Peace Coffee Blog
Jackson's Brewing Protips
Q: How much coffee should I use per cup of coffee? This is a tough one to answer quickly, because no two coffee brewer manufacturers can agree on what a "cup" means, and none of them are a standard US "cup" (aka 8 fluid oz or half a pint), and all of them are substantially smaller than what most coffee drinkers today consider to be a "cup of coffee." What most coffee drinkers can agree on is that when we talk about "a cup of coffee" it's something that looks like this: And most mugs of this shape are around 10 fluid oz, or 300 mL if you're a metric-lover like me. We recommend using 18g of coffee for each of this type of mug, which translates to about 2 heaping tablespoons of whole bean coffee. Q: What's the best way to brew coffee? The best way to brew coffee is the way that you like to and makes enough coffee for you and your household. Coffee extraction can be done in dozens of different ways, but all it amounts to is steeping coffee grounds in hot water and removing those grounds after a certain amount of time. You can brew a delicious cup of coffee using a saucepan, a sock, and a hammer. I don't recommend it because it's incredibly inconvenient, but it is possible! Finding a way that produces delicious coffee might not be worth it if it's too finicky or fussy for you, or alternately, a convenient way of brewing coffee might not be worth it if it produces a drink you don't like drinking. No one solution's right for everyone. If there were, we'd all just be using that all the time instead of having dozens of different brew methods out there. There's a big exciting world of coffee brewers out there, so if your current setup isn't cutting it, it's always fun to explore! Check out our brew guides for inspiration. Q: Is it true that lighter roasts have more caffeine? Maybe? But probably not. This belief that light roasted coffee contains more caffeine comes from a notion that at high temperatures inside a roasting drum when coffee is roasted to a darker color caffeine can evaporate inside the drum. While it's true that the roasting drum gets hotter than the evaporation point of caffeine, not a lot of caffeine will evaporate inside of a roaster. It'll remain plenty caffeinated after roasting. Consider water, which evaporates at 212°F. If you put a gallon of water into a 450° oven for half an hour, does the water completely evaporate? Of course not. Some does, but not even remotely all of it will. The most significant impact on caffeine content in coffee is the biology of the plant: what species it is and how it was grown, not how it was roasted. What is very true is that lighter roasted coffee is denser than darker roasted coffee, so if you're using the same scoop for your light roast and your dark roast brews, you'll end up using more coffee in your light roast brew. This will have more of everything (caffeine included) in your final beverage. This is part of why we recommend brewing by weight whenever possible because using the same amount (by weight) of coffee every time will give you a much more consistent final beverage. Q: Are burr grinders really that much better? Imagine two people following a recipe for roasted potatoes. Ms. Burr cuts her potatoes into even-sized chunks before putting them into the oven. Mr. Blade haphazardly hacks away at his potatoes, resulting in some pieces that are the size of a pea and some that are barely smaller than a whole potato. They both roast the potatoes at the same temperature for the same amount of time. Ms. Burr's potatoes all come out with perfect crispy exteriors and pillowy interiors. Mr. Blade's potatoes are a mess, with the smaller pieces burning to a crisp and the bigger pieces still being raw inside. Whose potatoes would you rather eat? This is exactly what goes on inside burr grinders and blade grinders. Blade grinders smash into coffee beans repeatedly, shattering them into all kinds of different sizes. Burr grinders precision cut them into very specific-sized pieces in a narrow size range. Just as potatoes can over or undercook, coffee grounds can over or under-extract, either not getting enough flavor in your brew or getting some bitter and acrid or otherwise undesirable flavors in. If you're gonna splurge on something in your coffee setup, get yourself a nice grinder. Your tastebuds will thank you. Check out our fave burr grinder! Q: I only really like dark roasts / light roasts / decaf / cold brew / coffee with lots of cream and sugar / PSLs. Am I a bad person? Yes, I’m sorry, you are. For absolution, say ten Hail Melittas and five Our French Presses I’m kidding. Of course, you’re not a bad person! There’s far too much shaming in the coffee world about how drinking incredibly strong black coffee that’s been roasted and brewed a certain way is the only “proper” way to drink it. How you drink coffee is not the same way I might, but that’s okay. I’m not trying to shame you. I want you to live a fun and delicious life, and if that’s drinking PSLs year-round, then you do you, friend! Just maybe consider making them with Peace Coffee :)
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Ride the Peace Wave
Introducing a microwavable bean roasting system! I noticed a bag of beans sitting on my microwave and thought, why not offer Peace Coffee—but freshly roasted in a jiffy We think our customers will have a great time trying to achieve the perfect roast at home. It doesn’t get fresher than Peace Wave! - Lee Wallace
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New B Corp Score
The process towards becoming a B Corporation starts with a comprehensive impact assessment in which a corporation must score at least 80. Here's the breakdown of our new score!
