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This week we are celebrating pollinators, and the important work they do for our earth. Happy Pollinator Week, everyone! Thanksgiving Coffee created Bee Bold Coffee in 2015, raising money for legislative action and worldwide awareness for bees through Friends of the Earth, as well as local pollinator awareness through the Noyo Food Forest here on the Mendocino Coast.

Thanks to your generous support of this project, we’ve donated over $17,000 to these two organizations!

Pollinator Week is June 18 – June 24, and it’s an excellent opportunity to spread the word about the importance of our bees

Order an extra bag of Bee Bold Coffee this month to share with your friends, family and coworkers! Let’s work together to make sure these vital pollinators continue to thrive on our planet.

For the third year in a row, Thanksgiving Coffee Company is proud to be named one of B Lab’s Best for the World companies. This distinction is in honor of our ongoing commitment to give back to the communities around us, through our partnerships with international conservation groups, as well as local nonprofits.

What is a “Best for the World” B Corporation?

B Corporations are at the front of a global movement, encouraging people everywhere to use business as a force for good. Over two thousand for-profit companies are making a difference in communities all over the world by giving back and becoming more transparent. In order to achieve a B Corp certification, companies must meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

Every year, B Lab highlights the Certified B Corporations with scores in the top 10% of the entire global community. These are separated out into four different categories: Environment, Community, Workers and Customers. Thanksgiving Coffee Company was in the top 10% of the Community category, and proudly carries the title Best for the World for the third year in a row!

Thanksgiving Coffee Gives Back

Have you taken a look at our Cause Coffee program? We’ve partnered with a wide range of amazing organizations, locally and internationally.

One year ago, we launched Wild Grounds Coffee, in partnership with the American Wild Horse Campaign. This organization is working to stop the federal government’s systematic elimination of wild horses and burros from our public lands.

Thanks to our generous group of customers and supporters of wild horses everywhere, we’ve been able to donate almost $4,000 to the AWHC, helping fund their efforts to protect these majestic creatures. We are excited to look forward to another 365 days with the American Wild Horse Campaign, and will continue to support them for as long as our wild horses need us!

Coffee Club Subscription

Have you joined the cause yet? You can sign up for a monthly Cause Coffee subscription right here on our website. For every purchase you make of Wild Grounds Coffee, we donate 25% to the AWHC.

Already a Wild Grounds Coffee Club member? Thank you for being a part of the solution! Grab an extra couple of bags this month to pass out to friends and family, to help raise awareness for these majestic creatures. Let’s spread the word about the plight of our wild horses, and work together toward protecting them.

Coffee Descriptions

Not sure what roast color is your style? Take a look at our Roast Color page to learn more about the differences between light, medium, dark and French roasts.

For well over a century, Stow Lake has been a San Francisco landmark, a gorgeous piece of the Golden Gate Park scenery. In 1893, this man-made lake was created as a way for people to escape the city, relax and enjoy the scenery–and it continues to be that oasis to this day.

Golden Gate Park is home to a huge variety of songbirds, and has long been an important stopping place for migratory birds on their way up and down the West Coast. This little shelter in the sprawling metropolis of the Bay Area is vital to their journey, and Stow Lake offers the cover they need to rest their wings as they travel. This also makes it a great spot for Bay Area birders to spot more rare species passing through.

Stow Lake Boathouse

The park is also home to the Stow Lake Boathouse, managed by the excellent folks at Ortega Family Enterprises, who operate cafes and concession stands on a number of properties, including the majestic Muir Woods. It only made sense that the Stow Lake Boathouse chose vendors that reflect the values of their unique landscape and substantial bird populations, so as of last month, they are now serving Thanksgiving’s Songbird Coffee lineup! They chose the coffees that would benefit birders and birds everywhere, through the American Birding Association.

Stow Lake, and Golden Gate Park as a whole, offer a chance to put aside stress and worries, take a boat out on the water, and just relax. Thanksgiving Coffee is wholeheartedly a believer in connecting with nature, and Stow Lake lines up with our principles in every way!

On your next visit to San Francisco, grab a cup of coffee at the Stow Lake Boathouse Cafe, and meander around the lake at your leisure. Slow down, enjoy the scenery, and tell them thank you from us for serving Thanksgiving Coffee Company.

Stow Lake Boathouse

50 Stow Lake Dr E
San Francisco, CA 94118
Phone: (415) 702-1390

Cafe Hours:

11:00 am – 5:00 pm Daily

Boat Rental Hours:

10:00 am – 6:00 pm Daily

Songbird Coffee

Our partnership with the American Birding Association has been a decades long project, promoting the importance of shade-grown coffee, and care for migratory birds at coffee origins in Central and South America. Our current lineup includes coffees from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia and Mexico, at farms that have been certified ‘Bird-Friendly’ by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Click the image below to learn more!

