The World in a Cup of Coffee

The roasted beans before grinding

Sometime when you have a quiet moment, do nothing but drink a cup of coffee. Don’t read while you drink, don’t talk to anyone, don’t plan your day, don’t dwell on what is wrong with the world or what is right for that matter. Just drink your coffee, taste your coffee, wonder about everything that is contained in your cup of coffee.

Zoe picking beans in Nicaragua (4 years ago)

Here are some things about a cup of coffee from Dee Dee’s that can help you begin your wonderings.

Our coffee beans come from Java Blend, the oldest roasting company in Halifax. The beans that we use are a mixture of lighter and darker roasted beans that come from Central and South America. This means that the beans used in our coffee have been grown by farmers and picked by workers in communities in these far away tropical places. They are people that have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, happiness and sorrow just like us. We are connected by this cup of coffee. Their hands, their work, have touched each bean. Coffee is picked by hand, one berry at at time.

Pulling a Shot

Once the beans are ready to be shipped to Nova Scotia they are loaded on trucks in burlap bags. Maybe the person driving the truck carrying the beans in your cup of coffee was listening to a salsa tune on the radio, or whistling a bit of cumbia, or even a song in english that they may not understand.

Julien making an Espresso

And then there are our roasters, the folks at Java Blend. Have you ever smelled the air around North St when they are roasting? It is a pungent burning kind of smell that cannot be mistaken for anything else.

So, the next time you absent-mindedly sip your coffee…remember that it connects you to the whole wide world. You are ingesting a tiny piece of another life.