nations) meeting in Mexico City, which included a trade show of women's businesses. Not surprisingly, these women in coffee now have much bigger and more solid ideas of what their coffee businesses can be.

To support my business, (which is a woman-owned coffee importing business) go to www.ArtisanCoffeeImports.com and ask your favorite roaster to check us out!