National Trails Day – The First Saturday of June
Pelican Bluffs Trail Work Day: June 2, 2018 from 10am-12pm
hosted by the Mendocino Land Trust

A mile south of the town of Point Arena, a beautiful new addition to the California Coastal trail has been created at the 70 acre Pelican Bluffs Preserve. Owned and maintained by the Mendocino Land Trust, this epic landscape is free and open for the public to enjoy. Because the Land Trust is not funded by taxes like other parks, the work and energy it takes to maintain open spaces is a burden carried by community members, whether through monetary donations or ‘sweat equity’. Over the past year, volunteers from near and far, in addition to service organizations like the California Conservation Corps, have all come together to build over two miles of trail along this breathtaking blufftop.

From the parking lot, the newly completed loop trail leads visitors up through a coastal prairie that climbs to a crested hill. At the top, the wide expanse of Pelican Bluffs is revealed. Wildflowers speckle the bluff top, while dramatic white cliffs drop away to the rocky beach below. The sound of the waves tumbling over the shore and the smell of the ocean breeze is a feast for all senses. Continue to follow the trail along the coast and you might see seals resting on the beach and whales spouting in the distance, while an osprey soars overhead. Home to Peregrine falcons and the endangered Point Arena Mountain Beaver, Pelican Bluffs is a beautiful place for people and wildlife in equal measure.

This National Trails Day, spend some time helping to take care of the trails and the wild places you love. It’s time well spent, and always worth the effort.

Mendocino Land Trust and Thanksgiving Coffee Company

Thanksgiving Coffee and the Mendocino Land Trust have collaborated to create Fog Dodger, a Cause Coffee benefiting the MLT and their efforts building trails all over our county.

The past year went by in a flash, and it’s hard to believe that we are already three months into 2018. Now that it’s March, we are celebrating the one year anniversary for a coffee that is very special to us: our Congo Coffee, benefiting the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International!

Check out our original post from 2017, launching the Congo Coffee.

With a year of supporting the Grauer’s gorillas of the Democratic Republic of Congo under our belts, we wanted to take a look back and see what’s happened in the past year with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

The DFGFI Turned Fifty

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International celebrated their fiftieth anniversary this last September; this milestone is an tremendous accomplishment for wildlife conservation. Dian Fossey was a true visionary and pioneer, and the team working for the DFGFI now has held up her legacy in a huge way.

Grauer’s Gorillas Numbers are Higher than Originally Thought

In the middle of 2017, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International was thrilled to learn that there were more Grauer’s gorillas living in the Democratic Republic of Congo than originally estimated. This is an uplifting discovery for the non-profit, which has just begun surveying Congo’s enormous Maiko Park where these gorillas live. Read more about this Grauer’s gorilla discovery.

New Research Center in Rwanda

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi made a commitment to build a new research facility in Rwanda to further the work of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Check out Ellen and Portia’s video here.

We are so excited to move into our second year of supporting the Grauer’s gorillas, and our fifteenth year of partnering with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. We want to send out a huge thank you to everyone who has purchased our Gorilla Fund and Congo Coffees. Your Cause Coffee subscriptions are the reason we are able to help these organizations that do so much for the wildlife of our planet.

March 3 is World Wildlife Day

This Saturday is the perfect opportunity to spread the word about how wildlife inspires you. It’s also a chance to raise awareness for organizations that are doing the work to protect these creatures. Because of your support, we are able to partner with these groundbreaking non-profits, who are making a difference for wildlife all over the world:

Click the links below to learn more about each of these organizations:

American Birding Association

American Wild Horse Campaign

Baby Rhino Rescue

Defenders of Wildlife

Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

Friends of the Earth

Need some coffee? Head on over to our World Wildlife Day coffee category to order a bag of coffee benefiting one of the organizations above!

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International has been one of Thanksgiving Coffee’s longest partnerships, and we’ve had the pleasure of donating over $40,000, with the help of our customers and wholesale partners.

The DFGFI has been working tirelessly for fifty years to continue the legacy of Dian Fossey, in protecting the magnificent mountain gorillas of Africa. First in Rwanda, and now expanding into the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International has changed the way the world thinks about gorillas, and has preserved and documented five decades of gorillas in the mountains of the Virungas.

Now, they are going to be able to do even more, with the extraordinary donation from Portia De Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres. On January 26, Ellen’s 60th birthday, Portia gave Ellen the gift of furthering Dian Fossey’s legacy and joining the DFGFI by establishing a permanent research center in Rwanda.

You can see the video on YouTube, of Portia surprising Ellen on her show with this spectacular gift.

