Today is National Almond Day, and to celebrate we’re kicking off a new Nut Blog Series! With each post, we’ll highlight a different nut, share a little history and background information, and talk about the health benefits that they offer. We’re also working on some really great recipes to share with you all down the road! Before we get too ahead of ourselves, we’ll kick off this Nut Blog Series by honoring National Almond Day with a post all about almonds. History Almonds have long been a staple in human diets. In fact, anthropologists have discovered that they were served to the Egyptian...

Written by Sam Mirto, Director of Coffee During my second trip to coffee producing countries, I spent time in both El Salvador and Guatemala. This trip was every bit as impactful and memorable as my trip to Costa Rica, but for different reasons - as you’ll see. We started out flying into San Salvador in El Salvador, and that’s where I’ll begin. El Salvador is nestled between Honduras and Guatemala in Central America. Before the trip, I was told that the country has some really serious issues with gang violence, which made me a bit apprehensive. As our plane emerged...

Written by Sam Mirto, Director of Coffee   The specialty coffee industry continues to gain market share against the macro roasters of the world. Whether this is a result of a shift in ethos among the masses and representative of the food and beverage industry as a whole, or a movement that is specific to the coffee industry is up for debate, but no one can deny that people are more willing to pay for quality and sustainability these days. The validity of this movement is even evidenced by “macro” producers putting out ad campaigns that claim prowess for their...

Going to origin changes your perspective on coffee, plain and simple. I’m not talking about the type of trip where one simply takes selfies with the locals in an effort to show the world how well traveled they are. Yes, selfies, pictures, and video will all go down inevitably, even the obligatory cell phone “food porn” pictures will happen (I’m so guilty of this). Written by Sam Mirto, Director of Coffee It’s hard not to become enamored by the beauty of a country that is completely different than your own, and there’s nothing wrong with that! However, through all of...