Walpole Unitarian Church
Equal Exchange Fair Trade Project
The shelves in the little room to the left of the high pulpit have been filled with our Equal Exchange Fair Trade (EE/FT) products again.
You'll recognize quite a few favorites, but here are the NEW items:
Organic Congo Coffee Organic Dark Hot Chocolate Mix (12 oz.)
Organic Proud Mama Coffee Organic Salted Roasted Cashews (8 oz.)
Organic Proud Mama Coffee Organic Salted Roasted Cashews (8 oz.)
Organic French Roast Organic Tamari Roasted Almonds (8 oz.)
Organic Apricot Cashew Fruit and Nut Bars
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (500 ml.)
To read the details about all the new products (and also the ones we regularly carry) feel free to go on Equal Exchange's website (http://shop.equalexchange.coop/
Equal Exchange offers more than 40 varieties of organic and Fair Trade coffees from co–ops in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
You'll notice that the pricing we get as a congregation is great compared with the retail you'll see listed in their website and local stores. While you're noodling around on the site, let me know if there's anything you'd like me to add to our product line at church.
If you would like to order by the case –– I'll be placing our "chocolate" order after Nov. 1st so that would be the time to add your case(s) list to the order. The pricing by the case saves you an extra few dollars.
Coffee/Tea/Cocoa/Fruit–Nut cases are usually 5–6 packages. The fruit and nut bars and chocolate bars are usually 12/case. Note that most of the coffees can be ordered as whole bean –– but you'd need to order a case of those for yourself, as I only carry "drip grind" for our church EE/FT shelves.
Paul and I are looking forward to trying all the new EE/FT products and to restocking our home kitchen with the regular ones we've come to enjoy very much !!
Virginia Carter cartervirginia@msn.com (603)756–3948
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Some interesting information from the Equal Exchange site.
“Natural Process Coffee”
Have you ever tried natural process coffee? If you have, you probably noticed a difference! Knows as “naturals” in the specialty coffee industry, these coffees impart a heavy, expansive mouthfeel and flavor notes that are fruity and complex, Equal Exchange now offers natural process coffee — and fans of this style are devoted. But what makes naturals so distinct?
Drying Coffee With The Natural Process
Coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee plant. Like other seeds, they’re found within the fruit. In coffee-growing regions around the world, farmers wait for this fruit to ripen. Once the sugars are fully developed and the cherries are mature, it’s time to harvest them from the bushes where they grow. But what happens next? That depends.
Often, farmers remove the pulp that surrounds the seeds. Because this is commonly done with water, the method is called wet processing. But in some cases, the de-pulping step is skipped entirely. The coffee bean is processed within its cherry. The result is dry-processed – or natural-processed – coffee.
After farmers harvest the cherries, they spread them out on raised drying beds or bamboo mats to dry, with the beans still inside the fruit. The flesh shrinks down, making the beans resemble large raisins. They lose moisture over the course of the drying period, creating a dense sweetness. The process may sounds simple, but it takes skill. Workers must carefully remove unripe or defective beans by hand. They must also turn the coffee cherries regularly so that they dry evenly in the sun. Once drying is complete, which can take anywhere from twelve days to three weeks, beans are put through a hulling machine. This removes the dried pulp, parchment and silverskin. The green beans are now ready to roasted.
Environmentally Friendly –– and innovative!
Natural processing is the most environmentally friendly method of processing coffee. Unlike with wet processing methods, there is no wastewater that must be evaporated in soak pits or filtered before it can be safely returned to rivers and streams. And when access to water is limited, as it is in many parts of the world, natural processing is especially practical. It makes sense that this method is very common in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated! Equal Exchange works with small-scale farmer partners at SCFCU, located in the Sidama region of the country, to source the natural process beans we use in our popular Organic Ethiopian coffee.
The success of the dry-processing method in Ethiopia has encouraged coffee farmers in other parts of the world to turn to natural process coffee, too. Experimenting with processing is a one way to improve quality. Farmers at the COMSA co-op in Honduras are leaders in innovation.
They’ve discovered that beans from the same lot can sometimes garner a higher score on the Specialty Coffee Associations of America’s 100-point scale when processed naturally, as opposed to with the wet process.
COMSA’s willingness to try new things and their commitment to quality results in a final product that tastes phenomenal! In Fall 2018, a limited-edition seasonal in Equal Exchange’s Women in Coffee series featured natural-processed beans from COMSA.