This is a huge step forward for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, allowing them to expand their research in this specially-designed facility. President and CEO Tara Stoinski, Ph.D. said this about the gift:

“It’s impossible to overstate what this remarkable news means for the protection of these magnificent animals. We have continued Dian’s legacy for 50 years, and this new campus will serve as a brilliant focal point for our efforts to protect wild gorillas over the next decades.”

We are so excited to be able to watch as this new partnership grows and matures. Portia De Rossi also set up a Wildlife Fund in Ellen’s name: the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund. This fund will begin by supporting the Karisoke research facility, and will continue to take on projects for other wildlife preservation causes in the future.

Thanksgiving Coffee wants to give a huge thank you to Ellen and Portia for this amazing donation to the future of Rwanda’s mountain gorillas.

About the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

The DFGFI was established in 1967 by Dian Fossey. She set up a research facility in the country of Rwanda, dedicated to the preservation and documentation of the mountain gorillas living in the Virunga wilderness. After her death in 1985, the organization continued her work in monitoring and protecting the mountain gorillas of Rwanda, and later the Grauer’s gorillas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Thanksgiving Coffee and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International partnered in early 2004 to create the Gorilla Fund Cause Coffee, using Fairtrade Rwandan coffee. In 2017, we launched our Grauer’s Gorilla Coffee, using Organic and Fairtrade coffee grown in the Congo. Through the fourteen years we’ve worked with the DFGFI, we’ve raised over $40,000 to support these gorillas.

We don’t want to brag, but Thanksgiving Coffee Company actually has the best customers of all time. Because you purchased Songbird Coffee in 2017, we were able to raise over $9,000 for the American Birding Association. That’s $9,000 last year alone that directly funded birding education and conservation initiatives.

2018 marks fifty years of the American Birding Association providing leadership to recreational birders all over the United States. This group has been a pioneer for decades, and has inspired millions of young birders and conservationists through classes, workshops and conferences all over North America.

For the past 22 years, Thanksgiving Coffee Company has been a proud part of this legacy, educating birders and coffee drinkers about the ecology of coffee farms, and how they play an integral role in the lives of many of the birds we know and love. We took a leading role in preserving bird habitat by introducing Songbird Coffee in 1996, and we have continued to purchase from farms that grow their coffee organically, under the canopy of native forests.

The introduction of the Bird-Friendly Coffee program was another huge step toward uniting the coffee and birding industries. This certification was created by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in 1998 and now represents the very highest standards of ecological sustainability, protecting habitat for migratory birds in coffee growing countries. We are proud to feature that seal on our nine Certified Bird-Friendly coffees in our online store.

We are birders ourselves, and constantly striving to provide coffee that not only tastes magnificent, but provides for the migratory birds that we love to watch every season.

Read more about Bird-Friendly Coffee from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, or shop for Bird-Friendly Coffee here on the Thanksgiving Coffee website.

October 15 – October 21

This week, it’s all about the wolves. These magnificent creatures play an integral part in North America’s ecosystem, and Thanksgiving Coffee has partnered with Defenders of Wildlife to protect their legacy. During Wolf Awareness Week, we’re taking a moment to highlight wolves, and the part that each of us can play in protecting these animals for future generations. Spread the word about Wolf Awareness Week, and visit www.defenders.org to make a donation now!

Scroll down to learn more about how Thanksgiving Coffee is involved in protecting our wolves.

What do you know about our wolves? Take a look at the fact sheet below to learn more, and click the image to be directed to the Defenders of Wildlife Gray Wolf Basic Facts page.

Defenders of Wildlife + Thanksgiving Coffee

Thanksgiving Coffee is partnered with Defenders of Wildlife to save our wolves. We do this through our Cause Coffee program, donating 10% of every sale of our Save Our Wolves Coffee back to DOW. If you sign up as a Defenders of Wildlife member and purchase this coffee through the Shop Defenders page, you can give back even more! For every purchase made through their link, 25% of the proceeds will be donated.

Puerto Rico’s road to recovery will be a long and arduous one, but perhaps it will be a bit more bearable with a cup of coffee in hand.

Learn more about roast colors, to choose the right roast for you!

Song Bird Coffee supports the arts

Do you have a favorite bird? Is it the bold blue jay, or the striking red cardinal? Perhaps it’s the mischievous raven, or the sweet singing sparrow? Maybe you don’t know what it’s called, or even what it looks like, but you know its song as it fills your ears with a familiar refrain. Birds connect us to nature, regardless of where we live; from city dwelling pigeons to dramatic California Condors, birds are an ever-present aspect of our lives, but their numbers are dwindling. You don’t have to be an avid birder to enjoy their presence, but if we fail to appreciate them in our everyday lives, then we risk taking them for granted and losing them forever.

Fostering a love of the natural world can take years, especially now when more of us live in cities than ever before. Programs like BirdNote cultivate a love of nature with a wide audience, helping to bring the outside into our homes and deliver the delights of nature in small, auditory morsels.