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Holiday Cookie Pairing
Spritz Cookies These sweet, buttery cookies are coffee’s best friend! While we would never try to beat grandma’s recipe, this NYT recipe comes in clutch if you need a refresher. Gather the fam, break out your press, and brew a big pot of coffee to keep the cookie cheer going all day long. Spritzes pair well with our new Limited Edition Peace and Love Holiday Blend! This light roast has a wonderful buttery flavor that pairs well with your favorite pastry…or Spirtz cookie, if you know what we mean. 😉 Chocolate Molasses Cookies We recommend this NYT recipe – These cookies give off a grown-up taste with the bitterness of the cocoa and molasses play off of the spiciness of the ginger. These cookies pair well with our “grown up” coffees, the robust and smoky French roast or comforting decaf Morning Glory. Peanut Butter Blossoms Let’s be real, you probably have your own recipe but if you’ve misplaced it, we use this one! – This is the cookie no one is ever going to be disappointed to see in your holiday exchanges. A well-loved absolute classic, we’ve been known to go a little rouge and incorporate hazelnut spread into our batches from time to time. The roast flavor from the peanut butter pairs well with nutty coffees like our smooth Twin Cities blend, carmelley Black Squirrel Espresso, or signature dark roast Tree Hugger. Holiday M&M Cookies A tried and true crowd-pleaser, we love this recipe! The red and green M&Ms add a festive touch to your cookie platters…so we’ll pair one festive addition with another… try it with our seasonal Snowshoe Brew.
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Move Over Mint
Introducing Mouth Peace! Our latest line of caffeinated goods is here just in time for April ;-)
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2021: On Down The Road
Looking back at 2021 with a mix of happiness and a sober reminder of the difficulties of this time.
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2020: Can You Hear Me Now?
A recap of the year that no one asked for, but ended up being kind of like a half-caff cup of coffee.
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We love you MPLS
Our city and many others across the nation are experiencing mountains of hardship, loss, and hurt right now. This past weekend was filled with grieving, unrest, protest, and also a call for justice and peace to be restored. We are fortunate that all our locations are unharmed, but the immediate areas around us have been severely damaged and will take much time to rebuild. Along with the businesses still standing in our area, our roastery is going into its fifth day with no power due to the inability to safely dispatch the city electricians. Until electricity is restored and we can assure the safety of the roastery for our staff, delivery team, and shipping partners, we are unable to fulfill orders. We know that you plan to have your coffee order within a certain window of time, especially our coffee subscriptions, but we hope you can be patient and understanding as we navigate a difficult situation full of heartache unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetime. On Friday of last week our CEO, alongside, a team of amazing staff, former employees, and vendor partners worked together to move all of our inventory off-site, and also rerouted a delivery of green coffee from our farmer partners to offsite warehouses. Both the trucks and the space to store this product were kindly offered by other local coffee and beverage companies. We are immensely thankful for the show of support from these fellow business owners. This reflects the general acts of goodness that were not shown on local and national news this past weekend. Our community is full of kind and beautiful people that came out to sweep our streets, put out fires, move debris, and provide essential supplies like food, masks, diapers, and medicine to those in need. We’ve also been witness to continuous peaceful protests demanding justice for George Floyd. We love our city and have faith that together we can repair, heal, and make changes for the better. Sweeping Our Streets As we wait for our power to be restored, we are taking a moment to reflect, check in with our loved ones, march and call for justice, and look for ways to give back by delivering food and essential supplies to community hubs. If you