UVB coffee drinkers:  do you know where your coffee comes from? Please consider joining our local group to obtain the best-tasting, most responsibly-sourced coffee available... while also saving money!

For at least 2 decades I've been buying "Fair Trade" coffee in support of growers. Then about 4 years ago I learned more about the ecological impacts of coffee growing, and work being done by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center to certify coffee farms as Bird Friendly®. When I had a chance to taste triple certified coffee roasted and distributed by Birds & Beans®, I was hooked.

Three years and 1.25 tons ago I started a local coffee buying group, to obtain the freshest-roasted Birds & Beans coffee at the lowest possible price. This week we will be placing our 50th order, and welcome anyone who would like to join the group as an occasional or regular participant.

For details on the coffee, check here:
  <http://www.birdsandbeans.com/>

Here is more information about Bird Friendly certification:
  <http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/coffee/>

This is the veteran-owned, state-of-the-art roasting business in Maine:
  <http://www.pressherald.com/2015/07/05/meet-bob-garver-owner-of-wicked-joe-coffee/>

Many of you are aware that tropical habitat destruction is today’s biggest threat to neotropical migrants. But did you know that today, almost all coffee sold in the US does not meet ‘Bird Friendly®’ standards? Ornithologist Bridget Stutchbury says the most important single step an individual can do to help stop migratory songbird population loss is to always buy certified Bird Friendly® coffee.

Our coffee buying group is as informal and simple as possible. We order every 3 weeks, but you can order every time or only every couple months. There is no membership, no minimum purchase, no shipping cost (almost always), and no overhead costs. The coffee arrives within a few days of being roasted. And it gets even better: Birds & Beans returns a portion of their profit directly to our beloved VCE (<http://vtecostudies.org/>).

Through the buying group, the cost of this coffee is about $11 per pound, or a bit more for decaf or ground. So yes, there is a modest premium for quality and sustainability... amounting to maybe the cost of one coffee-shop latte per pound.

Lastly, many of us coffee drinkers were delighted by publication on Monday of a new study, in the medical journal Circulation. Quoting directly from the conclusion:  "Higher consumption of total coffee, caffeinated coffee, and decaffeinated coffee was associated with lower risk of total mortality." Read more here.

Interested? Our next order will go in this Wednesday. There are 4 roasts to choose from (see website above) and the coffee is available as beans or 1 of 4 grinds. To place an order, learn more, or to be placed on a notification e-mail list for future orders, please reply to <[log in to unmask]>. Getting on the list is the only way to know when an order is going in. If you decide at any time not to continue, you will be promptly removed from the list.

Drink better coffee, and help neotropical migrants!
Doug Hardy, Norwich

(PS - My sole benefits in doing this are helping neotropical migrants, sharing great-tasting coffee, helping to support healthy and family-friendly farms, facilitating a bit of support for VCE, saving myself shipping costs through volume purchasing, and supporting a quality roaster in Maine!)

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