The BirdNote radio program has been engaging listeners of all ages for over ten years, sharing daily two-minute stories about birds and the environment with audiences all across the country. These uplifting little vignettes are just the right length for everyone to enjoy, and the perfect remedy to ‘news fatigue’.

BirdNote and Song Bird Coffee

Song Bird Coffee has been partnered with the American Birding Association for 20 years and together we have raised over $150,000 in support of the ABA and Partners in Flight, which funds ornithological studies of migratory birds in Central America. Together, we are making a difference by promoting citizen science, ecotourism, and sustainable Bird Friendly farming practices, and now we are proud to be reaching new audiences by sponsoring BirdNote.

By working together, Song Bird Coffee, the American Birding Association, and BirdNote are committed to making the world a better place, for us and for the birds.

Give BirdNote a listen here.

Learn more about the American Birding Association and Partners in Flight.

It’s that time of year again, when the Best for the World honorees are published. These are the B Corporations around the world that score in the top 10% of B Lab certification. Thanksgiving Coffee was honored to make this list for the second year in a row in the Best for Community category.

Take a peek at the full list by clicking the image below.

This year 846 companies were recognized on the Best for the World list in 52 different industries from 30 different countries. Being a part of this community and being recognized in the top 10% is a really wonderful validation of the work we do with our partnership with organization like Friends of the Earth and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.

Take a look at where some of the other Best for the World companies are located all over the globe:

Best for the World in Mendocino County

Thanksgiving Coffee is just one of nine B Corporations located here in Mendocino County. We’re joined by Harvest Market, Fetzer Vineyards, North Coast Brewing Company, The Color Mill, Flo Beds, Bed Bandits, Eleek Sustainable Custom Lighting and Heather Paulsen Consulting.

Harvest Market also made the Best for the World list, under the Changemakers category, as did Eleek, under the Best for the Environment category. We love seeing our local B Corporations making a difference here in Mendocino county, and around the world.

Read more about what it means to be on the Best for the World list, on Forbes.com.

You can also check out our score on the B Corporation website, to see how we stand up in every category! See that here.

Read the original Mariko Park blog post on the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International website.

Results of a recent wildlife survey led by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in the Democratic Republic of Congo suggests there are twice as many Grauer’s gorillas in parts of Maiko National Park than originally predicted. This is especially welcome news given that Grauer’s gorillas are among world’s most-endangered apes and face numerous threats to their survival, with only a few thousand still remaining. Their population is estimated to have plummeted as much as 80 percent in recent decades.

The greatest threat to Grauer’s gorillas and other wildlife in the region is poaching, which is largely fueled by the illegal trade in conflict minerals. In 2010, legislation was passed which required U.S. companies to disclose whether their products contained conflict minerals. Just this last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment that would defund this “conflict minerals rule.” If this measure is passed by the Senate, it will bring additional pressure to this species’ survival.

“Maiko is a huge park — with more than 10,000 square kilometers — and it is critical habitat to the future conservation of Grauer’s gorillas and many other species of wildlife,” says Dr. Damien Caillaud, the Fossey Fund’s research director for Congo. “Recent reports suggested as few as 15 gorillas remained. We hoped that if we looked for more gorillas there, we might find them. And we did.”

In the relatively small portion of the park that researchers were able to survey, they located evidence of more gorilla groups than expected and now estimate at least 30 gorillas live in that area, with likely more living throughout other areas of the park that have yet to be surveyed.

Maiko National Park is one of only two formally protected areas within the Grauer’s gorilla range. However, Maiko had not been surveyed for gorillas for many years, primarily as a result of security challenges in the region and the difficult terrain.

“We surveyed less than 1 percent of the park and found evidence that more gorillas exist there than has been recently suggested. This is very exciting and demonstrates the critical need for more surveys to fully understand how many gorillas remain as well as more conservation support for the park”, says Dr. Tara Stoinski, Fossey Fund president and CEO/chief scientist.

The survey team also found signs of chimpanzees, okapi, buffalo, duikers, giant pangolin, monkeys and other rare wildlife, as well as evidence of poachers and mining activity.

The Fossey Fund works to protect Grauer’s gorillas in a core area of their range outside national parks, by working with local communities and traditional landowners, and training local people to become gorilla trackers, with five teams now working regularly from a permanent base north of the town of Walikale.

Collaborating with local communities and authorities

The Maiko survey represents a collaborative effort between the Fossey Fund, the Congolese national park authorities (ICCN — Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature) and the local community living around the park. Fossey Fund’s Congo program director, Urbain Ngobobo, and research and conservation program manager, Escobar Binyinyi, worked with Maiko chief warden, M.A. Boji Dieudonné, to survey gorillas and other crucial wildlife in a 100-square kilometer section of the park.

