Photo credit: Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi for The New York Times // We may be just a small group of people doing our best to craft delicious coffee here in northern Michigan, but the impact of our sustainable trading model reverberates beyond our region. Our purpose is to cultivate human potential...
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The Roast with the Most
Coffee roasting is a delicate art and a complex science. Over the past decade plus, we’ve grown from two people using a borrowed roaster and packaging coffee in a basement into a full-blown roaster-retailer with a team of 20 who work tirelessly to share our farming partners’ exceptional coffee with the...
Congo Travelogue: Notes from the Road
Author's note: I traveled to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in May of this year, to participate in the third annual Saveur du Kivu and visit with Higher Grounds' producer partners at the Muungano coffee farmers cooperative. road |rōd| noun 1. a wide way leading from one place to another, especially...
Saveur du Kivu: Where Crisis Meets Opportunity in the Congo
Collaboration is power. Through Saveur du Kivu and all it represents, the specialty coffee industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo is shifting towards a brighter future.
Latte Art: Picking Apart a Monk’s Head
I’ve been making espresso drinks for a lot of years now, as well as training others on the fine points of espresso and milk steaming. Over the years, I’ve picked up various methods for perfecting all elements of the process, from grinding/weighing/tamping to incorporating just the right amount of air into the milk as it heats up, resulting in a velvety-smooth surface without a bubble in sight. But while it may come easily to me now, the learning curve was steep.