Thursday, May 15, 2008

Coffee Roasting For A Cause

LaPrima
Photo Credit Laura Petrilla


So for several weeks I have been, in addition to my full-time job, spending time at La Prima Espresso. La Prima is a local coffee roaster, retailer and wholesaler. They have a very authentic Italian Espresso bar that has been in business nearly 20 years. In addition to serving some pretty tasty espresso, they are some truly great people.

I have been endeavoring to learn to roast coffee. Roasting is one of those things that you could learn to do in several months, but not learn all there is to know in 20 years. I have no intention of being a master roaster, but I hope to become a competent one. It is my intention to get to a point where the folks at La Prima feel I can roast well enough to produce a consistent quality product.

When I am approved and comfortable, it is my intention to volunteer two days a week to roast coffee for Building New Hope, a non-profit organization that serves communities in Central America. They primarily work in El Salvador and Nicaragua by selling Fair Trade organic coffee. Please check out their web site; it’s a fantastic organization. You can buy their coffee here.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I actually roasted my first batch of Building New Hope Coffee today and hope to be able to do more to help them out very soon.

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