A team of nine Fossey Fund field staff, as well as monitoring officers from Maiko/ICCN walked for several weeks in extremely difficult terrain, measuring signs of gorillas along pre-determined transects. They found good, fresh signs of the presence of gorillas, such as night nests, foot prints and food remains, suggesting there are two to three Grauer’s gorilla groups just in this area, says Dr. Caillaud.

“A few years ago, it was unimaginable that the community surrounding southern Maiko could make a joint patrol with ICCN,” says Ngobobo. “The survey we did was a strong signal showing that we can count on the community to save the remaining extremely endangered Grauer’s gorillas both inside the national parks and in the community forests.”

These findings are especially heartening as the Fossey Fund celebrates its 50th anniversary on Sept. 24, marking the day in 1967 when Dian Fossey founded the legendary Karisoke Research Center. But they are also very critical, given the potential de-funding of the conflict minerals rule, which has brought some progress and international attention to the mining situation in Congo.

With the Fossey Fund’s daily mountain gorilla patrols and 50 years of research all based out of Karisoke, it is known that intensive protection can save endangered gorillas. Indeed, mountain gorillas are the only wild ape whose numbers are stable.

That’s why we are raising funds this month to protect the future of all gorillas! Because of this urgency, our board is matching all donations through Sept. 24, up to $20,000.

Visit the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International website to join this special campaign!

Thanksgiving Coffee Company has partnered with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International for almost fifteen years, supporting their efforts in Rwanda, saving the mountain gorillas. Earlier in 2017, we had the honor of releasing a new Cause Coffee to support the Grauer’s gorillas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

When the body of an adult killer whale (Orcinus orca) washed ashore in 2015, the community of Fort Bragg was presented with a unique opportunity. In the wake of a tragic death, a project was born that could benefit the town and further our understanding of the sea creatures that live along our shoreline.

Beached orcas are exceptionally rare and their bodies are a treasure trove of valuable scientific information. In a combined effort between the Noyo Center for Marine Science, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, the California Academy of Sciences, Humboldt State University, and California State Parks, scientists and volunteers acted quickly to perform a necropsy and recover valuable tissue samples. Two years later and the Noyo Center’s Orca Project is on track to reconstruct the 26 foot long skeleton this summer for everyone to enjoy.

Over the next four weeks, the rec center/basketball court behind Town Hall has been transformed into a marine mammal articulation workshop, led by master articulators Mike de Roos, Michi Main, and Lee Post from Alaska. People have come from far and wide to participate in this once in a lifetime opportunity, and there is something there for everyone. Young kids attending summer camp are learning about marine mammals and ecosystems, while high schoolers assemble their own porpoise skeleton. Grad students are taking measurements and gathering data, artists are photographing and sketching bones, all the while locals and tourists walk among them, drinking it all in, amazed by all the activity.

It takes a village to raise a whale skeleton; from recovering, transporting, cleaning, and housing the bones, to assembling the skeleton and raising it up for all to see. Everyone has a role to play, including Thanksgiving Coffee, who is keeping everyone working on the project well caffeinated. We are so enthusiastic about this amazing endeavor that we have also created a special Orca Project fundraising coffee to help support the mission of the Noyo Center.

It seems that our whole community has coalesced around whalebones, and Thanksgiving Coffee is no exception. Upon its completion, our small town will host one of the largest and most complete Orca skeletons in the world; something that the whole community can take pride in, because it took the whole community to achieve.

Thanksgiving Coffee, an industry leader in social and environmental justice for over forty years, stands in defense of our wild horses. The vanguard of fair trade shade-grown coffee, Thanksgiving has helped their nonprofit partners raise much-needed funds to champion their missions through the Cause Coffee fundraising program. And now, Thanksgiving is proud to support the efforts of the American Wild Horse Campaign (AMWC) with the release of Wild Grounds Coffee.

Save Wild Horses

Today, both livestock and wild horses have the right to roam the range, but the political power of the cattle ranchers is stronger then the political power of wild horses. In the forty years since a bill was passed by congress to protect the wild horses, moneyed interests have worked tirelessly to chip away at it. Now, the use of our publicly owned grazing lands is being prioritized to create market value for ranging cattle, which only provides for 3% of America’s beef consumption.

Unable to cull the herds or sell them for slaughter, the BLM began to round up what they considered to be an excess population. Today 35,000 horses, more than their entire population in the 1970’s, are kept in government holding pens. Not to be killed, yet never again to be free; this is a terrible fate to befall the national symbol of perseverance and freedom.

“The whole thing is cruel and lacks any sense of the American Spirit”, says Paul Katzeff, CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee and Past President of The Specialty Coffee Association of America, “We just gotta do something about the suffering to restore our own sense of freedom. Can you imagine the conditions? Thirty-five thousand wild horses in shadeless pens in 100 degree heat waiting to die?”

