Kickapoo Coffee added to Global Fayre online store

We’ve had a steady stream of calls from people outside Springfield asking about Kickapoo Columbian, so we’ve added it to our online store.

Kickapoo Coffee display at Global Fayre

Columbian Organic from Kickapoo Coffee

Global Fayre and Kickapoo Coffee

We’ve made a great discovery this week; 100% handcrafted artisan fair trade coffee from Kickapoo Coffee in Wisconsin.

It all began when our main coffee supplier, Equal Exchange, flagged up that there was a shortage of Columbian coffee due to adverse weather conditions in Columbia over the past year. We have a regular number of Columbian coffe drinkers, so knew that we needed to find a back-up supplier.

Where to start? As members of the Fair Trade Federation the starting point was to check out the coffee roasters on the member list. This list is available to non-members as well as members, and is a great place to start if you are trying to source Fair Trade products of any kind, whether as a retailer or consumer. So a search of the member list flagged up 15 coffee wholesalers in North America. Panning down the list, some names familiar some not so familiar, one named just jumped out – Kickapoo Coffee! Here in the Ozarks, the name Kickapoo is found everywhere, as it was a major settlement area for the Kickapoo. Turns out that the Kickapoo actually started in the Wisconsin area before moving (voluntarily or not) progressively southwards (check out Kickapoo history here).

So the next task was to find out more about Kickapoo Coffee. They describe themselves as a family-scale enterprise situated near the scenic Kickapoo River in the driftless region of southwest Wisconsin. The foundation of our business is our shared values: connection to the land, consideration for our local and global community, and commitment to our families and those of our trading partners. From our telephone conversations I found out that they take orders each Monday, then roast on Tuesday and Wednesday before shipping out towards the end of the week. So the coffee that we order on a Monday arrives at Global Fayre around a week later as fresh as it could be.

The next step was to find some third party reference about the quality of Kickapoo’s coffee. There is a really useful site called Coffee Review that reviews coffees in a similar way to wines, even giving them a score out of a possible 100. You can read the review of organic Columbian from Kickapoo Coffee here.

organic Columbian from Kickapoo Coffee

Since the samples arrived earlier in the week we have been brewing the Columbian every day to gauge customer response. Everyone seems to have really liked it. It’s a light roast, not at all hard-hitting, with a flavor to savor. Another great feature is the packaging; it comes in a wonderfully re-usable old coffee can!

We’ll be placing our first order next Monday, so might even have our first batch here by the First Friday Art Walk!

The plan is to stock it in the 12oz can, but also to have it in bulk, so that you can  bring your can back and refill it (for a discount of course).