live nearby, grab a winter shovel, a push broom, garbage bags, masks, and gloves and find a local group to assist in organized and much appreciated sweeping up of our streets. Join in a Clean Up Handing Out Supplies There are many folks who are in serious need of essential supplies due to damage and closure of grocery stores, big-box retailers, pharmacies, and further difficulty while public transit is paused. If you can help, here is a list of places you can donate supplies and/or money to in our immediate area. Groups That Need Resources We sincerely hope and ask you to please continue to support our business and those of so many others in our city that are working to rebuild, ensure safety, and provide their goods and services again as soon as they possibly can. We need healthy, vibrant, diverse, equitable communities to survive and thrive and it comes down to all of us doing the work together to make this world a better place. Heads Up, Seeking Justice We know the hardships for our business, the physical structures and streets, and many of our residents will pass. Things will get better. But what we know now, more than ever, is justice, equality, and peace must be our collective aim. The marginalized parts of our community, and communities across America, are crying out and being heard. To answer those cries, justice for George Floyd must be served. Justice For George
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Our City Is Hurting
For almost 25 years, Peace Coffee has been roasting coffee with love in the heart of Minneapolis. Our roastery and our flagship coffee shop are both two blocks from the main artery of our community, Lake Street. It connects our residents from Bde Maka Ska to the Mississippi River and is a treasure. This stretch of the city has innumerable small, independent businesses as well as big-box retailers that provide essential items and services to the area. It’s where countless nonprofit and community organizations hold space to listen to, gain insight on, and provide for our community. It’s also the location of the third precinct police station, where the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd report. Since Tuesday night, emotions and actions have overflowed, and spilled over into the businesses and properties along Lake Street and beyond. With multiple fires, irreparable damage to property, theft, and also injuries incited by rubber bullets, tear gas, and physical violence, we are simply at a loss. But Still Love Remains Despite the hardships and time it will take to repair businesses throughout the area, many shop owners have stressed that they can replace things, but not human lives. Ingebretsen’s, a 99-year-old business located on Lake Street, is a welcome example of how compassion and love usurp hate and injustice, as they boarded up their broken windows and painted MLK Quotes and hearts on their exterior. Also, community members are assisting with the cleanup efforts. Spread the love or help businesses along Lake Street clean up. Act For Lake Street Gone But Not Forgotten There have been many peaceful acts of demonstrations on our streets calling for justice. People are marching together, building memorials and painting murals to honor George Floyd, and donating to organizations working to dismantle racism and to support Floyd’s family and loved ones. First and foremost, use your voice to help seek justice for George. If you are able, consider giving to organizations on the ground that need our help. A Call For Justice We ask you to keep our city, its businesses, and its people in your thoughts as we try to navigate a situation that is part of a systematic issue around relations to power, race, and inequality. All things which matter deeply to Peace Coffee because the heart of the fair trade coffee we sell is a hope that we can do things differently and change the narrative when it comes to equality and justice for all. More Ways To Help Take Action MN Loaves & Fishes MN Reclaim The Block
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A Word From Lee: Adapting To Uncertainty
When new challenges come, we've always adapted and worked for our community, even more so now.
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2019: A Decade Gone By
Looking back at the amazing things that came our way, and the amazing coffees we sent your way, in 2019 fills us with gratitude for our place in the coffee universe.