The American Wild Horse Campaign

The American Wild Horse Campaign is a champion for America’s wild horses and burros and they have been calling on Congress to reform the current ‘holding pen’ policies. Not only would such methods keep these animals in the wild, where they belong, it would also save taxpayers millions of dollars annually by no longer funding the removal of wild horses from the range and stockpiling them in government holding facilities and paying for their feed and water and medical needs.

Thanksgiving Coffee Company, 2017’s Roaster of the Year, is sending Wild Grounds coffee out into the country with the mission to raise funds and educate others about the plight of our wild horses. Together, we will stand in defense of the mustangs who have an inalienable right to roam the western landscape, just as we stand up against those who would profit from their incarceration and eradication.

We invite you to join us. Stand up for America’s wild horses and the pioneer spirit we all share. Order a package of award winning Wild Grounds coffee and you are not just supporting the horses; you are also supporting fair trade for the farmers, organic shade-grown coffee that preserve rich jungles forests, and the ethical standards of a certified B corporation. Since 1972, we have been proud to bring you a beautiful cup of coffee that tastes just as good as it feels.
Not Just A Cup, But A Just Cup.

Here in the United States, we sometimes claim a cultural ownership of beautiful birds like the Baltimore Oriole, perhaps forgetting that the very same species could just as easily be named the ‘Panama Oriole’, or the ‘Nicaraguan Oriole’, as it spends half it’s life in Central and South America. IMBD is a reminder that the health and abundance of these birds that are so much a part of our heritage does not stop at our own backyard feeders. If we wish to enjoy their beauty and their songs for generations to come, we must care for them and their well being across all borders.

The growing demand for coffee, and the rise of the mono-cultured full sun coffee plantations, has demolished much of the wintering habitat for iconic birds like Orioles. In fact, many of these species are now referred to as ‘Coffee Birds’ because the only forest home left to them are the shade-grown coffee farms that preserve the jungle canopy.

For over 20 year, Song Bird Coffee has been a leader in supporting the farmers who protect their native forests by growing delicious coffees under the jungle canopy, preserving priceless habitat and biodiversity. This year, on International Migratory Bird Day, we hope you will join us in protecting our precious songbirds, just by enjoying a great cup of shade-grown coffee.

We’ve been digging into the archives a little bit, and came across this article from June of 2004. As Earth Day rolls around, check out this article from Smithsonian Magazine featuring Thanksgiving Coffee Company and our work in Nicaragua.

Read the article on the Smithsonian Magazine website.

The world is lush with coffee growing regions, and inside those regions are thousands of small-scale coffee farmers, growing coffee in hundreds of different micro-climates and soil types. This is where we find the “micro-lot.”

Together with dozens of varietals (air, shade, wind, sun, rain, soil type, etc.), the coffee flavor is created in all its possibilities.

We have been in the coffee game for over forty years, and know the territory well, from Papua New Guinea to Nicaragua.

We know the farmers and they know us. Together we find these small, exceptional “micro-lots” produced by individual farms in quantities of no more than 10-20 sacks (1500-3000 pounds).

We pay the farmer a premium, and everyone involved is happy that a rare and quality coffee did not get lost in the crowd of good and quality coffee.

When the coffee finally arrives at Thanksgiving Coffee Company, our Roastmaster Jacob Long roasts the coffee 3-5 pounds at a time, using his knowledge to bring out the magic from each bean.

So when you see Thanksgiving Coffee offering a micro-lot coffee, you can be certain that you’re purchasing one hell of a great coffee.

– Paul Katzeff

For the Birds is a blog series from Thanksgiving Coffee Company, highlighting one of the 200 Neotropical migratory birds who rely on shade grown coffee during their winter migration. In January, we featured the Cedar Waxwing, in February, the Magnolia Warbler, this month we’re focusing on the Blackburnian Warbler – the bird featured on our dark roast Songbird coffee.

Blackburnian Warbler

Songbird Coffee Dark Roast from Colombia

With their bright colors and trilling songs, it’s no surprise that a group or flock of vibrant warblers is often called a ‘bouquet’. However, one of the most striking members of the warbler family would rather not join the bunch.

Common along the eastern region of the United States during their migration, the Blackburnian warbler can be easily identified as the only orange-throated warbler in North America. Named after botanist Anna Blackburn, the Blackburnian warbler is territorial on its breeding grounds, solitary in the winter, and only forms flocks during migration. In fact, this little bird is such a loner that even though both parents feed and care for the chicks, the parents separate when the young are old enough to fledge and leave the nest, each taking part of the brood with them.

