Our Very Own Research Triangle

Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008

We started our morning at Shade Tree Coffee in Durham, near Duke University. Sara and I shared a French press of a Colombian coffee, while Courtney, the manager sat with us for a while. Courtney is the sweet and earnest kind of person whose personality will imbed itself in the pleasant memories of a city. Calm and humble, she told us about time she spent volunteering on a coffee farm in El Salvador, picking and washing coffee seeds. Courtney highlighted how labor intensive the work is on a coffee farm, and the importance of acknowledging this incredibly demanding part of the coffee process. She also explained that some coffee farms, in order to provide shade for the coffee plants and to get more use out of the land, will plant cardamom or nutmeg plants between the coffee plants. I can’t help but think of how that affects the flavor of the coffee. In a Pavlovian way, my tongue gets happy simply thinking about hints of those spices in a coffee.

Months ago, when we started planning our trip, we found a place called Larry’s Beans in Raleigh. We were unable to meet with him, but took some fun pictures around his roasting shop, maybe they will give you a taste of what Larry’s is about.

Larry’s distributes bio diesel

Larry’s runs a very educational/informational website, they also drive this bus which itself is an informational experience.

Not having another destination planned, we did a “coffee” search in my GPS. Scanning the names, a place called “Global Village Organic Coffee” peaked our interest and off we went. Thanks, GPS (and Dad for supplying his directionally challenged daughter with this “go-go-gadget” device)!

Sara and I walked in the room, took a quick glance around, locked eyes and smiled. We liked it already. Signs on the wall, a mix of young and not-so-young customers, nice art and a calm but vibrant buzz in the air made a solid first impression.

 

 

 

Mike Ritchey left the corporate food world 7 years ago to open Organic Village. Having gained an in-depth understanding of food supply chains he brings that knowledge to the coffee world, studying the process of the coffee bean.

He says “There is so much opportunity in the specialty coffee world to employ some ‘best practices’ and it’s a small enough world you can know the people who are doing good work.”

All the coffees at Organic Village are fairly traded, but they don’t all carry the branding label “Fair Trade”, are all organic and 95% of the coffee is shade grown. Mike added that banana plants are often used to shade coffee plants; they don’t naturally grow this way but they have a nice symbiotic relationship.

Mike also gave us a great comparison for talking with organic versus conventional coffee. “You can taste the difference in quality between a hot house tomato and one you pick up at your local farm stand; it’s the same with coffee”.

 

One last thing I want to mention about Organic Village is that Mike has just spent a good bit of money replacing the plumbing of his shop, adding low flush toilets and a dish-washer that only uses one gallon of water.

 

 

In an area of the country that is facing one of the worst droughts in a hundred years, these changes go a long way. When asked if this cuts down on his operating costs he jokingly said “I sleep better”, but it will pay off in the long run.

 

We left Mike’s and headed toward Third Place, a comfortable, busy, living-room feeling coffee shop. We were there for a few hours doing work before meeting our host John for the night. Our long and happy day ended with a Bowerbirds concert at Duke and some late night Karaoke.