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Peace Coffee Is In Great Hands
By now you know we have some pretty incredible things in store for 2018, but strap in because this caffeinated journey of ours is forging a new path. As you may know, Peace Coffee has been owned by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) since the beginning. It’s been a great ride, but recent discussions have led to IATP and Peace Coffee agreeing that it would be mutually beneficial to both parties if they were to sell the company to a new ownership group. The priority for everyone throughout this decision-making process was to find a like-minded buyer that could continue our mission and culture without fail. Who better to do that than one of our own? That’s right, our own Queen Bean and leader for the last 11 years, Lee Wallace, loves this company, its mission, and its culture so much that she decided to buy the whole operation in partnership with her friend and new business partner, Kent Pilakowski. A New Era for Peace Coffee You’re probably sitting there thinking, who is this Kent Pilakowski character? I haven’t heard of him before… Well, he’s a successful Minneapolis based entrepreneur and management executive with over 20 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry. He’s passionate about our mission and sees this as an opportunity to make a difference in the world, and set the foundation for his children to grow up around a socially-minded business that they can be proud to be a part of for years to come. As the new owners, Lee and Kent will work diligently to build upon the success Peace Coffee has experienced to date as an innovative social enterprise. While this change means that Peace Coffee will no longer be owned by a non-profit, it doesn’t mean we’re changing our focus from being a mission-based social enterprise that aims to have a lasting positive impact on the world. Staying True to Our Roots The foundation of Peace Coffee is our great coffee, along with our unique and innovative culture, and our mission to support the livelihoods of everyone in the chain from farm to cup while protecting and enhancing the environment in which the coffee is produced. It will continue to be our number one priority to have an active involvement in our supply chain, and look for ways to deepen our impact on coffee-growing communities. Along with improving the lives of coffee growing families through our industry-leading ethical purchasing practices, we will continue to demonstrate our leadership in the industry through transparency, sharing information on best practices, and collaborating on projects with other like-minded organizations. Overall, this change will help ensure we continue to lead the way and inspire others to follow in our footsteps. Peace Coffee has set the tone for innovation in organic, fair trade coffee for 20 years now and we fully expect this to continue to for the next 20 and beyond! Focused and Ready to Lead Under our new ownership, we will work even harder to stay ahead of the pack and maintain a focus on sustainable operations, while looking for ways to continuously build upon what we’ve been doing for years. One way we are doing this is through our recent B Corp certification. That’s right, we are now a certified B Corporation! This certification not only demonstrates our leadership in sustainability but provides the framework for improvements, enabling us to further enhance our farmer and environment-first mission. Over time, our enduring commitment to building upon our mission will further our ability to buy and sell in other regions, expand our retail presence, and initiate other major changes that will help grow our impact. We’re excited to have you help us usher in this new era of Peace Coffee. Our continued growth and success will mean better livelihoods for more farmers, partners, and staff. Thanks for your support over the last 20 years and we look forward to an even better 20 years ahead! Media Coverage of Our Announcement: Star Tribune Minnesota Business Minneapolis St. Paul Biz Journal WCCO – Channel 4 Daily Coffee News City Pages Twin Cities Business Magazine Southwest Journal
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A 40,000 Pound Milestone
Yesterday, with much fanfare and hard work, we received a 40,000 pound cargo container of Guatemalan coffee beans. While we receive deliveries as large as this every few weeks, this container was shipped directly from Apecaform Coffee Cooperative in Guatemala right to our roastery door, bypassing other stops along the way. The coffee was harvested in late spring, put into 275 bags, each weighing over 150 pounds, and packed into a shipping container. The container went by truck to Puerto Barrios, where it was loaded onto a ship for a journey to New York. In New York, it cleared customs and was transferred onto a train to Minneapolis, where it was delivered to our roastery doors by truck. Unloading was an all-hands-on deck situation and took most of the morning. This container is significant to us not only because it came from our longest standing trading partner, but it is also our first direct whole container purchase since the first shipment from Mexico that got us started in 1996. That initial similar-sized purchase, took over 9 months to sell. Now 40,000 pounds represents a small fraction of what we will buy in 2016. We couldn’t imagine a better way kick off our 20th year year in business then by honoring our mission to continually buy more coffee from small scale farmers at fair prices. Having already traveled thousands of miles from Guatemala, these beans will soon be will be roasted and sent out, some by bicycle, to stores and coffee shops in the Twin Cities and beyond. Share in this milestone with us, pick up a bag of Guatemalan Dark Roast completing the coffee’s journey from farm to mug.
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