But even the most solitary parent needs the support of a group every once in a while. After going their separate ways, the parents will sometimes join foraging flocks of kinglets and nuthatches with their begging young, the cries of which have been known to also attract chickadees.

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Of the over 50 species of New World warblers to be found in North America, perhaps it is the colorful Blackburnian that stands out as a lone bloom, refusing to join the colorful assemblage of other warblers.

Help protect the winter habitat of Blackburnian warblers by buying SMBC Song Bird Colombian dark roast shade-grown coffee.

Dark Roast Colombian Coffee

Toasted • Spicy • Dark Chocolate

A rich coffee with flavors of toasted nut and dark chocolate followed by a smooth lasting finish, making this a clear winner for dark roast coffee enthusiasts.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo is in the heart of central Africa and considered to be the most bio-diverse country in the entire continent, which is quite a distinction. Iconic African wildlife such as jungle elephants and white rhino roam throughout the four national parks, and it is one of the few places on Earth that many great ape species, such as gorilla, chimpanzee and bonobo, call home. Its lush forests and equatorial climate means that the DRC is also an excellent region for growing some of the best sweet Bourbon varietals of coffee trees in the world.

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But despite the country’s wealth of natural resources, decades of war, genocide, and political unrest has condemned many of the 68 million civilians to lives of poverty, disease and violence.

The lack of businesses and income-generating activity pushed the DRC into deeper turmoil and left the once productive coffee sector neglected or abandoned. Most of the coffee farmers could no longer bring their harvest to market and fled the region, while others resorted to smuggling their beans into Rwanda in hopes to barter for food and supplies. So near, and yet so far: smuggling coffee is very dangerous and many people have lost their lives in the attempt.

Due to these circumstances, the small amount of coffee still produced in DRC was coming from small farms with old or rudimentary equipment and no access to international markets. All of that changed when Joachim Munganga founded the now-famous SOPACDI co-op.

Congo Coffee Farm

SOPACDI (Solidarité Paysanne pour la Promotion des Actions Café et Développement Intégral) was created by Joachim Munganga in 2002, as a means to bridge the ethnic strife of the region in order to tap into the international specialty coffee market. The co-op is located on the shores of Lake Kivu, which straddles the border between the DRC on the west bank and Rwanda to the east. Joachim started with his own farm and worked to rehabilitate an old, rundown estate with a central washing station for the co-op to process coffee. It wasn’t until 2008, when SOPACDI joined forces with the UK’s Twin Trading Company, that the doors to the international coffee market were opened wide. Together, they designed and obtained funding for a program to assist them with business skills and to begin rehabilitating the farms and improving the infrastructure, which included spearheading the construction of the first new central coffee washing station to be built in the country in over 40 years.

Since then, SOPACDI has grown to include over 5,200 farmers, 20% of whom are women. In a region infamous for rampant sexual violence, SOPACDI has been a leader in promoting gender equality and supporting the widows of those farmers who died trying to smuggle their beans into Rwanda. In addition to the revitalizing their lost coffee economy, SOPACDI has earned the distinction of being the first certified fair-trade co-op in the DRC and was also named 2014 Sustainability Award Recipient from the Specialty Coffee Association of America. They even hosted the DRC’s first internationally recognized coffee cupping competition, Saveur du Kivu, in 2015.

Economic stability saves lives, and not just human ones. Poor economic conditions result in the rise of eating and selling bushmeat, further endangering the sensitive wildlife of the DRC. As the animals are hunted, their numbers drop and they retreat deeper into the dense jungle. As logging companies and farmers clear away the forests at an alarming rate, they provide poachers an even greater access to hunt. That is, of course, unless the forest and the animals who live there can become a better economic resource to the people of DRC as a sustainable living ecosystem. Such is the hope of shade-grown coffee.

Coffee trees love the shade and they naturally thrive under a jungle canopy. Many coffee farmers additionally supplement their resources by growing shade-loving food crops, such as banana and avocado, along side their coffee trees, all within the natural infrastructure of the forest. By weaving the livelihood of the farmers into the success of a thriving jungle ecosystem, we are simultaneously supporting sustainable commercial goods and conservation.

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Specialty Coffee Saves Gorillas

Grauer’s gorillas are the world’s largest ape and only found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over the last two decades their population has plummeted by an estimated 80 percent, which is why the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International has set up a program to help save them based on their success working with mountain gorilla populations in Rwanda. These efforts include daily protection and monitoring, tracking the gorilla groups, scientific research, data collection, local education programs, and community engagement.

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By employing the local Congolese people to protect the gorillas, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International is helping to foster a love for these creatures within the community while also creating an economic benefit. They now operate a permanent research and conservation field station in the core of Grauer’s gorilla range, working closely with traditional landowners and other local partners to help ensure the future of the species and countless others at risk in DRC.

Thanksgiving Coffee is proud to support the economic renewal of the DRC by partnering with SOPACDI to bring you Grauer’s Gorilla Congo Coffee. Not only does the purchase of this coffee promote the livelihoods of the SOPACDI farmers, but a percentage of all online sales benefit the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International and their continuing efforts to conserve and study the great apes of the DRC.

Coffee changes the world, but it is quite possible that there is nowhere on Earth more profoundly impacted by the humble coffee bean than the Democratic Republic of Congo is right now. Together, we can all do our part to help stabilize this unique ecological treasure for future generations to enjoy by simply enjoying a good cup of coffee.

The following is an excerpt from a post from our fair trade certification: Fairtrade International:

True fair trade is about mutually beneficial relationships rooted in trust and respect spanning geographic and cultural boundaries.

As a global movement, fair trade brings attention to people around the world who work under exploitative conditions and highlights the true costs of goods in global supply chains. Organizations and activists, businesses and brands, farmers, workers and artisans have diligently worked for more than 40 years to bring greater balance to the terms of trade.

In recent months, we have watched as the term ‘fair trade’ has been grossly misused by politicians to energize their supporters while vilifying others. We have seen the term used to exclude people and encourage an isolationist agenda. These ideas stand in direct opposition to the concepts of justice and inclusivity that underlie our movement.

For far too long, conventional trade has maintained a narrow focus on the lowest common denominator. Efficiency at all costs, lower prices, and little consideration for the full social, economic and environmental impacts have been hallmarks of conventional international trade. Massive consolidation of power in supply chains has resulted in fewer options for consumers, farmers and workers, and unprecedented wealth controlled by few. Oxfam’s recent report on global inequality revealed that just eight men control more wealth than the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people combined.

IF WE HOPE FOR A SOCIETY – IN THE U.S. AND AROUND THE WORLD – THAT IS MORE EQUAL AND JUST, WE MUST PRESS TRADE INTO THE SERVICE OF PEOPLE.

Global trade and the trade deals that accompany it are not inherently bad. They provide an opportunity to deliver the benefits of trade more broadly, but only if they are used for that purpose. Fair trade, with its focus on inclusion and empowerment, shows that trade can – and must – be more equitable.

If we hope for a society – in the U.S. and around the world – that is more equal and just, we must press trade into the service of people.

True fair trade creates shared value throughout supply chains.
True fair trade promotes openness and transparency.
True fair trade respects human rights.
True fair trade supports diversity.

We support trade that is truly equitable for all, including artisans, farmers and workers, traders and brands, consumers and civil society. Fair trade will never be about exclusion, but about expanding the benefits of trade for those who need it most.

As the U.S. considers renegotiating or entering into new international trade agreements, we encourage the inclusion of true fair trade principles. We urge all who care about human rights, shared value, transparency and diversity to call, write or meet with their elected officials and make your voice heard.

See the original article from Fairtrade International here, and check out the list of names that have signed on to this agreement!

For the Birds is a blog series from Thanksgiving Coffee Company, highlighting one of the 200 Neotropical migratory birds who rely on shade grown coffee during their winter migration. In January, we featured the Cedar Waxwing; this month we’re focusing on the Magnolia Warbler – the bird featured on our medium roast Songbird coffee.

Magnolia Warbler

Songbird Coffee medium roast from Nicaragua

If you live east of the Mississippi river, you might be familiar with the Magnolia Warbler. This brightly-colored little songbird can be seen in the spring and fall as it passes through on its annual migration. Despite the name, these bird is rarely seen in magnolia trees. In 1810, ornithologist Alexander Wilson collected a specimen from a magnolia in Mississippi. At the time, he gave it the species the more accurate name of “Black-and-yellow Warbler”, but he used “magnolia” for the Latin name, and it stuck.

Like many warbler species, it can be hard to imagine how such a tiny bird, weighing little more than a quarter, can make a 3,000 mile journey, but they do it every year; from their summer breeding range in the Canadian Boral forests all the way down to Central America.

When the “Maggies” head south for the winter, they can often be found on shade grown coffee farms along with other migratory birds such as Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Western Tanager.

Although the population of Magnolia Warblers is thought to be stable, the birds are often victims of collisions with towers and other man-made structures, especially during migration. Habitat loss on their nesting and wintering grounds is also a threat. Supporting Bird Friendly coffee is an important way to keep Magnolia Warblers and other “coffee birds” common.

Medium Roast Nicaraguan Coffee

Nutty • Smooth • Milk Chocolate

Sweet without sugar, mellow without cream. This Smithsonian Bird Friendly Coffee is fruity, nutty and chocolaty with hints of dried mango. Sweet without sugar, mellow without cream, it is a great breakfast coffee. This coffee is roasted to a light milk chocolate color where its bright and complex flavors explode into life.